Discover how to start eating gluten and dairy free with our beginner’s guide. Learn the basics, swaps, and tips to get started on your GFDF journey.
Transitioning to a Gluten and Dairy-Free Lifestyle: A Beginner’s Guide
Today, I’m sharing information on how to get started with gluten and dairy-free eating. Whether you or a loved one has an allergy, an intolerance, or a new autoimmune diagnosis, it can be overwhelming to overhaul your way of eating. I’m sharing advice on how to get started, from someone that’s eaten GFDF for almost a decade, and I’m sharing some of my favorite swaps.
Join me in this series as I share my quarantine diaries while we social distance in South Florida. I am a SAHM to a child that is on the autism spectrum and is nonverbal, along with some other medical complications. In this space, you’ll see some of my favorite things! Disney World, Gluten & Dairy-free recipes, LUSH, Plus Size Fashion and Plan With Me’s are just a few of the things I like to share with you.
Dive into the Delicious World of GFDF: Your Ultimate Guide to a Gluten and Dairy Free Lifestyle
Hey friends my name is des AKA Mama friendly and I do all sorts of videos on my channel cooking videos Vlogs hauls Disney content a little bit of everything so if any of that sounds like fun to you I hope that you’ll subscribe and join me on my YouTube Adventure I do a lot of gluten-free dairyfree allergy.
Friendly content on my channel because I eat gluten and dairy free and I have done it for the better part of 10 years now and so this video is going to be related to that typically whenever I do a gluten-free or dairyfree video it’s a recipe whether it’s a copycat recipe or an original recipe or it might be a grocery haul where I show you what I’m.
Eating in any given week some of my grocery hauls include meal plans or I have different like themes to them I use different stores and so on my gluten-free and Dairy free playlist on my Channel at this moment has over 200 videos on it of combined recipes and grocery hauls so if you haven’t checked it out yet I’m going to go ahead and I’m.
Going to link it right here I’m also going to have it linked in the description box of this video for you all to check out but I thought that this video could be useful could be helpful because I belong to a ton of recipe exchange groups on social media some of them are specifically allergy friendly groups but others are more General and.
I’m finding that even in the general recipe groups a lot of people are more recently asking how to get into gluten-free eating or for favorite dairyfree substitutes because of an allergy that’s just come up or what have you and so I figured this video could potentially be useful to somebody I might as well put out the information I.
Have that being said the information I have is from my 10 years of eating gluten and dairy free I’m not an expert I’m not a doctor I’m not a dietitian this is not meant to be medical advice these are just some tips and tricks that I’ve picked up along the way that maybe you’ll find useful if you’re just now starting out on a gluten-free dairyfree.
Or both kind of situation you might start to eat gluten-free and dairyfree for a multitude of reasons perhaps it’s an allergy as I mentioned it could be a dietary like a a belly intolerance maybe the foods just are not sitting right with you anymore it could be for inflammation purposes Dairy and gluten both tend to be very inflammatory foods.
And potentially you’ve just been diagnosed with like say an autoimmune condition and your doctor has advised you that cutting out gluten and dairy might be useful here you are whatever your reasoning may be whatever brought you here um there is a lot of information there’s a lot of stuff that goes into being gluten and dairy free.
But once you kind of sit with all the information and process it it’s really quite simple and so the first bit of advice I have for you is just that to keep it simple there are so many gluten substitutes and dairy substitutes out there especially now when I started it was a lot harder to find substitutes for anything and if you did it probably.
Tasted awful these days that’s not the case at all but regardless of that fact if you have been eating cheese and like bread up until yesterday and today you try to make yourself a gluten-free dairyfree grilled cheese it’s going to taste awful to you it just will it’s not going to taste like what you want or what you’re used to what you should do.
Instead is just go for naturally gluten and dairyfree things things like fresh meat unprocessed Meats because things like salami baloney Etc could have dairy in them could have gluten in them depending on how they’re prepared so you want to try to go for unprocessed Meats chicken beef fish lamb what have you most vegetables rice potatoes if you.
Drink your coffee and you’re used to a ton of creamer in it there are some really really good dairyfree creamers out there now but maybe you want to try just having black coffee for a bit to untrain your taste buds before you jump into the dairyfree stuff and that’s another big distinction I want to make and we’ll get into that in a little bit.
Non-dairy is not the same as dairyfree there’s a ton of non-dairy creamers out there that still contain the allergens from dairy in them and it’s a tricky little marketing thing that they do but like I said we’ll get into that in a minute corn beans all sorts of legumes like uh split peas lentils what have you those are all naturally glutened and.
Dairy free as well so especially if you look into like say uh Caribbean or Mexican recipes Mediterranean recipes you’re going to find a lot of stuff that’s naturally gluten and dairy free and you’re not going to need to use any substitutes you just make them authentically as they’re meant to be eaten and they’re going to be delicious.
I was talking about hidden Dairy there’s also hidden gluten in a lot of things so I found a list I’m going to post it here of all the ways that you might see Dairy listed on a label that’s not explicitly Dairy now a lot of times most of the time if a product contains milk or wheat it’s going to say in big bold letters at the bottom of the ingredient list.
Contains wheat contains milk and then if you see that then you already know but there’s other times where it’s like a byproduct of the same thing and so they might not be compelled or obligated to label it as such you just have to know how to keep your eyes peeled so there was the list of dairy that you might find hidden in a label here’s another.
List of how you might find gluten in a label and gluten is a little tricky because gluten is not an ingredient per se it’s a protein in an ingredient so the most common way you’ll find gluten in anything is in wheat but gluten also exists in bulgar in Rye and barley so when you see things like malt that is going to include gluten in it because.
Gluten is an ingredient or a protein actually found in malt found in barley found in Rye so you might see an ingredient list and see barley on it and say oh good there’s no wheat that doesn’t mean it’s safe if what you’re AV voiding is gluten which brings me to this new fangled thing that’s happening now there’s a lot of flowers that you.
Can buy at the store that will be glutenfree but they are wheat based so basically the wheat is processed in such a way where they remove the gluten protein from it but they’re still using wheat in the flowers if what you have is a gluten intolerance or if you’re Celiac then that could be safe for you if what you have is a wheat allergy then.
Obviously that’s going to be a no-o regardless of how it’s processed me personally I don’t mess with it even though I don’t specifically have a wheat allergy I’d rather not take the risk plus like I said there’s so many yummy substitutes out there now anyways that I don’t feel the need to take on the risk of gluten-free wheat so back to my.
Original Point eating naturally dairyfree and gluten-free foods is going to be your best bet for at least the first couple of months to give your taste buds a break give them a little bit of a rest from what they’re used to eating after 2 or 3 months I’d say maybe try some substitutes and see how you feel about them it’s possible that.
Immediately you like some things and immediately you decide something’s not for you that’s totally cool maybe you try some substitutes and they all still taste terrible it’s possible that they just taste terrible and you don’t like them and that’s okay but it’s also possible that you’re still kind of holding on to what cheese is supposed to.
Taste like to you or what coffee cream is supposed to taste like to you or what regular bread is supposed to taste like to you so I would say in those cases maybe wait another few months and try again the farther removed you are from the real thing the likelier you are to enjoy the substitutes now I have my list here of my favorite substitutes for.
Things and again this is after many years of being gluten and dairy free many years of trying stuff and this is what my taste buds have decided are delicious maybe you try these things and you hate them even after years of being dairy free or gluten-free and that’s okay but if you’re just starting out you’ve already had your let’s say 3.
Months of just cutting everything out and going back to basics now you’re ready for substitutes maybe this is a good place for you to start so for milk um we like califia or kif califia um it’s very common it’s in all the grocery stores now Ripple is another good option it’s pea protein based califia tends to be almond or coconut.
Based but my absolute favorite for everything and if you’ve watched any of my cooking videos you already know this is nut pods nut pods is actually a coffee creamer but I use it for cooking I use it for baking I use it for I very rarely drink milk but if I’m going to make like a tea for example like a latte I’ll use that and it’s just because it.
Has a very the original flavor has a very neutral flavor to me but the texture of it the consistency of it is very rich and very much feels like heavy cream to me so for most things it can be substituted one to one with dairy and it works perfectly for cheese I love follow your heart which I have had the most luck finding at Whole Foods or at.
Sprouts but I’m even finding it at Publix lately they have a shredded parmesan and even a grated Parmesan that’s amazing they have f cheese they used to have a blue cheese I think it’s still made but I’ve had a really hard time finding it lately so I don’t know if it’s widely available anymore but it was delicious um kite Hill is great for.
Sour cream for cream cheese um their butter is fantastic Dia recently changed to an oat cream base I’m not sure what they were using before but I remember when I first cut Dairy out of my diet I I tried Dia and immediately was like this is so gross I cannot eat this I will never eat this again after a while I tried it again and it was better but.
Still not my favorite these days I have Dia in my fridge constantly whether it’s the shreds or the slices because since they change to the oat cream formula it’s really really good very tasty it melts very nicely so I do very much recommend that oats are another Hot Topic actually before I keep going with my substitutes and I’m glad I remember.
To bring that up oats naturally are gluten-free but me personally I don’t buy anything with oats in it or oats themselves if they are not explicitly labeled gluten-free because what happens is that when they are farming it when they’re harvesting it it’s very very likely that it’s going to come in contact with wheat just because of how.
The process goes and so it’s very likely that they will be cross-contaminated so if they’re not explicitly labeled gluten-free oats you can’t be certain that they did not come in contact with wheat at some point so I prefer to only use oat products that are in fact labeled gluten-free a lot of people love oat milk I personally don’t like it very.
Much because I can taste the sort of caless to it and it’s not my cup of tea for some people maybe that’s what they’re going for especially if you’re baking with it I guess that could be nice um but it’s not for me but again Different Strokes right maybe you try it and it’s one wonderful I personally if you’re just doing dairy free is great if.
You’re doing gluten-free as well I would be concerned about cross contamination there but perhaps there are substitutes that are gluten-free I just don’t know because it’s not typically something I reach for for ice cream Ben and Jerry’s has a line of dairyfree ice creams that are delicious the fish food especially is my favorite keep in mind though that.
Some of those dairyfree flavors do contain gluten so if you are trying to avoid both keep an eye on those labels 365 which is a Whole Foods brand they also have ice creams and like ice cream bars that are dairy free and gluten-free tento the gelato people they make a dairyfree ice cream that’s incredible uh the cold brew flavor and the dark.
Chocolate flavor are big favorites at my house uh also be careful with those because some of them do contain like cookie crumble or something and that is going to have gluten in it but if you can find the gluten and jyree ones very very good for allergy friendly ice cream Novelties like ice cream bars or like the cones that look like drumsticks and.
Things like that Jolly llama which I’ve had really good luck finding at Sprouts makes delicious ice cream Novelties they have ice cream sandwiches too that are gluten and dairy free so those are really nice and then for yogurts you do have a few different types out there and I think that this is going to vary largely on everybody’s individual.
Preference um forager is a very popular brand I don’t love it but it’s there it exists so delicious as well is an extremely popular brand that you can get pretty much everywhere I don’t love it either the one brand that I really really like for yogurt is siggies it’s an islandic yogurt um so it’s a little bit.
Thicker and the flavor is also really really nice you have to go specifically for the siggies plant-based because they do make regular yogurt as well but very very much recommend that for pizza and mac and cheese I have to suggest Dia for both um mac and cheese in particular you have to be careful because some of them will be dairy free but not gluten-free.
And others will be gluten-free but not dairy free the DIA brand is both and again since they changed their formula with the cheese really really good and for pizza I’ve always loved Dia Pizza um they’re all completely plant-based so they have a meatless pepperoni flavor they have like a supreme and a sausage and then just plain cheese all of them.
Are completely vegan what I really like to do is to get the fire roasted vegetable pizza which is just that it’s just vegetables and then the vegan cheese but I put my own pepperoni on top Applegate pepperoni in particular is explicitly labeled gluten and casan free casan being the protein and milk that causes allergies so we buy a lot of.
Applegate in our house Applegate pepperoni on a Dia Pizza amazing for pasta we really like bonsa pasta is another one that’s very polarizing though and you’re probably going to want to try a few different ones before you find your favorite Jil is another popular brand of gluten-free pasta I really like bonsa because I feel.
Like it has a good flavor and it has a really good texture but some people would disagree with me so for breads udies Udi is probably the most popular or easy to find anyways gluten-free bread out there right now but if you can find Canyon Bak house I think far superior both in.
Flavor and in texture they have sliced bread Bagels Hawaiian rolls um English muffins I tried their English muffins recently and they are amazing in breakfast sandwiches so lots to do there and for actual flour for baking and stuff a lot of people like King Arthur and is it Arthur or Arthur King Arthur and um it’s also very very easy to find.
You can get it in bulk at Costco even I personally don’t love it I bake a lot and I use I always have gluten-free flour on hand I’ve never liked King Arthur because to me it leaves like a metallic aftertaste it’s not for me but a lot of people swear by it what I always use is Bob’s one to one so the thing about.
Gluten-free flour is that everybody has their way of making it everybody has their Blends that work for them so sometimes those Blends are not going to be one for one meaning that you can just substitute a cup of regular flour to a cup of this substitute like gluten-free flour Bob’s Red Mill to me tastes the best and I’ve very very rarely if ever.
Had a fail as far as doing a complete like Switcheroo between that and like regular flower because other popular flowers to work with when you’re gluten-free are like coconut flour for example or almond flour even white rice flour there’s a ton but each of those has a specific ratio that you have to use in order to substitute it for.
Regular flour so for me personally I prefer to just buy a blend that’s already prepared so that I don’t have to be mixing up stuff A lot of people do that though they buy all sorts of different flowers and just create their own blend that’s fantastic if you’re able to do that or if you want to do that I stick to letting somebody else.
Handle that but I I’ve been talking for quite a while now I think I’ve given you guys a good amount of information but there’s always more to talk about when it comes to this for example I’m thinking that I might come back and maybe show you guys a few of my favorite cookbooks in case that’s something that might be interesting for you um there’s.
Also maybe a video that I could make for you guys about how to eat on the road when you’re gluten and dairy free we road trip a lot and so road trip snacks or are something that I have to always have on hand I have to be prepared um at any given restaurant to eat safely so perhaps that’s something also that you guys might want to see like fast food or.
Restaurants or whatever how to order gluten and dairy free or my favorite meals when I’m out and about if any of these things are things that you’d like to see or that you’d find helpful let me know but I don’t want to go on forever and ever about this so I think I’m just going to cut it right here I hope you guys have found this video helpful and.
Informative and like I said if you have any questions please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them based on my own experience or I’ll do my best to point you in the direction of a resource if I can’t answer your question but I want to thank you so much for being here and watching this video I hope you enjoyed it and if you did I hope you’ll.
Please give it a big thumbs up I’d also love it if you would subscribe and click that notification Bell because I post at least three times a week and I wouldn’t want you to miss a minute thanks so much again for watching bye bye
