Enjoying Meats and Meat Dishes on Your Gluten Free Diet

Meats and meat dishes are some of the easiest recipes to adapt to be gluten free. There are only a few techniques and a little information you need to know to successfully convert your recipes.

The biggest challenge most people face is that they buy packaged processed foods, and they want to continue buying that convenience. What they discover, though, is that the gluten-free packaged foods taste different, and they are usually disappointed.

When I tell people that it's easy to make most of those foods from scratch with fresh, minimally processed ingredients, most of them look at me as though I were crazy. Their objection is that they don't like to cook and they don't have the time to cook in any case. Some of them haven't done any cooking more complex more than turning on their ovens in years.

The best, most satisfying meals still are made from scratch, though, and learning to cook without packaged foods is really pretty easy. My recipes require only basic cooking skills, don't require a lot of prep time, and aren't fussy (no tiptoeing around lest the soufflé fall).

---

---

Of all the kinds of recipes out there, meat recipes tend to be the easiest to convert to GF, the easiest to make from scratch, and the easiest to prepare with limited kitchen experience, yet these are the dishes that people tend most to buy pre-prepared or in packages.

The single most important thing you can do for your health (other than to avoid gluten) is to stop eating processed packaged foods and to start eating fresh, whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Start by buying a larger percentage of foods that do not require an ingredients label, or those which have one-three ingredients on the label. These would include fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh herbs and whole spices, eggs, cheeses, butter, whole cream and soured cream (look for the Daisy brand if you cannot buy raw milk - they use nothing but cream in their sour cream), tomato paste, cold-pressed oils, whole fresh fish and seafood, fresh raw (if possible) nuts, and fresh cuts of meats with no solutions pumped into them.

A note on meats from grain-fed animals

Most animals from commercial feedlots and CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are grain-fed, not pastured. There have not been sufficient studies done to determine whether meat from grain-fed animals can adversely affect the health of gluten sensitive individuals. Based on what we know about how the proteins in animal feed are integrated into the muscle material, there may be reason to believe that constituents from the grains may be present in sufficient quantities in forms that could cause problems for those avoiding gluten.

To date, there are no studies testing whether dangerous (to the gluten intolerant individual) accumulate in the meat of grain-fed animals; however, you should be aware that there may be a problem.

The safer course is to consume meat and milf products from pastured, grass-fed cows, meat and eggs from free-range, naturally fed chickens, and wild-caught fish and seafood. Because the cost to produce these foodstuffs is greater, they cost more to buy, but I am persuaded that they are higher quality products with fewer hidden hazards, including, potentially, harmful proteins from grains.

Learn a few basic preparation techniques for meats, and find links to recipes here.

Return to Home Page

---

---

---

---

---