A gluten-free diet eliminates wheat, barley, kamut, spelt, and rye, and is necessary for those with celiac disease. It can also benefit those with wheat allergies or intolerances, or those who find it aids their digestion. The diet requires careful evaluation of food additives and ingredients, and many people find it easier to prepare most foods at home. However, there are companies that make gluten-free foods and numerous resources available to help those on a gluten-free diet.
People with celiac disease or those with wheat allergies or intolerances can adopt a gluten-free diet. Some other conditions might suggest that such a diet is important and these include dermatitis herpetaformis, which can cause significant skin lesions. Some simply start eating a gluten-free diet because it aids their digestion, even though they are not specifically allergic to or sensitive to wheat.
The hallmark of this diet is that it eliminates all forms of wheat, barley, kamut, spelt, and rye, and you can’t use oats either. For those with celiac disease, strict adherence to the diet is necessary for best results. Therefore, in addition to not consuming wheat in traditional forms, such as bread, cereal, or crackers, people must eliminate numerous food additives and be wary of the ingredients in many wheat-derived foods. It becomes valuable to understand if ingredients may have been contaminated with wheat flour, which can happen if things are processed in plants that use wheat.
There are still many foods available on a gluten-free diet that can be made into flours or thickeners to bind foods together. Breads and other baked goods are produced from various ingredients. These include things like potatoes, corn, some beans, various nuts, and quinoa, a healthy grain.
In general, the gluten-free diet does not restrict most fruits or vegetables, meats, fish, oils, or dairy products. However, anything not made in the home should be evaluated as potentially containing wheat. For example, many sausages contain gluten fillers, and the presence of MSG in soups may make them unavailable to those eating a gluten-free diet. A common ingredient, maltodextrin, tends to eliminate anything made with this filler from the gluten-free diet.
The presence of wheat byproducts in so many foods or the potential for gluten-free foods to be contaminated with wheat may mean that eating a gluten-free diet requires a bit of work. Most people do better when preparing most foods at home because they can carefully control specific ingredients and avoid any accidental contact with wheat. However, there are some companies that make gluten-free diet foods, including things like bread made with alternative flours, frozen pizzas, crackers, and the like. These can be more expensive on average than those foods that use forms of wheat.
There are numerous cookbooks that can help those on a gluten-free diet prepare many interesting and varied foods. Another great place to look for information on gluten-free packaged or processed foods includes numerous websites dedicated to people with celiac disease. There are even some sites that list gluten-free restaurant entrees, so people can dine in without worrying about accidentally consuming gluten. Although a gluten-free diet can take some work and thought, the sheer number of alternative foods to wheat means that most people can eat many different foods that taste great and offer plenty of variety.
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