How can I survive a gluten-free diet?!


Question: How can I survive a gluten-free diet?
I'm not particularly active, but this is killing me. I have an allergy to gluten or something along it's lines- causing a skin condition known as chronic urticaria. The hives are constantly there, but the medicine I take gets rid of them for 24 hours at a time. However, I'd love to not need that, and the diet works to cancel it out.

BUT I CAN'T EAT LIKE THAT. Lean meats, fruits and veggies? Ok. Take meat around with me all day at school? Not easy- I live in Arizona, the heat will make anything in a baggie begin to condense water, and it ruins every food I try to take. So I'm stuck with school food. They have fruit bowls and a salad bar- and that's it. The bowls have grapes and oranges, which are fine, but I don't work well with cantalope and such. So starve till lunch, eat a bowl of fruit, and burn through it in a microsecond? I'm starving to death by the time I get home. The lunch line DOES have meat- breaded. Chicken nuggets, Chik-Fil-A chicken sandwiches, pizza, everything is off limits!

Help? Also, this is majorly killing me as I'm wanting to get into bodybuilding and that cancels a lot of food out when I would need as much as possible.

Answers:

The first months on a gluten free diet are the hardest. Small consolation. Finding gluten free food on a time limited schedule is the hardest part of a gluten free diet. One thing you have to start preventing is hunger. It makes the gluten free diet seem so much worse. Two things that I have found that really keep me going when I need to have food and don't know what will be available are packaged nuts like peanuts, cashews or almonds. Costco sells these in 2 oz bags and the bags are 330 calories total so if you chew them slowly and thoroughly, they will take the edge off for a snack. The other thing I carry around with me but you will have to find which one works in the heat of Arizona unless you are going to put an ice pack in a compartment of your book bag or carry a lunch bag is nutrition bars. My favorite are the ThinkThin bars which have 20 g of protein and are about 230 calories. I also just read about another brand called ElevateMe made for gluten free diets and athletics. Both of these bars of gluten free on them. You can try the grocery store but until you find the brand you like, try Whole Foods. The one here has a large selection of gluten free bars along with the regular nutrition bars and you can buy several and see what works for you. Maybe once a week you can carry the bars into school and get them from your locker as needed. Also at Whole Foods, you can get gluten free pasta and bread. Rice is gluten free unless it has added flavoring or something along that line.

Here are a few websites that might help you find some ideas too.
www.celiac.com
www.celiac.org
www.csaceliacs.org



Try bringing a can of tuna or canned chicken, some kind of heat safe dressing (like mustard maybe), some chopped up onions and gluten free crackers. You can also try peanut butter on gluten free rice cakes (quakers say they are gluten free on most varieties), nuts and gluten free cereal, or even popcorn.



for starch you can eat buckwheat, potatoes, rice, and certified gluten free oatmeal. No sandwiches, so for packaged lunch your stuck with fruit, gluten free crackers if you can find them, some good cheese, etc. You can bring some salami too for lunch if you want meat. From a good italian grocer, not the garbage from the supermarket. Real salami does not have to be refrigerated. Its aged for months at room temperature. You can even make pot brownies with buckwheat flour instead of wheat flour. Buckwheat is not a wheat at all, it's a seed, and is completely gluten free.




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