5 Ingredients to Avoid Letting your Celiac Diet Ruin your Life

1% of the population is celiac, with twice as many women having the affliction as men.  Being celiac means that your body has an autoimmune digestive issue which prevents you from eating gluten. Although the availability of gluten-free products is widespread, you might be struggling with maintaining an interesting, vibrant diet.  If that sounds like you, here are five of the best gluten-free foods around which will add some variety to your diet.

1. Nuts

Nuts are full of protein and can be used whole, chopped-up, roasted, sweetened, spiced or salted.  As you can see, they’re an incredibly versatile ingredient which you can use in a number of different types of dishes.  Try crushing up some honey-roasted peanuts into cooked, creamy rice and mixed dried fruit for your cereal in the morning for a sweet, gluten-free start to your day.  Check out these great ideas of how to use nuts in food for some more inspiration.

 2. Potatoes

Potatoes are a celiac’s lifeline.  They come in a large variety of sizes and types, from little new potatoes that are great boiled or roasted and thrown in a salad, to large, sweet roasting potatoes which can be the central feature of a meal, and keep you filled-up for a long time.  They’re also widely available in restaurants, meaning you’ll never have trouble ordering one, wherever you go.

 3. Chocolate

Who doesn’t like chocolate? It can be sweet and creamy or bitter and rich. However you like it, you can use it to sweeten up a bland meal and the only issues you’ll face with it are if you eat too much of it!

 4. Quinoa

Quinoa makes an excellent alternative to couscous.  For the best results, rinse it for a good few minutes before you cook it.  Once it’s done, you can use it to bulk-up a nice salad, or have it as part of a side in your main meal.

 5. Gluten-Free Foods

This is potentially a cop-out answer, but one of the safest ways to ensure you’re keeping to a gluten-free diet is to simply check the labels.  You can get gluten-free pasta and bread etc. so you really don’t have to miss out on the foods you love.

Hopefully, the five points above show that you don’t have to let your celiac diet ruin your life. If you want to see how surprisingly easy it is to go gluten-free, you could have a look at a site like Goodness Direct.