My girlfriend just got diagnosed with Celiacs disease. I need a list of some Gluten-Free foods?

Question by Youth in Asia: My girlfriend just got diagnosed with Celiacs disease. I need a list of some Gluten-Free foods?
Anybody actually have a gluten free diet? I know the stuff you can pull off Google, like arrowhead root and stuff but I’d like some practical stuff. Like McD’s Fries I hear are acceptable. Anybody got great meal ideas or anything?

Best answer:

Answer by tiggsy
Nope. Macdonalds fries are not edible for celiacs. They are reconstituted with flour.

So far as fast food goes, most of it will be off the menu for your gf. Even the odd bits, like salad without dressing, may well be contaminated by being handled with implements that were previously used for other things.

There are places you can get gluten free food to go, but they are not your regular places, mostly. Though I believe that Wendy’s salad bar has a fairly good selection – but since it’s serve it yourself, it’s very likely somebody will have used the same spoon to pick up croutons and then salad… cross contamination.

Even a hint of gluten will damage your gf’s health. The life exptectancy of celiacs has been shown to be directly related to how well they adhere to a 100% gluten free diet.

Gluten is the protein in wheat, rye, barley, spelt and a few other closely related grains. It’s not in corn, rice, or oats, although oats are mostly contaminated during processing, so you would need to buy ones that are certified gluten free (meaning they were processed in a gluten free environment).

Your girlfriend is going to get a crash course in label reading – unless she wants to go entirely the natural route. Processed food almost always contains gluten for one reason or another, often just as a flavoring (malt), or to thicken, bind, stop stuff sticking together (grated cheese), as a carrier (in blue cheese), and so on. And if you buy a pack of something one time that you checked, and it was gluten free, it doesn’t mean that another pack bought on the same day or on a different day will also be gluten free.

Manufacturers change ingredients without any warning or mention on the front of the pack, depending on price and availability. So the only way to be safe, if you’re buying processed food not specificatlly labeled “gluten free” (and sometimes even if it is), you have to Check the Ingredients Label of Every Pack Every Time You Buy.

Having said that, there are lots of foods that are gluten free. Meat (not meat products), fish, non-blue cheese bought in a block or sliced (not necessarily processed cheese), eggs, fruit, vegetables and nuts are all gluten free, so long as there is no coating or sauce.

There is a set of cereals called Chex, in lots of different varieties that is changing over to a gluten free recipe. Check every pack before you buy as there are still some “normal” ones out there. The gluten free ones have a flash on the front that says “gluten free”.

Many pizza places and other restaurants like PF Changs do gluten free menus. It’s impossible to know how thorough they are about avoiding cross-contamination, though. There’s a lways a risk if you have a kitchen that prepares gluten free food alongside the normal stuff that some gluten will get transferred accidentally.

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