Gluten-free diets have caught mainstream attention in a big way, but it’s also a subject that’s widely misunderstood. Gluten is a protein that’s found in wheat, barley and rye, which means that gluten is also in any product that contains these grains as an ingredient.
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By Wendy Gregory Kaho
Choosing a college can be tough when you have celiac disease and/or gluten sensitivity. If your child is required to live in the dorms, you need to know what to look for in the dining hall to determine if a school really can meet your gluten-free needs. Here are some tips from our experience sending two gluten-free teens off to small liberal arts colleges.
Despite the good reputations in the food service world of both dining services, we found a wide variation in knowledge and follow through in serving gluten-free meals in both colleges. Look for dining services with training programs within the corporation and look out for programs that are researched and implemented by the chef or manager on duty.
Beware if you have new a new chef or dining manager. They will be getting an entire program up and running at the start of the school year and special diet meals will fall thorough the cracks and off their radar.
Smaller colleges are not always safer. With a much smaller gluten-free population to feed, some schools may have little to no experience even serving gluten-free meals. Ask very pointed, specific questions of everyone when asking about gluten-free meals. Watch the servers, the students and the kitchen preparation to see if you can spot weak links and poor kitchen practices.
Get everything in writing and consider registering with the Students with Disabilities Office at your school. This will protect you and your investment once you do choose a school.
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“Gluten-free diet linked to increased depression and eating disorders” – the headline immediately caught my attention. As I read the first article, I was theorizing in my head about the chemical impact of gluten and carbohydrates in our brains and bodies, as well as the mental strain of adhering to a strict diet and the extra effort it requires. I thought a correlation between depression and a gluten-free lifestyle was possible, I thought about all my friends and family members living gluten-free, and I started digging for the actual research to investigate the experimental method used. What I found was that the alarming headline was taken from partial statements made by an experimenter, but the entire findings were not taken into account.
Unfortunately, this can be common in the news media and blogosphere where the focus is more on attention-grabbing sound bites rather than in-depth analysis and education. It is my sincere hope that everything I write (here and elsewhere) and everything you read at DietsInReview is researched and thought out, and we are not jumping to conclusions or publishing alarmist headlines simply because it is provocative.
In this case, the research found that those women with celiac disease (177 surveyed) who were most compliant with a gluten-free diet reported “increased vitality, lower stress, decreased depressive symptoms, and greater overall emotional health,” according to Josh Smyth of Penn State. This sounds like the opposite of the alarmist headline that grabbed my attention. The caveat is that those surveyed, even those managing celiac disease well through a gluten-free lifestyle, reported “higher rates of stress, depression, and a range of issues clustered around body dissatisfaction, weight and shape” compared to the general population.”
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Wendy Gregory Kaho blogs about the care and feeding of a gluten-free family at Celiacs in the House.
My family has a list of holiday dishes that are not to be tinkered with or changed. They must look and taste the same way each and every year. We even have serving dishes and casseroles for each recipe, like the 28-year-old wedding gift baking dish to hold the stuffing.
When we found out about celiac disease and that three of us would be gluten free for the rest of our lives, one of the challenges was to get those textures and flavors from our traditional holiday foods without gluten. It’s gotten easier over the last six years to make our traditional stuffing recipe now that there are good gluten-free store-bought breads, cornbread mixes, and recipes available.
I created this gluten-free stuffing recipe especially for DietsInReview.com. This recipe combines two kinds of gluten-free bread that is cubed and toasted in a low oven, then it’s combined with gluten-free cornbread that is also cubed and toasted. This is all added to the rest of the ingredients and baked. We never stuff anything in our turkey but onions, celery, garlic and a carrot because we like a drier stuffing to soak up lots of gravy.
INGREDIENTS
Click through for the Gluten-Free Stuffing Instructions, and to share the recipe with a friend.
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It’s finally becoming easier for those with gluten sensitivities and Celiac disease to eat with the rest of the world. More and more products are clearly labeling if they’re gluten-free and many restaurants are offering a gluten-free menu. Add to that growing list the popular chicken sandwich chain, Chick-fil-A.
The Chick-fil-A website has provided a gluten-free menu listing all the menu options that are acceptable for those on a gluten-free diet.
Many of the entree choices are limited as many of the menu items are based around sandwiches on wheat buns and chicken breaded with wheat flour. However, Chick-fil-A has taken the extra steps and listed all the sauces and dressing that are safe for a gluten-free diet. Many restaurants do not go to this extent and consumers may end up eating gluten and not know it.
Some of the items on the gluten-free menu include the chargrilled chicken filet (no bun), the chargrilled chicken garden salad, and the chargrilled chicken and fruit salad. A few signature sides such as the cole slaw, carrot and raisin salad, and the waffle potato fries are on the menu as well. These additions to the gluten-free menu are much wider than most fast food chains, and the fact that they can offer fries indicates that they have taken the care to have a dedicated fryer that is not also used for breaded chicken products.
