After a tremendously long and difficult time, we may have hit the jackpot in finding the reason for my husband's constant debilitating stomach issues. We think he has celiac disease. He is too scared to go for the testing cause its major surgery to confirm it 100% but based on changing his diet to totally gluten free in the past few days, he is beginning to see changes and so am I. Does anyone have experience with celiac disease? If so, what do you make for supper and lunches for the family? I would like to include his meals as ours so I hate to make two separate diets in our home. I have been sticking with boring meals like tacos, meat and salad, hamburgers and notrite hot dogs minus the buns for him, homemade french fries or the frozen organic ones, veggies, and mashed potatoes. I also made a meat stew the other night but am at loss as to how to expand our diet to more variety. By the way, dairy is barely an option because it irritates his stomach since he is severely lactose intolerant even when he takes lactose pills. Oh, and we do not eat ANY soy products or by-products. Any ideas???
Hi N.,
I have been going through a really rough time with stomach issues too - 7 months and they finally determined what it is. I don't have celiac's disease, but we thought so. There is a simple blood test that your husband can do or I believe they can do it through a simple biapse through an upper egd or colonscopy. A good website for recipe's is www.glutenfree.com. Check it out! Hope this helps.
Best of Luck,
Melissa R
I have a relative with Celiac disease, and they aren't able to keep gluten products in the house - too much cross-contamination.
We spent a week with them this summer, and basically the diet is about whole foods - fresh vegetables and meat, and very little processed food. They can have rice instead of pasta, corn tortillas, and so on. Many products have hidden gluten, so you will want to buy a reference book for that. They buy gluten-free bread, but it's very expensive. Whole Foods has a downloadable list of gluten-free products that might give you some ideas of what's out there, and I think other grocery stores also have similar lists if you email them.
I can imagine that lunches really are a challenge. (I have to pack vegetarian lunches, and that's enough of a pain.) Salad with chicken breast, rice cakes with peanut butter and jelly. Some grilled tofu and rice. Or you can just do what I've been doing for myself more often - instead of a sandwich I just pack a variety of whatever I have on hand like veggies and dip and a cheese stick, or some leftovers from the day before.
I do not know anything about the disease, but have been working on a dairy free and gluten free diet for my son for other reasons. My husband got a cookbook from the bbok store. There are easy recipes in there with lots of variety. The one he bought says diet for Autism. I can get the exact name when I get home. Many recipes in there.
HI,
I am not a celiac, but I do have sensitivities to wheat and some other glutens.....I have been wheat free for four years. I would recommend that you look at glutenfree.com. They have a wonderful newsletter with recipies and mail order for many products. There are many gluten free pastas, I have found that the rice is the best....some of the others suck. Be careful with the hotdogs, some have gluten added for binding. I have gotten very good at reading ingredients. Soy sauce has wheat in it, so it's difficult to eat asian foods, although I've found that Thai doesn't use a lot of soy. Japanese soy sauce does not have wheat in it. It's difficult to find foods in the regular grocery stores around here, but I've found that Dominicks has a small selection, and that Jewel has an even smaller one. I take field trips to Trader Joes, and that has proven successful. Best of luck. It's difficult, a drag, but becomes easier with time. I hope that your husband begins to feel better. Best, J.
I believe a grain you can have is Quinoa with Celiac. It has more protein than any other grain, very low in starch - I believe it is gluten free. You can do with it what you would do to pasta, rice, or oatmeal. You can have it sweet or salty. It is really good - and fairly cheap. Trader Joes has it as does other health food stores. You know who has great recipes for this is Suzanne Sommers. Her books are full of really good "pro-fats" meals - all without flour and gluten. The recipes she has that are carb based are varied with lots of alternatives to wheat. I am not celiac but my body reponds to eating that way and does really well with her recipes. Good luck!
B.
Whole Foods is a great place to shop for gluten and wheat free foods. I have sensitivites to these as well and that store is great for what you are looking for. Yes a little expensive and you need to read labels. Also, I worked with a nutritionist who is reasonably priced. You can look her up and view her website at www.nutritionalconcepts.com
You can order bread mix (and some other mixes) from Bob's Red Mill. We used his stuff, but it does have a different flavor - we noticed it mostly when making chocolate chip cookies.
For lunch, I used to take all the stuff I would put in sandwiches, meat, lettuce, tomato, etc. and make them into little rolls. I also used to make a lot of stir fry or meatloaf. Zucchini lasagna is also really good, but I don't know how to make it.
I did better on that diet (I did it for depression), but I will not lie - it is REALLY hard. And after a week, I craved a Whopper like you wouldn't believe. I ate it and went back on the diet, but when I went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, my family thought I was silly and my diet was ruined. Just beware that this time of year is going to be the worst. Plus, my husband still wanted bread and sandwiches, so I had to buy it for him. And my daughter's daycare/school could not accommodate the diet (they always had crackers for snacks).
Good luck!
Your husband shouldn't have to have major surgery. My 2 1/1 yr old daughter has Celiac disease. She had an endoscopy w/ biopsies to confirm it. It was a fairly short procedure and she didn't take too long to get over the anesthesia. For food ideas, the Avon, IN Meijer has a great gluten-free section. There are pastas, flours, bread mixes, granola bars, and boxed dinners that are all pretty good. We have a shelf in our pantry that is labeled not-safe for her to prevent cross-contamination. Just make sure the gluten-free food is cooked in separate bowls. We eat a lot of grilled meat and cooked veggies. If you just google celiac disease, you can find all kinds of info and recipes. I know it's hard, but it will get easier.
N.-
My son does not have celiac disease but he is allergic to wheat, soy, p-nuts, and egg whites. Unfortuantly your husband already knows what good food tastes like so it must be increadably hard for him. My son is 14 mo. and thankfully has no idea about a lot of other foods. It is very hard to plan meals we have had to a lot of things from scratch and make them like bread. Whole foods is a great store and they do sell a lot of gluten free foods. My son eats a lot of grilled cheese and baked chicken and the others tht you had mentioned. I poseted a request a couple of weeks ago looking for recipes for his type of diet and got some great responces on where to look of ideas. Try looking back a tmy post and I hope you can get some ideas off of there. Good luck I feel for you!
Try Allrecpies.com. They should have some ideas on there.
