BootsnAll Travel Community

Any travellers out there on a gluten-free or wheat free diet? I recently discovered that I have celiac disease which, essentially, means i can't eat wheat, barley, oats, or rye.

I am currently in East Africa and am surprised by how easy it is to find food I can eat here, because their diets are not at all wheat based and there are very few processed foods.

Still, i am worried about travelling to other places, particularly Europe where I'm sure things will be way more wheat-based and where there are lots of processed foods which tend to have wheat by-products in them.

So... I am wondering: how do other independent travellers deal with this limiting diet?

-Jillian

Jillian,
I have special diet requirements too - and I understand that it can be tricky to decide what to do when travelling...
I'd offer the following advice. Take some staple food you absolutely know is safe, just enough for even the first day. That will buy you some time to suss out the local produce/stores. For example, I always take some cereal (cause it doesn't go off), biscuits (energy) and maybe some candy. It sounds pretty horrible, eating cereal for one day but its better than starving!
I think the key with limiting diets is invention - and a small bit of fore-planning. So far I've never had a problem, but then again, I do always bring some little reserves with me.

Europe is not a problem with wheat-free food stuffs, just make sure you have a dictionary packed!
btw, did you get any of the fruit rolls there? i had them in South Africa the last time. YUUUMMMMMMMY

I really try to avoid wheat (to little avail admittedly) and find that as long as rice is available it's not too hard. You'll have to actively avoid a lot of things in Europe, but you won't lack for alternatives. There's plenty of cheap ethnic food and health food stores. You may even be able to find spelt products in large cities. And you can snack on puffed rice and the like. Good luck!

And by the way, nice name.

Thanks for the advice Jillian (and you have a great name too!). I feel better about the travel to Europe that I know I will be doing at some point in the not-to-distant future.

I have not had the fruit rolls, but I will be on the lookout for them when I get to southern Africa. What I have found here are yummy rice cakes that, unfortunately are mostly on the coast. But if you are ever in East Africa, you should try vitumbua (brown rice cakes) and mkate wa sinia (white rice cakes).