Might be a long shot, but is anyone currently following a gluten-free or anti-inflammatory diet, or done it in the past? I've been dealing with some health issues for a little while and haven't yet made any substantial progress with my doctors, so I'm trying to see if I can maybe ease my symptoms a bit by following a GF/AI diet... which has been HELL, being the food lover that I am.

I've been basically drinking nothing but water with the exception of a glass of red wine here and there. Sticking to lean red meat and poultry and trying to get a fish in at least once a week (not a fan). Pretty much eliminated pastas and only have a little brown rice or black beans here and there. Swapped out my morning cereal for yogurt and fruit or eggs, and snack on fruits, veggies, and nuts. Trying to cut down on cheese (BOO!) and cream sauces, eliminated breaded meats and fried foods, etc. I picked up a variety of different dry beans (chickpeas, lentils, etc) but I don't really know what to do with them. Can't say I'm enjoying this kind of eating, but I'll try anything if it helps with my problems. I'm getting really bored with my options already If anyone has any pointers or recipes they'd like to share, I'd love to hear it.

You can make hummus with them chickpeas. Try making chili or stew. You can eat rice pasta, I think, so make an Asian type stir fry. There's a ton of options of what you can add to those to mix it up.

It sounds like you've got a bunch of options goin already, so I don't know what else to recommend.

The (new) gf is celiac so I've been getting used to this. When we go out drinking she has to drink cider or gluten-free beer, which is hella boring/bland, but not bad.

isnt boring and bland two of three ingredients that make bad?

No, I'd define bad with a bad taste. Boring is neutral. This is a serious post.

p.s. i apologize for having no advice to give for this A.o.S

I've never had hummus, but I'll look into it. I did get some rice pasta, which of course costs 3x as much as standard pasta I haven't tried it yet though. Chili & stew are good options for fall. We don't have ac in the new house downstairs so when it's hot I have no interest in any kind of soup.
The alcohol thing is killing me because I've essentially been forced to go from drinking every night to a couple glasses of wine per week... makes me real irritable and fiend-y. Not to mention alcohol seems to lessen my pain at the time... I'm sure the repurcussions outweigh the temporary relief though.

Bleh... Grocery shopping has become so depressing with this change and takes twice as long since I have to read half the stupid labels.

If you've ever had thai or japanese food, you've had rice pasta.

Hummus rules.

I don't know if Two Brothers brewery distributes in PA, but their golden ale is the best gluten free beer I've had. New Planet has a couple good ones too. The IPA is good. Wine is better for you anyway. Just get sloshed on that.

I've had rice noodles, I didn't know if the pasta was the same. I have ermm... I think rice ziti, but it doesn't look like the rice noodles I use for thai (color/texture). I saw some GF breads at the store too and OOOF... they feel like bricks. How can they call that bread??

Excessive alcohol is killing my B12 levels and screwing something else up since lately I'm in a surreal amount of pain the day after I have more than a couple glasses. So I can't really binge on anything anymore unfortunately.

GF diets are one of the newer fads that I've been seeing talked about online and it seems like there are a lot more GF foods popping up as a result of it. Check the "organic" section and most of the stuff there will probably be GF. I know I've seen versions of pretty much everything that you mentioned having to give up.

I'm GF and not by choice. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say I have celiacs but I'm definitely intolerant/allergic/whatever. The last time I accidentally had gluten was when I ate some korean bbq that I got from H-Mart and didn't look at the ingredients list. Who knew it had wheat in it? I did after a few hours of stomach cramps and, well, we'll just leave it at that. A week later it was still wreaking havoc on my stomach.

ANYWHO. I don't have any recipes because I don't cook anything that involved. One thing I recommend is shopping at Wegmans because all of their store brand shit is labeled really nicely including GF labels. I don't know why you're trying to cut down on cheese, but if it helps to know, they have lactose-free cheese that I buy and I also don't drink regular milk anymore but instead drink coconut milk.

Also, I've had to try a few different kinds of spaghetti because I do love pasta. I've even tried spinach spaghetti. The best kind I've found is corn spaghetti. Good stuff.

Oh, something else I learned the hard way. If you go out for some Asian fare, you better ask about their soy sauce. Some is naturally GF, some isn't.

I was also surprised to learn that I needed to ask about soups when eating out because of some that have flour in it. That brings something else to mind. I would fucking kill someone for a piece of fried chicken right now :(

If you still want some cereal, all of the Chex cereals are GF and you can't even tell. My mom's made me a cake before and also brownies with GF mix and I couldn't tell the difference either. I wish I knew the brands but if you want me to I can check next time I go visit.

Now let's talk about bread. Holy shit is the sandwich bread terrible. When I first started I would end up spitting out the last bite I could muster into the trash at work and throwing the rest away. So so bad. However, I have since found that hamburger buns are much better for sandwiches. If you're making french toast though, the regular sandwich bread was fine.

Here's a link to the bread I like:
click here for link

Maybe their sandwich bread is better too but I haven't tried it.

As for the beer, whole foods has a good selection. It's not terrible. I kind of like Redbridge. It tastes like beer and it's usually the one that you'll find available if you're lucky enough to be in a bar with any GF beer choice at all. Either that or start drinking more liquor. Whiskey is fine btw - the gluten is distilled out.

Amy's GF stuff is pretty good too (they also have gf/non-dairy pizza):
click here for link

and their stuff is also at Wegmans. Wegmans in general has a pretty damn good GF section.

Also, pro tip on the bread: keep it frozen til you want to use it even if just for a sandwich. Defrost it in the microwave before you're actually going to use it.

Awesome info, thanks! I am not certain I have a gluten allergy... my doctors seem to think what's going on is neurological, possibly auto-immune, as I'm having severe burning pain on my head that's been non-stop for months now with no known cause (in addition to other things, but that's the biggy). I can't see a neurologist until August unless I get called on cancellation, so I'm just picking at straws doing whatever I can to try to decrease the pain. From what I've read it's suggested for people with auto-immune problems to follow a GF diet. In addition I've read that some foods can trigger inflammatory responses within the body, which is the AI diet aspect I'm trying to cover... it's a little tricky trying to juggle both because some parts of either diet are conflicting.

I don't mean to get personal, but how did you find out you were intolerant? How long did it take once you went full-on GF to start feeling better?

I have flare ups of pain at varying levels... like one day I will feel great and have almost no pain, and the next 3 days I'll be in agonizing pain. So my thought is there must be a trigger, I just haven't been able to locate one (and I've tried everything). What's worse is nothing helps for the pain

Originally posted by: Sandy Dickhands

I don't know why you're trying to cut down on cheese, but if it helps to know, they have lactose-free cheese that I buy and I also don't drink regular milk anymore but instead drink coconut milk.

it's more for the anti-inflammatory part than the GF part... I've read that dairy can be rough on your system.

Also, I've had to try a few different kinds of spaghetti because I do love pasta. I've even tried spinach spaghetti. The best kind I've found is corn spaghetti. Good stuff.

awesome. didn't see anything other than rice pasta at my grocer but noted to check wegmans.

Oh, something else I learned the hard way. If you go out for some Asian fare, you better ask about their soy sauce. Some is naturally GF, some isn't.

picked up some GF soy sauce last night at the store because i use it in a lot of my marinades.


If you still want some cereal, all of the Chex cereals are GF and you can't even tell. My mom's made me a cake before and also brownies with GF mix and I couldn't tell the difference either. I wish I knew the brands but if you want me to I can check next time I go visit.

also bought Chex last night (i did a ton of reading before makign my shopping list. in the organic isle they have GF cake mix... i don't have a sweet tooth so cake isn't something i'll miss)


Here's a link to the bread I like:
click here for link

nice, thanks!

As for the beer, whole foods has a good selection. It's not terrible. I kind of like Redbridge. It tastes like beer and it's usually the one that you'll find available if you're lucky enough to be in a bar with any GF beer choice at all. Either that or start drinking more liquor. Whiskey is fine btw - the gluten is distilled out.

Good to know. Part of the reason I'm limiting alcohol is because it seems to be making my symtoms worse. When I have a glass or 2 of wine my pain subsides, but often the next day I'm hurtin. I can't say for sure that it's the alcohol causing it, but I'm omitting it just in case. My B12 levels are also unstable and alcohol depletes those.

Amy's GF stuff is pretty good too (they also have gf/non-dairy pizza):
click here for link

I looked for this at my grocer last night and they didn't have it :( I need to shop at wegman's evidently... there's no whole foods near me

"I don't mean to get personal, but how did you find out you were intolerant? How long did it take once you went full-on GF to start feeling better?"

I figured it out after my mom bought me this book:
click here for link

The way she described feeling, it was just like "holy shit, that's me". And I think there's blood tests now for it but really the easiest way to test is to cut it out of your diet. It took me a while to do that even though I knew it would probably help. Once I did though I would say I felt better after a couple months. Before that, for the ten years prior, my feeling "normal" was pretty much just feeling horrible all the time in my stomach and digestive system.

The severity of my symptoms will vary also. The first time after I stopped eating gluten and I was having some sushi and it had some soy sauce on it and I thought "it's not much, I'll be fine" and then the rest of the afternoon I had my head on my desk at work feeling like I was being stabbed in my stomach for the next few hours. Other times it's gas and constipation and total discomfort that can last even as long as a week after I've eaten it. I just never know, so it's not worth the risk anymore.

"holy shit, that's me"

Haha, that's how I've reacted to about a dozen conditions since I started researching my problems. Unfortunately I'm finding that many auto-immune diseases (and gluten allergies are considered AI) have very similar symptoms... which I guess is why it's difficult to sometimes get to the bottom of things. I've only been trying the GF thing for the last week and not perfectly (I've had some pasta here and there). But again, I don't think I necessarily have an allergy, and if I do I doubt it's the source of my pain.... which is on my head.

I'm going to try the best I can to stick to this and the AI diet. It's not easy to plunge into that's for sure. For one, it's fucking expensive, and 2 it's hardly fair that I make my husband eat the same way when he's fine... I'm going to have to drastically alter my cooking and that just sucks.

I know the feel. The first time I went grocery shopping and was serious about it I wanted to throw my hands in the air, knock my cart over and stomp out of the store crying because all I could think was "I CAN'T FUCKING EAT ANYTHING!!"

lol you guys are weenies. Try being vegan for two years and then we can talk about grocery shopping.