Introduction

N ot so many years ago, the gluten-free diet was reserved for an obscure cluster of people who often found themselves missing out or ‘making do’ whenever food was being consumed.

Today, the gluten-free diet is sweeping many parts of the world faster than the latest celebrity slimming diet, and the benefits are huge. Gluten-free products abound (and are a far cry from the foods we used to choke down), food labels tell you all you need to know and people no longer look at you as though you have four heads when you ask for something gluten-free.

Being gluten-free isn’t as simple as it sounds. Whether you’ve been gluten-free for decades or are only starting out on the diet, this book is loaded with information that covers many aspects of your life, from the obvious — your health and how you shop, cook and eat — to more subtle facets, like finances, socialising, dealing with friends and family, and managing various emotional ups and downs.

Your authors live a gluten-free lifestyle and have for years. We know what it’s like to ‘go without’ when others are tucking into delicious food. We’ve been on the receiving end of the occasional odd look or rolled eyes. We’ve learnt to eat whatever is available at the time rather than what we might like to eat and we know all about carrying little packs of food with us when we go out or away on holidays. Over the years, we’ve gathered a lot of knowledge, made many discoveries, come to terms with the realities of living gluten-free and learnt that living on a gluten-free diet is really not so difficult. It’s all a matter of adapting and making changes and then getting on with the wonderful adventure of life.

In writing this book, we’ve done our best to tell you everything you need to know about living a gluten-free lifestyle so you too can adapt your diet and make informed decisions. You can use this book as your reference for living — and loving — a gluten-free lifestyle.

About This Book

Living Gluten-Free For Dummies, 2nd Australian Edition, like all For Dummies books, is divided so you don’t have to read it all at once, or even front to back, if you don’t want to. You don’t have to read from A to Z: You can skip from B to R to A and even reread B if you wish. You can read it sideways and standing on your head if you like; all you have to do is find a section you’re interested in and dig in.

We suggest you begin with the Table of Contents, see whether any particular chapter or subject really takes your fancy and start there. Or you can flip through the book and see whether any of the headings catch your interest.

If you’ve just been diagnosed as needing a gluten- or wheat-free diet and have stacks of questions, you’re probably best off starting at Chapter 1 and working your way through most of the book in order.

If you’ve been gluten-free for years, do yourself a favour and take a look at Chapter 4. You may be surprised at some of the foods that are allowed on the gluten-free diet that used to be considered no-nos. You may find this chapter opens a lot of cupboard doors that you once thought were closed! And in Chapter 3 you can also learn about the latest research in treating — and maybe, some day, even curing — coeliac disease.

To keep things consistent and easy to follow, here are some of the basic ground rules and conventions this book uses:

• All Web addresses appear in monofont, which looks like this.
• When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that we haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, as if the line break doesn’t exist.
• Feel free to tinker with the recipes. If you don’t have an ingredient a recipe calls for, don’t worry — make a substitution (gluten-free, of course). You may find your swap is a huge improvement. If you haven’t bothered too much about measuring ingredients before, treat yourself to a set of plastic measuring cups and spoons. Gluten-free cooking — at least baking — is just that little bit more tricky, and taking more care with measuring will definitely cut down the risk of crumbly cakes and disastrous desserts.
• If you want a vegetarian recipe, just look for the tomato icons.

Here are some conventions for the ingredients themselves:

• If an ingredient appears in a recipe, it’s assumed to be gluten-free. For instance, we don’t specify ‘gluten-free vanilla’ because all vanilla is gluten-free. But when we call for an ingredient that may or may not contain gluten, we state ‘gluten-free soy sauce’ or ‘gluten-free cornflour’.
• Baking with gluten-free flours works best if you use a mixture of flours. Chapter 9 goes into detail about how to mix gluten-free flours to get the best results.
• If a recipe calls for self-raising flour we specify this, as distinct from plain flour.
• You can use milk substitutes in place of milk in most recipes.
• Eggs are large.
• Butter and margarine are interchangeable.
• All temperatures are Celsius.

If you’re a skimmer, you can skip some stuff and not miss anything too important. You’ll still get the message if you skim over the following:

• Anything that has a Technical Stuff icon: The Technical Stuff icon represents information that’s interesting (downright fascinating sometimes!), but not crucial to your general understanding of the subject matter.
• Sidebars: These are the stories and titbits of information in shaded boxes scattered throughout the chapters. Just like the Technical Stuff, you may find the information in the sidebars interesting, but you won’t be missing anything critical if you skip them.
• Recipes: Unless you’re actually using them to cook or to decide what to make for dinner, recipes aren’t the best late-night reading material. Obviously you’ll want to skip those until you’re ready to whip up some gluten-free goodies, or you’re desperate for some new gluten-free ideas.

Foolish Assumptions

We know you’re not foolish, and neither are we. You spent your own hard-earned money on this book and that means either you want to learn more about the gluten-free diet or you’re related to us. Because our family members and friends already hear far more about this stuff than any human should have to endure, we’ve written this book with you in mind — and we’ve taken the liberty of making a few assumptions about you. One or more of the following probably apply:

• You or your child has been medically diagnosed as needing a gluten-free diet and you’re looking for the ‘manual’ that can tell you how to manage the diet.
• You love someone who’s gluten-free and you’re so cool that you want to learn about the diet so you can be supportive.
• You’ve been gluten-free for years and want the latest, most accurate information about dietary guidelines and current research.
• You’re a professional who has gluten-free clients, customers or patients and you want to learn more about coping with the gluten-free diet and its benefits.

At the same time, you can make a few assumptions about us and what we tell you in this book:

• We generally know what we’re talking about. We’ve both lived a gluten-free lifestyle for many years. Our experience is worth noting, because some people who write about gluten-free living aren’t gluten-free themselves. We assure you, we didn’t take on this book because we were bored and looking for extra projects: We really do live — and love — the gluten-free lifestyle and want to make the path easier for those who follow in our footsteps.
• Every effort has been made to establish the accuracy of the information in this book. Much of the material has been provided by experts from Coeliac Australia or from their publications. Dr Robert Anderson, MB ChB BMedSc PhD FRACP, a world authority on coeliac disease, and Dr Jason Tye-Din, MBBS FRACP PhD have supplied medical and research information. The book has been reviewed by professionals who are extremely knowledgeable in their fields. Graham Price, OAM, BSc (Hons), former Technical Officer for The Coeliac Society, was a member of an advisory team on gluten labelling issues established by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and was the consumer representative on a Therapeutic Goods Committee that reviewed labelling of medications. Penny Dellsperger BSc Nutrition (Hons) is a dietitian for Coeliac Australia and Annabel Mackenzie BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, BSc (Med) Hons Nutrition & Dietetics, M (Nutrition) was Technical Officer for Coeliac Australia and now acts in an advisory capacity.
• We wrote this book to provide information and explanation, not medical or dietary advice. Please seek medical or other professional advice before relying or acting on the information in this book.

Icons Used in This Book

Some people are more visual than others. That’s where icons come in handy. This book uses several icons and each has a little titbit of information associated with it. Here’s what each icon means:

Everyone can use a friendly little reminder. The Remember icon is a quick and easy way to identify some of the more important points that you may want to make note of throughout the book.

Sometimes we get carried away with technical and scientific stuff. Some of you will love it; others will be bored to tears. That’s why we put it in its own area, marked by a Technical Stuff icon, so you can skip it (if you want to) without missing the gist of what’s going on in that chapter or section.

Cleverly designated as Tips, these are, well, tips that can help you live (and love!) the gluten-free diet. They include info to help you save time or cut down on frustration.

Heeding the advice offered in text flagged with the Warning icon can keep you out of trouble.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the material in the print or ebook you’re reading right now, Living Gluten-Free For Dummies, 2nd Australian Edition, also comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the internet. Check out the free Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/livingglutenfreeau for some quick, helpful tips. For free extra companion material for this book, visit www.dummies.com/extras/livingglutenfreeau.

Where to Go from Here

What we suggest you do at this point is curl up in your comfiest chair and dive into the book. You don’t need us to tell you where to start — your individual needs will guide you.

If you’re feeling a little down about going gluten-free, we hope you’ll find the information you need to feel reassured and comforted by the knowledge that there are thousands of Aussies out there living gluten-free lives to the full.