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Welcome to Gluten-Free Living, a new monthly column focused on eating well without the gluten.

It's been about six years since I stopped eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and some other grains. My dietary situation is far from unique.

For the estimated 2.1 million Americans living with Celiac Disease, gluten can cause serious, even life-threatening, gastrointestinal problems. Millions of other people have a less-serious, but still significant, form of gluten intolerance that causes skin rashes, headaches, joint pain and other symptoms.

Living gluten-free means reading labels, asking all sorts of questions at restaurants and rethinking the way food comes together to form a meal. For me, giving up gluten has been an excuse to experiment in the kitchen. The results haven't always been perfect, but I've learned some tricks along the way. I'll be sharing those lessons and some of my favorite recipes here.

Movie Review Comic book remake is a crowd pleaser

Maybe a Spider-Man reboot wasn't exactly screaming to be made, coming just a half-decade after Tobey Maguire ditched the bodysuit for good.

But The Amazing Spider-Man is a sweeter, quirkier spin than Sam Raimi's blockbuster action franchise trilogy. The dazzling newcomer swings decidedly on its own terms.

Director Marc Webb (was Spider-Man his destiny?) laces the skyscraper-scaling crime-busting with a fetching, awkward romanticism that made his (500) Days of Summer such a low- key charmer.

Not that Spider-Man skimps on battle time and CGI heroics (though the 3-D seems rote). And to cut to the chase: Andrew Garfield is terrific in the lead role as a younger, more self-effacing superhero than the Maguire version.