I spent most of 2019 and all of 2020 fighting the fact that I needed to eat gluten-free. Even though I do not have celiac disease, I am very gluten sensitive. When I eat gluten, I get incredibly bloated, my stomach does not work right for days, and I have slight chest pains for days after.
My diet is 98% gluten-free right now, and both my parents eat gluten-free. This means I know a lot of the best gluten-free food in grocery stores, restaurants, and even some yummy recipes. I want to share some tips and tricks of going gluten-free because it honestly isn’t that bad. There are so many products and foods nowadays that make it pretty easy to follow a gluten-free diet.
I want to offer community and guidance about beginning your process of starting your gluten-free journey. It can be an overwhelming and daunting process. Even though it has become easier to be gluten-free in recent years, it can feel kind of isolating and time-consuming. Here are 5 tips on how to make your transition to a gluten-free diet easier!
- Understand different terminology used for gluten. An example, gluten is different from yeast, but many products that contain yeast also have gluten. Learning to read labels is crucial for your success. There are resources that can help you begin to understand how to find gluten in any product. Check this website out to begin to understand reading labels: https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-identify-gluten-on-food-labels-562666
- Think about and write down the food you regularly eat and identify where gluten could be present. Write down all your favorite foods and figure out which foods are not gluten-free. This will help you search for gluten-free alternatives for them! For example, if you love Italian food, you can search online “gluten-free Italian food near me.” This works for just about anything you can think of! There are always gluten-free alternatives, whether you have to make something yourself or find a restaurant that makes good gluten-free food.
- Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour is the best! Don’t understate the power of good gluten-free flour. With 1 to 1 flour, you can make just about anything, and the food feels the most like regular gluten food. You can use this flour in baked goods, breakfast foods, use it as a thickener, or even coat something to bake or fry.
- Find a grocery store that carries gluten-free foods. Hopefully, you’ll have one near where you live, but if you don’t, many online grocery options carry gluten-free options like thrive market. Identifying a grocery store that carries many options allows you the opportunity to not worry about those times where you don’t want to think too much about being able to buy something without thinking about too much.
- Give yourself grace and time. It can be very emotional cutting out some of your favorite foods. You might not find an excellent alternative right away, and that can be very sad. Just know, you will work through this, and with time, the gluten-free diet gets easier.
I wish you the best of luck in your gluten-free journey! I hope to write more about good gluten-free foods, restaurants, recipes, etc., so keep an eye out if you like this article!
Maria Does Things 