Making the move to go gluten-free is not just a health decision but a lifestyle change. It doesn’t matter the reason for making the shift – your life is going to be different in small but noticeable ways. Pretending otherwise is setting yourself up for failure. You need a good foundation and a plan for success.

One of the first things you should do to help yourself make the shift is to clean out your kitchen and adjust your grocery list.

We’ll start with the kitchen. I’m going to write this as if you don’t have to take other people into consideration. That’s often not the case though, as eating is often a communal activity. I’ll address this situation specifically at the end of the post, but for now we’ll keep things simple.

Cleaning Out the Pantry

Almost all of us have some food in the pantry or the kitchen cabinets. A lot of that food will have gluten in it. Instead of letting it sit around and tempt you, it’s time to throw it out or donate it. So go get a crate or cardboard box and let’s open the cabinets.

What are you looking for? First off: bread, dried noodles, floor, pancake mixes, cereal, crackers, and any other packaged snacks that are cake or bread based. This includes chips of all kinds – you never know! Check your potato chips and your corn chips. And, definitely give a critical eye to any trail mixes and dried fruit mixes that may have breaded items, candies or even just some sort of dustings for pleasurable taste. If you have rice snacks, don’t assume rice is the only thing they used – check, because some things are rolled in flour. Try not to think about it too much, and just put it in the box.

Let’s move on to your cans. Of course any canned spaghetti and noodles, instant or slow cook or any other obviously wheat-based products will be going into that crate right away. What you might not expect is that many canned soups use gluten as a thickening agent or contain noodles. So, go through any meal type cans and read the labels carefully. Look for baked beans, some pre-made broths, instant hot drinks, energy bars, tempera and any sauces like ketchup.

I highly suggest you go into this part of your personal exploration armed with a list of what I think of as gluten camouflaging terms, such as the latin for wheat and other grains like: tricticum vulgar, tricicum spelta, triticale, hodeum vulgar, and secale cereale. Also be aware of farina, semolina, bulgar, malt, couscous, farina, seitan, and any wheat extracts or anything with wheat in it. The list of extracts and flavorings that can contain gluten is too long for this article. You can find a detailed list in the book the Grain Brain (http://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Surprising-Sugar-Your-Killers/dp/031623480X) by David Permutter, MD. The ones I’ve listed here will definitely get you started!

If you’re the kind of person who buys in bulk, you need to go through your bins as well. Of course any floor, millet, and wheat germ need to go. Barley, rye, and any wheat, no matter the kind, must go as well. Oats, while not necessarily gluten bearing in and of themselves, may be contaminated by being milled in the same factory. Personally, I never take the risk after having a few bad experiences. There are some gluten free oat brands out there but be careful. Whatever you have now probably needs to be dumped in the box and shipped out.

On to the Refrigerator!

Here’s where it gets fun. Open up that fridge door and take a good look at it. First, gather up all your bottles of sauces. Armed with your list of gluten camouflaging terms, go through the ingredients lists. You should literally do this for anything more complicated than lemon juice. Soy sauce usually has gluten, as do syrups. Any barbecue sauce might use gluten for thickening. You’re going to learn very quickly that eating gluten free often means sticking with meals that you can easily identify where everything in it came from. Depending on your situation, you may be able to handle a bit of ketchup once in a while without noticing any ill effects. On the other hand, you may find that the last flavoring in your brand at the bottom listed as natural flavoring may be extracted from rye.

Once you’re through all your bottles, take a look at the rest of the fridge. If you have any cheese, check the labels. Graded cheese is sometimes kept loose with a powder. Make sure the powder does not contain gluten or one of its aliases. If you have left-overs, toss them. Hopefully you’ve already dumped the last sub-sandwich. If you have any sausages then definitely check them, because there’s a high likelihood they have gluten in them. Any chocolate milk or chocolate-based items? Check those ingredients too. I was trying to figure out why my symptoms came back recently and found out that gluten was slipped into my wonderful hot chocolate. Not cool, folks!

And the Freezer!

By now you’re probably getting the idea. If you have any frozen bread, noodle based dinners, etc, dump them out on their ear. Check any ice cream you might have, frozen prepared meats like sausages, hamburger meats, vegetables burgers, and hot dogs, etc, and definitely any deserts. Snicker Bars have gluten in them, as do most if not all licorice ropes and candies. Any frozen pizzas are out, of course. If you have items like frozen prepared potatoes in any variety, check to make sure they were not rolled in a flouring or some sort of dusting type concoction with gluten or any of its other names. Any breaded items are out.

Now that you’ve pulled all the gluten items out of your kitchen, it’s time to get rid of them. If you’re at all like me then you hate wasting food, so check online for your local food bank and drive it down there. Another idea is to find someone else who could use it. Whatever it is, do it as quickly as possible, and just get those items that are no longer food to you out of the house. No sense in looking at them and mourning your new lifestyle when you should be excited about becoming healthier and happier.

The Grocery List

What do you put into your pantry and kitchen now that it’s somewhat empty? This is a big topic and I can’t cover everything on it, so we’re going to hit some major points.

First off, do your research. You’re going to need some recipes for food you like that don’t include gluten. And, you probably need to do this without taking up too much of your regular cooking schedule. To get you started, think meat, vegetables, roots (like potatoes), and fruit. Imagine the layout of a normal grocery store. You start on either the left or right with the produce section, then take a horseshoe loop through the back where the diary and meat are, ending with a loop down towards the checkout. I suggest starting in the produce section. You go in the door, hit this section of the store, skip past the bakery, stop at the meat section, maybe the diary section for eggs and milk and the like, and make very few forays down the aisles. If that’s how you shop, it will make your life easier.

So what exactly are you buying? That’s really up to you. There are many options and you may find that you need to buy from some other stores you didn’t previous shop at.

Rip up your old shopping list and begin new habits. Give it time while you figure out what works. Whatever you do, do not just pick something like potatoes or steaks and try to replace all the many and varied foods and snacks you used to consume with one substitute. In fact, it would be better if you didn’t think in terms of substitution, but rather in terms of what you like and what will give you a balanced, healthy diet.

So you’re standing in front of the store and you need to eat for the day, starting with breakfast. You could hit the fruit sections for bananas and the diary section for yogurt, or have some beacon and eggs to go with your oranges. Then for lunch, you might choose a spinach salad with some pre-cooked chicken topped off with a vinaigrette and a side of dried cranberries and walnuts. Delicious! For dinner you could always do a quick baked potato with butter, a cucumber sliced up and topped with red wine vinegar, pepper and your favorite herb, and maybe a slice of ham or beef heated up fast on the stove top. If you just have to have desert, try a banana smoothie: it’s just a banana, some plain yogurt and maybe a dash of something else to make it interesting, like those cranberries from lunch. If it’s not sweet enough for you, stevia will do the trick.

If you absolutely need “replacements” that are gluten free, there are breads, noodles, and pancake mixes out there. Hint: you can usually use gluten-free pancake mixes to make muffins, birthday cakes and even some cookies. You will have to look for them, but they’re becoming increasingly common. This will allow you to continue to have spaghetti dinners and enjoy your favorite recipes.

Also, rice is definitely your friend. I put spaghetti over rice whenever it’s the big dish of the day at my mother’s house. You can buy a rice cooker and you’ll quickly find it takes almost no time out of your day. Just start your rice the night before or in the morning and let it sit there. It will stay warm and ready to go.

Speaking of rice, I would strongly caution against relying on it to do everything that wheat used to do for you. Depending on your health situation, some people have found they can no longer tolerate rice like they used to. The reason behind that is complex and gets into the base construction of what wheat and rice are, which would be a whole different post. So, spread things around and get used to eating without so much grain. You’ll probably be happier in the long run. Also, try not to beef up on potatoes too much.

Buy some new cook books and definitely makes sure you have some snacks around for when you feel hungry.

If You’re Not Eating Alone

If you’re not eating alone and especially if you’re cooking for others besides yourself, you must set some boundaries. First off, cooking a different meal for each person is not only time consuming, but could be a source of eventual resentment in some families. Try to plan something that everyone can eat or let them cook for themselves if they cannot eat what is served. If you’re the one who can’t eat what’s being served, as in you’re an adult living at home or with roommates, find a way to take responsibility for your meals gracefully.

Many people, as long as it’s a balanced meal, won’t notice right off if they’re not chowing-down on the same pile of gluten-infused noodles as they were before. So, before you start making a big deal about it, just let them eat whatever you’re serving. If you have a lot of teenagers and people on the go, they’re probably going to want their snacks and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For your own sanity, you may just want to put all those items on the same shelf and mentally label it ‘not for me but good for them’, and move on. My husband and I eat gluten free meals together even though he loves his pizza and the occasional hamburger bun. I cook our meals so that we can both eat them and he snacks on what he wants. What has surprised us both, since I moved in with him, is that he is becoming increasingly gluten-free in his habits instead of resenting mine. The fact that I’m smarter, more interested in him and healthier when I keep to my ‘lifestyle’ only encourages him to be happy with the situation.

Another tip: don’t apologize. Apologizing for the fact you’re not serving barbecue drenched, gluten-stuffed sausages on rye bread is going to draw people’s attention to what they’re NOT getting, and people always want what they’re told they CAN’T have. Focus on what you can have!

You’ll have better luck starting off with:

“Darling, we’re having marinated chicken tonight, with your favorite ice cream for dessert.”

Then immediately running down hill with something like:

“Well, since I can’t have gluten anymore, no spaghetti on Tuesday now. I guess we’ll have to have that chili soup again.”

By the way, chili is delicious and some small new potatoes can make a nice replacement side to the bread you might have used before.

People don’t like to be inconvenienced or talk about things that can’t happen. So, if you at all can, shift your shopping habits and continue to have nice stomach filling meals plus something easy on the shelves to eat for snacks. If they’re missing something, they’ll tell you.

If you’re not the one cooking, you’re going to need to get your cook on your side. Honestly though, if they like you enough to cook for you and you’re willing to be up front and have information for them so they don’t have to become experts, you’re going to get better support. Be appreciative, go through the kitchen with them, and be honest. Once family and friends start seeing the improvement in your life, they’re likely to be very much on board with keeping the new, healthier happier you around.

The post Cleaning out the Pantry and Creating a Gluten-Free Grocery List appeared first on .

Take a deep breath, let it out. Ok. You’re not the first one to be here.

Let’s break this down:

Communicate Beforehand 

Unless the event jumps out and surprises you the day of, communicate early. Call the host/hostess. One of the best ways to open the issue is to offer to solve it. For example, if it’s Aunt Sally, you probably have a good idea of what she’s going to serve.

You might approach it by saying, “I really enjoy that turkey stuffing, Auntie. My doctor says I have to stay off the bread now, though, could you put some of it aside for me, without the crumbs? I don’t want to miss out on your cooking!”

That’s probably going to go over pretty well. Everyone likes to be complimented on their culinary art. But what if you don’t know the situation so well?

Being proactive is still a good idea. Say you’re going to dinner at someone’s house from a local group you’ve just joined. Call them up beforehand, or maybe even talk to them when the invitation is extended. Offer to bring food. I usually go for something like:

“Thanks! I’m really looking forward to it. Can I help bring something? It’s just that I have an allergy to bread and other gluten products, so I like to help make it easy for everyone.”

Or alternatively, if you’re not doing it for strict sensitivity/allergy issues you might say:

Really trying to take control of my health on this and staying away from bread and food with gluten is working for me. Does that work for you? There’s been some really great recipes I’ve made recently. Mind if I share some?”

They might say no, which is fine, but almost everyone is going to ask what you can or can’t eat at that point.

I know some shall read this and say I am food obsessed but there is also such a heritage and enormity of fond memories that drives and binds it. So, ya – I thoroughly enjoyed eating my way through my entire childhood, never stopping for an instant to ponder the metric tons of white flour we all consumed as the quintessential Italian family.

I will be the first to say I ate enough food for a small elephant on a regular basis and oddly enough did not gain weight. I actually had friends and a cousin ask me if I was Bulimic which I simply dismissed as “odd.” I craved sugar and sweets like an addict and never had a “sweet tooth.” I always said it was a “sweet jaw.” I easily consumed the Halloween candy well before the holiday forcing my mother to purchase more. She even hid it in the trunk of her car in the garage and I found it with my bionic sense of smell. It wasn’t until I went off to college in Boston that I truly realized for a very small framed person, I could consume an abnormal amount of alcohol and it literally had no effect on me. Many dates I went on probably never ended the way my date thought since he would usually run out of funds while I remained perfectly fine. Actually, I became the designated driver many, many times. It was not until I was diagnosed some twenty years later that I was told these were huge Celiac speed bumps I simply sped over.

I began to have digestive issues that were quickly diagnosed as “Irritable Bowel”, “Colitis” and then the ominous “Crones Disease”. I was a natural athlete in school and had a very high tolerance for pain which was another marker everyone missed. Doubling over with a sensation that swords where going through my gut like a rouge circus act became the norm. So I just upped my game of “grin and ignore it.” Sometimes I would untie and retie my sneaker so no one would notice me bend in half.  And then eventually I won – only the slight watering of my eyes that I would dismiss as a contact lens issue was all that was visible from the mind bending pain.

I began to have some disturbing symptoms that rapidly progressed to blood when I passed solid waste. So, I went on the internet and thought I would wait until after Thanksgiving to announce to my family I was dying of colon cancer since that was the prevalent web conclusion. From that time on I began seeing world class Doctors for we were blessed they were so abundant in Boston – like fields and fields of dazzling, wild orchids that were always in bloom. Appointment after appointment after appointment until finally painful leg ulcers birthed a side order of quiet desperation. I had a pretty indomitable spirit that championed even the biggest and longest succession of challenges so I pushed forward. And pushed. And pushed. I got a PhD in “grin and ignore it.” Prescriptions, specialists, experiments, and trials – all that seemed to go nowhere. I resigned that this was my lot and marched on.

The next marker made me feel like the Grinch: “all the noise, noise, noise, noise.” For no matter what amazing function I elegantly dressed and attended, I always had the loudest stomach that stopped conversations which were happening around me. I am confident I did not get a job I was interviewing for because when the VP was talking and passing me a paper my stomach interrupted him. He was shocked and looked up at me to say: “excuse me what did you say?” and I embarrassingly replied “I didn’t say anything Sir.” Needless to say Cybill didn’t get that job. So, then I got very good at coordinating the traveling band I was becoming. Since my stomach would yell everywhere I had to be amazing at IMPROV. Several times while at the movies all the people anywhere near me eventually wanted to rise up and throw the loud offender out of the show, so I joined them in looking around and loudly saying “what IS that?” just so no one would know it was me. Another physical marker that I failed to recognize but simply added it to the cache of craziness I now just called “the art of being ME.”

The post The View From 30,000 Feet, by Elaine Iagatta appeared first on .

Don’t Self-Diagnose

First, you should not diagnose yourself. If you’re having symptoms related to celiac disease then make an appointment with your doctor, the only person who can diagnose you. If you are found to have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, study up on the gluten-free diet, ask experienced gluten-free dieters for advice, and proceed with your new lifestyle. If not, the gluten-free diet may not be right for you.

It’s a Tough Lifestyle

Going gluten-free isn’t easy. You can kiss most processed foods goodbye, because they will typically contain gluten or are processed in a factory that handles wheat. As a result, each meal needs to be planned in advance so you don’t find yourself hungry and without a safe meal. Like going out to eat? Well, very few restaurants cater to the gluten-free community (although some are making an effort!), so you’ll no longer be able to go out on a whim.

Going gluten-free is far from easy, so be prepared for a challenge if you’re going to try.

Nutrient Deficiencies Are Serious

Cutting out foods that contain gluten is not easy – it requires a lot of hard work and research to ensure you maintain a balanced, healthy diet. One of the biggest dangers is missing key vitamins and nutrients, such as fiber, iron, and vitamin B12, to name a few. If you’re seriously considering going gluten-free, you need to closely monitor your food intake to ensure you get the required amount of nutrients. You should also consider taking a multivitamin, but do not rely on one – nutrient-rich foods are always better for you!

Weight Gain (And Loss!)

Another concern about going gluten-free on a whim is that it can lead to weight gain – or weight loss. Let us explain…

It can be easy to gain weight on the gluten-free diet because many companies use fatty ingredients to replace gluten, such as eggs, butter, and oils. As a result, you may consume more calories than you’re aware of, leading to unexpected weight gain. And, if you’re not exercising regularly then the problem only gets worse.

While weight gain is one issue, you also need to avoid weight loss. If you jump into the gluten-free diet unprepared then you might find yourself confused about what’s safe to eat, as well as where to eat when out and about. As a result, some people skip meals because they didn’t prepare in advance. This can lead to unhealthy weight loss, not to mention nutrient deficiencies. If you’re considering the gluten-free diet, you need to do your homework and make sure you’re properly prepared for the challenge.

The Choice is Yours

At the end of the day, you are in control of your diet and the decision is yours. Again, our suggestion is to talk with your doctor about the reasons you’re considering going gluten-free. They will know what’s best for you, can offer healthy alternatives, and will provide you with the information needed to make the best decision. If you do decide to go gluten-free, take a look through our survival guide for tips and advice on how to succeed!

The post Should I Go Gluten-Free? appeared first on .

3) Red Robin

If you’re looking for a sit down restaurant that serves a great gluten-free burger then we suggest Red Robin. One of the reasons why we love Red Robin is because you don’t have to order your burger in a lettuce wrap – they offer a gluten-free bun! This is a pretty rare find, and the overall taste brings Red Robin into our top 3 gluten-free burger options.

2) Five Guys

While Five Guys doesn’t offer a gluten-free bun, it definitely makes up for it in taste, quality, and toppings. Order your burger in a lettuce wrap and pile on the toppings, such as grilled mushrooms, jalepenos, green peppers, tomatoes, and more. While this is enough to make Five Guys one of our favorite gluten-free burgers, they also offer amazing gluten-free fries. They’re cooked in 100% peanut oil and are safe to eat on a gluten-free diet. The one downfall is that Five Guys lettuce wrap burgers are very difficult to eat with your hands, and should therefore be eaten with a fork and knife. As a result, Five Guys sits as our second favorite gluten-free burger.

1) In-N-Out Burger

There’s no question for us that In-N-Out is by far the best gluten-free burger out there. You will need to order your burger in a lettuce wrap (or protein style), however it is still easy to eat by hand and doesn’t lose any of it’s amazing flavor. The secret sauce really makes this burger stand out, and should be safe to eat by those with celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity. Finally, make sure you grab an order of fries – they’re cooked in 100% vegetable oil, gluten-free, and incredibly delicious!

There you have it, the Gluten-Free Survival Guide’s top 3 gluten-free burgers! What’re you waiting for? Go test them for yourselves, and let us know your favorites in the comments below!

The post Gluten-Free Burgers – The Best of the Best appeared first on .