Best store to buy gluten free foods?

[Anonymous]

Just found out we need to start a gluten free diet for my 6 year old. I'm guessing Whole Foods must have a good selection, but is there a better store with perhaps better prices?

[Anonymous]

Really any store has a good selection these days - just check out your regular store. Ask if they have a gluten free section, but also look in the regular aisles - in most of the stores I've been in there will be a small dedicated gluten free section, but also lots of gluten free foods throughout the regular items.

And I promise a little practice and it gets easier - it's just hard because you probably don't realize how on auto pilot feeding your family is until you have to make this kind of radical diet change.

[Anonymous]

Trader Joes has some items.
My organic market has a great selection, pricing might be slightly better than WF.

[Anonymous]

Depends on what you want. Trader joes has the pasta and the flour for a lot less than other stores. The upgraded Cherrydale Safeway has a good selection.

[Anonymous]

I've been impressed with safeway's gf section lately.

[Anonymous]

Giant, MOMS, WF, and TJ.

You'll have to comparison shop to find the best price. You may want to try online for certain items.

Also, check out Living Without Magazine.

[Anonymous]

Some Costcos have GF bread. Wheaton dies not but Beltsville does. Those are the 2 convenient fo rme -- dont know about others

[Anonymous]

It's great that a lot of stores have this now. In our experience, MOM is the best. (Easiest/most complete/most affordable)

Our DS is similar age and in a similar boat. As his nutritionist told us, try not to focus on substitute foods or processed foods, and instead try to just cook simply with foods that don't involve wheat--fruits and vegetables, meat and fish, rice, etc. For instance, a favorite GF meal is chicken breast, rice, and broccoli. Another is taco night (with crispy corn taco shells).

But when you're looking for GF pasta, bread, crackers, flours for baking, frozen foods, etc., MOM has a great selection.

For support and cooking ideas, start reading gluten-free blogs. There are a bunch of them. Our favorite is gluten free goddess.

[Anonymous]

Good luck OP. It can be challenging at first but you'll get the hang of it.

Whole Foods carries Bell &Evans chicken nuggets/tenders in the black box. We all love them.

[Anonymous]

Wegman's has a shockingly huge selection. Whole Foods is good. But overall I think gluten-free is a growing section in all stores.

[Anonymous]

Don't buy "gluten free" foods. Buy healthy non-processed meat and vegetables. There is no need to waste money on commercially processed foods with suspect ingredients. If your whole family starts eating healthier, you will all benefit. Use the commercial gluten free products only for treats on an occasional basis

[Anonymous]

Forgot about Wegmans.

Also, try Z-Pizza, Original Pancake House, Lilit Cafe for GF dining out options. Lots of chains like PF Changs, Olive Garden, Outback, Carrabas have GF menus too.

[Anonymous]

Safeway now has its own store-brand gluten-free products, like pasta and qunioa and some baking mixes. I agree completely that unprocessed foods are the way to go, but if you need noodles, Safeway's GF pasta is the best I've had. Trader Joe's is very good about labeling and their prices are reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't buy "gluten free" foods. Buy healthy non-processed meat and vegetables. There is no need to waste money on commercially processed foods with suspect ingredients. If your whole family starts eating healthier, you will all benefit. Use the commercial gluten free products only for treats on an occasional basis

Thanks, pious poster!

[Anonymous]

If you're in Bethesda, Lilit Cafe is great.