Diet Transition Tips

Are you considering making changes in your family’s diet? Read on for tips for making this transition easy.

Many kids have favorite foods. Pizza and pasta are probably the most common, together with cheese, chocolate milk and chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, these foods all contain either gluten or dairy, two of the most inflammation-producing foods there are.

If you want to help lower your family’s inflammation, eliminating gluten and dairy from your family’s diet is a great way to start. Bear in mind the effects of dairy disappear in a few days, but it can take up to six months to see a difference from taking away gluten. But once you see the difference, you may never go back to gluten and dairy again. Try it—it may be the best decision you’ve ever made.

Here are some tips for getting your family off gluten and dairy for now or for good:

• Swap one of the following brands for your wheat-based pasta for a delicious, low-inflammation alternative that your child won’t even notice:

  • Ancient Grains Pasta made from Corn and Quinoa

  • Tolerant brand red or green Lentil-based pasta

  • Tinkanada soy-based pasta

  • Trader Joe’s rice pasta

• Swap dairy mozzarella, cream cheese and butter with Miyoko’s brand cultured butter products made from coconut and cashew

• If you can’t tolerate cashew, substitute coconut oil in place of butter or cooking oil

• Use Udi’s white bread, hot dog buns and hamburger buns instead of your wheat-based bread products

• Puree 1-1/2 cups cashews or blanched almonds or blanched almond flour in a blender with 6 cups water, 1 inch of vanilla bean, a dash of cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg for a delicious milk substitute or coffee creamer. This can be flavored with cocoa for chocolate milk or used as a hot chocolate base. Note that if it gets too hot it will turn to pudding, so do not overcook. Alternatively, turn it into pudding.

• Try So Delicious Coconut-based ice cream or Coconut Bliss ice cream instead of dairy-based ice cream.

We are so fortunate to have such a rich array of products available to meet the needs of gluten and dairy free people. So many people have discovered the benefits of this diet, that more products become available every day. Miyoko’s is a new company with actual cultured products that are outstanding. Most of her products do not contain flavorings or nutritional yeast (read the label), which are problematic for many, and best of all her products are delicious because they are cultured the same way dairy products are, so you get all the flavor and texture, often better, in fact, without the downside of the dairy.

For best results, avoid artificial sweeteners, artificial and natural flavors, and especially dyes as much as possible. All of these additives lower a person’s zinc levels and can also lower B6. Studies show that dyes can exacerbate or cause hyperactivity in children, and lowering zinc levels can contribute to depression and anxiety, so avoiding these additives can pay big dividends for you and your family.

Have you tried eliminating gluten and dairy? What have your experiences been? I’d love to hear about it.