The G-Free Diet : A Gluten-Free Survival Guide

I suppose if you had to classify this text, it would be "Self-help" literature...but literature none-the-less.  And since its what I've been reading these days, its what I have the knowledge to blog about.

The G-Free Diet: A Guten-Free Survival Guide is an extensive "how-to" written by The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.  Yes, she is the crazy right-wing one, but no, you wouldn't know it from reading her books.  This 16 chapter guide covers a whole range of subjects, from the history of celiac disease in the medical community, to symptoms of the disease, other health concerns connected to it, and reasons to exclude gluten from your diet OTHER than being celiac.

For me, the most useful chapters were "How Not to Be a Party Pooper" and "Traveling G-Free".  The first outlined smart little ways to avoid the awkward possibilities of avoiding gluten at parties.  Hasselbeck has two strategies: The Social Butterfly, where you show up with Gluten-Free treats for everyone to share, or, The Shrinking Violet, where you sneak Gluten-Free protein bars or a bag of nuts or something into your purse and eat them in the bathroom or a deserted hallway.  Haha.

The first step to either of these strategies is to eat at home, so that if you're faced with all glutenous options, you won't starve.

The travel section gave a pretty extensive list of chain restaurants that offer gluten-free menus.  Good to know.  Kirst, Chili's has a full gluten-free menu! We should've gone there in Florida!

A term I picked up that I'm pretty in love with is "getting gluten'ed".  A nice way to describe what  happens to someone with a gluten intolerance when they eat gluten.  Its caught on quite quick too- I've started following a few gluten-free food blogs, and they all refer to "getting gluten'ed" from time to time.

Hasselbeck's book has a bunch of great lists of Absolute-No foods, as well as sneaky foods that you would never expect to have gluten in them (bacon bits! McDonald's fries! What!?).

Overall, I'm just really glad I read this book, because it has inspired me to get back on track with my gluten free diet.  I've been sneaking things in like crackers, chicken Mcnuggets or Starbucks cookies from time to time, and I always pay for it.  With this survival guide in hand, I've got a bunch of great meal and snack ideas in my back pocket, and think I'll be able to stay on track without too much trouble.

Another thing Hasselbeck recommends is having wingmen.  So guys, if you catch me saying "one cookie won't kill me", don't let me eat it!!!!!

Thanks to Steph Evens for lending me the book!!!