Gluten Freedom

As I mentioned last Monday, I decided to spend a week avoiding gluten so I could get a taste of what those diagnosed with Celiac's disease experience. 

Steering clear of wheat was entirely manageable for me. I am not wedded to traditional breakfast foods, so potato slices with curried tuna salad suited me just fine many mornings. I lunched on Trotter's granola with yogurt or chicken rice salad, and dined on soups and stir-fry. Cheese topped daikon or apple slices rather than crackers, peanut butter was consumed straight from the spoon, and cabbage made crunchy chips for dip. Chocolate safely satisfied my sweet tooth.  

this is the way we slice our daikon, by supertrixiecat.

While I didn't suffer much from lack of bread or cookies, partly because I knew I could have them again soon, I was surprised by smaller challenges.I decided from the start that I would follow the spirit of the gluten-free diet rather than the letter. I would avoid obvious manifestations of the protein and make some exceptions for when I was at work. This freed me to eat granola (oats are often contaminated with gluten), taste soups with roux, or test pasta for doneness. 

But after Wednesday's post, I realized that the spirit of the gluten-free diet is total abstention from gluten. I should choose the gluten-free granola. I should brush the bread crumbs off the cutting board before using it. I should check to make sure I'm using wheat-free tamari before I sprinkle it all over the stir-fry. Then I began to understand the full challenge of being really gluten-free.

This experiment has brought all sorts of questions to my attention. For example, my aunt mentioned that a possible hazard of the gluten-free diet is a decrease one's tolerance to gluten. I've found other reasons to think twice about a gluten-free diet, but they will have to wait for another post.