<p>For energy bars, I like LARA bars, especially the Cinnamon Roll. I’ve tried the others and they are just OK. </p>
<p>I have found Trader Joe’s to be the best for GF food. They have made a big effort to label their shelves to identify GF food. </p>
<p>The Atkins diet is essentially GF, so that’s another place to look for ideas. I often eat cheese & cold cuts for breakfast. </p>
<p>Nuts & dried fuit are also a great snack to keep around.</p>
<p>Interesting to read all the store names…I thought that we had every store known to man, but i guess we don’t. Anyway, do have Central Market and Market Street and even a Sprouts if I drive a bit. I’d have to drive a bit further for Whole Foods. I’m going to try to avoid prepared foods as much as I can, so the normal grocery store should work for many items (meats, fruits and veggies.) H is a stay at home dad, so one of the big issues is whether he will be supportive and encourage Son to eat gluten free when I’m not at home. H is one of those “there is nothing wrong with any food” guys…chicken skin, three week old leftovers, etc.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, no nuts for me. I am allergic, and I swear that my kids have a “sympathetic” dislike for them.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your contributions!</p>
<p>missy-I have recently gone GF to hopefully aid with several autoimmune issues and have found some good recipes on glutenfreegoddess(dot)com. Our regular grocery stores all seem to now have designated GF aisles. I never realized how many GF products were available until I had a need to know.</p>
<p>It’s only been a few weeks, but I do see a difference and feel healthier. I think it will much easier to get your S to buy into it if he sees and feels the benefits. Good luck.</p>
<p>Look in the Passover aisles this week…lots of gluten free products.</p>
<p>We like Redbridge beer and Pamela’s pancake and baking mix (the sour cream coffee cake is delish…skip the glaze, it’s sweet enough!) But we really try not to trade junk food for GF junk food, sticking to whole unprocessed food instead. </p>
<p>To the person that worried about fiber…eat vegetables and fruit. They have plenty, so does meat actually. We eat essentially grain & legume free and it’s just not aproblem at all!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I asked the question earlier on this thread but I don’t think I received an answer. What’s wrong with legumes?</p>
<p>Legumes aren’t the worst food you could eat, but on a scale of nutritional relativism they just don’t rank very high. They are high in carbs, low in protein and the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals is low. They also contain lectins which are inflamatory and artherogenic…not good for those with autoimmune isues. Anyone with gut issues (which is what leads a lot of people to GF) would likely have a hard time digesting them. That’s it in a nutshell 
A lot more can be found with a google search.</p>
<p>Yay! I just went gluten free about a month ago after about 15 years of various autoimmune issues & almost 30 years of IBS symptoms. I feel so much better :)</p>
<p>For breakfast I’ve been having a banana, greek yogurt and 2 lowfat cheesesticks. The Chex cereal are good to have in the pantry & I do like the Van’s waffles (our Publix has them along with Whole Foods.) Eggs (a lot) with bacon or taylor ham. Udi’s bread; haven’t tried the bagels yet. Just found out yesterday it’s about $1/loaf cheaper at Trader Joe’s. </p>
<p>SIL just told me yesterday that Rice Krispies will be GF by the summer (why would Rice Krispies have any gluten?)</p>
<p>There is a brand of frozen soup that Whole Foods carries called Kettle Creations. Amy’s makes a really good frozen mac & cheese but the calorie count is ridiculous. </p>
<p>Things that I’ve found in the last few weeks that make me happy: merangue cookies, Immaculate Baking Company makes a refrigerated, ready to bake chocolate chip cookie ($2.99 for 12 large cookies) and Applegate organic, uncured all beef hot dogs.</p>
<p>Jumping in: I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 3 years ago.</p>
<p>Just bought a loaf of Rudi’s bread at Whole Foods the other day - it’s the best one I’ve tried. I love Trader Joe’s and get quite a few products there. I like their waffles better than Van’s.</p>
<p>For the most part, I try to eat whole, fresh foods and not too much in the way of pre-processed gluten-free stuff or other mainstream goodies (potato chips, candy). I have a tendency to overeat and have to watch my weight.</p>
<p>
It’s because of the barley malt. I don’t for the life of me know why so many items contain barley malt. You’ll see it in quite a few salad dressings, too.</p>
<p>^^Kellogg’s is evil; the NFCA (National FOundation for Celiac Awareness) asked them to remove the barley malt from their cereals a few years ago and their response was basically, we don’t care; not our target market…</p>
<p>Only my daughter has celiac, but we have ALL boycotted Kellogg’s since;when we found out about the Rice Krispies change, we had to laugh…I guess their “target market” changed (or they are losing share to GM)</p>
<p>General Mills is awesome. I am so happy that they are making more and more of their products gluten free. Another good company is Kraft and also Hormel. Hormel is especially good at labeling their items Gluten Free. It’s very helpful… although usually I end up noticing it after I’ve squinted my way through the entire ingredients list first!</p>
<p>Target is stocking lots of gluten free products, at least in our area. Much cheaper than Whole Foods and a pretty good variety. My 19DD has confirmed celiac.
She is a breakfast eater, and normally has plain yogurt with gluten-free granola(Udi’s), chex cereal and milk or scrambled eggs and low-fat sausage.
She has a harder time with a quick lunch on the go, sometimes just apples and cheese or a bar. There are a few gluten-free grab and go bars, I think Think Thin and NuGo are two she likes that have some protein in them and not too high in fat.
She lost a ton of weight before she was diagnosed, looked ill. Now she does struggle with it but also has autoimmune thyroid disease too.</p>
<p>I don’t have Celiac, but my doctor suspected food intolerance to be the root cause of some issues I was having, and gave me an IgA ELISA test, which showed a gluten sensitivity.</p>
<p>So I went gluten-free, and after about 6 months most of my issues cleared up. What I thought was really interesting is that the lactose intolerance I have suffered for my entire adult life pretty much vanished. Ah, the joys of ice cream…</p>
<p>I don’t try to be fully gluten-free any more (I lasted about 2 years), although I do try to be gluten-free at least every other day. I avoid macro sources like pasta, but I will have some bread occasionally or some pizza or cake or whatever. As long as my issues don’t return, it works for me.</p>
<p>^^ your lactose intolerance probably “corrected” itself because the sensitivity to gluten could have effects on the villi in the intestine; when you went GF, that prob corrected itself, allowing you to enjoy the ice cream again without ill effects…</p>
<p>enmom: like your daughter, mine was emaciated when diagnosed; while she is grown like a beanstalk since, and has gained twice her body weight since diagnosis, she is still very thin (and HATES it)…</p>
<p>how did you find out about the autoimmune thyroid disease? does it show up on a regular thyroid test??</p>
<p>There’s a lot of really good advice on this thread, particularly as it applies to finding GF options in local stores - shopping the perimeter of the store for meats, cheeses and vegetables is a simple way to locate gluten free options.</p>
<p>I run an online gluten free store and I wanted to share two resources. The first is our Health & Wellness Information section which provides informations on a lot of GF basics:
[Free</a> From Gluten - Health & Wellness Information](<a href=“http://www.freefromgluten.com/pages/health-wellness]Free”>http://www.freefromgluten.com/pages/health-wellness)</p>
<p>And the other is our site which has exclusively gluten free products and free shipping on orders over $50.
[Free</a> From Gluten - The world’s largest gluten free store](<a href=“http://www.freefromgluten.com/]Free”>http://www.freefromgluten.com/)</p>
<p>Hopefully this is helpful. I remember college is expensive - you can use the coupon COLLEGECONF for 10% off at our store.</p>
<p>Be aware as well that when a listed ingredient is ‘modified food starch’ it basically means they threw in whatever ‘starch’ was cheapest that week. Could be rice-based, could be oatmeal-based, could be wheat-based. </p>
<p>The truth is that even if you try to go 100% GF you will still get a certain amount of cross-contamination. Even a little is too much for some folks.</p>
<p>^From what I understand, in the U.S., modified food starch never contains wheat. If it did, it would have to list wheat on the label.</p>
<p>When my Dh was first diagnosed about 4 years ago, he called around to some big companies to find out things like ‘what’s in your modified food starch?’ He was told (eventually) that while they <em>try</em> not to use wheat, they cannot guarantee that they have not done so.</p>
<p>YMMV…but we stay away from products that list Modified Food Starch on their labels.</p>
<p>OM and Novelisto: the modified food starch issue was addressed in the most recent USDA guidelines; yes, if the MFS is wheat based, it MUST say so on the package…</p>
<p>most MFS in the US is corn based and, therefore, does not need to be designated…</p>