One of increasingly popular diseases at these days is celiac disease. It is a condition in people who have a problem when eating certain foods that contain gluten. This disease can make the immune system (natural defense system) of patient can harm the small intestine, which eventually can lead to some serious health problems. Therefore, people with this disease or gluten allergies must do a therapy what we call as ‘celiac disease diet’ in order to eliminate or avoid any foods that contain gluten!
What is gluten? It is a kind of protein, but cannot be found in eggs or meats. It is more likely to be found in barley, rye, and wheat! What else you should know about celiac disease diet? Here are several helpful checklists (keep reading)!
Be careful on choosing unfamiliar foods!
If you have a recommendation from your doctor to do a celiac disease diet (or also familiar known as ‘a gluten-free diet’), you should be extra concern for each label of the food that you want to eat! Rye, wheat-gluten, barley, and wheat are some of obviously ingredient red flags.
But there are also certain foods that contain hidden gluten. Two things that you should be more careful are wheat in hydrolyzed vegetable protein and barley in malt. Don’t forget to consider other foods that don’t have gluten but can make worse your symptoms, like oats that can increase your symptoms (like diarrhea, bloating, or abdominal pain).
Be careful on choosing bread!
This may be the most difficult in your celiac disease diet, because bread is one of the most popular carbohydrates that can be found easily in anywhere. Breads that you should avoid include rye, white, marble, and wheat. You should also limit from hamburger buns, muffins, scones, bagels, or even one of the most favorite food ‘pizza’. But don’t be panic! There are some alternatives to choose from!
Fortunately, there are also gluten-free breads. You can find them not too difficultly in some health food stores. Even you can find gluten-free breads in several major supermarkets in your local area, like an assortment of breads, which usually made from potato flour or rice instead of wheat products!
Moreover, there are a lot of gluten free bread recipes on internet. If you in doubt -- talk with your doctor or make sure that the food that you want to choose has “100 %gluten-free label”
Be careful on choosing cereals
As well we know that cereals are one of the most popular choices for breakfast. But be careful! There are a lot of cereals that contain gluten. Like wheat starch in cheerios, or malt flavoring in frosted flakes. Once again, make sure to read carefully the list of ingredients and don’t choose any cereals that contain malt, barley, rye, and wheat.
Another idea for your breakfast, you can also choose corn & rice cereals! But once again, don’t forget to check the labels, because there are also some corn & rice cereals that contain malt.
How about with pasta?
Unfortunately, no matter what the shape or name of pasta that you find, most of them are made out of wheat! Therefore, when you are on a celiac disease diet -- you should also avoid spirals, macaroni, spaghetti, and shells.
And your dietitian may recommend rice and potatoes in your diet menu. If you feel too hard to forget your favorite pasta, you can choose rice noodles to replace your favorite spaghetti.
Avoid wheat-crackers!
Most of crackers are also made with wheat! You can try with gluten-free popcorn to replace your favorite crackers that contain gluten. It can be your crunchy snack (nice gluten-free snack)!
Enjoy your diet!
Don’t worry! There are still a lot of foods that don’t contain gluten, like fresh fruits, vegetables, milk products, eggs, rice, potatoes, and even wine. But don’t forget to check the label when choosing canned fruits & vegetables (once again make sure that the canned foods that you choose is labeled with “100% gluten-free”!).
What else you should choose and avoid in your celiac disease diet?
- Unlike wine, most of beers are not gluten-free (they usually contain barley malt)! You may also find some that are labeled with gluten-free beers, but much better to talk with your dietitian or doctor to make sure that your choice is safe or not!
- Then, most of cookies & cakes also contain wheat flour, particularly some of them that are made traditionally. But you can choose other like plain hard candies, gumdrops, or marshmallows – these are usually gluten-free. For better result, you can also choose a custom-ordered for your favorite cakes that are made with gluten-free option. There are many specialty bakeries that offer a custom-ordered!
- Don’t be shy to talk and explain that ‘you are in celiac disease diet or gluten-free diet’ with the chef or waiters when you have a lunch or dinner in a restaurant, so thus you can choose the right menu.
The last, this article is not purposed to replace your doctor’s advices or your dietitian’s advices. Always follow completely all recommendations from your doctor and dietitian.
-- Image credit to ‘shutterstock’
