Gluten Free Living: Day One

Some of my new gluten free friends

Well, it's finally happened. My doctor put me on a gluten free diet to see if this helps with all the various stomach complaints I've been having over the past year or so....and I'm so not excited about it. What's better than biting into a nice, fresh piece of Italian bread or having a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios? Nothing...except a PB&J. Or maybe chocolate cake.

Yep, gluten's in pretty much all of my favorite foods: cereal, pasta, bread, crackers, baked goods, granola bars, and tortillas. It's also in many things that you wouldn't expect, like trail mix, soup, ice cream, teriyaki sauces and even vitamins and jars of peanuts! Turns out that most factories use wheat flour on their conveyor belts or process multiple items on the same equipment, so just about everything is contaminated with wheat. Even most alcohols and liquors are either made or colored with wheat products these days, since it's often cheaper than using the traditional ingredients.

What's left to eat when you can't eat wheat? Rice, corn, potato, and certain oat products, and to drink, certain wines, gluten free beer, and high-end tequila or rum that has been made from the traditional ingredients. Luckily gluten free products are becoming more widespread since it turns out that 1 in 100 Americans have a gluten intolerance or allergy! (Though most of them don't know it.) I went to Safeway and bought some gluten free bread, cereal, pasta, crackers, tortillas, and cookies to try out, and I can keep eating some of my favorite snack foods like hummus, rice cakes, and peanut butter. I was also able to find peanuts, trail mix, oatmeal, and granola bars that were processed without wheat products. Now I just need to find an amazing job to pay for the extra $2 associated with each gluten free item. And that Patrón.

In taste testing, I've determined that Corn Chex taste like cardboard, and rice crackers ain't got nothing on Triscuits, though they're okay with hummus. We'll see what the rest of this stuff tastes like, though...I have to admit that I'm a little scared of the chocolate chip cookies (can they really be good when they're made with rice flour?).

The good news? This is a trial run, and at the end of the month my doctor and I will evaluate whether I really need to go gluten free or not. After a few different diets and some blood tests, it might turn out that I'm only intolerant of or allergic to certain food preservatives or wheat products, and not gluten in general. I'm praying hard that I'm only allergic to one stupid little thing, and not the full range of baked goodness....wish me luck? And cookies that taste good.