When you live with food allergies, eating out can be a real challenge, The more severe the reaction, the bigger the gamble you take when you choose to eat anywhere outside of your home. The good news is that the world is taking a new perspective on ingredient sensitive diners. If you’re like me at all, you will want a guide to eating out to better prepare yourself for venturing out, and I hope this resource will help steer you clear of any discomfort.
Things you need to know going in;
Pun intended! Just in case you skipped our post about Going Gluten Free, or you didn’t know, here are some of the basics about eating Gluten Free. When making a comparison in this blog post, it will always be gluten free compared to gluten filled.
The calorie count is disproportionate, because most of the gluten substitutes are loaded with extra sugar to compensate for flavor. The ingredients are much more carbohydrate dense, the flours used in place of traditional wheat flour can be much richer . What I am trying to say- is that eating gluten free does not always mean healthier.
Portion control; no one talks about how if you’re eating whole foods, in season & raw, you can eat as much as you want. Maybe that’s weight watchers, but if so many similar sources are saying the same thing, don’t you suspect there is at least 1 common thing. You need to portion processed food that you still incorporate in your life.
Gluten by Nature
Naturally occurring gluten sources:
Wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, triticale, and kamut all naturally produce a protein called gluten. This means that any use or byproduct of these plants will contain gluten as well.
Ingredients and terms:
You might see one of these on an ingredient label; beans, bulgar wheat, couscous, durum flour, flour, risk, semolina, wheat germ, whole wheat, modified starch or starch. Malt, maltose, malt extract, malt syrup, and malt flour almost always refer to barley and wheat derivatives. Beware of dextrin and maltodextrin because they can be derived from any starch; corn, wheat or barley.
Look out for descriptive terms like; fried, battered, breaded or coated. You should ask your server for clarification, but most people are using a wheat flour by default in any dredge or coating.
Gluten Free by Cuisine
Any time someone besides yourself is preparing food, you should be very clear about what you can and cannot eat. I would not recommend using these as hard and fast rules, but as guidelines when looking over menus. I cannot stress how important it is to communicate your dietary restrictions when ordering, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If they do not know the ingredients, you can always ask to see the package for yourself. When in doubt, don’t risk it.
- Mexican
- Always check the ingredients
- Ask for corn tortillas
- Indian
- No Naan for you, but look for Pappadum (It is not the chewy or fluffy bread like naan, but it is crisp and filling)
- Thai & Vietnamese
- Served WITH or over rice/rice noodles
- Clear broth or sauce (If anything has a dark or caramel color to it, there is a good chance it has a soy sauce base, and most establishments don’t use gluten free soy sauce standard)
Gluten Free Resources
With all of this technology around us, we have so many tools at our disposal to find Gluten Free options at the tip of our finger. You can search gluten free restaurants on Google, or use one of these wonderful resources;
- National Celiac Association has a directory you can search.
- Find Me Gluten Freeis a wonderful website that you can search restuarants, with Celiac approved recommendations and reviews from other Gluten Free diners.
- Facebook groups are another way to see what other people have found.
- Tripadvisor & Yelp keep Gluten Free as a search filter, but these are dependent that someone flag restaurants with options
- When you see ‘Dedicated Gluten Free Kitchen’, that’s how you know you found a keeper! And make sure to share with us!