Question

I am pregnant and have celiac disease. I’m craving gluten foods, especially bread. Is there anything I can substitute for it?

From,

Chrissy

Answer

Hi Chrissy. As you know, you can always have the gluten-free alternatives of the foods you are craving. However, cravings during pregnancy can be your baby’s way of telling you it needs certain nutrients. If gluten-free grain alternatives are not satisfying your cravings, it could be because they don’t contain the same nutrients as their gluten-containing counterparts. For example, gluten-containing breads, cereals and pastas are often enriched with B vitamins and iron.

Keeping this in mind, you should try to eat naturally gluten-free whole grains, including: brown and wild rices, corn, quinoa, millet, amaranth, buckwheat, sorghum and teff. These grains can be found in gluten-free breakfast cereals (hot and cold) as well in their natural form, which are often found in the rice/grains sections of natural food markets.

If you are not familiar with how to prepare these foods, recipes abound on the internet and in gluten-free cookbooks. A good place to start searching is in the recipe section of the Beyond Celiac website.

For additional information about maximizing nutrition during pregnancy, read the article “Maximizing Nutrition for Pregnancy.”

Sincerely,

Rachel Begun, MS, RD