Monday, February 22, 2010

Celiac's Disease

Celiac's runs in Chris's family. His mom, and 2 brother's have been diagnosed..so naturally we wanted to find out if Chris has it. The testing is very expensive and not always accurate..so the best way to find out is to try the diet. We had him do the diet for the month of January and then stop the diet for a week and eat normal..and after 2 days he felt a huge difference. Great..hello to a new life of cooking gluten free. Let me explain why I'm not excited:)

"Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms."

The list goes on for what we have to look for on labels. It pretty much makes us cook everything from scratch or use organic and special gluten free ingredients. The only brand of Cream of Mushroom soup that we can use is $3!! We cook with rice flour, potato flour, bean flours...we have to check labels of all sauces (ranch, ketchup etc) It's been quite the learning process..but I think I'm used to it now. It just gets annoying when I don't plan a menu for the week, because it's almost impossible to make dinner on the spur of the moment. He can't grab a burrito or make a quesadilla for snacks anymore. It does make you eat very healthy, since the only carbs can be what I make homemade with his special flours and you can't eat all the processed, ready to eat foods. For example, instead of hamburgers and sandwhiches, we eat lettuce wraps. Addy and I still eat our whole wheat bread since it is healthy for us..but we have to be careful of cross-contamination with utensils and the countertops etc. It is very annoying when we go to food functions..you pretty much have to take your own food..or try and explain to the people who make the food what he can and can't have. A lot of restaurants are starting GF menus which is nice. Anyway..I just pray it won't be passed onto our children.

2 comments:

Jaimie said...

Ugh... hard! But at least he will feel better. Was he not feeling well before you found this out? I suppose it is just something you will get used to. Good luck.

Blake Jones said...

There are quite a few people in our ward with this disease. I think it would be hard to cook for someone with this disease. One thing I learned from one lady is you can buy a wheat grinder and grind brown rice and other things to use in gluten free cooking. It might be cheaper and I bet there are tons of recipes online for gluten free cooking. Good luck. Let me know if you want any of their emails to get tips and stuff.