Still borderline on "gluten-free"...help!

[Babs2]

I can't seem to get away from it; to help bowel movement I use Fiber One cereal... works great.

I often have ½ open face chicken or turkey sandwich with soup or salad... what do I use to substitute the bread (and here I thought eating whole wheat was good for me!)

... And then there's oatmeal in the wintertime... what else can I use?

As you can see... I'm at a total loss

PEACE

[Sequoia]

I can't seem to get away from it; to help bowel movement I use Fiber One cereal... works great.

I often have ½ open face chicken or turkey sandwich with soup or salad... what do I use to substitute the bread (and here I thought eating whole wheat was good for me!)

... And then there's oatmeal in the wintertime... what else can I use?

As you can see... I'm at a total loss

PEACE

As an alternative to Fiber One cereal, try ground flax seed sprinkled on gluten-free cereal, or on almost any other dish (savory or sweet). Start with 1 tablespoon per day.

There are many gluten-free breads out there, so you should be able to find one you like well enough. Even the best ones I've tried are improved by toasting.

Alternatively, you could warm a corn tortilla and pile your sandwich filling on top of it, or roll it up and have a wrap.

Oatmeal is okay if it's certified gluten free. It will say on the package. Bob's Red Mill is a good brand and is available nationally.

Otherwise, there are gluten-free hot cereal mixes available. You could also take some leftover rice (or other gluten-free grain), add some milk (almond milk is good if you don't want to use dairy products), maybe a few raisins &/or chopped nuts, and warm it all up in a saucepan or the microwave.

[GandalfRA]

Try tapioca bread.

For pasta there lots of gluten free in the supermarket.

For snacks try larabar bars.

Tortillas will always be a good substitute in a wrap or tacos. You can make egg-turkey tacos with a little soy free sauce in the morning.

Also dry corn tortillas with a little avocado and chiken with onions and spices.
The trick is not consuming the corn tortillas fried.

As for cereal there are several gluten free.
Thanks for the celiac disease wich is giving us lots of gluten free food.

Yesterday my parents sent me a ready made gluten free pizza.

There is a lot of food you can eat, just look for it and you will be surprised.

I even have Redbridge gluten free beer wich taste very nice

[meeegun]

i am gluten and dairy free for a few months now. most of the time i do not miss eating either, believe it or not.

for fiber/bowel movements, why not try incorporating more fresh fruits into your diet? there are gluten-free cereals but i have never checked the fiber content. adding flax is a great suggestion since it not only helps with fiber, it supplies you with omegas which are very important for MS'ers.

for lunch, i think sequioa made great recommendations. one thing to be really careful about with soup is added thickeners that may contain gluten. also any soup with noodles or pasta is not gluten free. you will soon be an expert label reader. :P you will be shocked at how many brands put unnecessary gluten (and in my case, dairy too) ingredients in food.

and if you are dining out, don't be afraid to ask. your server should be able to tell you the ingredients or ask for you. i find that they are more helpful if you explain that you cannot have gluten for medical reasons. here in san francisco, being gluten free is sort of a fad and sometimes i think the servers get annoyed with all of the gluten-free requests and substitutions.

I was assured by so many people that i wouldn't miss gluten and dairy and that i would still eat delicious, amazing food and they were RIGHT!!

it sounds like from your post that you are brand-new to a gluten free diet. an excellent resource for eating gluten free is celiac.com you can find pretty much anything you want to know about it there.

[Sequoia]

Good post, meegun!

I just wanted to mention that there are entirely gluten-free pastas available made from rice, corn, buckwheat, even quinoa. I use various kinds of brown rice pasta occasionally and find it to be pretty decent if it's cooked properly, and the Japanese buckwheat noodles called soba are very good. (For anyone who doesn't know, buckwheat isn't a form of wheat; it's a different grain altogether and is gluten free.)

[Temagami]

My new breakfast of choice are buckwheat pancakes made with a starter that I feed every day and put back in the fridge. I know some folks are yeast free, but if that is the case, you could use baking powder as the leavening agent.

My understanding is that a "little bit" of gluten is enough to set off the immune response, so you´d be kidding yourself to think that you are doing any good with an occasional dalliance into gluten. My body reacts to the copaxone shots almost immediately, why would it be any different with another immune response agent? Any time I´ve been tempted to eat gluten, I ask myself if it´s worth the loss of mobility and the answer is always no. Works for me.

[AnneLouise]

I am on a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy free and egg free diet. And you think it's hard!

You have to stick to your guns and find new things to eat and new ways to eat them. We all fall into habits, and breaking them is hard, but it can be done. Get through the first few weeks and it gets easier. Then, you'll be saying you don't want something because it's not good for you! Trust me.

I eat protein every day (nuts are proteins, too), lots of it. Fruit and veggies. Coconut milk yogurt (yummy) with ground flax seed and berries or some other fruit for a change. I have a bowel movement every day, I think it's from the fiber in the fruit and vegs. I printed a list of the produce with the highest fiber content.

And I never had squash until I went on this diet this year. I love spaghetti squash and acorn squash! Where was I? Goes to show, you never know. And I don't miss bread. It's tough, but with determination, you can do it.

You can do it. If I can, anyone can.

[Mamabug]

Babs -- I'm very "borderline" too. I eat very little gluten at home, but I like to go out to eat, and that's where it's more difficult.

I'm not sure, though, that I wish to go totally GF, or, believe that I need to. I expect that Tara, and many hard-core GF advocates will disagree with me. But, for another perspective, try reading "Enzymes -- Go With Your Gut".
http://www.amazon.com/Enzymes-Your-P.../dp/0972591893

~ Faith

[nutritiontara]

Babs2, something to ponder....

You wouldn't need fiber-one cereal if you were gluten free!

[maile]

Babs2, It was black quinoa that helped me

I have been gluten free for 4 years. Going gluten free did help me a little, but last year I tried black quinua for other reasons. To my surprise it made a major improvement in my digestive system. We use a lot of white quinoa to replace gluten, but it was the black quinoa that made the big difference. I would be very interested in learning why.