Gluten-free Austin: One family’s long road
With two kids and a husband on strict gluten-free diets, Austinite Nettie Martinez spends more money and time at the grocery store than she used to, inspecting labels for any of the dozens of ingredients that contain gluten. And because the family’s gluten-free diet is required by Celiac disease, even pots and pans that had been used to cook food with gluten had to be ditched:
“After Danny’s self-diagnosis, he and Nettie realized pretty quickly that they were getting a healthy dose of payback for events where they didn’t go out of their way to help or be considerate about others who couldn’t eat what was served, particularly in Scouts.
‘We expected them to make their own accommodations,’ Nettie says. ‘We gave no thought to it. We’ve been jerks.’”
According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, roughly 3 million Americans with full-blown celiac disease, and more have some gluten sensitivity. Nettie Martinez has adjusted to the search for foods without gluten, but the cost of gluten-free versions of food can be steep:
“The cost of buying certified gluten-free foods is astronomical, especially to such a savvy, budget conscious shopper: $3.50 for a baguette (“They are good, but not that good,” she reports), $5 for six flour tortillas (“that’s why we always have corn tortillas”), $6 for oatmeal that used to cost $2 (“we don’t eat as much oatmeal anymore”), the tiniest loaves of bread you’ve ever seen for $6. That’s enough bread for one round of the homemade lunches she makes for the kids every day.”
Read the full story and check out gluten-free recipes for pizza crust and more
And for more gluten-free Austin:
Leah Lopez makes gluten-free baked goods (and meets other dietary restriction needs) at Austin’s Better Bites Bakery
Another local business, Transition Me Gluten Free helps newly diagnosed Austinites do everything from grocery shopping and identifying cross-reactive foods in their diets to finding a nutritionally focused health care practitioner.
