3 Lessons from my gluten-free journey

Let me start this post with a <giant bear hug>.

Many of us who are on this gluten-free journey, oftentimes not by choice, has at one point or another felt like the whole world is caving in when you try to figure out what you can / can’t eat, what cross-contamination means, how often you get accidental gluten even if you’re being incredibly careful… the list goes on.

I recall the evening I received the phone call from my doctor with my celiac diagnosis. The server just brought out freshly baked dinner rolls from the kitchen as my friends dug in and I tried to negotiate with my doctor “Does that mean I can only occasionally have bread?”

The first few months was so confusing. I started by taking out the obvious bread and pasta. Then dumplings and burritos. Then I opened up the Pandora box as I began to read food labels and realized to my disbelief that gluten is in almost everything.

It was a rough start. That said, here are 3 things I wish I knew when I got started:

1. Read the labels. Assume everything has gluten until you read otherwise on the label - nuts, dried fruits, etc. can all be "processed in factories w/gluten".

2. Instead of trying to replace every processed item you eat with a GF alternative, start with basic non-processed foods. Meat and fish, vegetables and fruits are all great for you. Focus your grains on non-gluten cross-contaminated rice, buckwheat, then slowly test others like oats, millet, quinoa, corn, etc. If you are celiac - the immune system in a minority of celiac can mistakenly identify proteins in other grains, especially oats, as gluten and trigger the same auto-immnune response.

3. Be weary of chefs/shop owners who don't understand gluten free. Some bread shops advertise gluten free bread made from ancient grains full of gluten. Others can assume if it’s gluten free as long as the food item isn’t majority wheat.

These are the top three items I wish I knew when I started out, but there are many other lessons and tips that became equally as important along my journey that I will be sharing in future posts, with a focus on healthy eating and food as medicine.

More to come!