Sabine Vail began her gluten-free journey with her 14-year-old son, Leo, not choosing to follow this path for herself.
After months of general tiredness and digestive problems, a doctor advised cutting gluten. “We were first both overwhelmed,” she recalls. “Everything fun seemed to be suddenly off-limits.”
Sabine, however, was resolved to help Leo feel better without alienating him. She started experimenting at home with gluten-free dishes; some were flops and others became quick favourites.
Her most surprising adaptation was how fast she changed once she stopped stressing limitation. Physician’s Choice Probiotics 60 Billion CFU – 10 Strains + Organic Prebiotics – Immune, Digestive & Gut Health
“It was about not trying to replace every single snack,” she says. “It was about changing our food such that it naturally happened to be gluten-free.”
For school lunches, she found naturally gluten-free basics including rice bowls, roasted vegetables, lean proteins, and even homemade gluten-free muffins.
More practically, Leo started to feel better. “He felt left out less, his stomach problems cleared, and he had more energy,” Sabine notes.
Their kitchen today is a place of invention rather than constraint. Sabine claims the mental change was the biggest gain, not the menu change.
“We started asking ‘what can we create?’ instead of ‘what are we missing.'”
