Cut Back on Gluten with These Alternative Foods

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ith the gluten-free craze that's been happening over the past several years, a lot of people have been paying more attention to their diets and what they're eating, and have subsequently decided to cut back on gluten or cut it out entirely from their meals. And while it seems like a daunting task (giving up bread and pasta?? NOOOOO), it's not nearly as hard as you might think. Replacing foods is easy—it's the habit of eating a plate full of carbs that's hard to break.

Regardless of what you think about gluten and carbs, the low-carb lifestyle, or "health food," most of us can agree that eating simple, white, heavily-processed carbohydrates all the time isn't the healthiest option. For example, the reason we're so hungry an hour or so after having a pb&j sandwich on white bread is because white bread has very little nutrients in it, and so can't sustain you for very long. Switching to whole grains is a good way to start eating healthier, but if you're trying to cut gluten out entirely and find replacement foods, here are a few good alternatives to check out.

When spaghetti squash is cooked, its innards resemble the pasta it's named for.

1) Spaghetti squash, carrots, and zucchini to replace pasta. Using a vegetable peeler, you can make long strands of carrot or zucchini that resemble linguini, and spaghetti squash is named so for its resemblance to plain white pasta. When baked, its innards can be pulled from the shell with a fork and served like you'd eat spaghetti—red sauce, meatballs, etc.

2) Quinoa. Not actually a grain (it's a seed, if we're being technical here), quinoa is similar to rice in texture and is high in complete protein, making it especially great for vegetarians. Even if you're an avid meat-eater, you should give quinoa a try. Use it in place of rice when you make rice and beans or a stir fry, stuff peppers with it, or eat it in the morning instead of oatmeal (which isn't gluten free).

3) For sandwiches that aren't made with bread, change it up a little and put your sandwich fillings in a leaf of lettuce. If you're trying to eat something like a peanut butter sandwich, that doesn't work so well—in that case, you can use corn tortillas (although it's not quite the same taste) or spring for premade, frozen gluten-free waffles.