The Cost of Going Gluten Free

I have noticed that the higher the quality of the food, the more likely it is to be gluten free. Take gravy granules. Normal Bisto gravy granules do have wheat in them, but their premium range, Bisto Best, is gluten free. I know at the supermarket level that wheat is often used as a cheap and easy filler in condiments and sauces, whereas the more expensive ranges simply use more of the actual ingredients. This is even more true in restaurants. At your local pub the chips are deep fried in the same oil as the battered fish and breaded chicken fingers, while the gravy was probably made that morning and everyone gets served out of the same pot. However, in a more expensive place the kitchen tends to use separate workstations for different foods (less chance of contamination) and any sauces or ‘jus’ are made fresh for each customer, so it is easy to modify so it is gluten free.

The problem is that it can easily lead to far higher food bills. My husband and I cook a lot for ourselves and try to eat few ready meals, which does keep costs down, but more importantly I try to stay away from ‘replacement’ products. I find that the most expensive part of following a gluten free diet is the gluten free bread, pasta, cakes, pizzas, etc. My husband can get his favourite pack of fig rolls for less than 50p but a gluten free version is at least £1.50, and my favourite fruit cake slices are more than 50p per slice! So in my case, eating healthily also equates to much lower food bills.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1741.45	105.56g	232.77g	43.56g	0	28.49g
	24%	53%	23%
Calories burned through exercise:		363

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson’s Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:30	Black tea	500mL
10:45	Sainsbury's Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice	1 slice
13:30	Lee's Hippy Farm Beans (Leon's recipe book)	300g
	Homemade guacamole	100g
	Alpro Soya Original	200mL
14:15	Green Tea	250mL
15:30	Workout - resistance training
	Tri-Berry Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
17:00	Total Greek yoghurt	125g
	Sainsbury's frozen mixed blueberries and strawberries	100g
	Sponser vanilla Recovery Shake	20g (1 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	150mL
20:30	Baked chicken breast	88g
	Boiled and mashed potatoes with butter and skim milk	250g
	Steamed broccoli	66g
	Steamed cauliflower	100g
	Colman's Bramley apple sauce	1 tbsp
	Bisto Best Chicken gravy granules	about 5g

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.