Glu•ten

What is Gluten?  

When coming across my own family members who deal with their gluten allergy I was unsure.  I was sure that many others were just as lost as I was.  According to the Mayo Clinic, Gluten is a protein that is found in such things as "wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye)".  When children or adults become Gluten-free, this means they have to exclude all gluten from their diet.  Gluten-free diets are used to treat celiac disease.  People who have this disease, feel inflammation in their small intestine when consuming foods that contain gluten.  In an era of "clean eating" it is good to incorporate this gluten-free diet in with your clean eating.  Many of you are probably thinking, if you're on this gluten-free diet, all the things you used to LOVE to eat that contain gluten are out of the question.  Well, you are wrong.  There are recipes today that are foods that include wheat and barley, just revamped and even healthier.  For many kids dealing with this gluten-free diet, they may feel left out or different because they are eating different things.  Although, there are many “kid” foods that are now made gluten-free.  As a true testament, I was asking my cousin about her son with this allergy, and his sisters do not understand why he was eating differently. Jen eventually realized these “kid” foods (chicken nuggets, mac&cheese, bagels, animal crackers, ect.) that are gluten-free, all of her kids can eat!  The best plan for kids with a gluten-free diet is to make them feel like they aren’t different from other children without this allergy.