My wife has gone through a ton of tests and the doctors have said she is basically allergic to Gluten and Dairy products.  Sucks to be her but we are finding different foods for her but I thought all of you might have some sights for support or info or to buy bulk food, etc. we could visit, stores to look at or any info would be greatly appreciated.  We are at the beginning of this and she won't die or anything like that if she eats gluten or dairy but she just won't feel really good so we need to give it a whirl.  Anyway, I've noticed it is a lot more expensive and Costco seems to have good deals on some items.

Thanks for your help and input.

My youngest son had those allergies, as well as nuts, avocado, watermlon, apples, mustard, and a bunch more. He has outgrown most of these allergies, but at the peak my wife spent a lot of time at Whole Foods looking for stuff he could eat.

At the time I was annoyed at all the hippies in that place, since I learned their CEO is a solid capitalist I feel like going back and shopping there some more.

I'm in the same boat, rice potatoes and beans buddy.  Spuds have become my best freinds.

Just sub. soy for dairy; soymilk, soy yogurt, etc. Go to small "health" stores for best selection.

With my wife, butter is OK (and she is VERY sensitive to dairy).

Cook all of your own food, and be VERY carefull at restraunts; they like to put cream in a lot of things.

Get ready to start baking from scratch.

Allot of the Gluten Free crap that whole foods sells tastes like ass (cardboard).

My wife and I have been cooking GF/CF for about 4 years now because our children are allergic to the point that they get autistic symptoms from eating it.

Brown rice is a staple. As is Meat.
We bake using alternative flours like amaranth and white rice flour. (Amaranth Pancakes are the bomb)
My wife visits several websites online to get GF recipes and most are just ok until she changes them to suit our taste then they are awesome.

Wife is building a website for GF as we speak to share her recipes.

You can buy GF pasta at Whole Foods its called Tinkyada and it is as close to normal pasta as you can get. (Its pretty good and I'm 75% Italian)

Also if you guys eat cereal you can get several flavors of Chex brand that is GF

Your right GF foods are more expensive but generally only if you buy the premade crap which again tastes like ass.

Check out Bobs Red Mill for alternative flours for baking.

You can get dairy substitutes like Rice Dream. Instead of using dairy as a thickener for soups and such we use that and believe it or not mashed potatoes.

Check out Karina's kitchen online, Gluten free goddess blogspot or some crap like that.

Google search "GLUTEN FREE RECIPES" its rather hit and miss as far as decent recipes but you can find a few gems out there.

If you're anywhere near the Austin area or a larger city,  try some of the smaller grocery stores.  Around here Sprouts,  NewFlower, or Sun Harvest Markets are good places to look for the gluten free foods.    I believe Sprouts even has a list of the Gluten free foods the carry.  
Good Luck

Outback Steakhouse has a gluten free menu; we've been serving folks with celiac disuse for years.
Search for celiac society, there is a bunch of help out there.

What were her symptoms that caused her to pursue the tests?

ost for later response...my boy is autistic and we went through the same thing...

My girlfriend is the same.  No gluten, no dairy.

Go to Whole Foods.

There are a lot of gluten free options now. I found I was gluten intolerant a few years ago. Then there wasn't squat for gluten free stuff. But there are loads of things now. Betty Crocker even has gluten free cake mixes now.

There are rice or corn based pastas, bread mixes, crackers and other things. I do miss good bread. Gluten is what gives bread it's flexibility and chewy goodness.

We're lucky that a store specializing in gluten free items opened in our town. But if you look around you should be able to find some things locally. Most of our grocery chain stores carry at least some pasta items and other things. Try looking in the Organic aisle.

http://www.celiac.org/

Start reading.

Otherwise, much of the asian food can be made gluten and dairy free.

There will be a list of things that you should look out for that don't always indicate gluten.  ("Malt flavoring" comes from wheat or barley, for example.)

Also note, that exposure that does not make you feel bad can do damage anyway.   A couple of my relatives have died due to pancreatic complications that are linked to undiagnosed celiac disease, it can kill you early in life.

Good luck.  The good news is, that there is more awareness and more options than ever before, even in just the last 5 years.

goat milk

Check HEB, they carry a lot of gluten free foods. My ex-girlfriend and half of a family that I'm close with friends are in the same boat as your wife.

Bob's red mill has a exhaustive new line of gluten free products.

One of my employees has a daughter with ciliac's check out the links provided above.

She now has a problem with dairy, so she gets goat milk. Think gluten free crust pizza with pesto and goat cheese.

Your public library can get you every gluten free book from sources to recepies FREE. Ask them.

A few people in my family have the same problems.

You will be shopping at more of the Whole Foods, Central Market "Health Food" type stores because they have all that stuff.

There are a lot of Non dairy things that still taste pretty good but a little different than your usual dairy version of the butter, milk, yogurt, ice cream, pudding etc...
I wont be heard to avoid really and will most likely result in a healtheir diet since you have no choice but to avoid junk and fast food.

+1.....I'm allergic to a ton of stuff as well.  Get in the habit of reading the label and knowing what is what.  Most stuff nowadays will say "Gluten Free".  Stick to Soy or Rice products.  Unfortunately, you maybe spending a little more on your diet than before.  I guess it's the price you pay to eat healthier.  Costco seems to be picking up more Soy based and organic products.  Buy the Soy milk by the case.  No more junk food for me...

I not only lost weight, but to tell you the truth, I acutally feel better.  No more greasy, crappy, fast food type stuff.

We're going through this also. My son is autistic and my daughter has autistic like reactions to gluten. The most frustrating thing is restrauants that put it in things you don't expect like fries

Now we bake fries at home.

There are a lot of good recipies online. Keep looking and you'll find ones you like. Expect to do a lot of baking from now on.

No cheese pizza, huh?    Ratz!

Asian grocers have all kinds of rice flours and items made from it.
Indian grocers have crackers and breads made from lentils and chick peas.

Finding prepared food and such that are dairy and gluten free is a bitch.  You basically have to buy all of the ingredients for what you want, and make it yourself, to be sure none of it is in there.  Keep home meals simple, healthy, and with few ingredients.

Not to make him/her feel worse, but if I couldn't have pizza at least once a week from the Italian place down the street, I'd just say "Fuck my life".

 

I have Celiac disease.  

For me I had to change the nature of what I eat- not spend a lot of time searching for substitutes.   The reason is (as you will shortly be made aware) the substitutes are usually expensive and are generally lacking in some way.

I cook all my own food, with a few exceptions (not many).  The recommendation for Tinkyada products is good- it will provide a substitute for spaghetti.

Go to an Asian market and purchase some rice pastas.  They come in many different forms and variety is the spice of life.  They are also very inexpensive.  What you give up in traditional flavors you need to find replacements.  Get a book on Thai cooking.  It will give her some sanity (delicious flavors, too).  The best book on the subject is Wandee Young's Simply Thai Cooking.:
http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Thai-Cooking-Wandee-Young/dp/077880075X

Most soy sauce contains wheat (go figure).  A cheap form of soy sauce which is OK for cooking is La Choy.  It lacks in flavor but it is cheap, easy to get, and does not contain gluten.  An expensive but good wheat free soy sauce is San J wheat free tamari.  

I have used plain corn starch to coat chicken before I pan fry it.  It provides a substitute for "chicken fingers".

It is very difficult to live without bread.  Go to Trader Joe's if possible.  They sell a gluten free english muffin.  You toast it and use it to make sandwiches out of.  It will scratch the itch.

With a moniker like "cheesebeast" you can guess I don't go without my dairy.  If your gal is having gastro-intestinal problems then really try to cut the wheat out completely.  It may be a huge part of the problem.  Celiac disease involves inflammation and a massive immune response.  This can turn an unrelated sensitivity into a huge problem.  For instance, I used to get massive debilitating seasonal allergies.  I thought the ragweed was the problem.  It was, but my body went beserk because of the underlying (then undiagnosed) Celiac disease.

It isn't easy, but encourage her to keep to the path.  People ask if "I cheat".  The answer is absolutely NOT.  

Once she starts to feel better she will be able to keep things in perspective.

Good luck!

Chex are now gluten free

If you want to score some major points with your wife, go to Whole Foods and get some of the gluten free Miles of Chocolate.



http://milesofchocolate.com/



 

Celiac family here.

Cheesebeast you might want to look up tamanari or tamari, I cannot remember. Real soy sauce without wheat. Yummy.

We practice avoidance instead of substitution as well. Much less frustration.

Meat, veggies, and fruit make up the bulk of our diet. I am also type II diabetic so most starches are out. My wife is grain free and I only rarely eat them.  

It is really not more expensive. A pound of meat is $2 vs $5 a pound for cereals or better breads.

Learn to make omelets.

Also home prep snacks and lunches. It is a bitch to eat out. I built a smoker so that should help
some with our road trips.

Thanks Yekimak, I will check out the Tamari options.  The La Choy brand soy sauce is pretty horrid in flavor...

I don't know how well distributed they are but Lara bars are simply excellent- you mentioned road snacks.

They are also sugar free, gluten free, and lactose free.  For instance the "banana bread" they offer is made out of almonds, dates, and unsweetened bananas.  It tastes like banana bread.  No kidding!  

Check them out.  I doubt you will be disappointed:
http://www.larabar.com

+1 to this and Trader Joe's if you have one nearby. A friend of our's daughter is on a gluten free diet and it tough when she comes to visit. You'll see a big change in her moods and the way she feels. Tell her to keep track of what she eats and how she feels.

A couple months after my son was born he had bloody stools and would vomit after breastfeeding whenever my wife had milk, soy, eggs, oats, corn, wheat, turkey, poultry, peanuts or tree nuts.  Formula is cow milk or soy based.  The only option was to cut all that stuff from our diet.  We simply could not avoid the list of stuff that my son was allergic to - basically if it came in a box or jar from the store we couldn't eat it.  

So we cook everything at home, from scratch.

Here's what we did:

Checked out several "allergy" cookbooks from the library.  Tried several of the recipies.  Bought a couple of these cookbooks from the health foods store that had lots of recipies that we liked.

Best advice I can offer is to read up on the allergies, what specific foods cause them, and get motivated to do a lot of cooking at home.  I'm not too familiar with the gluten allergy, but I think there are grains that have lower gluten levels than wheat or no gluten at all.  You can get 25 lb sacks of these grains from Mormon or 7th day Adventist type places or in smaller and more expensive packages at a health foods store.  Buy an electric grain mill and make your own flour for bread, cookies, brownies, etc.  We do this.

As my son got older we were able to successfully introduce several foods to his diet.  He is still allergic to milk, soy, and oats.  We haven't tried peanuts or treenuts yet.  If your wife cuts milk and gluten from her diet for 6 months or so, you might find that she is able to tolerate them if they are limited in quantity or are prepared a certain way - a little grated cheese on a salad, some milk if it is part of a baked dish, a few cookies made with butter, etc and similar for gluten.

PM me if you want the title of the cookbook that we use most frequently.

One final important thing that we learned:  Make a menu for each week or two., list the cookbook and the page, shop for that menu so you have all the ingredients on hand.  Keep notes on whether you liked the recipie or not.



J.

For anyone in the mid-Atlantic region, Dutch Valley Foods carries bulk gluten-free flours and baking mixes.

I don't have the dairy allergy.  But my recommendation is DO NOT BOTHER with the "gluten free" pre-made products like breads and cookies.  They are awful.

As someone else already said: corn meal, grits, potatoes, beans, rice.

She needs to eat based on what she actually can eat, not on creating fascimiles of what she used to eat.

Good advice already.  





1.  Learn to read ingredients labels carefully.  Depending on your wife's sensitivity, you will or won't need to care that "Modified food starch" usually contains gluten.





2. We eat a lot of pasta.  You can add a small saucepan to the preparation and cook some nongluten pasta for her, and everyone can enjoy the "same" meal.





3. For a grain, check out quinoa.  We really like it.

 

Can she eat bacon? please say she can still eat bacon!

Lactose intolerant guy checking in.



Yep, Trader Joe's has some good stuff and they are a lot cheaper than Whole Foods ("Whole Paycheck").  

Also as mentioned, try an Oriental grocery store.  Proportionally, Orientals tend to be more lactose intolerant and so those stores offer a lot of items sans lactose.

HTH!

Them puppies ain't sugar free, they just don't have any added sugar. I keep them in my pack for emergency food. They are good. Just spendy. We buy dates by the case and make our own for road trips.  Dump a bunch in the food processor, add peanuts and a dash of salt and go. I have packed them in little food saver packs too.

Problem is that I need meat while on the road. Too much sugar and I am worthless. So I made a smoker. It is pretty big, I just have to work on dialing it in now. First batch of salmon was alright but I think I can do better.  

A company called azure standard is where we order from through a food co-op here.

Sorry about the sugar.  Out of curiosity are many people around your neck of the woods diabetic?   Is it possibly due to the large numbers of people with native blood?  I recall reading about a tribe down on the southern US border that had the largest incidence of diabetes on a per-capita basis that had ever been recorded.  

I never thought about making my own Larabars- dates seem to be the main ingredient.  I should.  They remind me of an updated (pun) version of pemmican.

I carry the bars along (without the noisy wrappings) when I go deer hunting.  My buddy saw me eating one that had been squished in my pack and asked me if I often ate turds.

Celiac disease makes for some odd meals.

Nachos for breakfast FTW!

Everyone is diabetic here and natives only make up 15% of the population.  There is a higher rate among natives, but they have higher rates of everything.  I think it is all diet induced compounded with the lack of sun.

I am part native.  

I am trying to go grain free as I cannot think of any grains on the tundra.  Of course green leafy veggies and apples and dates are in short supply there as well, but I gotta pick my battles.

What is funny is that I went GF a while back after hearing that my father's side of the family had wheat allergies.  My wife scoffed.  Then my youngest started getting rashes when she started on solids....and cheerios.  Dermatitis herpetiformis, a sure sign of gluten issues.  My wife went GF out of sympathy really.  She lost 60 pounds or so.  My joint pain went away, I lost some weight etc, we all start feeling better.  

I have just...well my wife just finally convinced my mom to try GF diet as she is racked with arthritis and such.  It has been a month and she is not in as much pain and has more energy.  



For the OP, I hate to say it, but Vegans and raw vegans have tons of recipes that work for the GF/CF diet.  Start there and add steak and chicken etc.  Look at ethnic cuisines from places that typically do not use wheat.  You might have to modify your idea of a square meal and skip the starch.  Try and buy non-processed stuff and be wary of hidden wheat, like in McDonald's fries.  It is extremely overwhelming at first, and it will always be frustrating.  


My two favorite things for replacing flour in like soups and such are potato flour, which i use to make kickass gravy, and sweet rice/sweet rice flour.  a handful of sweet rich will thicken a pot of stew, or you can grind it up and use as a thickener/binder.

My wife has managed to become a bit of a genius at this stuff and can whip up most anything off the top of her head.  Her bean flour pancakes are tits.  

Google for recipes

Get a bread maker and bake your own gluten free bread

My niece has Celiac Disease. If she comes into contact with any gluten laden products the poor kid turns inside out. My sister in law has become really knowledgeable on the topic and has puttogether a website with a ton of info. Hope it helps.

Gluten Free Mom

HealingWell.com

Tag for later showing to my wife.  She went gluten free for a while and has an absolute butt-load of sites bookmarked.

What he said, and buy yourself a quality bread maker. The bread that they sell in stores is shitty and falls apart. I love me a sammich and you can use pre purchased mix and make it your self. Makes a world of difference.

Oh, and going out to eat is a complete pain in the ass. The restaurant might say that they have gluten free foods to eat, but you have to be careful of cross contamination if you are sensitive to gluten. Sometimes I get still get sick eating out at them even when they say its safe.

What is the link?

Here are some sites that my wife found useful and/or informative, mostly for recipes I think:

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

http://www.elanaspantry.com/