If you are new to the gluten free diet, you are probably aware that you will need to go through your pantry and refrigerator to remove those items that contain gluten. What you may not know is what else needs to be cleaned or replaced to avoid cross contamination of your new gluten free foods.
When first beginning a gluten free diet you may feel overwhelmed by all the changes. Just finding out what you can and cannot eat can be a huge task. It is important to understand how to prepare
your home as well.
If your entire household will go gluten free you can approach this fairly simply. If you or only one member of the family is going gluten free, it becomes a little more tricky. The tips below will help you
to get a good start on preparing your kitchen.
Change to a gluten free dish soap, like Palmolive. This will work well for either scenario, so this is
an easy change to implement. Remember to get a new sponge, and try not to wash your dishes in the
same water or dishwasher load with dishes that were used with gluten containing foods.
Get a new toaster. Because the crumbs inside of a toaster are virtually impossible to remove
completely, it isn't practical to try and clean it. If you have only one person going on the diet,
mark the new toaster to remind people not to put wheat bread into it.
A toaster oven can be used if cleaned very well, and if you use some aluminum foil on the rack. This
means you won't want other to use it to heat up their gluten containing items.
Get new cutting boards for gluten free use only. Plastic and wooden cutting boards can have bits
of gluten hiding in the scratches. While you may get the gluten off of the surface, the scratches will
not come entirely clean. Gluten is very sticky, and is hard to remove from such surfaces.
If you are in a household where others will continue to eat gluten, then mark the new cutting boards for
your use only, and keep them in a separate place from the old ones.
These tiny bits of gluten may seem unimportant when you've been eating gluten for years. Once you go gluten free however, you may become more sensitive to even very tiny amounts of gluten. You may react to a small level of cross contamination that you didn't even realize was there. The immune system will react with vigor to even a tiny amount. Eliminating these sources of cross contamination will help to prevent further gluten reactions, and also help you to figure out where the gluten came from if you do get a reaction.
For more help in getting your kitchen and home ready for the change to a gluten free diet see Gluten Free Kitchen
For guidance on other aspects of the diet see:
http://www.gluten-free-diet-help.com/
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