How difficult is it to maintain a gluten-free vegetarian diet?

Would still include eggs (free range from local farm) and dairy, but I think I am gluten-intolerant and would like to go gluten free to see if I feel better. Do you have any tips? Will this be very difficult? I really do not want to eat my animal friends :(How difficult is it to maintain a gluten-free vegetarian diet?
It's not hard, I'm vegan and have been gluten-free for a year, I'm not eating handfuls of supplements, I finally have a huge repertoire of GF and vegan recipes, and have found substitutes for just about everything. It is VERY hard to eat at a restaurant, there are a few safe things to eat, mostly Thai or Asian food, if you still eat dairy you might have a few more options. But going to someone else's house or being away from home can be tough.



My advice is to try it for a month. Go completely GF as if you had celiac. There are so many sources of it that it's hard to pinpont the root problem unless you can remove it all from your system, and then try spelt toast one day and wait until the next day to see if you were fine with spelt, then try another. Leave wheat until last.



If you cook with soy sauce, buy Bragg's, it's wheat free. There are rice, corn, flax and amaranth cereals you can try. Brown Rice bread is the only palatable bread I've found, but I don't use it often because ut's $8 a loaf, and a small loaf at that. Flavourings in chips like barley extract, wheat germ, yeast extract, are to be avoided.

Instead of pitas to dip in hummus, I use corn chips/tortillas. thai noodles are usually made of rice, so you can still have spaghetti, there are brown rice noodles that are good for pasta salads. You can adapt Mexican recipes to be GF quite easily. You can do Japanese, but no say sauce.How difficult is it to maintain a gluten-free vegetarian diet?
Prolly not that easy. One of the easiest gluten free meals is steak and french fries, for example.



There are lots of gluten free vegetarians, though. Try http://www.wheatlessandmeatless.com/ for example



Personally, I value speed in cooking. I was vegetarian for a while in the past, but it was difficult at that time to get a fully balanced vegetarian diet sorted without spending hours soaking beans, cooking them, and making them into burgers, so on. So when I hooked up with a meat-eating guy, I'm afraid I just gave up.



At that time I didn't know I was gluten intolerant, and I had difficulties with the diet which may have been connected to an increased intake of whole grains, including wheat.



Right now, I don't think I could give up bacon sandwiches (just recently having found a very nice gluten free bread). And eating out would be almost impossible, since the only thing that seems to be safe on most menus is steak...How difficult is it to maintain a gluten-free vegetarian diet?
Hi you can do it - others do. I don't know if you have brands of products like Orgran where you live, but these are often gluten free and vegan and cover everything from pasta, to cakes to biscuits (cookies if you are in US?)



A lot of 'meat replacement' products do use wheat because the gluten in it is a strong sticky protein and provide the texture the manufacture is looking for.



But you don't have to have a burger or a sausage to get protein, obviously you can use soya protein products, some of which can be used like meat in many recipes (and these usually are just soya and no wheat products in them like TVP chunks and mince) but you can also get protein shakes that are soya based, or even hemp based. You can also use quinoa and amaranth as very good protein sources that will keep you going without wheat. My wife who is from Peru, where quinoa is traditionally eaten makes some really tasty and simple meals with it - the Incas built their empire on quinoa!



The main thing is you will obviously find a lot of products in the shops are a problem and that you will miss bread. There are gluten free bread mixes out there that combine many types of flours and a few binders to make an alternative. If you look up 'coeliac disease' where people have a really serious problem with gluten you will quickly come across ideas about food.



It certainly could get tricky at times, but I hope the links I have put below will help you.
You can definitely do it. It's not hard and it's actually healthier. Just always check the labels for processed foods. Gluten is mostly found in foods we use as carbs, then just resort to fruits instead of bread, cookies and crackers. For pasta there's corn based pasta that is quite good.



It's not hard at all. Good luck!