Bad Gluten free cookies :(

[kitty16]

Shopped yesterday for things to begin my gluten free journey. Was very excited by how many things I found. One of the items was gluten free animal crackers. Gluten free yes but after a very bad morning of D checked the ingredients and they contained xanthan gum. Xanthan gum can be used as a laxative so with my sensitivity to any of the sugar substitutes I guess I got a reaction. I will read all the labels from now on. Are there any other things I should be on the lookout for???

Thanks,

K

[Polly]

Hi Kitty,

That's the problem with many GF products - we often react to the other ingredients. I can't do xanthan gum, either - for me it's because it is made from corn, which I cannot tolerate. Guar gum is often used in GF products, and it is legume-based. Many of us can't eat legumes because of the lectins they contain, which "loosen" further those leaky gates in the gut. Also, most MCers are well-advised to avoid colorings, preservatives, artificial sugars, etc. Not to mention the fact that many GF products are not made in dedicated facilities and can therefore be contaminated.

You might be safer baking cookies from scratch and freezing them. Have you checked out the recipes in Dee's Kitchen?

Hugs,

Polly

P.S. The safest cookies for me are Jennie's coconut macaroons. And they are yummy!

[brandy]

Hi Kitty,

Early on I did better with cooked proteins, overcooked veggies, rice or potatoes. Early on things in a package were problematic. I think Tex mentioned if it has more than 4 ingredients consider avoiding it for awhile. As you get better you can add in more foods. I'm fairly far along in the healing process and still do better minimizing foods from packages. Hope this helps, Brandy

[Leah]

Hi Kitty.
I did the same thing you did. I have many stores around here that carry a pretty good selection of packaged GF products. I am still in the experimental stage, but until I get my Lab results, I'm also staying away from Potato- and most baked products have potato flour/starch. I realized that I am better off with mostly whole foods. The packaged things that I do use now are rice pasta, corn/rice chex cereal ( with almond milk), GF granola, plain corn chips, rice chips, brown rice tortillas, and nut clusters. Everything else, I make (dinner left overs work nicely the next day).

By the way, I was a pastry chef and almost all GF baked products will need xanthan gum because it mimics the property of gluten.

Good luck!
Leah

[Martha]

Kitty, if you want good gf cookies, Lynn at Gimme Gluten Free has a really good chocolate chip cookie recipe. They don't have that gritty taste that gf cookies so often have. My family, who are not gf, like them.

http://www.gimmeglutenfree.com/2011/10/ ... okies.html

The recipe calls for xanthan gum and flax seed, but I leave the flax seed out and it's okay. I don't have a problem with xanthan gum, so I haven't tried it without that.

In Dee's Kitchen are some recipes for Bliss Balls, which are just nuts, dates, and dried fruit ground together. I love those, especially the chocolate ones. These have no flours or gums in them. No eggs either.

Love,
Martha

[kitty16]

Hi

Thank you all for confirming what I already suspected. Yesterday I purchased GF bread, pretzels, crackers, and cookies. I just threw all of the aforementioned in the garbage, 2 of the four had ingredients in them that when I looked up said can be used as a laxative so I just tossed everything.

I'm at a loss as to what I should do. I have been thinking about doing the testing but if is confirms that i can't eat gluten I won' t be able to eat the GF products. Was it just that brands I choose that have these issues. I know I cannot eat corn, nuts, all artificial sugars, salad and vegetables even cooked ones.

Sorry if Im rambling Im sure you all know what it's like at the end of one of those days when you have gone potty over 12 times. I'm just feeling sorry for myself

Love,
K

[tex]

Kitty,

Most of us do the same thing - early on, we try to replace the foods that we have been accustomed to eating, with GF versions. Unfortunately, it's very tough to find products that will actually work for us. Most of us soon learn that we have to go back to living the way that our grandparents lived - we make almost everything from scratch, using simple, pure, and safe ingredients, and though we have to do more cooking, it makes our recovery process so much easier, because we can trust what we're eating, and we're not constantly relapsing because we misread a label, or some manufacturer changed ingredients and forgot to update the label. And as a bonus, we know that the food we're eating is healthier, and much fresher.

Tex

[Leah]

I know how you feel Kitty. Even though I don't have the constant D anymore because of the Entocort, I went through that stage of feeling very defeated. And you get sick of talking about it to people who don't get it.

I was just sitting down to my shopping list to try to figure out what to make for our dinners. It's very frustrating because I am limiting so much right now. I found rice pasta to be good, but can't use tomato sauce or butter right now. I made some home made pesto last week ( yummy- DF), but how much pesto can you eat, right? I totally get it. It's only been a month for me and I already feel like I am eating the same things over and over. Because I am! It would be easier if i only had to feed myself, but I have a husband and teenage daughter at home.

I have also given up salads for now, but hope one day to add them back in. No nuts? Can you do nut butters? They are delicious on rice crackers. Chicken/ tuna/ egg salad on rice crackers is good. I found brown rice tortillas which can be used to roll turkey or other safe lunch meat in ( with avocado). It's tough that you can't have cooked vegetables. How about canned fruit? Apple sauce is a good choice also for a side dish.

Like Tex says, it's best to start with fresh food. I spend a lot of time looking up recipes to get ideas. Sometimes you can just swap no no ingredients for good ones.

Try hard not to get too down. Now that you are on the right path, things should slowly get better. I Hope some of my suggestions work for you... and remember not to eat too much at one time ( of anything). Small portions, often. Good luck!

[MaggieRedwings]

Morning Kitty,

As time goes on you will find less of an urge to substitute the things you missed with the expensive GF products. A lot do not work for me so I have learned to just do without and cherish the one good thing every now and then. Such an expense and then to have to toss it is even worse.

Maggie