Gluten Free Diet – your guide to getting started.

A gluten free diet isn’t a light undertaking. It takes time and planning to get right. Above all, you’ll have to cut yourself some slack when you accidentally get “gluten-ed.” But we can help make the process easier!

Where’s the gluten?

Quick answer? It will feel like gluten is in EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE. To a certain extent, that’s true.

• Read Your Labels – Clean out the cabinets. Read your labels on everything single food item in your cabinets. When buying prepackaged food it is very important to read the nutrition labels and find out everything you can about that item.
• Shopping can be tricky. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store

Keep it simple

The key thing to keep in mind when starting a gluten-free diet is to keep things simple.

• Keep it simple with ingredients and simple recipes. It can be disheartening to take on complicated recipes.
• We recommend starting with simple gluten-free desserts without yeast and so on.
• Work your way up to more complicated recipes. Lucky for you, unless we say otherwise all of our recipes fit the bill for easy!
• Start with fresh fruit and vegetables. Avoid the pre-packaged gluten-free products, especially at first. Your body is healing from most likely years of fighting off gluten.
• Gluten-free products have more sugar and fat to make up for the missing wheat flour. This is perfect for an occasional treat but not what your body needs while trying to heal.

Gluten Free Diet Prep

Get your ducks in a row to avoid gluten-tastic situations.

• Be prepared for food situations. If you’re planning on eating out, call ahead. Ask about cross contamination. Have snacks on hand in case you have a situation where you cannot safely eat.
• Create a safe space – if your entire house is not going to be gluten-free, create a safe space in your kitchen where no gluten is allowed.
• Buy separate toasters or toasties bags (aff link) to keep your food safe from contamination.  If space is limited, be sure to place all gluten-free foods on top of cabinets to avoid gluten crumbs from falling down onto gluten-free food.
• Get new sponges, cutting boards and other kitchen items in this safe space so they don’t get cross contaminated. A small crumb can wreak absolute havoc in your body.