The huge gluten-free market is huge for a reason — it’s been taken over by the same folks who supply the faux food to everyone else. It’s filled with sugar, hfcs, corn, soy, and just about every other chemical available to the manufacturers. The vast majority of it is in my opinion packaged poison (I know that sounds harsh).
A lot of you will complain that it’s just not practical to give up the processed store-bought food, but I will tell you differently. I’m a single father of three with a wildly fluctuating income and if I can make it work, so can you. Certain things might cost a little more money, and certain things might be harder to find, but with a little practice you shouldn’t have any problems in changing the way you eat and feeling so much better for it.
Personally, I’ve run the gamut of being grossly underweight at 140 lbs (pre-celiac diagnosis) back in 1999 to a whopping 280 lbs in 2008 — living off of the plethora of gluten-free junk food that lines the shelves of just about every mainstream supermarket chain. It didn’t take me long to realize that there was something desperately wrong with what I was doing and that things needed to change and change fast. So began my food awakening. I discovered why there are some doctors who say that the gluten-free diet can be dangerous, it can be dangerous because of relying on gluten-free junk food and then wondering why we have so many ill effects.
I understand the ease of getting home from work and throwing some frozen dinners in the microwave and three minutes later having dinner for four ready to eat — yes, it’s easy, but it’s really not a sustainable way of life.
I do spend more time on dinner now, but I also spend more time talking with my kids as well as having them help me in the kitchen. Their only complaint with the process is that they’re eating quite a few more vegetables than they used to — this is obviously OK with me.
I’m not going to sit here on a perch and start saying that I only eat things that are organic or that I never eat things from a package, but I will say that I’ve cut that packaged food down by at least 80% and all that I can say is that the proof is in my transformation. Without much exercise, I’ve stabilized my weight (now at 180 lbs) and have seen all of my vitals change for the better. I’ve ditched all grains, I’ve ditched all processed sugars, and to answer the question about what I eat, here it is. I eat a modified version of the paleo/primal diet, I’m not as militant as some, but I do hold true to the vast majority of the ideas. The exception would be with dairy, I still eat a small amount of swiss cheese as well as full fat Greek yogurt. I don’t touch anything that says low-fat or non-fat as I think that’s one of the things that got us all into trouble in the first place. I eat beef, chicken, pork, and fish whenever I want. I eat huge amounts of vegetables and a small amount of fruit (preferably blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries). Much to the surprise of vegetarians, I avoid all legumes as well (a good explanation of why I avoid legumes). The one common theme you’ll see here is that it’s all real food, it’s all either animal or plant based and when possible, sourced locally. My food bills are between $600 and $750 per month for the four of us and have stayed pretty consistent for quite some time.
The sort of packaged food that still finds its way into our kitchen are things like Larabars (this might change as I’ve been reading some disturbing things about them and their connection with Monsanto lately and that it’s fairly easy to make something similar), bagged frozen berries from Trader Joe’s, teabags, and my swiss cheese. I’ll also be honest and say that I know my kids still get their fair share of the processed stuff at friends’ houses as well as the daily trades at school with friends. I just feel good knowing that by not having this stuff at home, I’m minimizing their exposure to it.
At the end of the day, we eat what is convenient. In an effort to improve our health, we have to make good food convenient, that is only going to happen if we keep the junk food out of reach. This is especially true for our kids, because we do control what is available to them (at least at home) and with so many products that should be labeled “food like items” lining store shelves, educating ourselves on what food can do to our health is of the utmost importance.
My parting message will be to say treat your celiac disease with naturally gluten-free food that is good for you and get rid of the boxes that have big letters spelling “gluten-free” on the side. As the title of this post says, “Say no to gluten-free junk food”.
