Thirteen years ago when my two young daughters and I joined the ranks of the US Celiac population, roughly 3 million strong, my carefree job as a parent changed. I no longer concerned myself with carpools and play dates, but immersed myself in information about Celiac Disease and the gluten free diet.
Becoming the family expert on Celiac Disease was the easy part. Explaining to my daughters why they could no longer eat the foods that they loved, or eat the treats brought in to school was the tough part. So many adjustments were made and I quickly learned the disease that I thought only affected part of my family, truly affected all of my family.
The obvious and safest adjustment my family made was deciding to make our house gluten free. That was such an easy decision, but not an easy transition. Shopping became a chore for me, my husband, my mother, and anyone else who happened to be searching for the words "gluten-free" on a box.
I recently read that gluten free shoppers spend 46 to 90 minutes longer every week in the store than your average shopper. That also does not take into account time spent shopping online, or driving from store to store trying to pick up all of your families favorite foods. I am certainly not your "average" shopper because I know that I spend a lot more time than that buying food to feed my small family of four.
Not only is time precious to a family, but so is money. No one ever told us what an impact being on the gluten free diet can have on your budget, especially if you keep bringing home foods that your family will not eat. It is wonderful that we, as gluten free consumers can now shop in so many places and have such a variety of products to choose from, but not all of the food tastes good.
One of the things that I have learned over these past eleven years is that people are your best resource. You really do need a network of friends and nutritional experts to give you some advice on which products are truly, worth your time and hard earned money. This is why the Gluten Free Checklist will be a beneficial tool for you. I have brought together a team of friends, family, and others in the celiac community to help create this list of goods and services with one goal in mind; to make your gluten free life easier! Use the Gluten-Free Checklist to be more efficient in your shopping, purchase tastier food and give you back your life.
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