<p>Older son has just been told that he has to be on a gluten-free diet. This is going to be quite a change for a kid who practically lives on bread, pizza, and pasta. </p>
<p>What advice do those of you with experience with this? </p>
<p>How cooperative are restaurants, etc, with this? </p>
<p>We’ve found some Chex cereal products that are gluten-free, but it’s rather shocking to see that wheat is in soooo many foods. </p>
<p>BTW…He’s not a cheese-eater (except when on pizza).</p>
<p>Our grocery stores have sections of gluten free products. I believe places like Whole Foods will too. He will need to read labels carefully. I work in a school where a number of students are on gluten free diets. They actually eat very healthy foods…it just takes some getting used to. There are bakeries in my area that actually make gluten free baked goods too.</p>
<p>I just did a google search for gluten free pizza and got a LOT of hits.</p>
<p>My daughter went gluten free for a while until she figured out she could get the same result by just not being a gluten glutton. Fortunately, we have a Wegman’s nearby and she was able to find lots of choices there, including some really good gluten free muffins. She liked rice noodles with lots of things. Betty Crocker makes a gluten free line and the brownies were good - full of sugar of course, but tasty. Lots of restaurants have gluten free selections, including several pizza chains and restaurants.</p>
<p>I don’t even know where to begin here; daughter has been GF (Celiac disease) for 5 yrs and I could write a book…</p>
<p>Let’s start with a few questions:</p>
<p>1) what are his favorite foods? I can try to give you brands of best GF options</p>
<p>2) where does he like to eat out?</p>
<p>3) what part of the country does he live in? GF restaurants are very prevalent in certain areas of the country and certain states; weaker in others…</p>
<p>4) if he is in college, have him contact dining services ASAP to find out what their GF options are; as I have said on the other GF thread, there are great variations in how colleges deal w GF students.</p>
<p>Also, search GF in the Parent Cafe…there’s another couple of threads…</p>
<p>PM me if you need to with questions anytime…it’s very overwhelming at first; gets easier with time…</p>
<p>For pizza, try pizza places that carry a brand called still riding pizza. I think they list the places that carry it on this web site. If you order it yourself, be careful to bake it EXACTLY as directed. The pizza place in my area that makes this does it PERFECTLY and it’s been a huge help to adjusting.</p>
<p>I read the book the G-free diet to help us get started. Gluten is everywhere, and you also need to watch how food is prepared.</p>
<p>Restaurant eating is very difficult, we’ve found. Outback Steakhouse, PF Changs, Jason’s Deli have been good.</p>
<p>Over time, we found pretty good substitute products for everything, but we struck out a lot. Finding something like a pie crust was quite a journey (whole foods has the best one!) But we’ve settled into a good routine now. I learned some new cooking tricks - I use more cornstarch now than I ever did. </p>
<p>There was another thread a few weeks ago with a lot of good suggestions on it. If I find it, I will post it.</p>
<p>Mrs Green’s has a good selection of gluten free foods. I love their rice and almond breads toasted. The problem is that they have more calories than regular bread, but they are delicious. </p>
<p>I would have a tough time with such dietary restrictions so my son has my sympathies. I am a carb junkie.</p>
<p>There was an article on gluten free bakeries in the NYTimes today. It mentions the Gluten Free Registry as a data base of “19,000 plus gluten-free friendly establishments around the world.” Here’s the link:
[Gluten</a> Free Registry - Resources for finding Gluten-Free Restaurants, Gluten-Free Dining, Gluten-Free Bakeries, Gluten-Free Grocers, Gluten-Free Caterers, Gluten-Free Travel, Gluten-Free Pizza by State](<a href=“http://glutenfreeregistry.com/]Gluten”>http://glutenfreeregistry.com/)</p>
<p>There was also an article a few days ago that had a recipe for making your own gluten-free flour blend.</p>
<p>There was a HUGE thread on this a a few months ago which would be worth tracking down.</p>
<p>Gluten free seems to be getting a lot easier than it used to be. I buy a lot of gluten free products because they tend to be dairy free, and I’m allergic to milk. My favorite brand is Enjoy Life. They make gluten free chewy chocolate chip cookies and double fudge brownie cookies that are to die for. They have most things you can imagine in that brand and most of them are pretty good. Health food stores have huge selections in gluten free, or at least they do around here. </p>
<p>In my experience, you can find just about anything gluten free just about anywhere-- but expect your grocery bill to grow by leaps and bounds. This stuff is not cheap.</p>
<p>His favorite foods are: pizza, pasta (non-cheesy) dishes, breads, Mexican, Chinese (which I think can be largely gluten-free), fruit (also GF), and some veggies. </p>
<p>But, he likes desserts, too. </p>
<p>I’m hoping that he can find some GF pizza places. </p>
<p>*Restaurant eating is very difficult, we’ve found. Outback Steakhouse, PF Changs, Jason’s Deli have been good.
*</p>
<p>This is one of my concerns. Thankfully, he likes the above-mentioned places. Hopefully, we’ll learn of others. </p>
<p>Stores in our area…Publix and Kroger are the main ones. Earth Fare is popular and I suspect that they will have GF foods. But, he’s spending the summer in another state doing research (don’t know the grocery stores there)…and will be in grad school in August. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the links! :)</p>
<p>I’m going to try to find that old thread, too. :)</p>
<p>As someone said, eating GF is much easier than it used to be; there are many restaurants that have GF choices as well as supermarkets, it’s quite “fashionable” now. There are also websites and support groups on line (like CC) if you google. </p>
<p>My daughters best friend in elementary school was diagnosed with Celiac and in support and for after school snacks I bought gluten free brownie mix and the kids preferred them over regular brownies. Your kids are a bit old but her mom wrote a kids book on Celiac Disease that’s cute called “The GF*Kid” and my daughter and the brownies are in it!</p>
<p>:( We don’t have a Whole Foods near us. Nearest one is 100 miles away. But, we do have an Earth Faire and a Fresh Market which carry similar kinds of products. Our area recently got one of those new-style mega-sized Kroger stores that has a very large organic and natural foods area and other heathy-related areas. </p>
<p>When I get back to our home town, I will go thru those stores. I’ve been out of state for several days, so I haven’t been able to check what our local stores have. </p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that there are pasta alternatives. My son adores pasta, so he wouldn’t want to give that up. :)</p>
<p>If he has an iPhone there are 2 apps I have found useful.
Is that Gluten Free? (brands are listed)
Is that Gluten Free Eating Out? (restaurants and specific menu items listed)</p>
<p>Be careful with Chinese food as many sauces contain gluten. I have found Schar Multigrain Penne Rigate and some of the Tinkyada pastas to be good and also that GF bread products are much more palatable when toasted. I wouldn’t go crazy buying GF snacks, many are loaded with sugar and calories. Instead have him learn to make different snack choices.</p>
<p>Get a good GF living book and have him get in the habit of reading labels. He’ll get the hang of it, especially if he sees his symptoms subside and he starts to feel better. Best wishes.</p>
<p>GF pizza chains: (again, I have NO idea where he lives)</p>
<p>Z pizza
Pizza Fusion
Pizzeria Uno
Brixx Pizza
Mellow Mushroom
California Pizza Kitchen **** starting on June 29th</p>
<p>I will add to list as I remember…</p>
<p>keep in mind, there are local pizza establishments that are offering GF pizza as well…and a number of more upscale italian restaurants have it on their menus…</p>
<p>Pasta:</p>
<p>Olive Garden
Macaroni Grill
Biaggi’s</p>
<p>I have found google to be amazingly good; I search GF pasta and the city I am visiting…usually comes up with tons of info…</p>
<p>Alot of the GF restaurant sites have a lagtime…and many chains do not publicize the GF pizza and pasta even if it’s one the menu</p>
<p>Favorite “at home” GF pasta: Bionaturae (only my D is GF but we all eat it; excellent)</p>
<p>a great resource to keep the price down is amazon…they have TONS of GF food</p>
<p>I found more gluten-free restaurant menu and retail items in college towns on the west coast than in other parts of the country. I don’t know why this is so… Trader Joes has some G-F snack items mixed in with the other choices. For pasta, Tinkyada brand is great and they make different shapes. Another possibility are the various Asian rice noodles (you’ll find lots of choices in oriental food stores). Watch out for regular soy sauce made with wheat (San-J makes Tamari sauce that is wheat free). In most restaurants he can be safe with grilled items, veggies, and salads with oil and vinegar dressing. In Italian restaurants, look for places that have risotto on the menu and ask for sauces over that instead of pasta. Flax-4-Life makes some great (moist) muffins that you can order online and they ship free, and they have the advantage of being higher in fiber than most G-F baked items. I agree Whole Foods makes the best pie crust. Starbucks used to carry some packaged G-F cakes made with almond meal, but they discontinued them in my area. They were good enough to mail order if I could find a source. </p>
<p>Most G-F baked items tend to be dry and crumbly. Warming them in a microwave or toasting helps. Also, if you try to bake yourself, choose recipes that include some fruit (or veggies like in carrot cake) to stay more moist. </p>
<p>The perfect G-F pizza crust? After 15 years, I still haven’t found one.</p>
<p>Maybe the moderators could combine the two?</p>
<p>I’ve been (mostly) gluten free for about 6 weeks now. I’ve eat a lot of salad at pre-plated dinners, etc.</p>
<p>Almost the first thing folks will tell you is where you can buy bread, pasta, cake mix, brownie mix, etc. All that info is great. However, if you eat meat and fruit and veggies…supplemented by rice and potatoes, that’s a gluten free diet without buying extra/different products. I’ve been able to whip up great summer feasts (ribs, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, watermelon, three bean salad) that the family loves and doesn’t even think about whether it’s gluten free.</p>
<p>But restaurants are a problem. I sort of see that as a plus, because we have been cooking less and less over the years and need to start cooking again anyway.</p>
<p>Edited to add: For D’s pre-graduation brunch, her preferred menu included “real” blueberry pancakes and banana bread. I ate a bit, and it all seemed so heavy and thick to me.</p>
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