The challenges of a gluten-free diet

When I went gluten-free a couple of years ago, the first thing I heard was, “get ready to pay four times as much for a loaf of bread.” The second thing I heard was, “good luck finding gluten-free beer.” Those were ominous signals for a guy who’d lived on beer and bread for fifty years and then some. But it hasn’t been the end of the world. Yes, ten bucks for a loaf of bread and twelve dollars for four bagels is a lot. That’s four bucks per bagel. For that kind of money I used to get the bagel with the cream cheese and smoked salmon already on it. Not any more! The beer thing has been hit and miss. Glutenberg makes a passable beer. It’s competitively priced, relatively speaking, but it’s often out of stock. Nevertheless, it’s my first option, especially the yellow cans, which, if I’m not mistaken, is the IPA. The green ones are the lager. I used to favour the lager till I found out it’s got double the calories of the IPA. Tonight I was doing a comparison test of the Boxer gluten-free beer and the Forager brand from Whistler Brewing. Both are available here only in those small cans that always leave you thirsty. The European standard of 500ml for a can of beer should be the global standard as far as I’m concerned. We get close enough with our 473ml tallboys, because who’s gonna notice the missing 27mg? But once you’re down to the 355ml tin, forget about it! It’s impossible not to notice you only had half a beer. As for the comparison test, I definitely prefer the beer out of Whistler to the beer out of Wisconsin. The question is, do I prefer it enough to justify paying an extra $4.50 for a six-pack? Mostly that’s a redundant question, because my experience has been that gluten-free beer inventory is in such short supply you’ll buy whatever’s available. But back to the original point; gluten-free food is prohibitively expensive. I saw a story the other day lamenting the fact that poor people are hardest hit by inflation in food prices, especially fast food prices. Apparently poor people need to eat fast food. Tonight I had a chicken pot-pie that came from Newton’s non-gluten in Guelph. They do awesome work in gluten-free, and you can buy their stuff at the local Foodland. Expensive? Four of those chicken pot-pies came to $55. Each one is a complete meal unto itself, featuring fresh local ingredients and a gluten-free pastry crust that you’d never suspect was gluten free. That works out to $14 per meal. You’ll pay more for a Big Mac meal at the Mickey D drive-through!