Gluten free eating out

I’ve found that most restaurants are getting gluten savvy and are more than happy to help when they are made aware of the dietary request. I’ve learned some easy tricks to getting the gluten free options with minimal fuss.

#1. don’t jump on the hostess first thing with questions. The hostesses job is to seat you and I’ve rarely found them to know the menu much less diet options. It can also cause protracted discomfort for your dining partners as you go through the who explanation of GF with the hostess.

#2. the BEST time to ask for the GF optlions is when the wait person comes to take your drink order. They are already getting prepped to bring you drinks and picking up a gf menu or asking the chef for options is within their workflow so it usually causes minimal fuss

#3. if they don’t have gf menus then ask the wait person to check with the manager or the chef. If THEY don’t know of any choices then be very careful-the kitchen most likely doesn’t segregate the gluten from other items- even a salad could pose a gluten exposure risk.

#4. the WORST time to ask for the gf options is when the wait person comes to take the order. In almost every case it creates a delay for everyone in that the person will usually need to leave your table to get the menu/chef/answer. I’ve seen cases where the wait person will just verbally give one or two choices instead of providing the full menu in order to not delay the ordering.

The main approach should be to ask the wait person, at a good time in the serving cycle, with minimum disruption to your companions.

 

Tip for managing cravings on a gluten-free diet

I have heard for many years that breakfast was the most important meal of the day but I never really believed it. When you have a massive change in diet (like going gluten-free) and/or you are dramatically cutting down on the number of calories that you are targeting for daily intake, it becomes very clear how important that meal is.

Having a good start with a healthy, balanced breakfast is critical to getting the blood sugar levels on the right path for the day. One of the tips that Dr. Mehmet Oz has in his book, Your Diet and You, is the concept of eating two of the same meals every day and then only varying the third. I have a variation on that which I use for breakfast. Here it is:

Day 1:

Cheese and Mushroom omelette
side of ham
black beans

Day 2:

Two eggs scrambled with cheese
side of bacon
black beans

Day 3:

Two eggs over medium
side of ham
black beans

I then rotate back to the top of the list. This is hugely helpful for getting your day started right. I then do a small snack (equal carbs and protein) at about 10:30am to set me up for lunch.

On the few days that I have not followed this menu routine I have noticed a MAJOR difference in my ability to make it through the day. Just a thought.

 

Eating Gluten-Free (and generally healthy) at Fast Food Restaurants

Given my schedule I frequently find myself needing a quick meal. Today, for example, I was out by myself doing errands and I realized that it had been five hours since I had last eaten and I needed to get some food. The really good news is that three weeks ago I would have been hungry in two hours. Now it’s more like 4-5 hours. I didn’t have time to go to a sit-down restaurant and I was struggling with what to do. There was a Wendy’s on the corner and I pulled over and typed in ‘Wendy’s Gluten-Free’ on my web-enabled phone. Sure enough, a list of gluten free offerings came up. I pulled in and got a double cheeseburger (no bun) and small side of Chili. Obnoxiously I told the cashier that I had a gluten allergy, but i did it to ensure that they didn’t just pull a bun off of another hamburger and give it to me. The food was good, filling, and inexpensive. I was wondering what other choices there are. Turns out, not much – but here is a link to another article on eating gluten free at fast food places. If you find other good ideas please comment on them here.

 

Whole Foods – Providing a Quick Start

After a couple of days wandering through my local grocery stores trying to figure out what was gluten-free and low glycemic and what was poison, I got completely frustrated. Asking people at the store was useless and I’m not enough of a chemist to know what additives may have gluten in them. I gave up.

Then a friend told me the Whole Foods secret. If you go to the customer service desk at Whole Foods they will give you a directory for the type of diet that you are on. I went there and they gave me a 20 page printout by department of items in the store that are gluten-free. I found cookies, rice pasta, gluten-free soy sauce, and other items very easily. The most important part was that they had lists of SNACKS that I could eat that are gluten-free. They also have the lists ONLINE BY STORE for different dietary needs that you can use to preplan before your shopping trip. It’s a great way to get started.