Announcements


Gluten Free City is always under development. This is where we will make announcements about the site and discuss potential new features.

Next Phase

Posted on January 8, 2012 by

The first 45 days of Gluten Free City has gone pretty well. We have over 85 followers on twitter and are in regular contact with several members of the Celiac/Gluten Free Community. Besides offering reviews of snacks and pizza, we have been sharing beginner resources and educational videos. We will continue to do this throughout 2012 and beyond.

Our next phase is to start development of a directory of Gluten Free Resources. These can be online or in “The Real World.” As I said in our About Us page, Kim and I have extensive backgrounds in Directory Development and Delivery. We can’t say that we will be the biggest right out of the gate, but we will be striving to be among the best.

We also know that two people can’t do this by themselves. There is a huge Gluten Free Community that we will continue to work with. If you are interested in helping to test or contribute to this project, please let me know at gfc_steve@glutenfreecity.com or in a comment below. I will be glad to share more details about our plans.

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Doing better for yourself in 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by

Happy New Year!

A new year always brings thoughts of self-improvement. The sheer number of nutrisystem ads I have seen in the last week attest to that.

For those of you who choose to eat gluten free, this is a great opportunity to keep investigating how what you put in your mouth affects your body. See if there is anything else that could be keeping you from being as healthy as you can. Sure, there is conflicting information and you are going to be pushed in several directions by the latest studies and celebrity fad diets. You have made it this far, please keep moving forward.

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

For those of you who have to eat gluten free, this is the time to understand that you can’t eat gluten any more.

None.

No cheating.

Are you some kind of grain addict?

You can do this. There is a whole community of incredible folks who are in the same position. We are learning together to eliminate the pain from our diet, make the permanent lifestyle change we need to make and support each other.

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

Don’t be shy about your needs. Gluten is hurting you.

Refuse to eat food you are unsure of.

Be concerned about cross contamination.

Ask questions.

You are the one in control of your life. You can make yourself better.

2011 was my transition to eating Gluten Free due to a reasonably severe sensitivity. I made a lot of mistakes. I downplayed the problem, ate things I was unsure of. My wife and the GF community have helped me a lot.

2012 is going to be a time of recovery and a Celiac disease test. Years of damage can’t be overcome quickly or easily. But I am going to do it.

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

Notes:

After writing this post, I saw that Fiona Childs from FoodIntoleranceInfo.com used “Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels” as a slogan. I was just riffing on “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, but wanted to let you (and her) know I didn’t take it from her site.

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A Really Good Start

Posted on December 11, 2011 by

Kim and I would like to thank you for making the first couple of weeks of Gluten Free City so amazing. It is hard to know what will happen when you launch a site and we certainly hoped for the best to happen.

With nearly 50 twitter followers we feel like we are engaging with the online Gluten Free community. We have already had a few posts generate comments and generally feel welcomed by everyone.

Yesterday was our largest traffic day with several dozen visitors. That may not sound like a lot, but for a new site relying on word of mouth it’s great.

If you have any suggestions, requests, or criticism, please let us know.

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Gluten Free City is now on Facebook

Posted on December 10, 2011 by

We are now on Facebook. I will be sharing many of the posts here over on our facebook page. I am good with Twitter and WordPress, but Facebook is a new thing. Pretty sure I am going to mess that up a few times.

And, as is the custom, I will ask you to “Please Like us on Facebook!”

That’s how the kids do it, right? :)

 

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New to Gluten Free?

Posted on December 3, 2011 by

On the right sidebar, we have a link section for people that are new to being gluten free. Some of these sites helped us during our transition to being gluten free. Others have been added later. All are good and give great tips on dealing with such topics as “Are you kidding me, that has wheat in it, too?”, “Cross-Contamination? That doesn’t sound good.” and, of course, “OMG, please give me some food that doesn’t taste like crap.”

Seriously, please check out these sites and/or add them to your blogroll. These are in alphabetical order.

  • 10 important facts about celiac disease and a gluten free diet — Gluten Free Optimist lays out the simple facts you need to know, including explaining cross contamination.
  • Eating Gluten Free on a Budget — Jessica of wtf!Celiac has put together a great list of tips for eating well (and gluten free) without breaking the bank. Her point about eating gluten free for all meals if you have celiac/gluten sensitivity cannot be stressed enough.
  • Are You New To Gluten Free? — GlutenFreeGirl.com is one of the places you need to be reading as often as you can. This page links many really great articles. I actually have not read all of them (there are around 50!), but I am working my way through them.
  • Do I have Celiac Disease? — The University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research is an institution engaged in clinical care, diagnostic support, education, and clinical and basic science research in Celiac Disease. The paramount goal of the Center for Celiac Research is to increase the awareness of Celiac Disease in order to provide better care, better quality of life, and more adequate support for the Celiac Disease community. Basically, this is all of the facts and they are doctors who understand celiac disease.
  • Getting Started Gluten Free — Amy Leger shares some great tips, including how to get through the first few days and dealing with office lunches.
  • Gluten Free – Getting Started — by Anya at Another Gluten Free Blog. She points out that “The first few weeks of being gluten free can be devastating, overwhelming, and just plain terrible.” and offers helpful ways to get through it. Most of the foods recommended have links to her reviews.
  • Gluten Free Guide – Sure Foods Living — This is a new site for me, and I still have to read the archives. I will say that I have printed this very thorough list of food ingredients and whether they could contain gluten.
  • Gluten Free Lifestyle (Celiac Corner) — Paula’s site was one of the first I read when I went GF and I am thankful for it. This page has links to many articles that will help your transition.
  • Gluten Free Tip Sheets – GFE — Over at Gluten Free Easily, Shirley has assembled several neat PDFs for you to download. The “Top 20 things you should know about gluten” is full of science and a must read. This was where I first heard about Zonulin.
  • Going Gluten Free Guide — A very thorough multi-phase approach to getting your kitchen ready for being gluten free. “Gluten Free Bumble Bee” speaks from her own experience and covers a lot of ground. I had not considered all of the possible sources of kitchen cross contamination outlined in Phase 4.
  • How to get started – GFL Magazine — Gluten Free Living magazine is a specialty publication just for us. The ads are just as interesting as the articles. This link goes to a summary of foods you can eat and what you should avoid.
  • How to go Gluten Free — Excellent and thorough rundown of beginning (and continuing) to eat Gluten Free. You can seriously get lost in this site. The posts are wonderfully written and beautifully photographed. I do not know how Karina has the time to contribute so much to the GF community, but I am glad she does.
  • NFCA Printable Guides — The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness has a ton of guides to help you navigate being gluten free. As someone who used to work in the non-profit space, I am glad to see an awareness group advocating for us. We plan on checking out how we can help them spread the word.

As you can see, there are resources from all sorts of people; bloggers sharing their stories, accomplished chefs showing you how to cook delicious meals, community sites and some medical professionals. I hope to keep expanding on this list. If you have a resource that you used when you were starting GF or come across a new one, please leave a comment here or let us know on Twitter (@glutenfreecity).

Update (12/21/11): New entries will be bolded for a while after they are added.

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First Post!

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

Welcome to Gluten Free City!

We hope you enjoy the site and would appreciate any feedback you can offer. You can post your comments on any article or send an email to info@glutenfreecity.com. Please read the About Us page for more information.

All posts will appear on the Home page and will also appear on the appropriate category page.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back often.

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