Dietitian visit

So, this past Wednesday (May 23) I went back down to Vancouver General Hospital for some nutritional counseling with a dietitian. I was told when we scheduled my appointment that it would be an HOUR long and so I took the morning off work and headed down for my 8am appointment.

I met with the dietitian (she was actually a dietitian intern 4 weeks from finishing and I was asked if I would be okay with meeting with her - I said it would be okay with me) and we went over a lot of info that I had already learned with all the research I had done online since my diagnosis.

She confirmed some things I had been wondering about how careful I needed to be about cross-contamination and there were some thing that she told me that I hadn't known. She did strongly recommend me joining the Canadian Celiac Association as it has lots of info and they send out newsletters with up to date info about gluten free (GF) foods and new products or info. She also told me about a pocket sized "dictionary" that lists TONS of food items and tells you if they are GF or not or if they are questionable. It would make grocery shopping more enjoyable as there are often items that I am not sure about if they are GF or not and so I currently have to leave them or risk getting sick!

I did enjoy a wonderful meal of brown rice spaghetti with meat sauce on Friday night with a friend of mine! It made me very happy as there has been a lot of monotony in my meals and I look forward to some variety in my diet!

I will be going back to the dietitian for a follow-up at the end of June. I think she wants to make sure that I am getting everything I need in my diet. Right now the thing I have to work on is getting in all my grains. It is a bit more of a challenge since I can't have most of the common grains! I also have to find some gluten free vitamins that I can take as my dietitian is concerned that since I am not able to eat the enriched flours that I am not getting most of the vitamins like the B vitamins, niacin, and others that are added into the foods we eat! ( okay - so the foods YOU eat!)

Right now my diet is consisting of mainly fresh foods - very very little processed food as most of them contain gluten in some form. I am glad that I have found the brown rice pasta as that allows for another option. I mainly have been eating salads at work for lunch and rice & chicken or nachos for supper. Thankfully I really enjoy fresh veggies and love salads with lots of veggie variety in them and I found some dressings that are GF!

Now that I have seen the dietitian I am planning on a field trip of sorts with some of my girlfriends to go "visit" the various stores around this area that carry gluten free items. There is a gourmet & organic grocery store in White Rock that also has a rice bakery and carries a wide assortment of GF foods. I want to check it out for "special" food items - food that I won't eat all the time but can have for variety, special occasions and when cravings happen!