Ready for instant access to some quick tips and healthy gluten-free food ideas to help you during the holidays and month to month throughout the coming year? You can now get the e-book version of my book Gluten Free Throughout the Year: A Two-Year, Month-to-Month Guide for Health Eating for the super-low price of $4.99 here. I brought the price way down as a holiday gift for clients and readers of my books!

My favorite recipes for the holidays in the book are Butternut Squash with Fresh Sage, Chestnut Stuffing (I’d suggest doubling the recipe, though), Pecan-Pear Autumn Sundaes, Savory Quinoa Hash, and Savory Stuffing. There are also tips for every season of the year, partying gluten-free style, cold and flu prevention and relief, and heartier breakfasts to start your day to prevent blood sugar highs and lows.

(more…)

by Melissa Diane Smith

Adapted from information in Going Against GMOs. (A shorter version of this article appears in the November issue of Better Nutrition magazine.)

Try this streamlined four-step plan to prepare a holiday meal without gluten and genetically modified ingredients.

Diana Reeves, the founder of GMO Free USA, has celiac disease and has been eating gluten free for more than five years. Three other members of her family were diagnosed with celiac around the same time and she went searching for a common environmental trigger. After learning about disturbing research on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods and vitamins, she began avoiding GMOs, too. She experienced what she says was a “transformational” difference in how she felt and became totally committed to eating non-GMO.

Her husband and daughters are also gluten free and have joined her in removing GMOs from their diets. Together, as a family, they are among the growing numbers of people who will be serving a non-GMO, gluten-free Thanksgiving meal this year.

(more…)

On Sunday, November 2, 2014, from Noon to 3 p.m., I will be doing book signings of Going Against GMOs, Going Against the Grain, and Gluten Free Throughout the Year at my booth at the outdoor Gluten-Free Awareness Expo at Lifegain Park on the Tucson Medical Center grounds. This event will be a great opportunity to get my three gluten-free books at special discounted prices and to talk to me in person and ask me any questions about gluten, gluten sensitivity/celiac disease, or genetically modified foods that you’d like. All three of these books are written for people who eat a gluten-free diet. (That includes my new book Going Against GMOs, which names non-GMO, gluten-free and grain-free products to look for when shopping and includes more than 45 easy-to-make, non-GMO, and gluten-free recipes!)

At this free event, you also will receive a goody bag filled with gluten-free resources, snacks, coupons, and more. Plus, there will be other booths giving away samples of food and presenting gluten-free resources, activities for kids, raffle prizes, live music, cooking demos, and gluten-free games.

View a flyer about the event here and learn additional information here. Make sure to mark the date on your calendar, and hope to see you there!

Copyright 2014 Melissa Diane Smith

Below is a reprint from a question Melissa answered in Better Nutrition magazine.

Q: What is the most common mistake people make on the gluten-free diet?

A: For people who are just beginning the gluten-free diet as well as those who have been on the diet a long time, the biggest mistake they make is over-relying on manufactured processed foods instead of eating naturally gluten-free whole foods such as vegetables and fruits.

Highly processed “gluten-free” food products set people up for health problems in three different ways. The first way is, ironically, by those products sometimes being contaminated with unwanted gluten. Even though gluten-free grains and and flours are naturally gluten free, these foods are often processed in the same facilities – and with the same equipment – as the gluten grains wheat, rye, and barley, where they can inadvertently pick up gluten.

(more…)

by Melissa Diane Smith

This article is based on a presentation I gave to the Southern Arizona Celiac Support group entitled “It’s Gluten Free, but Is It Healthy?” in January.

The gluten-free diet is one of the most talked-about and followed diets these days for good reason: It’s the nutritional answer for the growing number of people who realize they are gluten sensitive. It’s the best example we have of food as our best medicine. The vast majority of people who are gluten sensitive have experienced the amazing feeling of having longstanding bothersome or even debilitating symptoms dramatically improve or completely go away when they eliminate gluten from their diet.

(more…)

If you’re a little confused about nutrition, you have a right to be: Much of what we’ve been told about nutrition is just plain wrong. I plan to set the record straight in my author talk, “Going Against the Grain of What You Think You Know About Nutrition,” at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., in Tucson, Arizona.

(more…)

by Melissa Diane Smith

It’s important to understand what the label really means.

Today, more foods than ever are labeled “gluten-free.” Would it surprise you to know there is no official definition of “gluten-free” approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? It’s true.

Buying gluten-free food is the only treatment for people with celiac disease, an autoimmune disease reaction to gluten, as well as other forms of non-celiac gluten intolerance. The FDA is expected to issue its final guidelines on gluten-free labeling later this year. That’s a welcome development, but it’s not the end. You might think that after the FDA makes its ruling, all of us will be able to easily choose foods that are completely devoid of gluten. Unfortunately, it’s much more complicated than that. For the sake of your health, it’s important to understand the issues behind the label.

(more…)