Many food companies are jumping on the Gluten-Free bandwagon. If their product wasn't Gluten-Free before, it is a sure bet that plans for new packaging will include those two buzzwords on it.
It is a very important issue in menu planning because of so many food additives and hidden ingredients that are in processed or prepared foods. Processed foods almost always contain a form of Gluten as an additive. You have to be a good label reader in order to protect yourself from getting "sick."
So many of my friends are watchful of their Gluten intake because of how badly they feel after eating it. I have one friend who was nearly at death's door until the doctors learned that Gluten was the root of her problem.
She was so sick she couldn't leave the house, her hair started to fall out, she was tired all the time from insomnia, she was constantly running to the bathroom with loose bowels, and she had lost over 40 pounds. It took many doctors and specialists more than six months to figure out what was going on. They tested her for everything under the sun, until they looked at her diet.
She has had a couple bad episodes since her diagnosis, and they were enough to make her realize she can't eat what everyone else was eating.
Now on a Gluten-Free diet, she has gained back almost 20 of those 40 lost pounds and she is on the road to recovery.
Diet is so very important to our general health and when we get sick, we automatically assume we have one of the TOP TEN deadly diseases everyone talks about. Or that we have a side effect of a medication that we are taking. Not too many medical professionals are willing to dig a little deeper to see if it is a diet problem.
At our house, we like to entertain a lot. It used to be that we could just make a bunch of food and know that everyone would find something among the choices that they liked.
Of course, at least one sugar-free item was always included on the menu for Diabetic friends but we never gave a thought to friends who were on other kinds of diets. No one likes to have their guests leave the table hungry but it is even worse when a guest comes to the table and the feast will literally make them sick if they eat it.
It only took one time for a guest to say he wasn't able to eat anything of the choices on our buffet. I quickly returned to the kitchen to make a Gluten-Free meal for our friend's new husband. I can still remember how I was mortified when he looked at the buffet we had spread out, saying none of the foods were on his diet. But I was thankful I had something in the fridge and in the cupboard that he could eat.
After that episode, I now ask ahead of time. I make sure my guests are aware of what is being served. If there is something special I can prepare for them so that they can eat with the rest of us, I do it. If not, I tell them not to be shy about bringing whatever food they wish.
Lately, since I retired, I have become a fan of Covered Dish dinners. These are dinner parties where every guest brings their favorite dish (enough to feed six) and everyone gets to sample each dish. Our Gluten-Free guests almost always bring larger portions in case there are others at the dinner party who are also Gluten-Free. Once you become a senior citizen and live in a 55plus community, you will find that almost every activity revolves around food. At the risk of gaining weight, I can't help but look forward to our twice a month on Sundays Covered Dish dinners. It solves the problem for menu planning for just two people in the house and the socialization is good as well.
