Gluten Free Action Plan
September 16th, 2008
If you want to remove gluten from your diet, perhaps because you have been diagnosed with coeliac disease, then you need a gluten free action plan to ensure that your goals can be achieved.
Before outlining the elements of your plan we would first advise you to be positive and enthusiastic. Removing gluten from your diet is a small problem when compared with the issues that other people who have food allergies have. Anaphylactic shock is often the result of a deep food allergy or insect bite. Having an accident when removing gluten from your diet does not carry the same downside as that for people who are allergic to peanuts!
Discipline is your watchword. Do not mix gluten containing foods with gluten free foods. One good piece of advice here is to keep a separate shelf or cupboard for your gluten free foods. In this way there will be little scope for confusion and also you will get into the habit of going to your cupboard for your food ingredients allowing less scope for error.
Your gluten free action plan should also involve people who are more experienced in managing gluten in their diet. There are many gluten free support groups and most of these are online meaning that you can access the articles, knowledge bases and forums of several of these without having to leave your home.
Get in the habit of reading food labels. Luckily, these days gluten is an item that is specifically mentioned on many food labels and manufacturers take pride in declaring their products to be gluten-free. This results in a larger market for their products and helps you to identify which food items can be included in your diet.
Adopt a zero tolerance approach. Do not accept food items for which you do not know the ingredients and do not accept the “it will be all right” attitude of others, particularly those who are not Celiacs. If you treat gluten as a toxic poison it will help you to create the mindset where you avoid it in your meal rather than suffering a succession of minor accidents. You’ll get the full benefits of being gluten free if you truly are 100% gluten free!
Adopt your gluten-free action plan with a positive mindset and live each day gluten-free. You will soon find that you are so happy with the health benefits you get that the minor inconvenience of having to establish a new routine is soon forgotten.