Imagine having to go dairy, gluten, and soy free all at the same time! With the growing number of food allergies and sensitivities growing daily, it is no surprise to see multitudes of new diets and lifestyle helps flooding the media, internet, books, and other sources. This one diet in particular I’ve noticed is becoming more and more widely sought after, but with very little information of true value to be found.
The difficulties with this diet are that we eat all three of these ingredients for pretty much every meal we eat. Dairy is pretty easy to identify if you know what to look for, but gluten is hidden in many things, and soy, well it’s in almost everything!
The first step most people take is to start looking at the labels of what they buy. Yes, you can do this, but it is not a good idea. This is just a good way to get very frustrated in a very short amount of time. The best first step to take is to buy food in its natural state. Whole fruits, veggies, and most of your whole meat (steaks, chickens, hams) are completely free of any of dairy, gluten, or soy. So your best move is to stock up on these. This will be easy for your meat and potato eaters, because both of these are quite free from gluten, dairy, and soy. Vegans or vegetarians also can do relatively well, because there is nothing wrong with those fruits and veggies!
You must be very careful with seasonings and condiments, but you can still have a wide variety of seasonings to use. Just to stay safe, it would be best to stick with your basic salt, pepper, and herbs. Be very careful of any seasoning blends and mixes. I found that these are often the biggest culprits of hidden gluten and especially soy.
Just as with any diet, your best bet is to shoot for variety and nutritional balance, be careful not to get stuck to eating a few things over and over. It is still important to get in your fiber and protein, you just have to get it from other sources. If you love to bake, try experimenting with rice, quinoa, sorghum, beans, and other gluten free flour sources.
In closing here are a few resources that may help to ease your burden in finding dairy, gluten, and soy free foods and ingredients.
Enjoy Life Foods-This brand prides itself on being totally allergen free with its products, and in truth, it has the only chocolate chips you will find without soy!
http://www.enjoylifefoods.com/
Earth Balance-Although you have to look for certain products to suit your need, this has a soy-free butter substitute and a mayo substitute as well. But be careful, not all their products are dairy, gluten, and soy free.
http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/
iherb.com-A wonderful on-line resource for a lot of your hard-to-find ingredients. They have everything from supplements, to food stuffs, to pet, and bath and body products. They sell several things from Enjoy Life Foods, and Bobs Red Mill gluten-free flours. The great thing about them is that nearly everything is cheaper than you will find at the store. They have allergen-free vitamins, and several recognized brands for allergen free foods. Stop sometime and take a look at their gluten free section! An added bonus is that if you put in the coupon code: FIT518 you get $5 off your first order! As with any on-line store, not all of their things are allergen free, so be sure to check them before you purchase them!
http://www.iherb.com/
May your journey to a dairy, gluten, and soy free life be fun and full of health!
