Dairy Free-Wheat Free Diet (GFCF)

I'm GF/CF while nursing. My son is celiac and probably my husband (he gets the 'scope next month to confirm the labwork) and so we were already eating GF before I took dairy out for the baby.

It means that I've had to do a lot of label-reading and make more from scratch (sort of) but there are a lot more products availible on the market now than there used to be. We do baked and fried fish or chicken, steam-in-bag veggies for convenience (the kind with no sauce), rice, sweet potatoes, spaghetti with meat sauce or GF/CF meatballs, all kinds of stir-fries, and all kinds of Namaste brand baked goodies like brownies and cookies...I could go on.

For meatballs, I add some brown rice flour, some Gillian's GF bread crumbs and all the usual spices. For fish and chicken breading I use Gillian's GF bread crumbs and crush up some EviroKids frosted corn flakes (sounds wierd but it's good!)and then add spices. I dip the fish/chicken in egg and then batter and fry. Yumm.

For a butter substitute on veggies and mashed I've found that extra virgin olive oil and salt works quite well!

Hormel Naturals deli meats (in the brown packages) are all gf/cf, too. Kinnickinnick frozen sandwich breads, english muffins, doughnuts and pizza shells are great!

There's so much more but I'm out of time. Feel free to email me if you have other q's!

I have been GFCF for 2 1/2 years and my chronic sinus infections reduced almost completely! More energy and relief from all sorts of other things. I also make and eat fermented foods which have boosted my energy, improved my digestion and increased my immunity. I've done so well with it all I created a workshop, Food As Medicine, to teach people how to make the foods and really make the diet work for them. I know you're busy but here's my website if you want to take a look.
Good Luck with it all.
S.
www.sanctuary-healing.com

"The Milk-Free Kitchen: Living Well Without Dairy Products" by Beth Kidder (ISBN ###-###-####) is a great cookbook for eating dairy free and many of the recipes are also wheat free. Meals in this book are liked by everyone so you can serve your husband and kids what you are eating and not have to make two sets of meals. French Meadow Bakery makes a wheat free rye bread that is pretty good but pricey. You can purchase this at Whole Foods in the frozen food section. Good luck!

My sister uses these books all the time. She's very health conscious and stays away from dairy and wheat too. They are for weight loss, but they are also just for good health.

The pH Miracle and The pH Miracle for Weight Loss, both by Dr. Robert Young. The weight loss book has a lot of the same info, but of course more focused to weight loss. I like a lot of the recipes in the weight loss book.

i did an elimination diet when i was nursing and it was really hard b/c these products are in everything!!!! i have a friend who had celiac disease and she might have some great ideas - i will email her!!

and furthermore - i work for a company that discloses ALL its ingredients as it was created by a woman who has severe allergies (among other things). check out www.jenwarr.mywildtree.com for more info. i can also email you the ingredient list which will show you which products contain which allergens to help you shop. at least it will be a start.

there's a great cookbook called balancing the bowl which might help too!

good luck!! i know many people who have gone through this with great results!!!

http://www.gfcfdiet.com/recipes.htm

I think the easiest thing to remember is that fruits and veggies are safe! :D The rest of things can't be guaranteed.

Good luck on the change. I know it can be done -- I don't eat beef or MSG because I've found it causes a flare in my Fibromyalgia.. my mom ues diet to control her Lupus flares.. so you really are what you eat!

Hi R.,

I try to follow a dairy/wheat free diet as much as possible. I don't have any serious health issues so I do my share of "cheating" - mostly with cheese. My husband and I both had a lot of mucous and congestion so we came off of dairy a while ago. After a few days of rice milk in your cereal, you don't even miss cows milk. Our children only have rice milk. I buy rice milk that's enriched with vitamins and calcium. When I bake I use rick milk in place of dairy milk - I don't notice any difference in the taste. Rice cheese is good as a snack or on a sandwich, but not good for melting. I buy spelt items in place of wheat - such as pretzles, sesame sticks and bread (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have a lot of spelt items)I buy spelt flour and bake with that in place of white flour - again no difference in the taste. Spelt is not a gluten free grain so if you have gluten issues - this isn't for you. I buy brown rice pasta - it tastes just like regular pasta. You just can't over cook it. I've tried the spelt pasta and it tastes fine, but the brown rice pasta is cheaper and tastes just as good. I've learned a little bit about eating based on your blood type and it's worked very well for our family. I've learned that people with an A blood type do well with soy products. People with type O blood don't digest soy very well so they can get a lot of gas. I've seen this first hand with my kids - if I buy them yogurt I get soy yogurt and that night they have a lot of gas. So I have to think about where we'll be that night before I let them have it :) Lemon helps break up mucous so try to add some fresh squeezed lemon juice to your water and drink lots of water to flush out the mucous. I drink a lot of green tea and white tea. I order the loose teas from www.plymouthtea.com I like the sencha Japanese green tea and the Imperial Silver Needle white tea. White tea that you buy at the supermarket that comes in a box of tea bags tastes terrible - very bitter usually. The real tea leaves makes a nice, mild flavored tea. I usually just put a cinnamon stick in with my teas for a sweetener because I try to not eat too much sugar either. Trader Joes sells a green and white iced tea that I love. I hope that some of this information helps. Best wishes!!

Jen

Hi R.,
I have a daughter who has been on a gluten free diet for 2 years. The best thing i have found is a product listing book from the Celiac Sprue Association. There website is www.csaceliacs.org I tell everyone this is my bible for gluten free foods. Its great it will let you know what stores have gf foods and some reg. brands that are gf too so you don't have to spend a fortune on special foods. I also recently put a request for help looking for new ideas so if you want to check out my responces feel free. Hope this helps. It sure helped me!!
Good Luck
S.

My husband and I had issues with wheat and dairy for a time, but after switching to organics things have completely normalized.

I work with special needs children, many of whom are helped by this diet. I am gluten free myself but not casein free. I would go search for a Yahoo group, I am sure there are several and these have been the most educational places for me. Also may want to search Amazon...I know good books for doing it with kids (ie "Special Diets for Special Kids"). I have learned a TON about alternatives and recipes in my GF group, so I'm sure you just need to find a GF/CF group - go to the Yahoo groups homepage and search.
=)
M.

Try the web site www.gfcfdiet.com/recipes.htm and www.allergygrocer.com for receipes and all sorts of information on this diet.

One other web site to try is the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network - FAAN. They have lots of recipes listed by what allergens are removed which are also really good. My husband is GF and we are slowly moving toward that diet for the family - though it is hard at first. Good luck!
S.

I recently started my daughter on a gfcg diet. It has been trial by error to find the good stuff and weed out products that taste like cardboard! The Kinnikinnic brand is the best in our opinion ( and she is very fussy) for products like bread and pasta. Check out you local health food store or Hannaford's- cheaper then shaw's by a long shot!! Stir fry is always safe, just get GF soy sauce. a regular chicken dinner is good too. Be careful with Margarine- most have cassine, whey or some milk product in it. I believe Willow run and Canoleo are safe! I got a cook book called the Kid Friendly ADHD/Autism cookbook by Pamela Compart that has a lot of dessert and bread recipes, but it's most helpful because it has a lot of info about what to avoid and why! It is a hard adjustment, especially for kids, but really it's much healthier to eat this way for anyone!! Please drop me a note if you need some support!

My favorite books are Bette Hagman's Bread and Cooking Comfort Foods cookbooks. She offers some advice on alternatives for dairy and other allergies as well. There are a number of dairy alternatives, soy and rice being the top choices by most. Get in the habit of reading labels. For example, Rice Dream "ice cream" has dairy in it, even though it's supposed to be a substitute. It is frustrating at first finding stuff since you aren't used to looking for it. celiac.com is a good website as well. Celestial Seasonings tea is the only one I trust. The only one that says "gluten free" on the package (unless the others have changed recently, sometimes there is gluten in the tea bag). Rhino brand supplements are gluten and dairy free. If you can't find them in a store, I get mine through vitacost.com. Check out your library for other recipe books. I actually have computer files of recipes I have copied from other books or websites. There are several blog sites out there from people in the same situation, you just have to do a search for them. Hope this helps!!

Pamela's products are good-they sell them at Whole Foods. They make yummy wheat free/dairy free cookies. Did you ever try raw milk? That may not cause an intolerance as pasteurized milk gets rid of the good bacteria. If you find a reputable local farm-I get my raw milk from one in Foxboro...the raw milk doesn't cause a problem with my sinuses as does pasteurized milk. Good luck!

Have you been tested for celiac? I have a friend who became celiac after the birth of her first child. Somehow the pregnancy 'turned on' the genes for it. It is common to have dairy sensitivity with celiac disease.
A simple blood test will tell (most of the time). It might be worth getting tested just to know. You should still have wheat in your diet prior to getting the blood draw for it to show up.
You can find many GF recipes online. GF pasta is great, and meatballs made using ground up GF bread is delicious too. Try making meals using a meat, a veggie, and then rice or potato. You can get many combos doing that and all are GFCF. I know it's hard at first but does get easier especially if the bulk of food prep works for the whole family. Good luck.

R. - One of the best books I found is "Living Gluten Free for Dummies" it has alot of information about gluten and sources. It breaks things down so they are easy to understand. Your local health food store may be able to provide some help and answers for you. I know in Griswold they have alot of gluten free items and the lady that works on Thursdays is gluten intolerant so she has been super helpful in finding items that are great. They also have Gluten free support groups that you can become a member of and I guess they have new items that people can try and decide if they like them. If you can find someone in your area with the same problem it is much easier to learn from thier experiences. I don't know much about the dairy but the raw milk is much better. My aunt was diagnoised with gluten intolerance and then I was back in Sept/Oct. My husband and son were more recent but it does take some time to adjust. I know I feel much better now and if I have something I shouldn't my body lets me know. Check out some of the web sites out there and just experiment. Good luck.
Oh If you ask your local super market they can usually get gluten free items for you just ask if they carry any and if not do they plan to any time soon. This can help sometimes with the cost of items but if your not sure about what items just wait until you find a few. I know a lot more people are asking for these types of food so they are becoming more popular in the regular stores. But still you do need to shop around because one thing is cheaper here but this is cheaper there.

Here are some local places:
Skip the Gluten
Caroline ###-###-####
____@____.com
Gluten free cakes, confections & catering

Gak's Snacks
http://www.gakssnacks.com/t-aboutus.aspx
Now children with and without food allergies can enjoy delicious treats together.
Bake your own with the Gak’s Snacks Allergy Cookbook and allergen tested ingredients!
Or try our ready-made whole grain, kosher pareve, organic, award winning cookies and coffee cake.
All peanut-free, tree nut-free, egg-free, and dairy-free!

http://www.bobsredmill.com/they

Hi R., there are some good GFCF products out there, but there are some terrible ones. The Gluten Solutions website has some good products you can order. --S. H.

have you tried organic dairy and wheat products, i sat through a naturlist nutritionist lecture and often times it is the chemical additives in dairy/wheat products that make the allergies not the raw whole food its self.

Definitely start on Reliv supplements right away! They have research-based products designed for full absorption - do not use vitamin pills! Reliv has vitamins, minerals, amino acids, anti-oxidants, and soy protein. Reliv clients have drastic reduction/elimination of sinus infections, an increase in energy, lowered cholesterol, disgestion issues, allergies, and many other benefits. I am a SAHM who works part-time as a Reliv distributor - you can contact me, or you can call Reliv for a distributor near you who, like me, will provide all the background and education you need. You may even be able to add wheat back into your diet at some point. Reliv is also great for the rest of the family - there is a kids formula too. Please look into this - it's the best thing out there!