Gluten-Free All-in-One For Dummies®
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Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937167
ISBN: 978-1-119-05244-9
ISBN 978-1-119-05244-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-05251-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-05253-1 (ebk)
Not so many years ago, the gluten-free lifestyle was reserved for an obscure cluster of people who were forced to settle for wannabe foods that resembled sawdust but didn’t taste as good.
Today, the gluten-free lifestyle is sweeping the world with the force of a really big blowtorch, and the ramifications are enormous. Gluten-free products abound (and are a far cry from the foods people used to choke down), labels are far less ambiguous, and people no longer look at you like you have four heads when you ask for a burger without the bun.
Being gluten-free isn’t about being on a diet. It’s about living a lifestyle. Whether you’ve been gluten-free for decades or are only considering the idea of giving up gluten, this book is loaded with information that can affect every aspect of your life, from the obvious — your health and how you shop, cook, and eat — to more subtle facets, like minimizing expenses, socializing, dealing with friends and family, and managing various emotional ups and downs. This book is the reference guide you need to help you with all those aspects. It’s your reference for living — and loving — a gluten-free lifestyle.
Gluten-Free All-in-One For Dummies, like all For Dummies books, is divided up so you don’t have to read it all at once, or even front to back, if you don’t want to. You can skip from B to R to A and even reread B if you want. You can read it sideways and standing on your head, if you’d like; all you have to do is find a section you’re interested in and dig in (how’s that for liberating?).
Peruse the table of contents and see which chapter or subject really floats your boat, and start there. Or you can flip through the book and see which of the headings catches your interest.
If you’re new to the gluten-free lifestyle and have tons of questions, you’re probably best off starting at Book I, Chapter 1 and working your way through most of the book in order. But do what you feel. Really.
Finally, one important note: It should go without saying that you’ll want to make sure to choose gluten-free ingredients when making the recipes in this book. So, for example, when we call for bread, we mean the gluten-free kind, and when we call for nonstick cooking spray, make sure to find a gluten-free version (because cooking spray can, believe it or not, contain gluten).
To make this book easier to navigate, the following icons help you find key information about the gluten-free lifestyle and gluten-free cooking.
In addition to all the material and recipes you can find in the book you’re reading right now, this product also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. Check out the eCheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/glutenfreeaio for helpful insights and pointers on satisfying your sweet tooth for gluten-free success, the lowdown on converting any recipe to gluten-free, and some advice on testing for celiac disease. Get even more info about the gluten-free lifestyle at www.dummies.com/extras/glutenfreeaio.
This book is organized so you can read it in the way that makes the most sense to you; feel free to jump around to the information that’s most relevant to you right now. You can use the table of contents to find the broad categories of subjects or use the index to look up specific information.
Do you want to know more about the great reasons to go gluten-free? Start with Chapter 2 of Book I. Want information about how to get through the grocery store without going astray from your lifestyle? Head over to Book II, Chapter 3. Feeling hungry and want to get started on the recipes? Feel free to jump right into the recipes in Books III through V.
And if you’re not sure where to begin, read Book I. It gives you the basic information you need to understand why and how eating and living gluten-free can help you improve your health and quality of life.
Book I
Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1: Gluten-Free from A to Z: The Basics of Being Gluten-Free
What Is Gluten, Anyway, and Where Is It?
Discovering the Benefits of a Gluten'Free Lifestyle
Deciding Whether You Should Be Gluten'Free
Mastering the Meals
Getting Excited about the Gluten'Free Lifestyle
Surviving Social Situations
Chapter 2: Glimpsing Good Reasons to Go Gluten-Free
Looking Into the Downsides of Wheat
Recognizing Different Types of Gluten-Related Problems
Sorting Out the Symptoms of Gluten Intolerance
Considering Your Options for Testing
Realizing the Consequences of Cheating
Understanding How Gluten Affects Behavior
Chapter 3: Taking a Closer Look at Celiac Disease
Exposing One of the Most Common Genetic Diseases of Mankind
Pinpointing Who Develops Celiac Disease and Why
Understanding Celiac Disease and What It Does to the Body
Gut Feelings: Gastrointestinal Symptoms
Weight Loss Related to Celiac Disease
Non-Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Celiac Disease
Chapter 4: Grasping the Ground Rules of the Gluten-Free Diet
When in Doubt, Leave It Out
Defining Gluten So You Can Avoid It
Recognizing Gluten-Free Foods at a Glance
Exploring Alternative Grains and Superfoods
Checking Up on Questionable Ingredients
The Buzz on Booze: Choosing Alcoholic Beverages
Making Sure Your Medications and Supplements Are Safe
Using Nonfood Products: What You Need to Know
Chapter 5: Making Sure It’s Gluten-Free: Digging a Little Deeper
Gluten-Free Ambiguously: Why It Isn’t So Straightforward
Defining Safe Amounts of Gluten
Testing for Gluten in Foods
Deciphering Label Lingo
Checking with Food Manufacturers
Searching for Information: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ludicrous
Chapter 6: Loving the Gluten-Free Lifestyle
The Golden Rules of Going Out Gluten-Free
Dining Out: Restaurant Realities and Rewards
Raising Happy, Healthy, Gluten-Free Kids
Beating the Blues: Overcoming Emotional Obstacles
Redefining Who You Are
Chapter 1
In This Chapter
Getting a grip on gluten
Discovering the advantages of a gluten-free lifestyle
Making the most of meals
Losing the gluten and loving the lifestyle
Taking your gluten-free self out into the world without cheating
You may not be feeling it, but you’re lucky to be looking into the gluten-free lifestyle now, when you’re much less likely to receive a quizzical look when you ask questions about food. It wasn’t long ago that people hearing about gluten would ask whether you meant glucose and finding gluten-free products on typical grocery shelves was the stuff of science fiction.
These days, gluten-free-ness is one of the fastest-growing nutritional movements in the world — and for a lot of good reasons. People everywhere are feeling healthier, more energetic, and finding relief from a range of illnesses and discomforts, like celiac disease and even menopausal symptoms. This chapter gives you a basic rundown of what living gluten-free is all about.
Gluten has a couple definitions; one is technically correct but not commonly used, and the other is commonly used but not technically correct. For the purposes of most of this book, here’s the common definition: Gluten is a mixture of proteins in wheat, rye, and barley. Oats don’t have gluten but may be contaminated by having been processed on the same equipment as gluten-containing grains, so they’re forbidden on a strict gluten-free diet, too.
You can find lots of information about what you can and can’t eat in Chapter 4 of Book I, as well as a detailed listing of safe and forbidden ingredients at www.celiac.com or other websites. But you need to have a general idea of what kinds of foods have gluten in them so you know what to avoid. Foods with flour in them (white or wheat) are the most common culprits when you’re avoiding gluten. The following are obvious gluten-glomming foods:
But along with these culprits come not-so-obvious suspects, too, like licorice, most cereals, and some natural flavorings. When you’re gluten-free, you get used to reading labels, calling manufacturers, and digging a little deeper to know for sure what you can and can’t eat.
You have to do without those foods, but you really don’t have to do without. There’s a subtle but encouraging difference. Food manufacturers make delicious gluten-free versions of just about every food imaginable these days. You find out more about those options and where to buy them in Book II, Chapter 3.
You may see lots of labels proudly declaring a product to be wheat-free (some of which, like spelt and kamut, aren’t really wheat-free at all). When something says it’s wheat-free, it doesn’t mean the food is gluten-free.
Anyone who’s spent more than a day on planet Earth has been barraged with messages hailing the virtues of wheat — especially in its whole form. Wheat and other grains hog most of the food pyramid(s), suggesting you should eat gobs of it, and it’s touted as a good source of fiber and nutrients. Wheat does provide some health benefits, but you can find those benefits in other food sources, too. So how can wheat be at the root of so many health problems?
For three reasons, wheat may not be the key to perfect dietary health:
Wheat contributes to leaky gut (Z is for zonulin). When people eat wheat, they produce extra amounts of a protein called zonulin. The lining of the small intestine is basically a solid wall of cells that most materials can’t pass through on their own. On the lining of the small intestine, zonulin waits for nutrients to come along. When important vitamins and minerals are present, zonulin tells the passageways in the intestinal wall to open so those nutrients can pass into the bloodstream. The blood then carries the nutrients to other parts of the body.
When some people eat wheat, they produce too much zonulin and the gates open too wide. All sorts of stuff gets into the bloodstream, some of which, like toxins, shouldn’t be there. This increased permeability of the lining of the small intestine, or leaky gut syndrome, can cause lots of different health issues.
The gluten-free lifestyle isn’t about your diet. Sure, this book talks about food, but the diet itself takes up only a few pages. Being gluten-free involves a lot more than just cutting gluten out of your diet. It affects every aspect of your life, from how you communicate and with whom, to how you handle ordering at restaurants, attending social functions, and dealing with emotional challenges.
It’s important to take control of your diet — or, if it’s your kids who are gluten-free, help them gain and retain control. Going gluten-free also gives you an opportunity to reach out and help others who may be embarking upon the wonderful world of gluten freedom, as well as a chance to discover more about nutrition and what you’re actually putting into your body on a daily basis. If that sounds like a lot of work, relax. You hold in your very hands the book that guides you through it. And not only can you feel better, but you also can feel better about yourself!
You have lots of company. The gluten-free movement is sweeping the nation for plenty of reasons, but the one that stands out is that when people give up gluten, they often feel better. This section tells you what the gluten-free diet can do for your body — the benefits you can enjoy in addition to all the emotional perks of the lifestyle.
People today live in a quick-fix, panacea-pursuing, pill-popping, make-me-better-fast society, and if they see promise of a quick way to fix what’s ailin’ them, they’re buyin’ it. Changing both your diet and your lifestyle is neither quick nor easy, but the benefits of going gluten-free can be fantastic — no surgery or medication required!
Food is fuel — it’s supposed to give you energy and make you feel good, not make you hurt. But when you eat things that your body doesn’t like for some reason, it has a sometimes not-so-subtle way of telling you to knock it off. Food that your body objects to can cause gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea — and even symptoms that don’t seem to be associated with the gastrointestinal tract, like headaches, fatigue, depression, joint pain, and respiratory distress.
Luckily, when you figure out which foods your body doesn’t approve of, you can stop eating them, and then your body stops being so pouty. In fact, if you feed it right, your body can make you feel great in lots of different ways.
When gluten is making you sick, nasty battles are going on inside your gut. Hairlike structures called villi line your small intestine. The job of the villi is to increase the surface area of the small intestine so it can absorb more nutrients. Villi protrude (picture fingers sticking up) so that they have more surface area to absorb important nutrients.
For people who have gluten intolerance, the body sees gluten as a toxin and attacks the gluten molecule. In doing so, it also inadvertently attacks the villi, and those villi get blunted and shortened, sometimes to the extreme of becoming completely flat. This attack can reduce their ability to absorb nutrients — sometimes dramatically.
Blunted and flat villi can’t absorb stuff so well, so those good-for-ya nutrients just slide right by and you don’t get enough of the important vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are vital for good physical and emotional health. You may develop what’s called malabsorption and become poorly nourished.
Don’t worry! This story has a happy ending. Your villi are tenacious little things, and when you quit eating gluten, they begin to heal right away. Before you know it, your villi grow back and absorb nutrients again, and your health is fully restored. In other words, abstinence makes the gut grow stronger.
By the way, lactase, which is the enzyme that breaks down the sugar lactose, is produced in the tip of the villi. When the villi get blunted, sometimes your ability to digest lactose decreases and you become lactose intolerant. When you quit eating gluten and the villi heal, you may be able to tolerate dairy foods again.
Twelfth-century physician Maimonides said, “Man should strive to have his intestines relaxed all the days of his life.” No doubt! When your intestines aren’t relaxed — or when they’re downright edgy or uptight — they affect all your other parts, too. It’s kind of like when you’re in a really good mood and your best friend is grumpy — the situation can make you grumpy, too; one cantankerous intestine can be a buzz-kill for the entire body.
In a way, the body’s reaction to gluten doesn’t compute. For some people, eating gluten can cause headaches, fatigue, joint pain, depression, or infertility; at first, those types of symptoms may seem unrelated to something going on in your gut, much less something you eat — much less something as common in your diet as wheat.
But those problems — and about 250 others — are symptoms of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. People with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity do sometimes have gastrointestinal symptoms, but more often the symptoms are extraintestinal, meaning they take place outside the intestinal tract.
If your body has problems with gluten, the gluten-free diet may help relieve lots of symptoms, such as these:
The list’s impressive, isn’t it? The idea that eliminating one thing from your diet — gluten — could improve so many different conditions is almost hard to believe. Yet it’s true — and it really makes sense when you realize that if the food you’re eating is toxic to your body, your body’s going to scream in lots of different ways.
In people with gluten intolerance, eating gluten may make the symptoms of some psychiatric conditions worse. Some of the most fascinating findings recently indicate that removing gluten from the diet can improve behaviors of people with these conditions:
Millions of people have wheat allergies, which are different from gluten sensitivity or celiac disease — and they, too, improve dramatically on a wheat-free/gluten-free diet.
But beyond the obvious improvement you enjoy if you have an intolerance, other conditions and symptoms can improve on a wheat-free diet, such as PMS and menopausal symptoms. Eliminating wheat may even slow or reverse the signs of aging, reducing wrinkles and improving the tone and texture of skin.
Many people who go gluten-free do so not because they have any of the conditions listed in this section, but because they’re striving for a healthier lifestyle.
The authors of this book believe gluten isn’t good for anyone (more on that in Chapter 2 of Book I), especially in the highly refined form that most people know, like bread, bagels, and pasta. Cutting wheat and other gluten-containing grains out of your diet certainly isn’t a bad thing and can have significant health benefits if you eat a wholesome, diverse diet. Heck, it can even be the key to maintaining your weight!
Maybe you’ll find it compelling to adopt a gluten-free lifestyle when you realize that the gluten-free diet may relieve or even completely alleviate certain health problems. (The earlier section “Making nutrition your mission: Head-to-toe health benefits” lists the conditions exacerbated by gluten.)
This isn’t a diet du jour. We realize that new diets pop up faster than celebrity babies with odd names, and that the diets last about as long as the celebrity marriages do. This is a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle that’s perfectly in sync with the way our bodies were designed to eat — and that’s why it’s so effective in improving our health.
Our bodies weren’t designed to eat that junk listed in the “Common foods that contain gluten” section. Bagels? Cereal? Pasta? We don’t think so! Our bodies can rebel against those foods in ways that can sometimes severely compromise our health, and for many people, the gluten-free diet is the best — sometimes the only — treatment.
Chapter 2 of Book I explains more about gluten’s effect on the body. For extensive, detailed information about the many medical conditions that benefit from a gluten-free diet, see the companion book to this one, Living Gluten-Free For Dummies (Wiley).
This book is about a lifestyle, not a diet. But no matter where that lifestyle takes you — eating in, eating out, attending social events, choosing, planning, shopping, preparing — being gluten-free all comes down to one thing: food.
If you’re a culinary hacker and you’re afraid you’ll have to wake up at 4 a.m. to bake gluten-free bread and make pasta from scratch, turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. Plenty of gluten-free specialty foods are available to take the place of all your old favorites. Better yet (from a health standpoint), you’re likely to find that those foods become less important to you. And considering that they’re really not very good for you, that’s a good thing.
Whether you’re a kitchenphobe or a foodie, living a gluten-free lifestyle offers you an enormous selection of foods and ingredients to choose from.
Putting together smart and healthful gluten-free meals is a lot easier if you plan ahead. Walking through a store, perusing restaurant menus, or (gasp!) sitting in a bakery with a growling tummy isn’t exactly conducive to making good food choices.
One of the coolest things about adopting a new dietary lifestyle is exploring new and sometimes unusual or unique foods. You may never have heard of lots of gluten-free foods and ingredients, many of which not only are gluten-free and delicious but also are nutritional powerhouses. With the new perspective on food that the gluten-free lifestyle can offer you, you may find yourself inspired to think outside the typical menu plan, exploring unique and nutritious alternatives.
The healthiest way to enjoy a gluten-free lifestyle is to eat things you can find at any grocery store or even a farmer’s market: meat, fish, seafood, fruits, and nonstarchy vegetables (see Book II, Chapter 3 for more tips on shopping). If you want to add canned, processed, and even junk foods to your shopping list, you can still do most of your shopping at a regular grocery store, and you can even buy generics.
If you hope to enjoy the delicious gluten-free specialty products that are available these days, you can find them in health food aisles or at health food stores or specialty shops. Or you can shop in your jammies on one of the many Internet sites specializing in gluten-free products.
For the most part, a gluten-free kitchen looks the same as any other kitchen — without the gluten, of course. You don’t need to go out and buy special gadgets and tools, and with only a couple exceptions, which we cover in Book II, Chapter 2, you don’t need two sets of pots, pans, utensils, or storage containers, either.
If you’re sharing a kitchen with gluten, you need to be aware of some contamination issues so you don’t inadvertently glutenate (contaminate with gluten) a perfectly good gluten-free meal. Keeping your crumbs to yourself isn’t just a matter of hygiene, but it can mean the difference between a meal you can eat and one you can’t.
Give someone a recipe, you feed ’em for a meal. Show them how to make anything gluten-free, and you feed ’em for a lifetime. The point is, you can make anything gluten-free, and you’re not constrained by recipes or the fact that you can’t use regular flour or breadcrumbs. All you need is a little creativity and some basic guidelines for using gluten-free substitutions, which you can find in Chapter 4 of Book II.
If you’re a die-hard recipe fan, never fear — you find all kinds of recipes in Books III through V. Most of them are super simple to follow but leave your guests with the impression that you spent all day in the kitchen (and being thus indebted, they may volunteer to do the dishes).
Most people who embark on a gluten-free lifestyle are doing so because of health issues — and that means they have little or no choice in the matter. When people are forced to make changes in their routine, especially changes that affect what they can and can’t eat, they’re not always so quick to see the joy in the adjustments.
If you’re a little gloomy about going gluten-free, you aren’t alone. But prepare yourself to read about the scores of reasons to be excited about the gluten-free lifestyle (for you impatient types, feel free to skip to Chapter 6 of this Book for a jump-start on the “Kumbaya” side of being gluten-free).
If you’ve been eating gluten for a long time — say, for most of your life — then giving up foods as you know them may seem like a tough transition at first. Besides the obvious practical challenges of learning to ferret out gluten where it may be hidden, you have to deal with emotional, physical, social, and even financial challenges.
You have to do only one thing to learn to love the gluten-free lifestyle, and that’s to adjust your perspective on food just a tinge. You really don’t have to give up anything; you just have to make some modifications. The foods that used to be your favorites can still be your favorites if you want them to be, just in a slightly different form.
Or you may want to consider what may be a new and super-healthful approach for you: eating lean meats, fresh fruits, and nonstarchy vegetables. Again, you may have to tweak your perspective a bit before the diet feels natural to you, but it is, in fact, natural, nutritious, and naturally nutritious.
People who are new to the concept of being gluten-free sometimes comment that the diet is boring. When we ask what they’re eating, their cuisine routine usually centers on carrots and rice cakes. Who wouldn’t be bored with that? That type of a diet is appalling, not appealing.
A healthful, gluten-free diet doesn’t have to be boring or restrictive. You’re not constrained to eating 32 individual portions of fruits and vegetables each day, like a rabbit nibbling nervously on carrots. If you enjoy bland foods, snaps for you. But if you think gluten-free has to be flavor-free, you’re in for a pleasant surprise.
You don’t have to let the gluten-free lifestyle hold you back from doing anything you want to do. Well, okay, there are some things you can’t do — like eat a pizza from the place around the corner or devour a stack of gluten-laden donuts. But as far as your activities and lifestyle are concerned, you can — and should — get out and about as you always have.
For the most part, ordering out isn’t as easy as walking into a restaurant and asking for a gluten-free menu. But eating at restaurants is definitely doable, and getting easier every day; you just need to learn to special order, tune in to contamination concerns, and ask — chances are getting better all the time that they may actually have a gluten-free menu. Traveling is a breeze when you master eating at restaurants (and get a handle on language considerations, if you’re traveling abroad). Going to social events just requires a little advance planning, and holidays may barely faze you after you get the hang of going out in gluten-free style. Chapter 6 of Book I gives you more information on being gluten-free when you’re out and about.
Lots of ideas are key in raising happy, healthy, gluten-free kids. Some of the highlights include giving them control of their diet from day one, always having yummy gluten-free treats on hand, reinforcing the benefits of the gluten-free lifestyle (if you need some crib notes, see Chapter 6 of Book I), and remembering that they’re learning how to feel about the lifestyle from you. Promoting an optimistic outlook can instill a positive approach in them.
By the time your kids are teens, they should be in full control of the diet. The most you can do is help them understand the diet and, just as important, the implications if they choose not to follow it. Young adults away from home at college have a huge advantage these days, as many colleges and universities now feature and highlight gluten-free menu options.
Setting reasonable expectations for what life will be like after you adopt a gluten-free lifestyle is important because you will encounter challenges and you need to prepare to handle them well. Friends, family, and loved ones may not understand. They may not accommodate your diet when you hope or expect they will. You may find social events to be overwhelming at first, or you may get confused or frustrated and feel like giving up on the diet. You can overcome these trials and emerge stronger for them.
This book is the resource you need — wade your way through it, and dog-ear the pages you want to come back to when you need some practical or emotional reminders for how to deal with difficult issues. If you have an optimistic but realistic approach, you’ll encounter fewer obstacles along the way.
The good news is that because the gluten-free diet is exploding in popularity, you can find lots of information about it. The bad news is that not all of that information is accurate.
Be leery of what you hear and read, and check the reliability of the source on everything. If you find conflicting information — and you will — dig deeper until you find out which source is right. Just remember to keep a skeptical eye out for the good, the bad, and the completely ludicrous.