Gluten Free Week: My Own Experience!
Have you also noticed that lately in shops as well as in restaurants there are more and more ´Gluten Free´ notes? In the past, a gluten-free diet concerned just a few people with intolerance and allergy to gluten, today it is becoming a trend. It was high time to test this trend and deliver a first-hand experience!
I start my gluten-free week after a holiday in Italy, where as you may well know, it is all about pizza focaccia and pasta. But that´s all over for me now and I say: "Enough of wheat!"
My first impressions? The strange terms!
On Monday morning I enthusiastically head into the nearest bio trade shop to buy gluten-free foods. While shopping in an ordinary store is achieved at a lightning speed, now I spend nearly 50 minutes by staring on the shelves. In terror I find that I absolutely have no clue about what gluten-free foods actually are and how to deal with them in the kitchen! I concentrate on packets with the logo of a crossed-out cob, looking for ´gluten-free´ descriptions. The shopping basket is full of goods with names such as: sorghum, amaranth, gluten-free mixture for falafel, lentil pasta, rice couscous, corn, gluten free quaint granola, etc.
The advantage is that naturally gluten-free foods, which I fortunately know, can be found at an ordinary shop: rice, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, yoghurt, cheeses, quality sausages, meat, legumes, milk. I have made my purchases and I think that this week´s test is going to be easily manageable...
Menu for the first 3 days - there was a mistake somewhere!
I have a maize and rice porridge with fruit for breakfast, lunching on falafel made of a gluten-free mixture, instead of a dessert I go through amaranth balls. On Tuesday it is all taken care of by a vegetable risotto and salad, on Wednesday I am determined to cook the mysterious sorghum, which according to the recipe I supplement by lentils.
On Wednesday evening I realise an annoying thing: My stomach is like an inflated balloon, although I don´t eat much and I look like five months pregnant! What is it? Could it be the sudden arrival of larger quantities of leguminous crops and mysterious dishes? Oh dear...and it is only Wednesday!
The joy of a planned dinner disappeared when realising the disappointing gluten-free taste
On Thursday I am afraid to eat. I have a banana for breakfast, have a salad for lunch and because I feel well again, in the evening I go out for dinner with my husband. Of course, for a pizza! While he orders his favourite Napolitana, I "enjoy" a meat pizza made of corn flour. Dear celiac sufferers, until now I have not realised that life of a strict gluten-free diet is so hard. The pizza simply has nothing to do with a pizza! Luckily, I can flush it down with some wine...
Friday is taken care of by a good old Czech Vietnamese Pho, where they assure me that the soup contains no soya sauce, which, surprisingly, also contains gluten. However, selected sushi restaurants also offer soy sauce without gluten, which is charged for extra, but it is an option.
I have a dinner at a luxurious Mexican bistro - tacos from corn flour, no trace of gluten. I am pleasantly surprised by a gluten-free cake ´Míša´ and an apple cake which I buy in Sklizeno.
Pork and sauerkraut without dumplings and a currant cake without the cake!
If I thought that I have had my worst experience with the pizza, I was mistaken. The biggest pitfalls came at the weekend: a planned meeting in the garden of my parents with my in-laws. The chicken soup without noodles could have been endured, but the pork tenderloin with sauerkraut and dumplings had to be rejected as a whole, since it was thickened by flour. In the afternoon I had a coffee and instead of the redcurrant cake I took out my amaranth balls. In the evening when open sandwiches were served, I produced my own, with gluten-free bread. I have received many comments expressing lack of understanding, but soon everyone became accustomed to my new eating habits.
What did a gluten-free week bring then?
After the first three days when I removed legumes from the diet, my body has returned to normal and after a week of gluten-free diet I feel fine. I have no problem to avoid flour and for me trying new dishes is fun and a positive experience.
I have questioned doctor Martin Beránek from the Carlsbad Hospitals and nutritional advisor, Eva Westerhuis Hausler, who works in the US, to provide me with relevant answers to my questions in respect of white flour and gluten-free diet. Information from them, which may be of benefit to everyone, may be found in articles 10 Things you Should Know about a Gluten-free Diet and 5 Facts which will Change your View on Flour.
The price of gluten-free foods:
Pizza - 22 cm in diameter, approximately CZK 20-50 more expensive than a conventional pizza with a diameter of 35 cm
Gluten-free bread, 250g - CZK 50-60
Gluten-free pasta, 300g - CZK 40-60, in organic bio quality even around CZK 100
Buckwheat porridge, 300g - approximately CZK 60
Corn porridge, 300g - approximately CZK 30
Sorghum, 500g - approximately CZK 30
Gluten-free Míša cake, 1 piece - approx. CZK 70
Gluten-free apple cake, 1 piece - approx. CZK 40
