<em>The View</em>'s Elisabeth Hasselbeck On Going Gluten-Free

When she's not co-hosting her Emmy Award-winning ABC talk show, running or playing with her three young children, you can find Elisabeth Hasselbeck in her kitchen.
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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.

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.

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.

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.

For more by EatingWell writers, click here.

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