Ask Dr. Gourmet

Which of your diets would be best for someone who is gluten-sensitive?

My daughter has been diagnosed with Sprue. They're putting her on a gluten free diet. I would like to help her and wondered which diet on your site would be best for her and her needs. This is going to be life changing for her and I want to help as much as possible. You have helped me so much, I hope you can help her.

Dr. Gourmet Says...

Thanks so very much for your nice words about the Dr. Gourmet web site. We have a number of questions from users about celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. This is an important issue and will be a focus for Dr. Gourmet in the coming months.

As the new year approaches as we will launch software that will help patients create fully custom eatTHISdiet plans. Users will be able to enter information about themselves (and other family members) along with diet and health concerns such as diabetes, low-sodium, Coumadin use, GERD, lactose intol., etc and the system will create a custom meal plan with shopping lists and recipes.

It will also allow custom preferences as well. For instance, there will be a selection for "comfort foods" which will be more country type foods and users will also be able to exclude foods that they don't like. Convenience foods such as frozen dinners and common restaurant foods will be added to the database eventually so people don't have to cook every night.

After this is in place and working well we will add a feature for people with gluten sensitivity. We anticipate that this should be by mid-February.

As far as cookbooks are concerned they can be ordered by anyone. In the United States one can find the book on amazon.com.

In the U.K. and Europe the book can be ordered direct from the publisher, ENDpapers.

We would love to hear about your support group and how Dr. Gourmet might be able to help.

Thanks for writing.

Timothy S. Harlan, MD, FACP, CCMS
Dr. Gourmet