Polenta for gluten-free reintro day?

[lifeisafitstorm]

I've only ever had polenta once before, and I loved it (no idea why I didn't eat it more before whole30...), but since one of the reasons I did this was to branch out with my recipes and try new things, I was thinking of using it as one of my gluten-free reintro foods? That works, right? It's just corn, yeah? I'm just so unsure, because I've never cooked with it. It feels a little silly.

[jent103]

It should just be corn, yes. The only thing I'd be concerned about is that a lot of times, polenta (and grits, too) have added dairy; you want to avoid that, because if it does cause any reaction for you, you won't know if you're reacting to the corn or the dairy.

[lifeisafitstorm]

Thanks!
The ingredients say: Water, Organic Yellow Corn Meal, Salt, Tartaric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Beta Carotene (Vitamin A) 

Seems legit...? 

This whole re-intro process is a little daunting.

[Tina R]

I was thinking of having polenta too! I was going to fry it in some coconut oil to have polenta fries. I have baked it but it is still too mushy for me.

[jent103]

I don't know exactly what tartaric acid is - I think it's probably fine, but a moderator might say otherwise. I wasn't really concerned about the polenta itself, though - more about what a lot of people do with it! For example, polenta cooked with compliant broth + salt and pepper is fine; polenta cooked with cream and/or parmesan isn't. Does that make sense?

 

But then, I'm mainly used to polenta cooked soft, like grits (which I love, but always with cheese!). Polenta cakes/fries/whatever may not be as likely to have dairy, which is great.

 

Don't be too stressed! The main thing is just to keep your reintro groups as separate as possible (eg, no pizza, because it has dairy and gluten), so you can say for sure what caused any reaction you might have. Then just keep a couple of Whole30 days in between groups (or more, if you react badly) so you start from your baseline each time.