Gluten what?

So there's been a major development in my life over the last year. It's bitter-sweet to say the least: celiac disease has become a part of my families daily life. After finding out that my mom had been diagnosed, I was tested and yup, positive. Sweet in the sense that it explains a lot of things, but bitter in that...I love gluten. It's so good and no one can convince me otherwise. It's also a humungous component of my daily diet and baking regimen. I used lots of gluten-full products.

Things are going to have to change. This will be an interesting process of experimenting, learning and adapting. I am up for the challenge of cooking and especially baking gluten-free!

What is Celiac Disease? 

There has been a lot of hoopla in the media about gluten this and gluten that..but what does it mean to actually have the diagnosis of celiac disease?

It is not a sensitivity or intolerance, it is an autoimmune disease. This means your body is making antibodies against the gluten protein specifically. After ingesting gluten, your body says "hey, that's not supposed to be in the gut, I'm going to get rid of it with an army called an inflammatory response and a very useful tool, antibodies".  This manifests as a wide array of bowel and sometimes, non-bowel related symptoms. This whole response is usually an amazingly complex and fascinating process that protects our bodies from things that really shouldn't be in us, such as infection. But... well... gluten is so yummy and why would some people's body want to get rid of it? The answer is not entirely clear.

Gluten is not just wheat. In fact is it exists in wheat, barley, malt, titricale and rye. Often oats are processed in the same plants the others mentioned are are contaminated, but they themselves do not contain gluten. Other derivatives of wheat etc are off limits too (wheatberries, spelt, farro, kamut)

Surprise: GLUTEN!
- Soy sauce
- Chocolate
- Beer (most)
- Imitation crab meat (oh no, no more sushi :/...)
- Deli meats
- Twizzlers (Nooooooooo!!!)

and many more....lots more reading in the supermarket now :/

Read more about Celiac disease here.

Read more about non-celiac gluten sensitivity and intolerance here.

If you have any resources, recipes or tips that you'd like to share, please do! I'm looking forward to documenting this cooking/life adventure :)