Today, a gluten-free diet is used for a variety of purposes. For some patients, a doctor prescribes it to prevent the development of complications in celiac disease, while others independently choose the discussed nutrition system to shed extra pounds. Interestingly, this diet often becomes part of complex therapy for autism.
Purpose of a gluten-free diet
The main objective of a gluten-free diet is to alleviate the condition of the celiac patient. This dangerous disease of the digestive system cannot be completely cured simply by changing your own diet. But a special diet blocks all the main symptoms of the disease and allows the patient to quickly return to normal life.
The intestines, which cannot cope with gluten, are restored soon after changing the diet and are fully functional again. We can say that the disease "freezes". In order for the patient to no longer be affected by the disease, he must follow a gluten-free diet for the rest of his life.
The specified nutritional system is also recommended for adults and children with congenital gluten intolerance. If you strictly adhere to it, you will be able to forget about all the unpleasant symptoms of allergies and avoid the appearance of dangerous consequences.
List of allowed and prohibited products
There is a comprehensive list of foods that are strictly prohibited during a gluten-free diet. But all the rest (not included) can be safely included in your daily diet without special restrictions.
Prohibited foods and drinks that should be completely excluded from the menu:
- all pasta and bakery products with gluten in the composition;
- semolina, durum and sprouted wheat, oats, barley, spelled, rye;
- cookies, cakes, crackers;
- canned vegetables and fruits;
- alcohol (especially beer);
- all instant cereals and soups (including bouillon cubes);
- all baked goods;
- fast food, semi-finished products (including ham, cold cuts, sausages);
- cookies, chips;
- all kinds of mayonnaise;
- buy yogurts;
- crab sticks of any kind;
- modified starch;
- ice cream;
- chocolate, sweets.
When buying ready-made products, a person following the specified diet should carefully study their composition for the presence of gluten.
Only at first glance it may seem that the list of prohibitions has turned out to be too long.
In fact, there are many legal foods and drinks. Among them:
- any flour that does not contain gluten;
- rice, buckwheat, corn, millet;
- seafood, meats of various kinds, fish;
- eggs (both chicken and quail);
- nuts, dried fruits, seeds;
- legumes and soy;
- cocoa, natural coffee, tea;
- almost all fermented milk and dairy products (only yogurts should be excluded from the first list);
- margarine, butter and vegetable oil;
- Gluten-free bread;
- honey;
- all fresh vegetables, berries, herbs, fruits.
Gluten-free diet: menu of the week
You can quickly get used to this diet. To do this, you need to correctly compose your daily menu, trying to make it as satisfying and tasty as possible.
A sample diet for a week with gluten-free foods is as follows:
- The first day will start with a large portion of rice pudding porridge and fresh berries. Top it off with a cup of coffee with a sandwich made with gluten-free bread and butter. For lunch, you can have broccoli soup with grated cheese, chicken cooked in any way with potatoes, and a vegetable salad. For dinner: wheat porridge with walnuts, kefir.
- On the second day, breakfast will consist of cottage cheese with fruit and sugar, rice cakes with honey. Lunch: chicken soup, pilaf and vegetable salad. Dinner: baked potatoes with cream and salmon.
- The menu for the third day should include scrambled eggs with cheese and gluten-free bread for breakfast. For lunch: fish soup, chicken cutlet with rice, vegetable salad. For dinner: a cottage cheese casserole with your favorite fruit.
- Breakfast on the fourth day will consist of carrot salad with fried cheese slices and a handful of nuts. Lunch: vegetable soup, chicken stew with beans. Dinner: pancakes with rice flour, stewed fish and fresh orange.
- The fifth day of the diet will include a hearty breakfast of pancakes with honey (gluten-free flour), a lunch of chicken cutlets with boiled rice, and a dinner of fish baked in foil with mushrooms and vegetables.
- On day 6 you can start with corn flakes (gluten free) dipped in milk, 2 hard-boiled eggs. For lunch, you need to eat borsch with meat, meatballs with mashed potatoes. And for dinner - buckwheat porridge with boiled chicken.
- Breakfast on the seventh day will include, for example, cheesecakes (with gluten-free flour) with a handful of dried fruit. For lunch, you can cook cheese soup with fresh herbs and fish with boiled buckwheat. For dinner: baked chicken fillet with vegetable salad.
The published menu is indicative. It can be adjusted according to your own tastes and the list of allowed foods. In many ways, the diet also depends on the purpose for which the discussed diet is chosen. If it is to lose weight, all products should be stewed, boiled and baked with a minimum amount of oil. It is also advisable to reduce the portions. As for drinks, you can complete your meals with coffee, tea, cocoa, compote, berry juice, fresh juice, and other permitted options.
Gluten-free diet menu for children
If a gluten-free diet is prescribed for children, in this case, the menu should be drawn up based on the age of young patients. Both a baby and an older child can be offered various cereals with berries and fruits for breakfast: buckwheat, millet, rice. The main thing is to cook them yourself, and not to buy quick mixes.
For lunch, cheese, meat or fish soup is suitable. It can be complemented with meat or chicken cooked in any way, garnished with potatoes and other favorite vegetables. Children especially love pureed soups. The croutons for this type of treat can be prepared exclusively with gluten-free bread.
Dinner should be made light with fermented dairy drinks or vegetable salads with seafood. You can offer your child a slice of cottage cheese with fruit, a casserole, or cheesecakes.
Gluten-free diet for children with autism
Even doctors recognize the effectiveness of such a diet as part of a comprehensive therapy for autism. A few decades ago, specialists managed to establish the relationship of the disease with dietary proteins. A specific diet helps to block the existing disorder to some extent. This effect is due to a decrease in the amount of proteins and peptides.
For a healthy person, these substances are harmless, but in the body of a patient with autism they can provoke processes that aggravate mental disorders. In addition, a gluten-free diet helps normalize intestinal and brain function.
Healthy recipes
Today, there are many interesting recipes for gluten-free dishes. They will make it easy to tolerate a diet and even enjoy treats.
White bread
Ingredients: 210 g of boiled water, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 2 tsp. quick yeast, 1 tbsp. l. apple cider vinegar, a whole egg and a protein, 280 g of flour (gluten-free), 2 tsp. xanth gum.
- The yeast is dissolved in warm water, after 10-12 minutes a whole egg, protein and oil are added.
- The remaining ingredients are placed in the bowl of the blender and begin to beat slowly. Little by little, the mixture from the first step is added. In the end, the speed of the device increases.
- The dough is placed in a greased loaf pan. Let it warm for an hour and then bake in a hot oven for 45 minutes.
Apple pie
Ingredients: 3 sweet and sour apples, lemon, 3 tablespoons of eggs, 160 g of sugar, a glass of low-fat kefir, 70 g of butter, 210 g of rice flour, 1 tsp. Baking powder.
- Apple slices without skin are placed in a bowl, poured with lemon juice and a whipped mixture of eggs and sugar. The melted butter is sent to the same container.
- The dry ingredients are mixed and added to the dough. They are mixed with the ingredients from the first step. The dough is transferred to an oiled mold.
- The cake is baked in the oven for 45-50 minutes.
How does a gluten-free diet help you lose weight?
The diet discussed, perhaps, can be used to shed extra pounds. Having abandoned flour products, sweets, fast food and other enemies of an ideal figure, a person quickly begins to lose weight.
The best part is that you use the allowed products with no special restrictions on serving sizes. Such a food system does not involve fasting, so the diet is fairly easily tolerated.
What is the gluten-free diet for?
The recommended gluten-free nutrition program generally provides a healthier overall effect for the body. Metabolic processes return to normal, slags and toxins are removed. That is only using a diet for the sole purpose of shedding extra pounds and cleansing the body is only allowed after prior consultation with a specialist.
With celiac disease, autism, gluten intolerance, the discussed diet is not only recommended, but is an indispensable part of general therapy. Only with this way of eating can the relief or complete disappearance of the symptoms of the listed ailments be achieved, as well as preventing the development of their dangerous consequences.
The benefits and harms of the diet
The positive result of refusing gluten is manifested in the fact that a person with individual intolerance to such a substance reduces the probability of an allergic reaction to zero. And a patient with celiac disease, well, takes care of the normal functioning of his gastrointestinal tract, which is not able to perceive gluten. As a result, the total calorie content of the patient's diet also decreases, helping to shed extra pounds without much effort.
If we talk about the dangers of a gluten-free diet and products, then it lies in the minimum amount of protein that the body receives with this diet. To maintain the normal state of muscle tissue, it is necessary to make up for the lack of this element with permitted natural products.