A Step-By-Step Gluten-Free Diet You Can Follow
Starting any new diet can be challenging. However, by taking several small steps at the beginning, and by making sure you have a plan you know you will be able to stick with, getting the ball rolling on a new diet doesn’t have to be impossible by any means. We aren’t saying it will be challenging, but a little research is definitely going to go a long way.
That thought can definitely be applied to a gluten-free diet. The more you learn about the basics of a gluten-free diet, the easier it will be to make necessary changes to how you shop for, prepare, and eat food.
Getting Started On Your Gluten-Free Diet
One of the great misconceptions with a gluten-free diet is that it’s terribly limiting. This isn’t really true. Yes, you have to cut a few things out, but the list isn’t as substantial as some will have you believe.
A gluten-free diet can involve many steps. Here are the basics to guide you in the early stages:
- Identify the gluten-free groups: Fruits, veggies, many kinds of meat and poultry, many kinds of fish and seafood, dairy, and beans/legumes/nuts are all safe food groups. Obviously, within this range alone, you can begin to see the possibilities.
- Learn about grains: There are many, many grains you can actually eat on a gluten-free diet. This can include rice, tapioca, beans, soy, potatoes, and gluten-free oats are just a few.
- Learn about the alternatives: There are numerous gluten-free alternatives available these days. An important step in embracing a gluten-free diet is to learn more about those alternatives, and find the ones that are going to appeal to you. Using alternative flours and grains, you should be able to find some appealing possibilities. However, it is important to make sure you’re reading labels carefully, ensuring that you are actually purchasing something that will be gluten-free.
- Learn about the things you can’t have, or the things you need to be very careful about: Read the labels carefully for products like soups, sauces, beverages, vitamins, supplements, and medicines.
- Find a good 7-day program to get going: A good 7-day gluten-free diet plan is ideal for getting started on the right foot. You can use one of these plans to establish a clear idea of your meals, drinks, and even snacks.
- Consult a nutritionist: If you can afford it, consider seeking out the advice of a professional nutritionist. They can help you to fill in the blanks with your new diet.
3 Easy Gluten-Free Breakfast Recipes
Considering that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it makes sense to want to start your new gluten-free diet off in the best way possible. Whether you don’t have a huge budget to buy and prepare whatever you please, or if you simply don’t have a ton of time in the morning (most of us have to deal with that problem), keep in mind that there are still tons of great ideas for simple, quick, and extremely healthy gluten-free breakfasts.
Let’s go over a few possibilities that you can keep in mind for breakfast tomorrow.
Gluten-Free Breakfast Recipes That Are Also Really Easy
Studies show that a good breakfast has a number of benefits that are realized throughout the day. You’re giving yourself a needed boost of energy in the morning. You’re also ensuring that you’ll eat a more sensible lunch, while avoiding the need to snack unhealthily throughout the day.
A gluten-free breakfast can meet all of those demands. At the same time, it doesn’t have to suck up a huge chunk of your time. Here are 3 easy gluten-free breakfast recipes to try:
- Gluten-free waffles: The great thing about gluten-free waffles made from yogurt is that you can use these yummy waffles to plan your breakfasts for an entire week. Using yogurt and a little sugar as the primary ingredients, these gluten-free waffles are delicious, and you can keep them in the freezer with ease. This recipe can also be ideal for those who need to make breakfast every morning for the kids! Make sure you have a good waffle maker handy.
- Gluten-free overnight oats: This recipe couldn’t be simpler. All you need are some rolled oats, with some chia or flax seeds for thickening. Add just a dollop of milk, and you’re going to have an amazing, easy breakfast prepared in about five minutes. One of the best things about this recipe is how you can suit things to your specific tastes. With an endless array of flavor variations, you can rely on this breakfast choice from one day to the next. The investment is pretty minimal, as well.
- Breakfast tacos: This one might take just a little longer, but you can do the prep work ahead of time, if you really want to. Then the only thing you’ll need to do is heat up your taco shell. Use scrambled eggs or scrambled-up tofu (or both!) for your filling.
Gluten-Free Diet – What To Eat In a Day
Gluten is becoming a new sensation in the world of dieting. Especially when we talk about gluten-free eating, people think this is the new revolution. The problem is that when we hear “gluten-free diet” most of us unconsciously relate it to unnecessary starving and removing some of the most delicious foods from our menu. Such a diet could be not only as delicious as our previous eating habit, but could bring many other, unknown to now benefits like a healthier lifestyle, more energy during the day and cleansed body.
What to look for in a diet?
Most gluten-free foods exclude important substances like Vitamin B12, fiber and niacin. Make sure that when you create your own, personal diet, you include all of those in your menu. Read the labels of the packaged foods carefully. For instance – when buying bread (one of the most common parts of our daily eating), we should be looking for one that has around 70 calories per slice.
Breakfast
For the most important meal of the day you can experiment more than usual. You can include oats cooked in water, 1 cup of raspberries (great supplier of needed vitamins in the morning), almonds and honey. Another recipe you can eat – 1 slice gluten-free bread, 1 1/2 Tbsp peanut butter with one cup unsweetened almond milk. Classics like scrambled eggs (with olive oil of course) should not be overlooked and you can add corn tortilla or avocado.
Lunch
Focus on salads (not only for lunch but mainly here). One of the top salads you can eat is – 2 cups spinach, 2 oz chunk light tuna in water (drained), 1/3 cup canned white beans (rinsed), Half a cup of veggies (cucumber is the obvious choice). Mix them all together and enjoy the healthy life. You can also have – 2 cups mixed greens, 5-6 cherry tomatoes, 4 oz cooked chicken and half a cup of quinoa.
Dinner
Brown rice is a great option here as you can have it with almost everything if it is not enough. You can cooked chicken breast (cooked with olive oil and seasoned with ground cumin, salt and pepper) and again – quinoa.
During the day you might need the feel to recharge the batteries with some snack – boiled eggs are a wonderful option providing you with a lot of protein. Raspberries and almond milk is a combination that you will love as well.
Gluten-Free Food List
In this day and age, embracing a gluten-free diet has never been easier. You’re going to find that when you know how to shop for gluten-free groceries, finding things that are filling, delicious, and healthy is a snap. You will naturally have to make some changes to how you grocery shop. You will also need to change the way you feel/look at certain foods. A gluten-free diet is far more flexible than it often gets credit for being, but you’ll still need to make some basic lifestyle changes.
Even so, these changes are worth making. When you consider even a small list of gluten-free foods you can find at virtually any grocery store, you’re going to be impressed.
Check Out Our Gluten-Free Food List
If you’re going to come up with a gluten-free food list that’s worth getting excited about, then you’ll want to keep the following items in mind:
- Cold cereal: Products like Rice Chex are not just a great option for a gluten-free breakfast, but they can also give you the vitamins and minerals you are absolutely going to want for yourself in the morning.
- Hot cereal: Another breakfast option, you can shop around for gluten-free oats without too much trouble. One of the nice things about an option like this is the fact that you have so many different possibilities for flavoring things up.
- Dry pasta: Gluten-free pasta is pretty easy to come by these days. There are also plenty of pasta recipes that can let you take care of at least a couple days’ worth of your lunches and dinners.
- Baked pasta: To be fair, there are a lot of gluten-free baked pasta options out there that can strike you as something of an overindulgence. Still, if you want to treat yourself to something like a yummy baked lasagna, there are a number of gluten-free products out there.
- Bread: Canyon Bakehouse is just one of the companies that makes a variety of different gluten-free products. No one said you actually had to give up bread!
- Chicken: Your new gluten-free diet can find a ton of different ways to enjoy chicken. Believe it or not, but there are even gluten-free chicken tenders and similar products that feature breading.
- Healthy fats: This includes stuff like sesame oil, cheese, almond milk, and nut butters.
- Proteins: Eggs are a good example. Wild fish and grass-fed meats are okay, too.
- Veggies: Leafy greens and lettuces are always a smart idea.