
Udi's Chocolate Muffins at BlogHer '11. Photo credit to Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife
For years, I’ve been hearing my friends Kelly and Jo-Lynne talk about eating gluten-free. I’ve listened curiously but without much personal attachment to the subject.
Then a couple of weeks ago, my vegan sister told me that she had gone gluten-free. And that she’s lost 30 lbs doing it and all of her skin problems (bad eczema she’s had since childhood) are gone.
Meanwhile, Nate (7 years) has been complaining a lot this summer of having a stomach ache. We can’t seem to find any rhyme or reason to the times he complains. It’s been sort of on and off all summer and definitely seems related to food. Someone suggested that maybe he has a wheat intolerance and that we try first eliminating that as an experiment to see what happens.
The idea of going gluten-free in our house is totally daunting to me. But I decided I owed it to Nate to give it a try – a little at a time. I’ve been slowly weaning us all from gluten, which hasn’t been as hard as I thought. (Rice for pasta. Corn tortillas instead of my usual wheat ones.)
In the meantime, I was already familiar with Udi’s Gluten-Free as I had visited their tent at a party at BlogHer just this past summer. I was scarfing down these brownies like they were going out of style and I could not tell the difference between one of these chocolate muffins and a regular chocolate muffin that has gluten. Truly.
Which is really awesome because I’m thinking that I can try some of the bread and other products for Nate’s lunchbox for back to school this fall. He certainly won’t know the difference and it’s great to know that there is an option for gluten-free that is so readily available and that they have tons of products available that I would normally put in his lunchbox (packs of cookies, bagels, etc.).
Udi’s makes hamburger buns too, which I’m pretty psyched about too as I typically make Nate’s turkey sandwiches for his lunchbox on hamburger buns so I figure I can just switch to the Udi’s ones without much of an issue. (I love easy!)
Time will tell how this goes for us and I’m still pretty intimidated by the whole thing but it’s nice to know there is a brand out there that’s readily available in my grocery store that will help us ease into this experiment without too much of a change.
Check out all of Udi’s Gluten Free Food offerings on their website and while you’re at it, Like Udi’s on Facebook!
Giveaway: $50 worth of Udi’s products (hamburger and hot dog buns, granola samples, and muffins). Comment to enter. Maybe give me a tip or two on gluten-free options as I endevour to cut down our gluten intake even more? Tips are appreciated but not required of course.
One winner will be selected at random after Thursday, September 1st.
You can get an extra entry for tweeting me @WhitneyMWS with the link to this post.
Disclaimer: I was compensated for writing this post but as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I had a naturopath recommend a gluten free lifestyle. I tried it for about 8 months, lost weight but didn’t feel a whole lot better. So, I went back to the wheat. I am now feeling pretty lousy and going to go wheat-free again. This sure would help. Udi’s wasn’t available in my area before.Check-out http://www.elanaspantry.com/ she is also on FB and twitter.
We’re not entirely gluten free yet, but we’re working on it too.
I have also thought about going gluten-free for my family & I’m intimidated by it as well.
Just bought my first loaf!!! It’s wonderful!!! Looking for a list of foods I can eat as a gluten free newbie without the complicated flours involved.
My son and I went gluten free last year and it’s been pretty daunting for us. It’s getting easier now that we recognize what we can and can’t have. To make it easier, we just go heavy on the fruits and veggies to be safe. We don’t like most of the GF bread products available in our area, so we just don’t eat them. There are some cereals coming out in GF options, but they tend to be expensive.
I just heard about gluten-free a few days and I was like, Ugh.. another way of diet… Not gonna try it. But lately when I’m surfing the web, I noticed that people have had gluten-free food got better results for their diet. So, it really turns me on and thinking why not try? I’m gonna start taking gluten-free food by next week. Thanks for this post!
If you do GF the right way and don’t eat too much of the processed foods, you will naturally feel better because you are eating better. And possibly lose weight because there are more natural foods you are eating (but I did not). I expect that all this GF fad dieting will go away soon, but a GF diet for celiacs is a requirement to living so my family with a 4yo celiac is embracing all these current food offerings.
Check out UDI’s web site. Very informative and there’s a 1.00 coupon as well!!!
Our family is now 98% gluten free because my daughter was diagnosed with celiac last year at age 3. She does not have a choice, everything must be GF for her. Tinkyada makes some great pasta that we have a few nights a week. She also prefers Bell & Evans chicken tenders…….she will not touch the Ians brand. And if you take your time and look around, there are a lot of naturally occuring gluten-free foods, more if you don’t need to worry about shared equipment (we do). We also eat a lot of nuts in our house as snacks. Avoid as much of the processed GF foods and you will feel better……I do just as being a GF by-product.
My family is not gluten free but we love quinoa and products made from it. Check out Ancient Harvest pastas. They are great and taste just like regular pasta.
Have never tried to go gluten free, but lately I feel like I need some sort of change in my eating habits. Would love a chance to try a few things. Also good luck to you in your change!
My tip is to always read the labels to be sure the product is gluten free. I also find that daily exercising helps!
As I sit and read this I am eating at cinnamon rill by Udi’s. Not bad I must say! Their bread is simply the BEST. No one else compares.
TIP: If you are the only GF person in the house be sure to freeze the bread to keep longer
I went gluten free 6 weeks in Feb/March of this year. Found out I was pregnant after that and with my morning sickness I’ve been craving wheat and dairy like crazy. I plan to try gluten free again in the future, loved trying Udi’s bread during my gf trial. 🙂
OMG, I NEED Udi’s. period.
A tip is to check all labels. There will some foods that you wouldn’t think to be gluten free but are. With my husband allergic to wheats, there’s also an app for iphone and android that lets you scan bar codes of products to see if there’s gluten in them…very handy!
My daughter was just diagnosed with Celiacs after having her first baby. In doing some research I have found that I too have many symptoms and am in the process of being tested. I have reduced the amount of gluten in my diet at this time, and it does make a difference. Whether testing confirms I have Celiacs or not, I think that going Gluten Free will be the direction I go. I just tried the Udi’s bread this morning, and agree that it is very good. I am please to find that while expensive, there are choices out there. The University of Chicago has a Celiac Disease website loaded with information – http://www.celiacdisease.net/
I love Udi’s products, the bread and hamburger/hotdog buns are the ONLY gluten free store-bought options we have liked, after trying many. Also the muffins and pizza crusts are so good. Haven’t tried the brownies yet, but will be after having read your review.
Extremely loved your review! Thank you for the opportunity, I hope to win.
Nguyenhkathy at gmail dot com
After dealing with candida, realizing O blood types shouldn’t do wheat, I’ve cut back tremendously on gluten and wheat in our home!
Hey Whitney! We have started dabbling in gluten-free as well. Since Adam is Type 1 diabetic, it is often accompanied by a Celiac disease diagnosis. Adam hasn’t been dx’d yet, but he has complained of stomach problems lately, so we are starting to do more things gluten-free.
I’ve been gluten-free for about 5 years now. An important thing to realize is that for the gluten-free diet to really make a difference, you have to be TOTALLY gluten-free. No cheating. It sounds harder than it is. If your family likes pancakes, definitely get a hold of some Pamela’s Products Pancake and Baking Mix. It make wonderful pancakes and biscuits. I also second the recommendation for quinoa–it is such a tasty and nutritious grain.
love the gluten free,- just watch and adjust…there is so many products out there
My friend makes a wonderful 6 ingredient flour that really has nice texture. The rice flour is the best ingredient, it keeps it from getting gritty.
ky2here at msn dot com
I got hooked on Gluten Free foods after trying Chex’s new Gluten Free cereals. Thank you for the lovely giveaway.
sewmuchstuff at ymail dot com
popchips are gluten free and they are so yummy
Thanks so much!! Janna Johnson jannajanna@hotmail.com janna@feedyourpig on gf
Wow!!! Love all the comments and I am thankful for all the recommendations!!!!
With all the hints I’ve picked up, going GF will not be as overwhelming as I thought!!!
Interesting paper. It would help to ciarlfy whether the invitation to the survey mentioned that the topic of the survey was autoimmune diseases. If so, then there could be a selection bias for PALS that have an autoimmune disease (e.g., PALS with an autoimmune disease would be more likely to fill out the survey than PALS without an autoimmune disease). If the invitation did not mention autoimmune disease, then ciarlfying that in the methods would make the paper much stronger.
lGjk2q eeckcbubeuhf
I don’t have any helpful tips yet, but I think going gluten free is a great choice! For right now I’m just trying to stay lo carb.
blue65829 at aol dot com
I’d look for items made with lentils or chickpeas, such as lentil chips, for good snack substitutes.
We’re completely gluten free and loving it! So much more healthier for you.
ginaferrell3 at yahoo dot com
Tweeted this giveaway
http://twitter.com/#!/BriellePrincess/status/108995004650889216
ginaferrell3 at yahoo dot com
Get a good cookbook and don’t be afraid to bake. My worst mistake early on was to think I could give up without substitutes. At some point, even with bread, you need something else or you start to go a little crazy.
Read labels, Do research there are restaurants and you can find gluten free pizza and bertuccis’s has a gf free menu.