This is Part One of a three part series. Simply because it became impossibly long.
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So you suspect, or have been told, that gluten is doing you more harm than good. And now you have to avoid it.
Luckily for you, gluten-free products are finally becoming mainstream. However, they are likely to be very expensive! But how can you tell whether a product is gluten-free if it’s not clearly marked as such?
Well, you’ll have to check the ingredients list. Anything made with wheat, rye, oats, barley, and malt are out. Depending on how sensitive you are, you may also need to avoid anything with “artificial” anything because who knows what THAT’S made out of. Caramel coloring can even contain gluten, depending on how it’s made, and that includes most soft drinks! For a complete list of unsafe ingredients, see this site. (Warning: It’s overwhelming.)
Luckily, when Olivia and I went gluten-free, we were NOT that sensitive. We still ate soy sauce without any difficulties.
Now… what to do about bread?! That all-American staple. The bottom of the food pyramid. The outsides of our sandwiches. The best part of any steak house.
Supposedly, bread is the way to get the necessary carbohydrates into your body. And gluten is what makes bread the soft, chewy, fluffy thing we know and love. After many months of experimenting, I was able to finally create a palatable gluten-free bread. Even Josh liked it. But for most of the year, I went without. So I can tell you, it is possible to live a life without bread. In fact, I would argue that a life without bread may actually be healthier!
Bread converts to sugar inside your body. If you eat white bread, well, that’s less nutrients, more sugar. If you eat whole wheat bread, odds are it’s a form of wheat your body can’t even digest (since it is no longer allowed to sprout out in the fields before it is collected). And what nutrients can you gain from something your body can’t digest? So it’s just… sugar. If you want to lose weight fast, give up bread.
Now, that’s not to say give up all carbs! Keep in mind that I was training for a marathon when I gave up bread. I desperately needed carbs! But bread is not the only way to get carbohydrates. Stock up on vegetables and fruits. Mostly vegetables, of course. And make them raw for maximum nutrients. Carrot sticks were the new cracker to our gluten-free household. (The kids especially liked them dipped in peanut butter and sprinkled with raisins.)
Rice is a wonderful way to get your fill of carbohydrates! All dishes can be served with rice. White rice, brown rice, fried rice, Spanish rice… When Olivia was sick, I made her rice with chicken broth instead of chicken noodle soup. Many dishes can be served over rice. There are some very filling casseroles that include rice. I think I even once saw a recipe for a rice lasagna!
If you are wondering whether you are getting enough carbohydrates, use a website like sparkpeople.com. Enter in all your food and your personal information and it will tell you where you fall short.
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Stay tuned for Part Two, where I will discuss how our meals changed when we switched to gluten-free.
While I agree that people generally would benefit from eating less bread and a more varied diet, ALL carbohydrates convert to sugar in the body, not just those from wheat or sugar. The process is slowed by fiber and other nutrients, but the end products for all carbs are simple sugars.
Sources? (I sincerely hope that it is not the Weston Price foundation or Nourishing Traditions – they are notorious for bad science and faulty logic for their claims)
One good way to make up for not eating bread is by increasing the fat intake in your diet. You can do a low-carb diet or you can do a low-fat diet (though I wouldn’t recommend it) but you simply cannot keep up a low-carb AND low-fat diet up for a sustainable period of time. Your body just can’t handle it. I’m grain-free and high-starch-food free (potatoes, yams, etc.) right now, and I’m eating a lot more butter, olive oil, tallow *gasp*, etc. I already was weird enough to believe that fat (the right kind) was good for me, but definitely putting that into practice right now!
Corrine, could you give some more specifics (sources, etc.) for your claim that WAPF and NT are “notorious for bad science and faulty logic for their claims”? I’m curious. I don’t by any stretch of the imagination consider myself 100% WAPF, but I’ve found a lot of good sound nutritional advice *and* science with them over the past few years. They, for example, have much more of an idea what constitutes a real scientific reference than, say, Mercola (who borders on deception in the way he uses scientific studies). So I’m genuinely interested in your take :-).
*Corinne (sorry for the mis-spelling :-P)
This looks like this will be a fun series! I’m not GF, but I’ve always wondered what that lifestyle looks like. I’ll have to check out that sparkpeople thing, because I’m curious how I’m doing for nutrition as a BFing mom.
WAPF is fond of cherry-picking studies (not usually the best-designed ones) and using antiquated research. They provide no references for many of their claims – their vendetta against soy is quite perplexing, considering that it is a main component of several native diets – which Price himself studied and found quite healthful. They also claim that MSG is a “potent neurotoxin” which has been thoroughly debunked by countless studies. WAPF is anti-vegetarian, and there are plenty of healthy vegetarian populations. Another hot topic is phytic acid in food (soaking foods to decrease the levels of this anti-nutrient, which increases some nutrient levels by a marginal amount) but there is conflicting evidence showing that phytic acid may have health benefits (http://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals/phytic-acid.php)
I am skeptical of any organization who has so many claims this far removed from scientific consensus (Mercola is a quack too). We don’t know everything about nutrition, but the fundamental advice hasn’t changed in a very long time – eat a variety of whole foods.
WAPF agrees that soy is a component of several native diets. What they *don’t* agree with is that it is a main component in its modern, unfermented form. Phytic acid is, granted, a hot topic, nor does WAPF deny there are *some* benefits to phytic acid in small quantities, periodically. Like I said, I’m not 100% WAPF, but I think they deserve a lot more credit than you perhaps think :-). We all have to search it out for ourselves, though, and I recognize there are dissenters to many of their claims.
(Actually, the fundamental nutritional advice *has* changed in recent years. That’s actually one of WAPF’s main points :-D. The whole low-fat movement, just as one example. That’s certainly a new one!)
This is a fantastic website with GREAT information! Thank you for publishing all of your recipe’s/meal ideas, and giving so many references!