Food is life! We need food to survive, we enjoy food for community, we share food to celebrate and, let’s be real, who doesn’t love salivating over a delicious meal! However, dining out with dietary conditions can be quite stressful. For those of us who need to maintain a gluten free diet, studies have even been done to show how gluten anxiety affects your wellbeing.  In order to avoid accidental consumption of gluten, it’s important to identify in what scenarios you may find it in the first place.

GOING TO FAMILY AND FRIEND’S HOUSES:

I often hear people say that their family says, “Well, you ate it all your life and you seemed fine to me. What’s a little going to do now?” Getting family on board with your dietary needs, especially when it comes to cross contamination, can be a huge learning curve for everyone. Learning how to speak up, identify ingredients or methods of preparation that aren’t safe, and occasionally turning down food that may be cross contaminated is awkward and can even be hurtful, but may be necessary.

But when friends or family go over and above to ensure you can enjoy the gluten free, dairy free, vegan chocolate cake they so lovingly put together, it really means the world. They may even tell you how they double washed every bowl, pan and utensil and took all precautions necessary… but you’re still nervous!

WORK FUNCTIONS AND EVENTS:

There are some things you can’t avoid in life… and a work function is one of them! When attending catered events, it’s always advisable to speak to the company beforehand so you know whether or not there will be safe food for you to consume. Even if the catering company has precautionary measures in place, for those with severe dietary requirements, you may still be apprehensive. Was there a shared tong? Was a new butter used? Was a toaster involved?

DINING OUT AND TAKEAWAY:

Admittedly, if a restaurant or cafe use ingredients that contain gluten, it can be hard to feel safe when you have strict dietary requirements. Between the shared utensils, fryers, toasters, crockery, sauce mixes, additives… it’s hard to know where to even begin to protect yourself from cross contamination! Fortunately, some places have it going on and you should really and truly only consume a meal where you feel fully certain they understand and can cater for your needs.

Now that we’ve identified the times where you may find sneaky gluten, it’s critical to speak up to keep yourself safe. Meals are such special times in our lives and it is so important to be able to relax and enjoy these special and fun times. We only recommend eating a meal if you feel confident it’s 100% gluten free. Even so, we are human and mistakes do happen. After you’ve crossed all your t’s and dotted your i’s, your final measure of protection is GluteGuard.

GluteGuard is a natural, Australian-made enzyme supplement that is able to specifically target and break down the toxic gluten proteins that induce an immune response. By detoxifying  inadvertently ingested gluten particles, GluteGuard helps to prevent the symptoms caused by accidental gluten ingestion, that are commonly experienced by most of those following a strict gluten-free diet. In this way, GluteGuard helps you to maintain your gluten free diet. For further information about GluteGuard, check out https://www.yumglutenfree.com/shopfront/health-and-nutrition/glutagen/.