What is Gluten Free?

I have a friend with Celiac disease.  The Reader's Digest version explanation is that her small intestines do not grab the nutrients from food passing through.  She is gluten intolerant. That means she has to avoid foods that contain gluten.  Gluten is proteins found in wheat, rye, barley and spelt.  After years of living with celiac she has learned that she can eat some wheat products cautiously.  I also know a person who had many of the symtoms listed that pointed to celiac but responsibly went to a doctor for testing to find out she was not sensitive to gluten.

I grew up in wheat country.  My dad farmed wheat and I still eat wheat.  So do not think this is a slam against wheat or that I am advocating a gluten free diet.  I decided to write about gluten free diets because there is so much about it  in grocery stores, the blog world and after seeing a ridiculously funny clip on Jimmy Kimmel Live. 

In the TV clip a journalist interviewed people on the street asking them, "Do you maintain a gluten free diet?" Almost all of them answered yes, then the journalist asked them "What IS gluten?"  They didn't know.  They didn't know why they needed to be gluten free either.  One person even said it's something that makes you fat.  LOL!  Shows you how influenced we are by the food industry, media and buzz words on the Internet doesn't it.  Gluten free products tend to be low in fiber which tends to go along with weight gain.  Case in fact, my friend who is diagnosed with celiac disease was bone thin suffering from malnutrition until she found out what was wrong.  After removing gluten from her diet she gained back all her lost weight plus some. 

So what can you eat if you think you have celiac disease or a sensitivity to gluten?  

Arrow root, corn, cornmeal, 

rice flour, soy flour, bean flour, potato flour, buckwheat flour

quinoa, rice, tapioca, soy

By the way, there are hundreds of symptoms associated with gluten intolerance.  You can Google it for lists but don't stop there, find out how gluten affects you and how the lack of gluten will affect you.  See a doctor and ask for a blood test that can tell you if pizza and chocolate chip cookies are still on your diet.