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Celiac-Related Books



Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
Amazon Price: $16.47
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Why didn't I think of this before?!
by Jessica Seinfeld


Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism
Amazon Price: $16.29
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
An excellent resource for those who want to make a difference.
by Jenny McCarthy


The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-F...
Amazon Price: $16.47
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
A Must-have for the Overwhelmed Family Cook
by Pamela Compart


Living Gluten-Free For Dummies (For Dummies (Health & Fitness))
Amazon Price: $13.59
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
I'm no dummy
by Danna Korn


Gluten-Free Quick & Easy: From Prep to Plate Without the Fuss - 200+ Recipes ...
Amazon Price: $12.89
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Gluten-Free Quick & Easy
by Carol Fenster


Special Diets for Special Kids
Amazon Price: $19.77
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Great starting place!
by Lisa Lewis


Special Diets for Special Kids, Two
Amazon Price: $19.77
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Special Diets for Special Kids Two
by Lisa Lewis




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Gluten-Free Flour

Orgran Gluten Free Pancake Mix, Good for Making Waffles

Posted on March 31, 2007 | Filed Under Gluten Free Food, Recommended, celiac shopping, gluten free diet, gluten free recipes

This morning I made a batch of Orgran Apple Cinnamon Gluten Free Pancake Mix, which I use in my waffle maker.

Whenever I use any GF pancake mix, I always make waffles instead, I really like waffles, and the GF versions of waffles usually are not too bad either, because the flours tend toward making a crisp finished product, and that is expected in a waffle. I use an ordinary small Krups waffle maker and the finished product comes out pretty much as expected. If you look at the list of ingredients, the first one is corn starch. This is a highly processed carbohydrate and is likely to make your blood sugar bounce. It seems many people with celiac disease need to watch out for this. To help minimize this effect I used soy milk instead of water to mix the batter.
So I always drench my waffles with peanut butter, which is high in fat, or fruit which also slows down digestion. The first batch I made today was covered in mandarin oranges before serving.

It’s a special event when I cook something that is sold explicitly as a gluten free product, so after I had my two waffles with oranges, I smeared one more with peanut butter. Most weekday mornings I’ll have a pair of Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Banana Waffles literally covered with peanut butter. Mmm.

Orgran gluten free products are made in Australia and sold, among other places, at Amazon.com.

Technorati Tags: gluten free recipe, gluten free, celiac, gf waffles, gluten free food, gluten free diet

But Everything Might Contain Gluten!

Posted on March 23, 2007 | Filed Under celiac living, celiac shopping, gluten free diet

One of the automated search routines I use to gather celiac-related news for my network of websites produced a fascinating headline this morning “But everything might contain gluten“.

The article is on an Israeli website and contains a number of references to Jewish dietary practices and holidays that I know little about, but it was still easy enough to follow the main flow of the article, and it mirrors some concerns I’ve had for a very long time.

There are people in the celiac community who exhibit a great deal more caution and perhaps anxiety than some others. In a few cases it seems to reach a point that is possibly extreme. I have heard people with celiac disease talk about how they buy food products that are explicitly labeled “gluten free” and then contact the manufacturer to grill them extensively about every detail of the manufacturing process.

In the article linked above, an Israeli food manufacturer is being sued for 375 million (shekels?) because they sold candies that were expected to be gluten free but “may have contained gluten”. The items were labeled “Kosher for Passover” and from the gist of the article we surmise this was expected to indicate they were in fact gluten free.

In response to incidents of this sort, Israeli firms, including the one facing a lawsuit, are increasingly adding labels that state “may contain gluten” to all of their products. This behavior does not serve the interests of people with celiac disease.

Here in the USA we are seeing a similar phenomenon, with products that list no ingredients that contain gluten, yet still have warnings like “made on equipment used with wheat, peanuts, shellfish” or “made in a facility that also processes wheat”. Any day now I expect to read a label that says “This product was transported in a truck whose driver had a donut last week”.

There certainly are people who report having reactions they associate with celiac disease when they eat foods that have been made in the near vicinity of other foods containing gluten. I am not convinced that these reactions are always a result of the autoimmune reaction that typifies celiac disease. There are people who do have actual allergies to wheat, and some of these people may also have celiac disease. But celiac disease is not an allergy, and it is not likely to cause an emergent, life-threatening reaction when a person with celiac disease accidentally consumes a small or large portion of gluten. It is miserable, it can trigger a chain of events that takes days or even weeks to pass, but for a person with celiac disease and no traditional food allergies, accidental exposure to gluten is not a life threatening emergency.

It is very wise for a person with celiac disease to get a good education on which food ingredients always contain or are likely to contain gluten. It may be advisable for some people who are more sensitive to an accident to take extra precautions, but really, the confrontational and militant attitude displayed by some people in the celiac community is obviously counter-productive. We are nearing a point where no food processing firm in the world will be brave enough to declare a food product gluten-free for fear of an immediate attack by militant food warriors.

Get over it people! Read the ingredients. If it does not contain gluten there probably is no gluten in there. If you get a tummyache or a bout of diarrhea don’t buy that product anymore. But please, lighten up on the confrontational attitude. Your mileage may vary and your comments are welcome.

Technorati Tags: celiac, gluten, warning, made in a facility, also processes wheat, allergy, auto-immune, gluten-free, gluten free, diet, passover, kosher, celiac disease

Rice is Your Friend, Rice Cookers are Too!

Posted on March 21, 2007 | Filed Under For Celiacs, Gluten Free Food, celiac disease, celiac living, gluten free diet

If you have celiac disease, you can’t eat many common grains. You might also have a very grouchy tummy. One of the best tips we have to offer is that “Rice is your friend”.

At our house rice is a part of a majority of our evening meals. We buy all sorts and varieties of rice. A few years into our experience with the gluten free diet, we decided to buy a rice cooker. We are now on our third rice cooker, and this one is clearly the best of the three. First we tried a Zojirushi rice cooker, and it cooked the rice very well, but it had no on-off switch (DUH!) so we had it plugged in to an AC strip that did have an on-off switch. Eventually the non-stick coating on the Zojirushi began to fail so we decided to shop around.

Our second rice cooker was a Sanyo model, it was OK except that it took 2 hours to cook whole grain brown rice - our favorite variety. The Sanyo lasted about 2 weeks, then we got our current rice cooker and it is the best of the lot. The Aroma looks like cheap Chinese junk, but it cooks brown rice in one hour instead of two, and the removable metal rice basket is very easy to clean.
It is also much less expensive than most other similar sized rice cookers.

If you are considering the purchase of a rice cooker, we recommend the Aroma shown here.

Technorati Tags: celiac disease, celiac, gluten free, celiac diet, rice, brown rice, rice cooker

Brown Rice Gluten Free Pasta That is Fantastic

Posted on March 9, 2007 | Filed Under For Celiacs, Gluten Free Food, celiac shopping, gluten free diet

A Canadian company named Tinkyada makes some of the best gluten free pasta you can find.

Brown Rice Pasta, Penne (w/Rice Bran), Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Organic, 12 oz.
Available in a typical range of pasta shapes, including Penne, Spirals and regular Spaghetti noodles, the Tinkyada pasta cooks, looks and tastes like a high quality wheat pasta, but without the gluten that makes life miserable for people like us with celiac disease. The Penne is shown here, click the image or link to see the details at Amazon.com. I like the Penne best myself, but some people prefer Spirals because the sauce they are serving sticks to the Spirals more effectively.

If you are at a loss as to which gluten free pasta to buy, I suggest you try one of the Tinkyada styles.

Technorati Tags: gluten free pasta, gluten free, gf, celiac, tinkyada, gf pasta

A Gluten-Free Fruit Bar that Tastes Great

Posted on March 9, 2007 | Filed Under For Celiacs, Gluten Free Food, celiac living, celiac shopping, gluten free diet

I’ve discovered a very tasty fruit bar that is gluten free and contains no added sugars at all. FruitTrekker bars come in a few flavors , I really like the apricot ones. The bars contain chopped up bits of dried fruit that is rolled in rice flour and they rely on the fructose that occurs naturally in fruits for the slightly sweet flavor. You can buy FruitTrekker bars from Amazon, they are not very expensive either. They are great on airplanes, on road trips, and anywhere else you might want a GF snack. I give them 5 stars.

Kalahari FruitTrekker Bar, Apricot

Technorati Tags: gluten free, fruit bar, energy bar, gf, celiac

A New Place to Shop for Gluten-Free Food

Posted on March 9, 2007 | Filed Under Gluten Free Food, celiac disease, celiac shopping

Having learned a few things from my past mistakes, I’ve made another attempt to design a website that will make it easier for people with celiac disease or ADHD to find gluten free foods. Also included are listings of rice cookers, which are widely used by celiacs, breadmakers, and especially books about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.

I’d really love to get any kind of feedback that people might have about the design or performance of this site. Wish lists, constructive criticism, things you like or don’t like - the field is wide open for your comments. This new website is called The GF Store.

Thanks in advance for any comments you might have, this site was designed by a a person with celiac disease, moi.

Other Websites for Celiacs

Posted on March 8, 2007 | Filed Under Recommended, celiac living, celiac science, gluten free diet

Here are a few other websites that might be of interest to people with celiac disease or anyone else that wants to maintain a gluten free diet.

The Sensible Celiac

The Celiac Shop

The GF Store

And yes, all of these are my own celiac sites.

Technorati Tags: Celiac disease, celiac, gluten free diet

Good Day to You

Posted on March 8, 2007 | Filed Under gluten free diet

Hello, and thank you for stopping by my new blog for people with celiac disease.

Besides blogging about this and that from time to time, we’ll be offering celiac-related news and links to gluten free recipes on other sites.

You’ll see the occasional link to some gluten free products too. we have some experience at finding gluten free foods to buy, and hope to help make that easier for you too.

I’m Steve, by the way. How are you doing?

Technorati Tags: celiac, celiac disease, gluten free, celiac news

An Automated Gluten Free Recipe Bot

Posted on March 4, 2007 | Filed Under celiac disease

I’ve been able to configure an automated process that finds gluten free recipes and posts them as messages in the discussion forum at my website for people with celiac disease.

Visit the sensible celiac and scroll down to the GF recipe board. You do not need to create any kind of an account to access the messages, but you’re welcome to do so.