Friday, April 16, 2010

Discovering How To Enjoy Cooking For Family And Friends

By Darex F. Nerise

Although there are more and more gluten-free individuals being identified every day, there are still others who do not believe there is a risk to eating gluten-free foods. However, for individuals suffering from Celiac Disease, gluten-intolerance or both as is the case with most, it can often be a life changing experience. However, whether gluten-free or otherwise, many individuals enjoy cooking. Still, for those attempting to cook gluten-free for the first time, it can sometimes be quite a challenge. However, in time with practice and recipes, most of these home and personal chefs become much better at cooking overall. Thus, making recipes which often taste better than many which one had previously prepared, gluten-free or otherwise.

So, although there may be some foods on the market which are gluten-free that are preprocessed, often these have additional issues. One being that these foods tend to cost twice as much as their non gluten-free counterparts. To this end, if one wishes to buy such products, one may want to prepare for an average weekly grocery bill for a gluten-free family of two-four people of approximately $200 to $300. Although, if one can only buy what needs at a time with regards to gluten-free foods, then one can often afford to be on such a diet, especially one is required to do so for medical reasons.

Fortunately, there are a number of gluten-free recipes appearing online within the many different cooking groups and programs which offer blogs or websites related to same. In addition, gluten-free desserts can be some of the best desserts one has ever had. For, while chocolate torte with fruit sauce may sound extreme, it is actually quite delicious and extremely rich. Therefore, for some, this diet is no challenge at all, especially to those who need to lose weight. However, for those that do not, it can be a very challenging diet as one often loses a great deal of weight over time while eating gluten-free. Therefore, one may need to workout to offset such weight loss if one gets below a healthy weight for age and height.

One fortunate thing about this condition, over many others, is that while not curable, one does not have to be on expensive medication as the only controlling factor with regards to such a diet is that of food, at least for now. For, when one eats only gluten-free food, one can see a great deal of improvement in both mood and behaviour not to mention weight loss. Weight loss, which for some is a good thing and others who do not need to lose additional weight, a challenging one.

However, in order to do so, one must continually avoid all foods which contain wheat, rye or barley and preferably use corn and rice based foods such as breads, cereals and wraps. Otherwise, one is running a great risk with regards to their health in the future. In addition, those with Celiac Disease are often severely iron deficient and often are anemic beyond most. Therefore, it is important, at least for some of these individuals to take iron supplements in order to replace the iron lost from the lack of bread and other such sources on a gluten-free diet.

Today, there are research projects going on with regards to providing prescription medication to gluten-intolerant individuals so that one may eat anything one wants without having to pay through the various symptoms associated with such a condition. However, this research is limited and many individuals question the integrity of such pharmaceutical based treatment program for an issue that can be easily controlled through diet alone. Therefore, one must decide for oneself if this is a treatment option which one may or may not consider should such medication become available in the future.

Regardless, when one discovers one has Celiac Disease or a gluten-intolerance issue, it does not mean that one can not enjoy cooking. For, if one is creative, the sky is the limit when it comes to creating new gluten-free dishes. However, before one goes on such a diet for weight loss alone, one may want to realize that doing so may prevent one from eating wheat, rye and barley in the future, as when an individual who is not intolerant goes on a gluten-free diet, often one can build up such a intolerance. To this end, if one so desires, one can find more information about Celiac Disease along with a number of gluten-free cookbooks and recipes both online and at bookstores around the world.

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