Vegetarian Diet For Celiac Disease
Topic: Vegetarian Diet, Celiac Disease – I would love some advice on a vegetarian diet for someone with Celiac Disease. So many great foods that other veggies enjoy (veggie burgers, soy crumbles, etc.) are off limits to me and it does get a bit discouraging at times. There is a great Veggie group where I live and I can’t even attend their monthly dinners as they are gluten-heavy. Thanks! D.H.
Savvy Veg: Hi DH,
First, let the group members know that you would enjoy attending their monthly meetings, but that you have Celiac Disease, and can’t have any gluten. You can’t expect them to eat entirely gluten free on your behalf, but if it’s a pot luck, and they know about your situation, at least some of them would make gluten free dishes – and you could too.
If you’re eating at a restaurant, ask the group organizers to make sure there are several gluten free dishes, and to plan for restaurants where that’s possible.
You could make a presentation to the group on CD. Tell them that Celiac Disease is thought to be quite common, with millions of people undiagnosed – that might put the idea in their heads that they could also be Celiacs and should go along with your gluten free diet for their own good. Oh, I’m so diabolical!
On a gluten free diet, rice and quinoa are your friends. At our house, we eat one or both at most meals. I always have a pitcher of gluten free dosa batter in the fridge, to make Indian crepes which we wrap around veggies. Savvy Veg has many recipes for rice and quinoa – just look in those sections under vegetarian recipes.
You can also throw a handful of quinoa, rice or millet into any soup to thicken it. Kashi brand rice crackers are a staple ‘fast food’ for me – I love them with avocado, hummus, or nut butters.
Millet, teff, buckwheat and corn are other grains you can enjoy in many forms, although some celiacs can’t eat them. Check with your doctor, maybe get tested for those grains. At this point, Savvy Veg is lacking in recipes using those ingredients – mainly because we don’t eat them much. We’ll work on that.
Some menu suggestions are millet patties, unleavened gluten free breads, 100% buckwheat soba noodles, polenta, corn chips, grits. There are different opinions about oats, but my celiac friends don’t eat them. They might be tolerated on their own, but are often contaminated with wheat in processing.
On the celic/sprue website, there are lots of tips and suggestions for a gluten free diet, as well as recipes and recipe books you can download or buy. Chickpeas are tasty, versatile beans and you can find many gf recipes using them. There are quite a few good ideas on Gluten Free Goddess. Here’s another helpful page, with dietary info and resource lists.
Good luck, and thanks for writing!
JK, Savvy Vegetarian
Tags: carnivore, celiac disease, gluten, gluten-free, Gluten-free diet, healthy, meat, protein, vegetarian, vegetarian diet
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Thank you for a lovely article. Very helpful and supportive.