Gluten-Free Diet

A Gluten-Free Diet is not only a personal lifestyle change that requires not just a little discipline, but it also demands the dedication to monitor, if not alter, specific relationships with the world around us. To be specific, the absolutely Gluten-Free Diet must admonish any grain that has gluten in it.

Gluten is the elastic protein stuff that makes grain particles stick together to make breads, pastas, cakes and cookies. Gluten is not a chemical added to grain or flour--it is a natural part of many grains. Grains containing gluten are wheat, kamut, spelt, barley, rye, oats, and triticale.

For the Gluten-Free Diet, avoiding wheat and its meddling cohorts is to remain constantly vigilant against an omnipresent and insidious enemy. For the Gluten-Free Diet, this is a lifelong and daily battle that calls for support from their community as well as their restaurateurs.

Next time you go to a regular restaurant, whether you’re on a Gluten-Free Diet or not, ask the waiter if he or she knows if there’s gluten in the salad dressing--and be sure to mind the Croutons!

For more information, please visit the author's Celiac Disease Information Site.