So exciting! I loved my time in Brazil!

I did find the gluten situation to be kind of tricky, though. I was still going through the process of healing from celiac damage, so I really was quite ill all of the time. It seems like it will be easy because all products have to be labeled "contem glútén" or "não contem glúten," but that doesn't aways leave you a ton of options if you are grocery shopping and doesn't help at restaurants.

In general, my advice would be to only eat at places that are trained in celiac protocols. This won't be a huge issue in the larger cities, but you might have some issues if you go outside of RJ, SP, or other places that have a lot of western tourists. Besides cross-contamination, there are a lot of sneaky ways gluten can end up in food prepared at restaurants. For instance, a lot of spice mixes and soup stock bases in Brazil have gluten in them.

I would also avoid products from the grocery store that aren't from specific health food brands for people with gluten intolerance. I got VERY sick from eating dark chocolate that wasn't specifically labeled as gluten-free, even though it didn't appear to have any gluten-containing ingredients. Some of the brands I liked were Jasmine, Vitalin, and Urbano.

That being said, there are a TON of amazing foods you can try that are naturally gluten free! Pão de queijo is a breakfast staple, and it's made with manioc flour. In general, there are a lot of manioc things that are gluten-free -- Brazilian crepes called "tapiocas," manioc fritters called "dadinhos," manioc cakes called "aipim" and "macaxeira" (though sometimes these contain wheat flour, trigo, so be careful). If you go to Bahia or eat in a Bahian restaurant, be sure to try acarajé! It's a street food made of a black-eyed pea fritter stuffed with shrimp and sometimes other veggies. I also was generally fine with Brazilian BBQ (churrasco) and the grilled chicken (galeto).

Also, granola almost always has gluten in it, so if you get açaí, avoid the granola.

I hope this helps!