Hello and Welcome!
My name is Jessica and I am the owner and author for Is It G Free. I started this blog in order to share important information about food for those who cannot eat gluten.
I was tired of always having to Googe different foods and products and having to scroll and read multiple articles to find the answers.
That is why when I created Is It G Free, I knew I wanted to be a one-stop resource for people with gluten intolerance and celiac disease. I wanted to be a place for people to find exactly what they’re looking for and know what they can safely eat.
My Story
After eating a regular, “Standard American Diet” for my entire life, around 2015, my husband was starting to notice that mild stomach issues he has had his whole life (but for the most part ignored) started to really bother him.
Around 2015, he decided to get routine bloodwork done at the doctor and she suggested that she also test for Celiac disease as he had been having stomach problems for a while and he just found out that his mother also was recently diagnosed with the condition.
When his bloodwork results came back a short while later, he was officially diagnosed with celiac disease. We had heard that sometimes bloodwork results for Celiac can be false and the only way to know for sure is to have an upper GI procedure done.
At the time of his diagnosis, we did not have the funds to pay for that medical procedure and decided it just made sense to cut out gluten anyway.
At first, it was a bit difficult to make the switch to a gluten free diet. Not a lot of restaurants near us were very gluten-friendly at the time, so I needed to stop my horrible habit of wanting to eat cheap fast food multiple times per week and start cooking at home more.
Once I felt like I was getting into the swing of cooking again, we started to suspect that my then 6-year-old son may also have an intolerance to gluten. We noticed that every time he would eat certain foods such as chicken nuggets or doughnuts, he would almost immediately throw up.
Up until this point, I had just been making gluten free options for my husband, but since my son was now having an issue as well, I decided that it was easier for me to start eating gluten-free as also.
This meant that we needed to cut down on eating out even more and I needed to buy more groceries and at first, the groceries seemed to be much more expensive!
There was still hope
I always had in the back of my mind though that maybe this was just a different season of life for the moment and that we would be able to find out later for sure if both my husband and my son had either celiac disease or an intolerance to gluten at the very least.
Come 2017, my husband started having even more digestive issues and his primary care physician suggested that he finally get an upper GI procedure done. They not only wanted to confirm the celiac disease, they also wanted to check a few other things.
One of the conditions that they wanted to check for was Crohn’s. At this point, we were in a better place financially and insurance-wise so we decided to go ahead with the procedure as his digestive issues were becoming more and more miserable.
After the results from the procedure came back, the celiac disease was confirmed and he was cleared on all other tests.
Flash forward to just recently in 2020, my now 8-year-old son started having some very intense allergy symptoms and we decided to get an allergy test done. Since his father had problems with certain foods, I requested that they also test for food allergies.
When his test results came back, we discovered that my son was allergic to wheat. So it turns out that eating a gluten free diet was not just a “season of life” after all.
It had become our new way of life and I needed to make a few changes in order for this to be an easy-to-stick-to, lifelong diet for us moving forward.
That is when I did mounds and mounds of research, trying many new recipes, and cooking non-stop. I was determined to come up with a regular meal plan that would work for our family’s dietary needs without causing me to rip my hair out and without breaking the bank.
Once I taught myself and mastered the ways of gluten free cooking, I started to develop my own recipes and many of those recipes have become family favorites that I am proud to say, will definitely be passed down for generations.
I started to really get excited about cooking this way and realized that I wanted to share my recipes not just with friends and family but with everyone. Everyone who has had a similar experience with having to switch to a gluten free diet and everyone that just wants a simple and affordable way to cook at home and enjoy food again without having to feel overwhelmed.
Why the dairy free information as well?
With all my research and trying different recipes, as well as creating my own, I have come to realize that a lot of people that eat gluten free also eat dairy free.
We also had a wrench thrown in the mix just last year. My poor husband was still having yet even more stomach issues so went back to the doctor for more testing. We came to find out that he is also lactose intolerant!
My son and I luckily can still eat dairy but my husband prefers not to with his new diagnosis because he, of course, does not want to feel ill and lactose relief pills only help slightly.
So that is why I also wanted to offer information about dairy free options for all of the gluten free foods mentioned on this site, so that I can be a trusted resource for those eating similar diets.
I really hope you enjoy Is It G Free. It is my passion and I have worked very hard, and continue to work very hard on it every day in order to be a valued resource to those living gluten free.
2023 Update: After my son had seemingly been feeling sick after eating certain dairy products we assumed he may be lactose intolerant as well. We started having him take Lactaid pills and that seemed to help for a while.
However, after one sip of a milkshake caused him to get sick (to the point of losing his breath) we decided to get him tested for a milk allergy. His blood test came back as being positive for a cow’s milk allergy so now we all eat gluten AND dairy free!
Thank you so much for stopping by and feel free to contact me at any time!