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If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that my husband was diagnosed with Celiac disease last December. I was already well into my Christmas baking when we found out. Our first reaction was “ok, this is fine, we can do this, we can make him gluten-free food while the kids and I eat normal things, no big deal.” However, later that night, while I was rolling out my gingerbread cookies for my annual cookie decorating party (and touching everything in my kitchen with flour-covered hands), I realized that this wasn’t ok. I actually couldn’t do my regular baking without getting flour everywhere.
Did you know that regular flour can stay suspended in the air for up to 2 days?!
I sure didn’t. As a Dietitian, I knew the basics about Celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, but I hadn’t ever done a deeper dive into the reality of living with the disease. This was our crash course.
Getting the diagnosis in December was particularly difficult because so many of our holiday traditions were already planned. In our family, many of our holiday traditions revolve around food. I host an annual cookie decorating party with friends, my Aunt hosts an annual gingerbread house decorating party for all the kids, we attend holiday parties, and all of our family lives in Ottawa, so we attend a Christmas dinner with my family and then host a Christmas dinner with my husband’s family.
Typically, the Christmas dinner that we host is a potluck. We often make the turkey, and then everyone else brings sides. In previous years, this has worked out great, but last year, with the diagnosis being so new, we were conflicted. Do we a) still allow people to bring their normal sides and cook my husband his own gluten-free meal and try to keep cross-contamination to a minimum, or b) take on all the cooking ourselves so that we are confident that everything is gluten-free? With two small kids at home and plans already set to be out of the house the day before we were hosting, we opted for option A. Everyone brought their usual dishes, and then we made sure that my husband had gluten-free versions of his favourite foods.
It worked, but it felt chaotic and stressful.
It was incredibly stressful, feeling like you had to police people’s plates. Did they take the gluten-free options? Did they use the same utensils for gluten-containing and gluten-free foods? When they took turkey, did they touch any gluten on their plate before putting the serving utensil back on the turkey? The worst part was putting away leftovers. Everyone so kindly wanted to help, but it felt like we needed to watch carefully and remind people to constantly wash their hands if they were moving between gluten-containing and gluten-free food.
While we were accustomed to washing our hands several times a meal to avoid cross-contamination, our guests were not used to that. They had never had to think about it (truthfully, I think we were both wishing we didn’t have to think about it, but this was our reality now).
After this experience, we knew that we had to come up with a better system.
Fast forward to this Thanksgiving, we opted to host family again. This time, we decided to teach everyone how to make gluten-free versions of their normal dishes so that the entire meal could be gluten-free. This would avoid a lot of the worry about contaminating food with gluten and would make the meal way less stressful. Fortunately, everyone was on board, and it wasn’t that difficult. This will be the tradition that we carry forward to other meals and holidays (which are stressful enough without having to worry if someone accidentally contaminated the food).
If you are planning on hosting for the holidays and have a gluten-free guest (or are gluten-free yourself), here are a few tips to help make holiday hosting less stressful.
Many of your main holiday mainstays are naturally gluten-free and require no swaps for a gluten-free meal. Things like turkey, ham, or chicken are all gluten-free, provided that they have nothing added to them. The things to watch for in these dishes are any brines, sauces, rubs, or glazes. However, as long as those are also gluten-free, and you can manage any cross-contamination (for example, using an unopened fresh stick of butter if you plan on butter-basting your turkey), you should be ok.
Before you start to cook, you need to buy the right ingredients. This means reading labels. From experience, know that this will add time to your usual grocery shopping trip, so plan accordingly. Even if you have read labels in the past, it’s important to note that products change and companies can alter their ingredients at any time, so it’s good to get into the practice of checking ingredient lists every time you shop.
When in doubt, think BROW
Brow stands for Barley, Rye, Oats and Wheat. All four of those ingredients contain gluten. Oats are a bit of a weird one, because they don’t inherently contain gluten, but the way they are grown and harvested means that they often leave the field contaminated with wheat. People with Celiac disease can eat oats, but they need to be specifically marked as Gluten-Free Oats in the ingredient list.
For more information on label reading, check out this resource from Celiac Canada.
One thing that we discovered when switching to a gluten-free diet is how many opportunities there are for cross-contamination in a kitchen. In the context of a gluten-free diet, cross-contamination occurs when gluten-free food comes into contact with gluten-containing food, ingredients, or equipment.
Did you know that for someone with Celiac disease, even tiny, microscopic amounts of gluten (20 parts per million, less than 1/64th of a tsp) can trigger a reaction and cause damage to their small intestine? Avoiding cross-contamination means keeping the two worlds (gluten-free and gluten-containing) completely separate in the kitchen, as even a crumb can trigger a reaction. This means paying close attention to your ingredients, your workspaces, your cooking tools, utensils, and dishes, as well as how you serve the meal. Everything you use should be thoroughly cleaned, and gluten-free foods should be labelled and separated from any other foods you happen to be serving.
If you aren't gluten-free yourself and you happen to be cooking for someone who is, don't be shy to ask questions. If we happen to be eating at someone else's house, it is actually comforting when people ask us questions to ensure that my husband can eat safely. It means that the host cares and wants to be educated. I know, as a host, you want to do it all yourself, but ask questions, ask about favourite products, ingredients, etc. Involving the person with Celiac (or their parent) can go a long way in building trust and comfort. They are often happy to answer questions and give suggestions.
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If you are new to the gluten-free diet or have been recently diagnosed with Celiac, I can help you navigate your health and your kitchen. Book a free call with me here so we can work together to simplify your life.
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