Gluten-Free Challenge: Saturday May 21st and Sunday May 22nd...

See what it's like to live like me! JK, but seriously good article from someone giving it a try...
http://www.gogfchallenge.com/

Challenge means it's 'cheerio' to gluten  

By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food writer

Published on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 

 

Oh Cheerios, my Cheerios, how much I must be missing you right about now.
As I write this column, a few days before its publication date, I am in the middle of what I have been calling ''my last week of bread.'' In reality, it is my last week of gluten, before I embark on a week of gluten-free eating.

I do not suffer from celiac disease, a condition that causes damage to the small intestine lining, nor do I have a gluten intolerance. If anything, my love for bread and all things flour-based would suggest I have a gluten addiction.

But I have noticed an increasing number of my readers asking me for gluten-free recipes, along with an increasing number of acquaintances, particularly young children, who are being diagnosed with celiac disease.
So when I received an email promoting the nonprofit Gluten Intolerance Group's annual Gluten Free Challenge, I decided to take the plunge.

The national challenge is actually set for Saturday and Sunday (you can read more about it at http://www.GoGFchallenge.com) but I decided to see if I could go gluten free for an entire week. I blocked off May 15 to 21 on my calendar and decided to make a work project out of it in order to better understand the issues facing readers restricted to a gluten-free diet.
My eyes began to open to the challenges this week could hold when I recently opened up a giant bag of Honey Nut Cheerios — the second half of a behemoth box I had purchased at a warehouse club store. My husband and I are creatures of habit when it comes to our breakfast cereal. He likes his corn flakes and I like my Honey Nut Cheerios.

When I saw the giant box, I realized it would take me a very long time to polish off both bags inside, but since the price was good and the shelf life long, I decided to go ahead. It took weeks, but the first sack inside the box was finally finished. The other morning, I reached for the second.
''That's some big box of Cheerios,'' my husband commented across the breakfast table. ''I'll eat it all, eventually,'' I replied.

That was before I realized that Cheerios, despite being made of oats, are not gluten-free. Which means the box will be sitting idle all this week while I look for breakfast alternatives. Toast, English muffins, pita bread, and dozens of other cereals are out of the question. I was beginning to wonder exactly what I would have for breakfast. What good are eggs without toast to go with them? I don't like yogurt.

Peanut butter is good, but what would I spread it on, celery sticks?
I found solace in the fact that Rice Chex are gluten free and my breakfast would be spared. Whew.
A friend and I scheduled a lunch for last week, before my challenge began, and together ate lots of garlic bread as part of my farewell to gluten. ''I hope you don't go vegan for another week,'' she commented. Not likely.

My sister offered encouraging words. ''Maybe you'll feel really good and realize you are gluten intolerant,'' she theorized. ''Maybe you'll lose a lot of weight.''

That thought had crossed my mind too. Gluten free, it seems to me, will mean giving up a lot of carbohydrates, but potatoes and rice are permitted so I'm sure the starch will find me.

We both questioned whether they put gluten in ice cream and I'll be checking labels all week to find out. Cones are out for sure.

My early research, which included a gluten-free diet food list from the Mayo Clinic website, included the expected forbidden foods — cake, bread, cookies, cereals — but also a few surprises — candies, oats, salad dressings, and even soy sauce.

Worse yet, lipstick, toothpaste, and many medications and vitamins use gluten as a binding agent and have to be avoided.

So this really may be tricky.

I am armed with 11 — yes, that's right, 11 — cookbooks on eating gluten free. I'll be tracking what I eat all week, along with my frustrations, discoveries and hopefully, successes. And you'll be able to read all about it in an upcoming food section along with some recipes I will have tried out.
So until next week, have fun in the kitchen, where this week, it's gluten free for me.

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Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.