The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck On Going Gluten-Free

By Michelle Edelbaum, EatingWell Digital Editor

When she's not co-hosting the Emmy Award-winning ABC talk show The View, running or playing with her three young children, you can find Elisabeth Hasselbeck in her kitchen. Hasselbeck, who has celiac disease, recently published her first gluten-free cookbook, Deliciously G-Free (Ballantine Books, 2012). We caught up with the celebrity to talk about her love of cooking.

You got your start in television as a contestant on Survivor 2 in 2001. How did it change your diet?

I hadn't been in great health since 1997 -- I was in a constant state of discomfort. After three days in Australia I started to feel better. While everyone else was crumbling, I had energy! I was eating rice, and fish if we could catch it, and that was pretty much it. When I came home I started eating all the food I previously ate and felt sick again. I thought, “Either I'm really allergic to the United States or it's something I'm eating.” Once I removed gluten from my diet I started to feel as good as I had in Australia.

Related: Should You Go Gluten-Free Even If You Don't Have Celiac Disease?

You come from an Italian family that loves to cook. How do you balance that with being gluten-free?

While working on the cookbook, my mom and I made a gluten-free version of my grandmother's penne and meatballs recipe (get the recipe here!). I closed my eyes at the table while I was eating it and my daughter Grace said, “Mommy, are you remembering what it was like to be little?” I was literally brought back in time. It was so nice to have that moment with my family.

Get easy gluten-free dinner recipes your whole family will love.)

Do you ever cook for your co-hosts on The View?

I've hosted a couple of tailgates and cooked my favorite gluten-free recipes on an episode of The View. The barbecue chicken sandwiches went over really well. The chocolate cupcake wowed Barbara [Walters]. Whoopi [Goldberg] thought the pulled pork was great. I knocked Joy [Behar]'s socks off with the baked penne.

More from EatingWell:
Gluten-Free? Top Swaps for Eating Delicious On-the-Go
Gluten-Free Diet: Guide to Grains & Starches

By Michelle Edelbaum

Michelle is the digital editor for EatingWell Media Group. She puts her background in journalism to work online at EatingWell.com and in each issue of EatingWell Magazine, authoring The Fresh Interview with interesting people in the world of food and health.

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Comments

[flowereater]

07:43 PM on 05/07/2012

I'm not celiac, but I have gluten intolerance. Since I've given up 97.5% of all the wheat I used to consume, my chronic sinusitis (that almost killed me in January due to a drug reaction) no longer puts me down one week of every month. My joints are not inflamed like they used to be either, although that didn't happen often.

Gluten free products are only a gimmick in the same sense that the "fat free" food craze was. Anyone into healthy eating knows how to avoid the gimmicky trick foods. Anyone into healthy eating reads labels anyway, or better yet avoids foods that have labels.

I used to think the gluten free thing was a come on too until I tried it and now have four months of fairly good health behind me.

People need to do their homework before dismissing GF. The wheat in the US has been hybridized to the point that it contains several times more gluten than it did a hundred years ago. Human evolution goes at a much slower pace than franken-food evolution. So, as much as I hate to say that Hasselback is right about anything, she very well may have been right in saying that she is allergic to the US, at least as far as the wheat is concerned.

[thegrrrr8est]

07:40 PM on 05/07/2012

I, for one, think this whole gluten free thing is a fad. But, it's hard to argue with a regime that produces such glowing, beautiful skin.

[lady joanna]

08:42 PM on 05/10/2012

Then I hope you never become gluten intolerant. I sort of pooh pooed it as well until I had the symptoms and I can tell you it is for real. I had to go 100% gluten free to rid myself of the pain and other symptoms and then had some soy sauce, what the heck is gluten doing in soy sauce, Which set me off on another round of pain and other symptoms which has taken almost two months to heal. Good news is thought that my 22 year history of SAD went away!

[thegrrrr8est]

03:48 PM on 05/11/2012

I hope I never become gluten intolerant, too. Or lactose intolerant. Or allergic to strawberries or nuts or any other kind of food related disorder. That said, I still think that many, many people are adopting an aversion to gluten because it's the scare de jour.  I'm not talking about people with a serious intolerance or celiac disease. I'm talking about the people -- and I've got friends like this -- who are all about being *up* on the latest food fad, whether it's no carbs or non-fat or all protein or whatever else is being touted by the diet gurus selling books or the food industry selling the same old crap repackaged and relabeled to lure in the sheep.
But, just so you know, I'm a HUGE believer in the healing power of real food -- and the damaging power of processed, food-like substances to cause all sorts of disease.  Good for you for figuring out what wasn't working for you.  
I'm just saying, not everyone is sensitive to gluten, and I find it annoying that people who aren't trivialize it by "adopting" the lifestyle for the month that it's on the cover of all the magazines.

[French Toast]

12:44 AM on 05/07/2012

Gluten free is mostly a gimmick. Hasselbeck is angling for dollars.

[catsanon]

06:40 AM on 05/07/2012

Gluten free is essential for those of us with celiacs. And yes, advertising can be described as "angling for dollars".... but wouldn't you want some sales if you'd written a book?

[French Toast]

12:04 PM on 05/07/2012

Celiacs are a low percentage of the population, which is why I said "mostly". For all others, Gluten free is a gimmick based on trendy nonsense greed.

[Sam Kusmeti]

09:21 AM on 05/07/2012

Gluten free is not a gimmick. There. I made a statement of opinion without explanation. You made a statement of opinion without explanation. We backed it up with nothing. We have successfully added nothing to the conversation. Did you actually research the benefits of gluten free for those who can't digest gluten before making this decision or do you think they are all lying?

[French Toast]

12:06 PM on 05/07/2012

I never said they were all lying. That is what is referred to as a straw man fallacy. I said it's MOSTLY a gimmick. Celiacs are a small percentage of the population and about the only people to whom the diet is necessary.

Your diatribe is meaningless and embarrassing for you. Learn to read better. Also,take a chill pill. Blow up like that for no reason in real life and you'll be swallowing teeth in no time, if you haven't had the experience already.

[lady joanna]

08:44 PM on 05/10/2012

As a victim I think you. Gluten intolerance is miserable. I had the celiac test and free of that one but GI it is.

[Karl Wilder]

12:34 PM on 05/06/2012

When I was given the challenge of preparing Gluten Free meals for about a month I thought it would be hard, and in fact it was fun. Yes, one has to be careful but there are a lot of foods that have no gluten.

The one thing they have not managed to make well is pasta. She was satisfied with it but I found the gluten free pasta awful.

[catsanon]

08:23 PM on 05/06/2012

The only gluten free pastas I like are rice pastas - and even then, preferably the ones which are available in Asian food markets (where they have a tradition of rice pastas).

[thegrrrr8est]

07:41 PM on 05/07/2012

Isn't quinoa pasta gluten free? I find that if I serve it to guests whom I've not told that it's not "the real thing", they don't know the difference.

[flowereater]

07:45 PM on 05/07/2012

I agree. Even the "good" GF pastas are just awful.