Have you been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance and you’re seeing all your favorite comfort foods pass before your eyes, taunting you because you can’t have them anymore? Well here is some is good news!
Most healthy whole foods like fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy are naturally gluten-free and part of a nutritious diet.
Here you'll find what to eat, what to avoid and what to watch for on a gluten-free diet.
I’m hoping to take the mystery out of this whole gluten-free food thing and make it just a little less scary. Gluten-free food is not something mysterious or weird or special. Most healthy whole foods, the ones you see in the outside aisles of your supermarket like fresh fruits and vegetables, whole fresh cuts of meat, dairy and eggs are naturally gluten-free and you can have all of them.
Read through or use the links below to jump to the sections that interest you.
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Just remember the acronym
BROW.
It stands for barely, rye, oats*, wheat.
That’s it. Four things
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*Three things really because oats are technically gluten free
but because they are often grown and processed along with wheat, you need to
get certified gluten free oats if you’re going to eat oats.
Of course, it couldn’t be quite that simple, wheat actually goes by several alias’s so you need to know what they are:
And wheat is rarely eaten in its natural form. Wheat, and to a lesser extent, rye, barley, and oats, are ground and refined and turned into flour and then transformed into a whole slew of products that fill our diets, not the least of which is my beloved pasta.
Did you ever stop to think how much of the supermarket is taken up by wheat products?
The most obvious is the bakery section. There you find:
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Continue on and you’ll find full aisles of:
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Tricky things to watch for*:
*Many sauces, soups, seasonings and other packaged goods have gluten. If a food has a label, check it to be sure.
Happily, soon after that day that I sat staring at my test results mourning my loss, I found out that there is actually more that I can eat than what I can’t. And even more to celebrate, gluten-free pasta exists! It’s real, and it’s pretty good! Pizza too!
Here are links to more info about your favorite gluten-free foods
You're welcome!
Naturally gluten-free food is simply food that, in it's natural form, does not have the gluten protein in it, and that is really the bulk of all food that is grown on planet earth.
The word “natural” can be a bit difficult to define. Various regulatory agencies have created definitions for food labelling. Here is what the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has to say. For our purposes I think of it as a continuum. Whole foods like fruits and vegetables are in their most natural form. Some foods have been mechanically processed like grinding grains into flour. I would consider that to be minimal processing. Other foods have been significantly chemically altered or even created entirely in a lab. Those I would consider highly processed.
You'll see this graphic throughout NaturallyGluten-Free as a way to illustrate where on the continuum a particular gluten-free food may sit. There is nothing scientific about it, just an approximation based on the amount of processing or processed ingredients a food contains.
Have you ever heard the advice given by many doctors and nutritionists to stick to the outside aisles in the supermarket? That is sound advice for us too. Bakery aside, the perimeter of the store is where the “whole foods” are generally displayed and most of these will be naturally gluten-free food:
What do you think of when you think of grains? What about whole grains? Is wheat the first thing that comes to mind? Whole wheat bread, whole grain crackers, rye bread, bagels, croissants. I think I knew there were other grains, but didn’t really give thought to the variety until I had to take wheat, rye and barley off the table. Gluten free grains include:
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![]() Millet and Amaranth cereal with nuts and berries |
Items made from gluten free grains
Most of what you’ll find in the coolers and the dairy case is naturally gluten-free. Just check the labels to be sure. Of course if you are lactose intolerant or casein intolerant you'll be looking for gluten and dairy free substitutions.
When you get into the center aisles you can still find a lot that is naturally gluten-free
The frozen foods section has oodles of gluten-free food choices. Of course the days of keeping a few frozen pizzas in the freezer for emergencies are over. There may be gluten free ones, but they’re expensive and frankly quite gross. But if you steer away from the processed prepared meals and focus on whole, frozen vegetables and fruit you’ll find lots to choose from. Frozen is much healthier than canned. It’s convenient, you don’t have to worry about buying more than you can eat, and I love the frozen berries with yogurt - it's almost like ice cream. Don’t forget to check the packages. And remember, choose organic if you can.
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Stay away from anything breaded or battered. Be careful of anything pre-seasoned, or as in the photo to the left, anything that's had pasta or other gluten grains snuck in. My husband recently pick up frozen veggies not realizing they had barley grains mixed in. Always read labels to be sure the producers haven’t snuck any gluten-containing additives in there. |
When you get into these sections you start to get into more processed items, and since this is NaturallyGluten-Free I’d like to mostly steer you away from here. Also, the more you steer away from processed foods and instead buy whole foods and ingredient that you cook yourself, the easier this gluten-free diet will be on your wallet. But there are some convenience products that have few ingredients and can serve as sides or as ingredients in your recipes. Some that I keep in my pantry are:
Read all labels just to be sure. Popular condiments that contain gluten are: soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, many barbecue sauces, some mustards. You need to look for gluten free versions of these.
Most pure spices will be gluten free but spice mixes often contain gluten.
Also watch out for ready made canned or packaged items like soups, broth or stock, stews, chilis etc. Read the labels carefully.
Much of this is minimally processed as well as naturally gluten-free and part of a healthy diet:
More highly processed and less healthy but still technically naturally gluten-free in that they don’t contain any gluten:
These are items that in their familiar form contain gluten, but food manufacturers are producing gluten free versions. Sometimes you’ll see these in a special gluten-free or “free-from” section. These products in my opinion are a mixed blessing. I’m thrilled that I can get gluten free pasta, wraps, bread, buns, cookies, cakes etc. but there are a few things to keep in mind:
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Gluten is the springy protein that allows baked goods to rise and gives them their structure. Without gluten, other processed materials are often substituted like gums and highly processed starches. I’m not going to tell you not to eat these things, but moderation is a good approach. |
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Read the labels and try to choose products with as few ingredients as possible and avoid anything you can’t pronounce, or as Michael Pollen, food journalist and author would say, avoid anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. |
Gluten-free and organic are not synonymous, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can have anything in this area. However, in the name of taking a more “natural” approach to eating which to me means avoiding a lot of unnecessary additives and keeping the ingredient list short, organic is a good choice. These foods tend to use less pesticides in growing and fewer chemicals in processing. They are just in general cleaner choices. As always, check the labels.
So was I right? Do you feel better now that you know that gluten-free food is not weird or hard to find? It's just food.
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