Against the Grain : The Slightly Eccentric Guide to Living Well Without Gluten or Wheat

Rating:
Summary: chatty but sloppy
Review: Some of the advice in this book is great, especially on suggestions for enjoying meals socially without feeling like a freak. However, based on the title and the author's condition, it's easy to assume that the only foods recommended in the book are gluten-free, and that's not true. Several of the recipes and purchased-food recommendations are wheat-free, but not gluten-free, and are NOT clearly identified as such. I found the tone to be rather snobbishly superior, as well- perhaps a nice book for those in the caviar-eating set, but not written for the unprivileged who can not expect to be waited on hand and foot or to be able to afford all the specialty foods the author considers necessities.

Rating:
Summary: extremely uneven
Review: This book has multiple personalities. One is a personal story of coming to terms with having celiac disease. Another is lists of resources for the gluten intolerant. And a third kind of mixes the two -- tells how the author was able to come to terms with things because she developed strategies for living and eating.

First of all, it's really important to know that a lot of the information about what you can and can't eat is just plain wrong. Some of that is because these things become outdated quickly, but some is less understandable than that. For instance, she says that while cream soups are likely to have gluten in them, broths won't. That's totally untrue -- most of the common brands of broth do have gluten in them. And it's a particularly odd mistake to be making given that on other things, she advocates being far more careful than the standard resources do. Like she says don't use distilled vinegar because it MIGHT be distilled from wheat, but again, everything else I've read on this subject says that 1) it's probably not distilled from wheat but more importantly 2) the distillation process removes gluten.

So if you're going to get this book, get it for the personal part, about how she dealt with her diagnosis. It's pretty entertaining and there's some value to being reminded that you're not the only one. That said, while I think it's valuable to have something to read in that area, I'd say she's more than just slightly eccentric. A lot of her stories about how her friends reacted to her diagnosis seem like extreme worst-case scenarios -- suffice it to say that I was diagnosed long before I was as sick as she describes herself as having been, yet my friends were a lot more sympathetic than she says hers were.

Finally, with regard to her strategies for living. Another review here mentions that they're sort of for the caviar set, and I have to agree. These are instructions for someone who not only has a LOT of money to spend on special-ordered foods, but who feels comfortable asking restaurant staffs to go way out of their way to accommodate her.

On the whole, I'd say there are better resources than this book. Some of them are online, others are informational books like Shelley Case's "Gluten-Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide." But if you want to read everything you can on celiac disease and living gluten-free, this is at least entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone on a gluten-free diet!
Review: This book tells you all you need to know to live a rich life without gluten. With gluten-laden products looming everywhere (who would've thought that teriyaki sauce contains gluten?) guidance from an expert on how to avoid contaminated foods is invaluable (the author has been on a gluten-free diet for over 15 years). With great humor, author Jax Lowell Peters explains how to be assertive yet charming when requesting gluten-free ingredients at restaurants and provides invaluable tips on what to do in numerous tricky food situations (what to do when the caviar is served with wheat crackers only?). The multi-language "I'm on a gluten-free diet" cards in the back of the book could prove meal-saving when trying to explain to the french-speaking waiter that you can't have anything made with a "roux". The book also provides detailed information on celiac disease, resources for products and organizations, tips on how to raise a child on a gluten-free diet and delicious recipes (anyone for a gluten-free biscotti?).

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone on a gluten-free diet!
Review: This book tells you all you need to know to livea rich life without gluten. With gluten-ladenproducts looming everywhere (who would've thought that teriyaki sauce contains gluten?) guidance from an expert on how to avoid contaminated foods is invaluable (the author has been on a gluten-free diet for over 15 years). With great humor, author Jax Lowell Peters explains how to be assertive yet charming when requesting gluten-free ingredients at restaurants and provides invaluable tips on what to do in numerous tricky food situations (what to do when the caviar is served with wheat crackers only?). The multi-language "I'm on a gluten-free diet" cards in the back of the book could prove meal-saving when trying to explain to the french-speaking waiter that you can't have anything made with a "roux". The book also provides detailed information on celiac disease, resources for products and organizations, tips on how to raise a child on a gluten-free diet and delicious recipes (anyone for a gluten-free biscotti?).

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for anyone going gluten-free or wheat-free
Review: This is not a cookbook (although there are a few recipes in the back). It's more like a survival manual or a book-length pep talk, specifically written for people with celiac sprue, which is a severe form of gluten intolerance. But I'm finding the ideas and encouragement are applicable to anyone who is gluten-free or wheat-free for any reason, and in fact they're even worth skimming by anyone dealing with food allergies or other significant dietary changes (such as cutting out dairy or sugar). It's a funny and well-written book, including sections on anti-cheating strategies, restaurant assertiveness training, and etiquette for people with dietary restrictions, along with the expected list of product suggestions (with extensive mail-order information). I've looked at a *lot* of special diet cookbooks and guidebooks in the past couple of years, and have been disappointed by most of them because they frankly haven't had much in them that I hadn't already learned somewhere. This book is a fresh exception. I would have liked to see more specifics on various baking substitutions (maybe in the next edition?), and there is a lot of product information that may be regional or get outdated (so I expect a second edition would be a good idea), but even with those minor imperfections I still would highly recommend this book.