5 Tips for Starting a Gluten Free Diet

Starting a new food or eating plan can be challenging, especially starting a gluten free diet for the first time. For many, it's often not just gluten - it's also learning how to start a gluten free and dairy free diet. 

This can be overwhelming at first. And, if you're venturing down this road as a parent of a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, Celiac Disease or similar health concern, this may feel like trying to climb a mountain. 

So, how do you do it? What foods can you eat? What foods can't you eat? Where do you buy the food? It's an endless string of thoughts that frustrate and many times deter starting the diet. 

There is help available to ease this process. And, the first -- and best -- piece of advice is this: DON'T PANIC! This does not happen overnight, nor should it. 

So, here's 5 tips for starting a gluten free diet and I hope they help.

1) TACA: The first place I recommend people go is the TACA website, specifically to the TACA gluten free diet page. There is a great piece on how to phase in the diet over 10 weeks. TACA stands for The Autism Community in Action - and their gluten free diet resources were a tremendous help when we first got started on this road.

2) Lisa Lewis books: These books were super helpful when we first ventured into the world of gluten-free diets and autism spectrum disorders. Even though many, many books have been written since with similar information, I still her cookbooks and the Encyclopedia of Dietary Interventions to be invaluable resources - and in particular, for those looking to start a gluten free and dairy free diet..

3) Find a good online community. Twenty years ago, there weren't too many online communities - a couple via Yahoo and Facebook. Today, there are numerous channels to look for online help, through Facebook groups and other social media channels such as Reddit, Instagram, blogs, etc. Take some time to look around and find one that suits your needs and personality.

4) Use Google to search for a local group that may be able to help and offer support and guidance - especially if you're dealing with an autism spectrum disorder such as PDD or ADHD, or even Celiac.

5) Look for groceries and stores in your area that sell a variety of gluten free, dairy free and organic products. We turned to a local food coop as they sold items in bulk, which reduced our overall cost, and carried a much wider variety of flours, grains, breads, snacks, alternative milks, etc. You can search for a food coop near you online using a directory. Many cities have Whole Foods, Trader Joes and similar stores that sell these products. And, if nothing else, use Amazon to find products like Bob's Red Mill and other brands that market gluten free items.

If you're on a tight budget, don't worry. This still can be done. Buying in bulk cuts food prices down. Shopping at ethnic groceries often is far less expensive than Whole Foods. Look for local farms that sell meat, vegetables and fruit -- you'll likely buy better quality stuff for less than the local supermarket.

For example, I buy meat from a farmers market that's free of hormones and preservatives. I pay about $1 less per pound than I would at the local supermarket.

If money's not an issue, you can find prepared foods that fit the gluten free diet at most larger supermarkets today.

So, if you're just starting a gluten free diet - you can do this! Use these tips as a starting point and keep learning and growing.

An Encyclopedia of Dietary Interventions and GFCF Help

Finally, there is a book that covers the use of diet in treating our children with developmental disorders, such as PDD and ADHD, etc. It's called The Encyclopedia of Dietary Interventions.

This is the kind of book that should answer a lot of those questions about what foods contain gluten and what foods are beneficial, and why? It's especially useful for any parent with children on the Autism Spectrum and looking at the positive and negative impacts of certain foods - the dietary interventions. 

We went this route with our children years ago as we realized that dietary interventions produced positive results with our family. We wish there had been a resource like this available to help guide us. 

You can grab a Kindle version online for a reasonable price. And yes, that is an affiliate link, but as I repeatedly note on this blog, I'll only promote products that I've tried, used and personally endorse. This is a good book and worth reading - whether you buy it or not.

Autism and chiropractic help

You might find this interesting. It's a blog entry from a Colorado chiropractor about the use of chiropractic with autistic patients. We take our daughters to a progressive chiropractor for spinal adjustments using the Activator method, which uses less force to manipulate the spine. It's not necessarily the best, but it works for us and the kids don't object to it since it's not very intrusive. We believe this helps. We're also involved in some other treatments there, which I'll write more about later. They have helped (and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes). One treatment has helped my youngest daughter shed some of her food intolerances. Really. No "regular" docs were able to do that -- or even willing to try. The author of this is my brother, who you'll find is very informed. Enjoy.

Can Chiropractic Help Children With Autism?

(here's a paragraph - link to read the entire entry)

... A paper published in the March 2006 issue of Clinical Chiropractic reviewed past studies and found that children with Autism are helped with chiropractic care. Furthermore this study found that most children with Autism had problems with their upper cervical (neck) spine[10]. Another study found that 80% of children receive damage to their upper cervical spines due to birth trauma[11]. The upper cervical spine is so important that the two vertebrae located at t he top of the spine have their own names: Atlas and Axis. All the other 22 vertebrae just have numbers assigned to them such as the third thoracic vertebra and the fifth lumbar vertebra. The Atlas and Axis are so important that an entire chiropractic discipline, called Upper Cervical Chiropractic, was established by B.J. Palmer (the Developer of the Chiropractic Profession), simply to restore proper function to that area. Working with the Atlas and Axis directly effects the function of the nervous system. Autistic children have a neurological component to their disorder. It makes sense that Upper Cervical Chiropractic would help them...

The Rescue Post has moved

For those of you who enjoy the Rescue Post, note that it has moved and been renamed Age of Autism. Same people, it seems. You'll find it at:

http://www.ageofautism.com/

Free Autism video glossary now online

This could be a big help to anyone looking to decipher the world of Autism Spectrum Disorders. It's a free, online video glossary that explains a lot of the lingo and behaviors involved with these disorders. Now you can see the things that your doctor, teacher or therapist is talking about.

You can access the glossary, called the First Words Project, at http://firstwords.fsu.edu/.

The project is the product of the Florida State University's Dept. of Communication Disorders. Here's a statement from the university's website: "Our major goal is to identify early red flags of developmental language disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and other communication delays in children under 24 months of age. Through our research findings, we aim to improve screening tools and early detection of communication disorders by maximizing the role of the family, which will help families obtain intervention services sooner."

Note that the link above takes you to the Autism Speaks site, which hosts the actual video glossary. You have to click the big LOGIN button and register, which takes just a minute. It's very easy to use.

Even if you don't need it, bookmark the site and save it for when you get those requests for help from others.

An Autism guide -- finally

Yes, finally. I wish they had this when my kids were first diagnosed with PDD. The group TACA has published a guide about dealing with autism, called the Autism Journey Guide, which you can buy in book form, or DVD, or both. I have not read this yet, but TACA shows the table of contents and judging by the topics covered, this is thorough and covers all the important points. It appears to really help people who need help quickly, especially those who have just received an autism diagnosis and are seeking treatment options or want to start the gluten and casein free diet. This could end up being the "How-to" guide for autism.

Autism Diet cheat sheet

I developed this cheat sheet some time ago to give people looking for help with the GFCF diet. How to start? Where to get info? Etc. Maybe it'll help you.
--------------------


The Autism Diet cheat sheet
A quick guide to getting helpful info

1) Goto the TACA website. There's two tremendously helpful things here. First goto their bookstore and consider purchasing the Autism Journey Guide -- you can find it at this link: http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/store/home.php?cat=255. I get nothing for recommending this guide. I just wish it existed years ago.
Second, head to their GFCF articles section at http://www.tacanow.org/tag/gfcf/ for all sorts of good ideas. Read! This might be a bit overwhelming. But you need to know these things. Some of the problems they discuss are invaluable, like testing for supplement levels.

2) Consider buying Lisa Lewis' cookbooks. There's two. Special Diets for Special Kids I & II. Available on Amazon. Tons of helpful info in addition to great starting recipes and a list of online specialty food suppliers. A lot of us who first ventured into the world of GFCF 10+ years ago started with these.

3) Visit http://www.gfcfdiet.com/. It has some helpful info, but almost too much info for beginners. Note it has a link to a huge list of unacceptable foods and a recipe page. Just know this site exists.

4) Goto the GFCFrecipes Yahoo message group and join. This is a tremendous source of help that you can goto daily for advice. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFrecipes/ Note that the organizers of the message group now have posted all of the recipes submitted over the years to one Website at http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Writermom77/. You could spend a day at this site checking recipes.

5) From the above info, you should get a decent grip on what needs to be changed and generally how to change it. But, where do you shop?

-- Online: some people order foods online. This is very convenient but more expensive. One good one is Ener-G Foods at http://www.ener-g.com/. There's many more. For flour and grains, Bob's Red Mill is the best.
-- Supermarkets with organic sections. Also very expensive but convenient. I'm finding more and more GFCF products and on the shelves.
-- Food co-ops: This is the best option for me in the Pittsburgh area. You join for a nominal fee. It's a grocery but mostly organic, including flours, noodles, grains, breads, produce, etc. Usually, you can buy in bulk and get a significant discount. Find one near you by searching http://www.coopdirectory.org/. Also, search your yellow pages and online for any organic store, wholesaler, supplier in your area.
-- Meats: It's recommended you buy organic. Some buy natural meat that is free of preservatives and hormones. You can search for farmers who sell poultry, beef, ham/pork in your area at http://www.localharvest.org/. Also, check the yellow pages again under farms. I don't buy certified organic. That's my personal choice. But I buy farm meat to avoid preservatives and hormones - and to support local farmers.
-- At many supermarket deli's, Applegate Farms and Boars Head Meats tend to sell stuff that's OK. Search for them on the web to check on gluten status. Also, consider Wellshire Farms meats. Oh, their Website is: http://www.wellshirefarms.com (make sure you get both "ll's" in the Wellshire or you'll go to another farm's Website).

6) Seek the help, advice and support of others who have gone through this. Having someone that you can call with a question anytime is invaluable. The Yahoo GFCFRecipes site (http:health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFrecipes/) is one great place to goto daily.

7) Note: Many kids with autism also have food allergies and intolerances. Do not be surprised if you find this with your child AFTER switching to the diet. That's when it will expose itself. This includes things like soy, corn, tomato, chocolate, rice and beans. If you think this is happening, remember, most doctors only test for allergies, and will not test for food intolerances. Many people do this privately by hiring a company to test their kids blood for intolerances. You can easily do this by mail, sending them blood from a simple finger prick.

8) Be patient. This diet takes time and effort. Nothing will happen overnight. We've found it has been well worth the effort with our daughters. It especially has enabled them to better respond to their other treatments -- therapies and vitamin supplements.

9) I'll leave you with a couple basic recipes. One is for yeast bread, the other non-yeast bread, and a third for cookies. All are gfcf and allergy friendly. They're a good place to start. Enjoy.


-- Tom's Bread: see original posting at http://gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/10/toms-bread-gfcf-bread.html
1 1/8 cup Chickpea/garbanzo bean flour
1 cup cornstarch or potato starch
1 cup + 1 Tbs. tapioca flour
3 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. brown sugar or regular sugar
1/4 tsp. creme of tartar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/8 cup warm water (uncomfortable to touch but not boiling)
3 Tbs. vegetable oil (I use peanut oil or canola oil)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

See original post for the bread machine method. I'll include the oven method below.
Heat to 375 degrees. Combine dry ingredients including the yeast. Mix thoroughly. Mix together the lightly beaten eggs, warm water, and oil in a separate bowl and whip with wire whisk. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed. When sticky ball forms scrape sides to get all of the flours and ingredients mixed together and continue to mix for about 1 minute more. Scrape into a 9 x 5-inch lightly greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until at least double size (approximately 45 to 60 minutes). Remove plastic wrap and place pan in oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with a spoon. Turn the loaf out onto your wire rack and allow loaf to cool or you can slice it while hot.

-- Noah's Bread: see original post at http://gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice fl. (I subbed sorghum)
2/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup corn or potato starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (or sub)
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup CF milk (or water)
1/3 cup sparkling water

Recipe
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients well, except the sparkling water. Once the batter is well mixed, add the sparkling water to make the batter rise.
Work quickly and form batter into buns, bagels, roll, etc. I use hamburger form pans and rings from the Gluten Free Pantry but you can also use aluminum foil to make form rings. I also put the batter into large ziplock bags, cut a corner, and squeeze out the appropriate shape of whatever I'm trying to make, such as bagels.
The batter should be thick and look somewhat lumpy. Don't use too much batter or form too high. The bread will puff and rise and settle back down once cooled.
Bake for 20-25 min until the crust is golden brown.
The crust will be hard out of the oven but will soften once cooled.
They freeze and thaw really well.

-- JR's tolerant cookie recipe:
see original post at http://gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/02/chocolate-treats-simple-cookie.html

This is a basic cookie recipe. This version is for chocolate or carob, whichever you prefer. I make carob. However, you can also make a spice cookie from this. These freeze well.

Ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa or carob powder
3 tsp egg replacer powder(Ener-G) or 1 egg sub
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
Mix this well. Then add, 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup water. Add extra water by the tablespoon if too chunky. You want this to be smoother, but not liquidy.
Beat with blender.
Using WET hands, form into rough balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet or in muffin tins. I sprinkle sugar on top. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. They will be very soft coming out of the oven but will firm up as they cool.
To make the spice cookie, omit the carob/cocoa and add 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger and 1 tbsp of syrup (any kind) into the 1/2 cup of water.

---