Gluten-Free: What can you eat?

When Ben's allergist said that he was allergic to wheat, at first I didn't really understand. For some reason, I thought, okay, no wheat bread, no problem.

In that moment, I didn't think flour. I didn't think cake. I didn't think pizza. I didn't realize how prevalent wheat is. Ben does not have Celiac disease. What he has is a wheat allergy, an allergy that we hope he outgrows. But, since I'm still feeding him, Ben's allergies to eggs, wheat, peanuts and some tree nuts, have meant radical changes to our diet.

At first, I didn't think I'd be able to eat anything, but the doctor reminded me: He's not allergic to corn or oats or soy or beef or chicken. But being Italian, my diet consisted of a lot of wheat. Pizza, pasta, cake. Wheat was like a staple of my daily life.

But because of Ben's wheat allergies, I've learned that there are a lot of things that I can eat that aren't made with wheat. One thing that is used as a substitute for wheat is rice. There's rice pasta and rice flour. I just found an egg substitute today that is wheat free. The regular grocery store did not seem to have an egg-free egg substitute.

For lunch today, I had Amy's Mexican Tamale Pie.



It's made with organic vegetables and beans. It is gluten free and contains no dairy. I also found some pretty good gluten-free pretzels by Glutino. The one thing that I haven't been quite able to get used to, however, is rice bread.