Tag Archives: gluten free diet

What Do Americans Eat? Kale, Gluten-Free, and Organics Top 2024 Food Trends

food statistics

Food trends come and food trends go. One year we’re all raving about Sriracha, the next we’re falling for the cronut. For the last 30 years, Parade has surveyed those trends and other American eating habits.

This year, foods like snack bars and frozen sandwiches have risen in popularity. As more people eat on the go, convenience foods are going to see a natural rise. According to Parade‘s survey:

  • 27 percent of main dishes made at home are frozen or ready-to-eat meals.
  • 80 percent of our meals are prepared at home, and over half of them are made from scratch or fresh ingredients.

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9 New (Yet Very Old!) Gluten-Free Grains

amaranth

Whether you’re going gluten-free and need a change of pace from quinoa and potatoes, or you’re just looking to add more nutrient-dense grains to your dinner routine, you’ve got more options than you may have thought! Here are nine new-to-you (yet very old!) options you’ve probably never heard of or tried. They are certainly worth becoming more familiar!

1. Amaranth

Aztecs ate amaranth for thousands of years–and for good reason! One cup of cooked amaranth has 9 grams of protein and 29% of your daily iron.

How to Eat It: Boil one cup grains in 6 cups water for 40 minutes, then drain off excess water. Use it in tabouli salad instead of bulgur, or with bananas and cinnamon as an alternative to oatmeal.

2. Buckwheat

Believe it or not, there is no wheat found in buckwheat. It’s actually a fruit seed originally from China. Kasha is the roasted kernel form that we eat. One cooked cup has only 155 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 5 grams of fiber to keep you feeling full.

How to Eat It: Stir-fry 100% buckwheat (soba) noodles with shrimp and veggies, or cook buckwheat groats (kasha) like rice and add lemon, olive oil, and fresh herbs. (more…)

Breaking Bread: Drew Manning’s 4-Month Gluten-Free Diet Experiment to Bust the Hype

breaking-bread-gluten-free-diet

You can’t swing your purse or raise your hand these days without hitting something or someone that is without the gluten. The gluten-free label has been stamped on as many products as possible and created a $4.2 billion industry almost over night. So what gives? Why all the hype? That’s what Fit2Fat2Fit Drew Manning, the trainer who gained a ton of weight just to lose it, is taking on in his newest “wellness” experiment.

He’s not alone in the “how did this happen” curiosity. Jimmy Kimmel recently did a spoof on the gluten-free fad, taking cameras to the streets to ask people if they are gluten free. If they said yes, he asked them to explain what gluten was…and not a single respondent knew. Frankly, we aren’t surprised.

We’re all avoiding this stuff like the plague, but nobody is exactly sure why. 

Manning’s newest journey focuses on educating the American people that gluten-free does not always equal healthy. “People look at gluten-free as weight-loss diet food, and that’s not the case,” says Manning. “It’s a disease. When people have Celiac they can’t process that protein found in wheat and grains. It’s not for everyone.” (more…)

Jennifer Lawrence Bashes Gwyneth’s Gluten-Free Eating Disorder; Ed Sheeran’s Vodka Diet

jennifer lawrence

When Celebrity Diets are No More Than an Eating Disorder

Leave it to Jennifer Lawrence to keep it almost too real. This time, the Hunger Games and X-Men actress is making headlines for sharing her not-so-flattering opinion of Gwyneth Paltrow’s gluten-free diet.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence called the Gwyneth’s diet choice “the cool new eating disorder,” describing it as “I just don’t eat carbs.”

Those are pretty harsh words for a diet that’s purportedly followed for medical reasons.

“It doesn’t follow that gluten-free dieters are then eating disordered. Many people have aberrant eating patterns but don’t meet the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder,” explained our resident nutrition expert, Mary Hartley, RD.

In her new book, It’s All Good, Paltrow wrote, “Every single nutritionist, doctor and health-conscious person I have ever come across…seems to concur that (gluten) is tough on the system and many of us are at best intolerant of it and at worst allergic to it.”

While gluten intolerance may be a real medical issue for Paltrow and her family, Lawrence wasn’t entirely in the wrong for labeling gluten-free eating as the latest “it” starvation diet. (more…)

Back to School Clean Eating Cookies Made Just About Any Way You Like!

allergy cookies

It’s that time of year again for brown bag lunches and busy fall schedules. To keep the kids healthy AND keep their sweet tooth happy, try these super simple, super clean cookies. What we love about these cookies is that they are very forgiving and flexible in terms of the goodies you add in at the end.

Consider adding almond butter, cocoa powder, protein powder, chopped almonds, canned pumpkin, extra cinnamon…the sky’s the limit!

healthy cookie ingredients

The mashed bananas as the base is a great way to keep the cookies moist while providing a stable base packed with nutrition and energy. Adding oats provides essential fiber to keep little bellies full. (more…)

Gluten-Free Foods are Officially Gluten Free; FDA Enforces Labeling Standards

gluten free

It seems everywhere you turn these days, there is a new addition to the gluten-free gang. Celebrities, the lady down the street, maybe your own cousin — they’ve all happily hopped onto the gluten-free bandwagon, without or without an actual intolerance. However, there’s a new member of the group that may surprise you.

The latest additions to the list of things that are gluten-free are in fact foods labeled with the term “gluten-free.” Starting this week, the term “gluten-free” is regulated, meaning it is no longer up to the various manufacturers to decide what that label actually means.

5 Reasons Why Most of Us Should Not Go Gluten Free

For those who suffer from celiac disease or other conditions that prevent them from digesting gluten, this comes as welcome news.

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5 Reasons Why Most Of Us Should NOT Go Gluten-Free

By Layne Lieberman, RD, Culinary Nutritionist and author of “Beyond The Mediterranean Diet: European Secrets Of The Super-Healthy”

A small percentage of the population that greatly benefit from following a gluten-free: These are the estimated 1 to 2 percent of people who have been diagnosed with celiac disease and the 0.2 to 0.4 percent who suffers from wheat allergy.

So what about the rest of us, the 98% of the population that hasn’t been diagnosed with celiac disease or a wheat allergy?

grains

Some of the biggest diet buzzwords right now are gluten-intolerance or gluten-sensitivity but there’s no test to determine if an individual actually has this. The truth is, the gluten-free movement has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Despite what’s written in fear-mongering books like “Grain Brain” and “Wheat Belly”, for most of the population there is no reason to go 100% gluten-free. (I do, however, strongly support eliminating  processed foods like white bread, cookies, chips, pretzels, and cakes.)

Here’s why most of us should NOT be on a gluten-free diet:

  1. Gluten-free diets recommend substituting rice for wheat. This may not be a good idea in the long-term. Rice absorbs arsenic (and cadmium) from the ground. Small quantities in the diet are of no concern. But when rice (or rice flour) is a staple, as recommended in some gluten-free diets, it can be troublesome and may even result in poisoning.
  2.  Restaurant and supermarket gluten-free offerings can be highly processed and  packed with calories, sugar, salt and fat. One half of an Uno Chicago Grill Gluten-Free Pepperoni Pizza has 500 calories, 21 grams of fat, 1040 milligrams of sodium and 6 grams of sugar. Yikes! (more…)

Chicken, Quinoa Dominate Top 10 Food Trends for Second Year

Want to know which foods were hot this past year and what to expect for 2024? Foodily, the world’s largest social recipe network, keeps tabs on what visitors have been searching for over the years. Since 2024 the site has seen “the decline of red meat and the increase of healthy eating related searches,” says Foodily co-founder Hilary Mickell.

quinoa

What else is on tap for 2024?  Here are the top 10 trendiest, most searched for foods in 2024. BONUS: We’ve included our favorite recipes so you can be sure to fit them in this year!

Top 10 in 2024:

1. Chicken. This standard red meat alternative can get a little plain sometimes, but not with this Apple and Herb Dutch Oven-Roasted Chicken! Check out our tips to use the leftovers for equally as awesome meals for the rest of the week.

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Pinterest Ups the Ante on Recipe Searches with New Filters

Looking for a new favorite recipe? If you don’t already know the best secret in recipe searching, let me fill you in: Pinterest is the way to go.

pinterest search

The visual search function makes it easier to determine which recipe is the right one for you, and the diversity of recipes Pinterest displays is pretty amazing. I personally enjoy using the site, mostly because my cooking experiments don’t always turn out the way they should, and it’s nice to see what the end result was supposed to be.

Pinterest has made their search function even better with the addition of new search filters: Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten free, Paleo, and Indulge Me.

Here’s how it works:

  • By typing in something as simple as “dinner recipes,” and selecting the Vegetarian filter, you find recipes like vegetarian chili, baked ziti, and mushroom burgers.
  • Indulge Me appears to be a filter designed for extra indulgent desserts that include chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, and the like. (Count us in!)
  • To use the filters, you type in a name of a dish or ingredients you have and simply select which works for you.
  • Pinterest also says their recipe pins will include cook times, ingredients, and servings.
  • Though only available online, the new search features should be available on its mobile site soon.

Also Read:

Banana Bread French Toast Will Make Your Breakfast Weak in the Knees

3 Steps to Perfect Pasta

Sticky Red Wine Chicken and Veggies Stir Fry is Way Better Than Carryout!

Food Blogger Spotlight: Once a Month Meals

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the thought of what to feed your brood or found yourself schlepping to the grocery store three times a week because you didn’t have the organizational skills to plan for more than one or two meals in advance, let Kelly Seaton and the staff of Once A Month Meals lend a hand.

The site offers a low cost membership program that provides: Access to serving size customizable recipe cards, freezer directions, organized grocery lists, step by step cooking day instructions, and printable labels. Everything you need to cook a month worth of meals in one day. A video on the site explains the membership process.

Not sure if you want to commit to a membership but still want to peruse a variety of healthy recipes for free? You can do that too. Kelly tells us about a few of her favorite recipes below, but I’m jotting this one down for breakfast next week: Whole Grain Banana Pecan Muffins. Nom-nom!

whole grain banana muffins

More from Kelly at Once a Month Meals –

Why did you start your food blog?  Once A Month Meals started back in 2024 as a way to share information on how freezer cooking can help people get back into the kitchen creating meals they’ll love for better health and to ease their budgets.

How would you describe your approach to eating/health? Once A Month Meals helps you to stay on track toward healthy eating. With seven different menu types, we focus on getting quality and diverse meals into your plan. We like to focus on seasonal ingredients when they are at their peak. Our Paleo and Diet menus help those on more strict eating paths to stay on track and not feel the need to indulge during a time-crunch.

Have you always had an interest in healthy food or did it come later in life? Our writers have always had an interest in food. Over the years, our attention has grown more focused on getting the right foods for our needs. And by healing with food instead of drugs.

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Foodie Spotlight: Rachel from Little Chef Big Appetite

I believe cupcakes deserve their own food group and seafood gives me the heebie jeebies.

I can get behind that kind of food philosophy! Her strong feelings about seafood aside, the thing that drew me to Rachel’s blog, Little Chef Big Appetite, was the fact that she likes to cook a little bit of everything. Even though she’s a tee-tiny little thing that I want to keep on top of my flour canister like a non-creepy Elf-on-a-Shelf, and could probably eat whatever she wants, her recipes are healthy and flavorful.

Rachel talks about why she started her blog and shares a few of her favorite recipes –

Why did you start your food blog? I started my blog in college at the University of Pennsylvania as a way to share my love of healthy food and cooking with my friends and family.

little chef big appetite

How would you describe your approach to eating/health? I try to eat healthy most of the time so that I can “indulge” worry-free occasionally. I make sure all of my meals have lots of protein and fiber, so that way I am less likely to snack on unhealthy things throughout the day. When I do treat myself, I love wine and anything that has the words “cookie” or “cake” in its name.

Have you always had an interest in healthy food or did it come later in life? My interest in healthy food came in college. Before then my diet consisted of fried chicken fingers, pizza, and Easy Mac. Once I got to college, I began to realize I wouldn’t be able to keep that up without packing on the pounds. I started researching healthy foods and learned my way around the kitchen by watching my dad (who is still the best cook I know).

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