Shopping Tips 

for those with (or related to those with) Coeliac Disease

Shopping for groceries and foodstuffs can be incredibly aggravating, and can add another hour or so onto the time spent in Coles, what with all the reading you're doing - particularly if you're new to the game. 

(I remember, the first time I went food shopping after being diagnosed, I ended up having hysterics, half laughing half crying, in the breakfast cereals and spreads aisle, at the realisation that I wasn't allowed to eat literally anything there ... Fortunately I was with Henry at the time, who was very understanding and didn't mind that every single customer in the place looked at me like I was an escapee from a high security mental hospital.)

Okay, the main thing to remember is that with CD you are unable to eat anything containing wheat, oats, barley, rye, or derivatives thereof.  So the first thing you do is check for the big four; wheat flour, oats, barley, rye.

The derivatives bit is where things get complicated. I think a bullet list, of the main things to watch out for and avoid at all costs, might be the easiest way to do this:-

• if any label includes the word starch or thickeners, it means wheat starch, or at least you'd have to call the manufacturer to make 300% sure. This will wipe out most soy sauces and other Asian-style sauces - I know of only one brand of soy sauce that's 'safe', being Fountain's plain soy sauce
• when buying Cornflour, check the ingredients. Strange as it may seem, most Cornflours are actually made from wheat flour. Make sure the ingredient list specifically says corn flour. The same goes for most supermarket brands of corn tortillas, which are made primarily from wheat flour. Yeah, I feel like murdering manufacturers and supermarket buyers on a weekly basis too
• if any label on salad dressings, minced garlic/ginger/chilli, spice pastes. tomato sauce and other condiments includes the word vinegar, leave it alone. Unless it is specified as being wine, brandy or balsamic vinegar, it actually means malt vinegar (the cheap kind). Malt is derived from barley. Don't ever use the (brown) vinegar in fish and chip shops - that's malt vinegar. Always check what type of vinegar cafes/restaurants use in their salad dressings)
• ditto for acetic acid. Acetic acid is really raw (scientific terminology there eh) malt vinegar
• most/all canned and packet soups, packet sauces and gravy bases, stock cubes etc, will include maltodextrin. Again, avoid like the plague, for the same reason as vinegar; maltodextrin is derived from barley 
• avoid anything that includes yeast extract. Yeast in itself is fine, unless you are specifically allergic to that as well, but the thing with yeast is that it has to grow off/be fed off something, and that something is often bread, or beer or something - in the case of Vegemite and equivalents (personally I stay away from yeast no matter what, even though I'm not actually allergic to it per se; it seems safer that way, is all; a gambler I am not)
• if a product says 'gluten free', don't take it for granted that it is. Check the label anyway
• to be continued ...

 As well as any product containing those ingredients mentioned above, the main foodstuffs CD sufferers must not go near are obvious, and pretty much all carbohydrates; breads, wheat pasta, Chinese egg noodles (made from wheat), Japanese udon noodles (ditto), Mexican soft wheat tortillas (eg for burritos and fajitas), just about all breakfast cereals, pizzas, pastries, cakes, biscuits, anything crumbed (which means just about anything deep fried), sausages (because they are padded out with something called 'cereal filler' ie bread stuffing or some such shit), canned soups and stocks, many snack foods ... 

Gluten free foodstuffs CD sufferers can eat:- rice, rice noodles, rice pasta, rice cruskits, rice crackers (but check ingredients list - not all are as they seem), corn tortillas and tacos, polenta, potatoes, gluten free flours (maize, soy, rice and potato flours), gluten free bread, gluten free pizza base mixes, some corn chips and potato crisps, meat, chicken, fish, fresh vegetables and fruit galore, plain chocolate (now a "no chocolate" rule; that would have been a tragedy), dairy products ...

You may get the impression that you have massively reduced options as to what to eat, and you're absolutely correct. But please don't despair; as you can see from the recipes in my Cookbook, there's lots you can eat. I make my own pasta (with a manual pasta machine and all), my own bread, huge batches of stock which I freeze, and I have begun to make my own pizza bases and tortillas/flatbread, and keep large batches in the freezer so there's always something to work on. 

That's the main trick with coping well with CD; have a well stocked fridge and freezer, and try to be organised, because you cannot go out for a burger, or dial a pizza, or microwave a Lean Cuisine. 

Yes, it's bloody tough, and pretty boring, but you do not have a choice. Unless you really want to feel *that* sick all the time, let alone have a massively increased risk of bowel cancer, vitamin deficiencies, osteoporosis, mental disease ... 

Look at it another way; it's one helluva healthy diet, being intrinsically low in saturated fats (no junk food, right?), and you end up eating lots of fresh, basic foods. You will have a great figure (just watch that chocolate, k?), great arteries, and will be the healthiest person in your circle of friends when you hit 30, 40, 50 ... 

Please email me if you have any tips of your own; or know of suppliers of decent gluten free stuff; or need support if you've just found out you've got CD, whatever. Email me.