Gluten Free ...

My wife is gluten free so I know what a pain it can be... and she doent even tramp! Hubbards does a range of gluten free museli, cornflakes and porridge for breakfast. Theres plenty of rice cracker brands that are gluten free for lunch. Add cheese, spreads, or canned tuna. San Remo and BuonTempo are 2 examples of gluten free pastas you could get for dinner. Pams, Chicken Tonight, and Watties all have gluten free sauce ranges. And there's always rice although that takes longer to cook. Uncle Ben's has gluten free flavoured rice packets.

apart from a reduced water content and maybe an increased energy content the foods you normally eat should be the base for your tramping food. Real meats rather than luncheons and salamis come dehydrated or in lightweight cans Just watch the sauces and any other processing.Also cheese is a good substitute obviously most pasta and bread is out but rice (gluten free only)and instant mash potato are light and energy packed veges both fresh and dehydrated cant hurt Lentils nuts and beans always work but take longer to cook. A true gluten allergy is a nasty thing to have I know a few people with it They cant even enjoy a nice whiskey without paying for it over the next several days. Luckily there is rum.

Vermicelli from either rice or beans is good. Both Kaweka and Back Country Cuisine do gluten-free options. Vogels do 2 varieties of cafe style muesli. The Naytura section of the supermarket has a lot of GF crackers e.g. Freedom Foods. The corn cruskits are quite nice now and again. McVities have oat cakes (if you're OK with oats). Some of us are non-coeliac gluten sensitive like my partner, Frank, so are OK with some forms of gluten that aren't gliadin or wheat agglutinin such as orzinin and other grain sources of gluten that are found in maize, oats etc. Buckwheat, chickpea flour, chia, millet, quinoa and amaranth are good for a change. The red lentils cook about the same time as Basmati rice. There's dehy hummus and dehy falafels available too. Black eyed peas are quick to cook. Personally from what I've found out about the modern hybrid forms of wheat we have been eating for the last 50 years, no one should be eating wheat. The gluten content has been increased a hundred fold to enable the dough to perform in a consistent efficient fashion in the factory. I verified this by asking a wheat scientist and he said it was the case. The mechanism of how it causes the tight junctions of your gut lining to widen and become permeable through the release of zonulin is well studied and has been understood for about 10 years. Also after gluten, casein and other antigens from other foods have leaked into the bloodstream, these food proteins then rark up antibodies that go on to attack target organs in a case of mistaken identity (molecular mimicry) e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, you name it. There was a lot of research done on this in the late 1990's and some is available on the DirectMS website, thence to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed articles. This mechanism is what causes autoimmune disease which currently affects 1 in 3 people. I have autoimmune thyroiditis which is completely asymptomatic. It's only because I'm a phlebotomist that I've had the knowledge and accessibility through blood testing to discover I've got this very common condition affecting mainly women. Going GF has dropped my blood markers to almost normal levels (TSH, anti-TPO). A gastroenterologist at work told me that some people have issues with wheat due to the wheat agglutinin causing FODMAP issues rather than coeliac enteropathy issues. These people will test negative on coeliac markers (anti TTG etc.) and may then mistakenly conclude there is no issue with wheat. It's better to do the food challenge experience but then there is a theory that specific gut bacteria are dealing with wheat and when it is excluded from the diet, these bacteria die off so when you reintroduce wheat, there will be intolerance to it. To sum up, really you just need to avoid wheat-based and possibly oat-based foods and if it means you're not eating those toxic 2 minute noodles anymore, it can only be a good thing! BTW those Maggi GF sauces are a rip-off as the ordinary ones aren't made from wheat either. Industrial processed foods are usually thickened with maize-based thickeners, not wheat as it doesn't behave as well as the maize-based stuff. 'nuff said.

Well, I had no idea what a phlebotomist was! Anyway, I was going to ask -- where have you seen dehy hummus?

Casbah brand do the dehy hummus. It's usually found in the Mediterranean section at Countdown. Someone told me today that BinnInn have really expanded their GF section and recently won an award for it. Have to check them out as most GF biccies and crackers are not that flash sadly. Vogel's Cafe Style muesli has 2 really nice GF variants imho. The blackcurrant and then a citrus flavoured one. I can't go porridge but enjoyed malted sorghum but yet to track it down some more. We have an African food speciality store in Chch so it may be there. It's South African, the Zimbaweans don't know it. BTW that ProNutro comes from GMO soy. Sanatarium have put out a gluten-free Weetbix made from red sorghum. It's very pricey at $5/500g - almost the same price as the fancy boutique GF mueslis. However it is low in sugar but has the same amazing hygroscopic properties of ordinary weetbix and is extra gluggy and dense when it has absorbed hot milk. Better eating after adding cold fluid, not hot.

Being vegan, we're big fans of Bin Inn. They have a lot of useful things there (essentials such as vegan chocolate biscuits). And a good range of GF too, I think. Thanks I'll check out that hummus.

rice lentils dried fruit chocolate nuts

You could try The Honest Food Company. They specialise in high-protein, gluten-free (and dairy free) bars and balls. The bars are portable, very filling and easily digestible. Most importantly - they taste great! They are made with free-range eggwhite so they're full of protein which will make them ideal for long distances and muscle-recovery. If you wanted to grab a range of samples they have a campaign going on PledgeMe until 8pm tonight. Else the products can be bought directly from their website. :)

Have you tried any Tom & Luke products?