Gluten and Dairy Free Diet: Planning Meals for Home and School

Living without dairy and wheat is a challenge. When you first start to work with this diet you spend most of your time just trying to find substitutes for the foods you normally ate. However, after you get the hang of working with wheat alternatives and dairy alternatives, your next step is to make sure that you are not only adhering to the diet, but that you are also serving yourself and your family a healthy and well balanced diet. This is where many people get into trouble.

Calories

The first dietary issue that you need to take into consideration when working with the gluten and dairy free diet, is caloric intake. At first your child may lose weight as they will not eat as much of the new foods that you are serving them because they are unfamiliar with the taste and texture of these foods. However, as they become familiar with the taste and texture of non-dairy and non-wheat recipes, the volume of food they eat will increase. This is when you need to closely monitor how many calories each member of your family is consuming to keep their weight under control.

The age, height and activity level of each person is going to impact how many calories they need. To help you monitor the caloric intake of each member of your family, or at least the people on the gluten free dairy free diet, keep a chart of calories for the ingredients that you use to cook with. Then chart the food amounts and calories on a dry erase board.

Fat Content

Another element of the gluten free and dairy free diet that you will need to chart is fat content. While you will be using lower fat ingredients like soy milk and soy cheese, these products still contain fat. You will especially want to monitor how much hydrogenated fats are in your recipes. This is an unhealthy fat. When possible avoid using products with this type of fat.

Planning School Lunches