If you have Celiac disease your body responds negatively to the presence of gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat. Your doctor may instruct you to follow a gluten-free diet, which includes not just wheat in all its forms but rye, barley and spelt, too--and anything containing these grains. You might be surprised at the foods they turn up in, once you start reading labels.
Once you get used to the idea of a gluten-free diet, you can break the food selection and preparation process down into a few basic steps.
Identify Foods With Gluten
Get into the habit of reading ingredients lists very carefully. Look for ingredients that contain gluten. Wheat is the most common culprit, but rye, barley and spelt have gluten, too. Wheat may even show up on ingredient labels under aliases like triticale, semolina, farina, bulgur or durum. Once you know which foods and ingredients to steer clear of, you can focus on the foods you are allowed to eat.
Substitute Gluten-free Products
There are gluten-free versions of many prepared foods on the market, including gluten-free cereals, pizza crusts, pie crusts, bread, cookies, chips and cakes. These products are often based on gluten-free grains like corn, rice, millet, sesame and quinoa. But remember that processed foods that say "rice" or "corn" on the front of the box may still contain wheat, and even if they're completely wheat-free, they may still contain gluten from other grains.
Gluten shows up in unexpected places. For example, it may be added to condiments, spice blends, rice syrup or canned fruit fillings. Vitamin-enriched foods can contain gluten. And according to the Celiac Solution article, "Hidden Sources of Gluten," hydrogenated vegetable protein, hydrolyzed pant protein and textured vegetable protein all indicate the possibility of a hidden gluten ingredient.
Avoid Processed Foods
Even if a food doesn't contain gluten ingredients, it may have been processed on the same equipment used to process foods that do contain gluten, or on equipment dusted with wheat flour to keep the food from sticking to it. Manufacturers don't have to list "packaging materials" in the ingredients, according to Celiac Solution; so your chewing gum may be dusted with wheat flour to keep it from sticking to the wrapper.
If you're extremely sensitive to gluten, even these trace amounts can cause a problem for you. Preparing your own foods from the freshest ingredients possible is one of the best ways to be sure what you're eating is completely gluten-free, since you'll know exactly what goes into it and where each ingredient has been.
Prepare Gluten-free Foods Separately
If not everyone in your family is gluten intolerant, they might want to eat some foods with gluten in them. Take great care to avoid cross-contamination from these foods. Celiac Solution recommends keeping a separate toaster for toasting only gluten-free breads and bagels, so that the gluten-containing crumbs from the other toaster do not contaminate your food.
Also, don't share utensils between gluten and non-gluten foods. Use a separate knife for spreading butter on gluten-free bread, or a separate serving spoon for dishing up non-breaded fish, instead of reusing the spoon for serving breaded fish.
