During the majority of my 24 years as a dietitian, the term “gluten-free” was not the buzzword it is today.  Even a decade ago, most people had never even heard of the word gluten. Now, I hear gluten-free discussed almost daily and can spot products throughout MARTIN’S Food Markets. While a gluten-free diet is not the best way for everyone to eat, it is important for an adult or child diagnosed with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance/sensitivity.

Celiac disease (gluten sensitive enteropathy/celiac sprue) is a chronic autoimmune disorder of the intestine which interferes with the body’s ability to digest/absorb specific proteins known as “gluten.” Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley as well as hybrids of these grains such as spelt, triticale or kamut. For those with celiac or a gluten intolerance/sensitivity, these proteins must be avoided through careful day-to-day dietary management. In children, the symptoms of these conditions can affect everything from their digestive system to their mood, which makes adhering to a gluten-free diet imperative for some children to thrive. For the millions of Americans suffering from these conditions, beginning a lifelong gluten-free diet can seem challenging. The good news is that your local MARTIN’S is here to help!

Helpful hints for going gluten-free:

• As a family, make a decision as to whether to go cold-turkey or ease into a gluten-free diet, as well as whether or not the whole family will be adhering to the diet or just the individual.
• Look for MARTIN’S gluten-free shelf tags throughout the store. These tags are displayed immediately below gluten-free products. Thousands of Own Brands and national brand products are identified as gluten-free throughout the perishable and non-perishable departments!
• If this diet is for a child, involve them in choosing and trying new gluten-free products by helping you spot the shelf-tag throughout the store. Once your family gets comfortable with a gluten-free diet, then you can start to be mindful about watching sugar content or looking for products with more fiber.
• Read the label every time.  Recipes, distributors or ingredient sources can change. If in doubt, go without! Avoid foods if there is no ingredient list or call the food manufacturer if you are unsure the food is gluten-free.
• Wheat-free is not necessarily gluten-free. Wheat-free products may contain rye, barley, spelt or other gluten-containing grains or gluten may be in hidden ingredients. Some naturally gluten-free grains such as oat or millet may be cross contaminated during growing, harvesting or processing.
• Avoid cross-contamination from gluten-containing foods. Be mindful of products from bulk bins or salad bars as most cannot be guaranteed gluten-free. Store all gluten-free products in separate, covered containers with labels. Use a separate cutting board for gluten-free foods and prepare foods in an area away from gluten-containing ingredients. Buy separate containers of peanut butter and jam and have a separate butter dish for gluten-free users. Use squeeze bottles of condiments and keep separate toasters. 

MARTIN’S in-store nutritionists are here as a resource for learning about a gluten-free diet and finding gluten-free foods that will provide the nutrients you need to stay healthy!  To schedule a consultation or store tour, call Valerie Pulley, RDN at 804-364-3644 or Caroline Roessler, MS, RDN at 804-794-7074. For more healthy tips, visit the MARTIN’S website.

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How I Saw A Nutritionist for Practically Free, What I Learned & Tips for When You Go

7 lessons I learned from going gluten free for one month

Tips on Going Gluten-Free

Recently, my son was prescribed a medication that only comes in pill form.
Up until now, on the rare times we needed medicine, we could get it in liquid form, which was pretty easy to take even if you needed to chase it down with something else.
As it turns out, as many as 40% of American adults have trouble swallowing pills so for kids the process for learning how to swallow a pill can be daunting and frustrating.

My son started off in that nervous state. He didn’t want to take it because of the fear of gagging and  he was afraid that once the outer coating was gone that it would taste bad (and he was right).
Eventually though, we ended up with about a 1,000 high fives and a very, very proud kid who swallowed the medicine with little trouble at all.

So, with a little trial and error I decided to pass my experience along to you.

Practice Makes perfect

Practicing with the actual medicine can get frustrating.  The coating on the pill disappears after just a few failed attempts and the taste can start to make kids gag or get tense.

Candy is not only way more fun, and you don’t have to worry about the bitter taste.

We started with the ever so small Worlds Smallest Jawbreakers and moved up in size.  The meds we needed to take are ever so slightly larger than a Tic Tac so we figured if he could get an M&M down, we’d be able to get the meds down.

So, first things first, (and ignorant of how hard this was about to be) we tried the old fashioned way.

There are lots of methods for taking pills with water:

• Capsules float, so swallowing the pill with a glass of water and leaning forward may help getting the capsule to float closer to the back of your throat.
• Pills typically sink so tilting your head back when you swallow may help the water wash the pill down.
• Pop bottle method – using a water bottle to help take the pill (example here)
• Using a straw
• Continuously drinking water until the pill goes down
• Two sip method: taking a sip of water before putting the pill on your tongue and then a sip of water immediately after.

For those of us who have an easier time swallowing pills, it can be very difficult to explain the actual mechanics of it.  I found myself saying “you just swallow it”.
Helpful.  I know.

Needless to say, despite my wise words we had little success with water on day 1 and son retired to his bedroom with a slight stomach ache from too much water (then chocolate milk) and the adults took a break for a breather.

So, back to the drawing board.

Listen to Mary Poppins.

Day 2 we came a little more prepared.

Enter: Sugar.

Water we had found, wasn’t much help.  It was hard to gulp and didn’t do anything to hide the fact that there was a pill to be swallowed.

We decided our chasers had to be a little thicker and help mask the taste of the pill if we didn’t get it down on the first try.

What we used:

• Whip Cream
  I don’t know a kid out there who isn’t tempted to pour whip cream straight into their mouths, so we thought this would be a good place to start. It also requires kids to tilt their heads back.   He got down the jaw breaker but it was mostly by accident, they’re really small and he had his head back pretty far.  It wasn’t effective with an M&M for him but the whip cream is definitely worth a try.
• Pudding
  I suppose in the name of health, I’d be willing to give my son a nice big healthy dose of pudding on a daily basis.  He put the “pill” on his tongue with the pudding worked great with M&Ms.  We got three in a row.  He panicked when it came to the actual medicine but this method worked for the candy.
• Jello
  After the pudding came really close, I thought we might need something a little more slippery.  We bought cups of Jello and it worked Every. Single. Time.  It did take 3 tries when we moved on to the actual pill but the Jello masked the taste of the pill pretty well and the slippery quality made it easy to swallow whole unlike the pudding which he could divide in to smaller bites.

Tips to remember:

• Take a break. When things start getting negative, or emotional, it’s time to stop.  This is, of course, easier said than done.
• Start small, then move up.  Smallest candy first (Nerds even, if you want to) before moving to the bigger stuff.
• Visualization can help.  Before my son finally swallowed his medicine he looked at me and said “I’m pretending it’s just the tic-tac” and he did it.  Telling kids to imagine their throat is like a large cave might help too.
• Let them do their thing.  Seriously, it’s hard to do something new with someone staring you down going “did you do it?”.  I may or may not have made this mistake on day one.

Each morning we do a tic-tack first with jello, and then the pill after three successes. The whole process didn’t start smoothly but now it’s a lot less scary for him and less stressful for me.

Have any great tips that I missed?
Leave a comment below to share with our readers!

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