Juliebove

I do not have celiac but do have Fibromyalgia and at times can get canker sores. I tend to get the sores when I have a virus. Certain foods can make them worse for me. Namely walnuts and potato chips. I don't know why.

The Fibromyalgia is linked to my thyroid. I quit eating soy except for soy lecithin (mainly in vitamins) and soybean oil (mainly in restaurants) and my thyroid went back to normal. I am not totally free of the Fibromyalgia. I do have to pace myself. I can't do much. And if the pain starts, I have to stop, get a cool drink if I can, and take a rest. I also rescheduled my sleep time. I do much better if I go to bed around 3:00 a.m. I would personally probably stay up till 6:00 a.m., but I have a daughter to get off to school. So I have to get a few hours of sleep before she gets up. And I like to be up and dressed before she gets home.

So after she goes to school, I go back to bed till noon. I have to take a pill (Carafate) one hour before eating. So I get up, take the pill and go back to sleep until 1:00. Then I get up for the day.

While I am sure I would do better still if I didn't have the fractured sleeping, it's the best I can do at the moment. I try to avoid doing things like standing in long lines or doing much walking. Those things really increase the pain.

I like to do the salad bar for lunch.

If the weather is colder, I might do chili. A quick one to make is just three different kinds of beans (canned), a can of corn and a jar of salsa, all mixed together and heated through. If there are meat lovers, I will add some ground beef. This can be served over a bed of rice and garnished with things like cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, olives and corn chips.

Soup can be another good choice, unless they are the type that want crackers or bread with their soup. Then they might not like the gluten-free stuff.

My family tends to like really bland food, so chicken and rice works well for them. Or I will do chicken with rice noodles and gluten-free gravy.

Another thing I have made is potroast with onions, carrots and potatoes.

I once made caramel apples with Kraft caramels. Actually I remember making them as a child and don't recall any problems. But when I made them as an adult? Oh what a mess! The worst part is that the caramel hardened to the extremely hard stage. I had told all the neighborhood kids that I had them. They were very excited. I took them next door for the kids to eat them. My neighbor ran a day care. Her kids and all the other kids around went over there after school. My daughter was the only one who wasn't in her daycare. The poor kids couldn't get a bite out of them. They finally had to resort to using knives and forks and eventually were able to get at least one bite.

Now I feel bad when daughter sees caramel apples in the store. She always wants one. She has a peanut allergy in addition to the wheat. Those things always have a peanut warning on them. So she can't have them.

I buy her the Walden Farm's caramel dip. It is not only gluten-free but dairy free. Good to dip apple slices in.

I wish! But then other times I don't wish because they truly don't get it. They have bought her a gluten free birthday cake a couple of times. They do buy safe sorbet. But mostly if there is a dinner, I am expected to provide our gravy, our potatoes, our rice, our dessert, or whatever. My mom doesn't like to cook and certainly doesn't like to make more than one thing. I have bought some boxed gluten-free gravy and showed it to her. Told her where I bought it. I am hoping she will get this or at least tell me to bring this for Thanksgiving. I see no reason why everyone can't just eat this.

Tonight we dined at a place that is mainly takeout but they do have some seats. It is near daughter's dance studio so that's why we went there. There are other places nearby but they are not options for us given our allergies. This place used to do a gluten-free teriyaki but they took it off the menu. Now the only gluten-free things are a balsamic chicken (daughter doesn't really like the sauce) and a hamburger patty (daughter doesn't really like that either). So I noticed a Cajum chicken breast as a special. It came with lettuce, tomato, cheese and maybe onion. Also fries. It also came on a bun which wasn't clear on the chalkboard. I did ask about the bun. Told the guy that all we wanted was a plain chicken breast and fries. Now there is normally a woman behind the counter on Fridays and she knows of daughter's wheat allergy so I'm sure she would have told us about the breading or at least questioned it. This guy has waited on us before and I did tell him of the wheat allergy. But today I thought I was being very clear.

The guy said something like, "So you want no toppings and no bun?" I told him that was correct. Just a plain chicken breast and the fries. So we were astounded when she got a breaded chicken breast, especially since they cook from scratch!

They did get us the correct thing. But I don't think we'll be dining there again. The meal for the two of us was almost $40 and my burger patty was raw in the middle. This is not the first time it has happened. I didn't even bother to send it back after the chicken fiasco.

I just think this place is better suited for people who do not have special diets. It's a very busy place!

Yikes! Smoking is probably the worst thing a diabetic can do.

As for the diet... It really depends on what kind of diet he eats. A lot of diabetics do low carb. I do not. But... I do eat a lot less carbs than I used to. I used to eat mainly beans and rice or pasta and rice.

Eggs and various meats are probably the best things for breakfast. If he needs some carbs (and I do), then perhaps some fruits such as berries or grapefruit. If he wants some sort of bread, you might try things like Wasa (crisp bread) or those small loaves of rye. You could do an egg scramble with a lot of vegetables, perhaps including a small amount of potato. Not all diabetics can do potato. I can.

Salads and low carb veggies should make up the bulk of the other meals. Add meat, eggs or some other form of protein and perhaps some carbs. I mainly do beans for my carbs. But it really varies from person to person. I hope he is testing his blood sugar. That way you can tell if the meals are working for him.

I just saw this episode last night. May have been a re-run. One of the items in the basket was frog's legs. They had a chef with a gluten allergy. Not sure if it really was celiac because they used the term allergy repeatedly. She coated the legs with wheat flour. Oddly she tried to fry some anchovies and she used tapioca starch for those. Didn't work. She just had a mess.

She was the first one chopped. I think partly because she admitted that her anchovies didn't work. They said she shouldn't have said this. However, they commented on her gluten allergy and said they were proud of her for using an ingredient she was allergic to.

Personally I think that was a stupid thing to have done. I just hope she didn't get sick from it.

I have a couple of ones that make the eyes roll every time.

My co workers and hubby's co workers, "that must be awful, I couldn't live without bread." or "must be hard to find something to eat"

Family members, "once you are better you can eat bread again right?"

Gets tiring telling people what I eat. Rice, potato, veg, steak, prawns, chicken etc. They are amazed that it is gluten free.

The other day on one of the newsgroups I frequent, a woman who always acts like she is an expert on everything said that celiac can go away. I asked her for a cite. As I thought, she posted no cite. I don't think there is one.

But I too get sick of the comments about "What *can* you eat?" Or, "I could never follow that diet!"

I can remember getting upset when daughter was first diagnosed. She had two back to back dance recitals to be in with about an hour break in between. At that point we hadn't yet found a gluten-free bread that she liked. Or really even found good meals that she liked. I commented to one of the other mothers that I didn't know what I could bring her for lunch. She told me that they just sent out for pizza. When I told her she couldn't eat pizza because she was allergic to wheat, gluten and dairy, she replied... "Couldn't you make an exception just this once?"

I then replied to her... "Yeah. If I don't want her to dance. Cuz if I did that she'd spend the next hour or more in the bathroom getting sick!" I later found out that this person is a kindergarten teacher. Scary!

I was wondering about a store sample once. It was yogurt on which they put granola. The yogurt was gluten-free, but the granola wasn't. The guy said that it couldn't contain gluten because it was organic. Then I pointed out the wheat on the label. Then he told me that the gluten wouldn't harm me because it hadn't developed. Why would someone say something like that? What if I had listened to him and ate it anyway?

I was told by a celiac health food owner that sprouted wheat was okay. Why? It was sprouted so it was now something else. This was when my daughter was first diagnosed. I bought something with sprouted wheat. Can't remember now if it was tortillas or bread. Soon after eating the stuff, daughter got sick.

The Dr. who diagnosed her actually told me to give her spelt instead of wheat. Same thing happened. She got sick! I now know that not only is spelt a form of wheat but that she is allergic to both things.

I'm not sure where that list came from, but it is full of long-discredited information, particularly in light of FALCPA, which has been in effect since January 1, 2006.

Malt is a valid issue--it comes from barley. If any of the other things contain wheat, it will be explicitly stated as "wheat."

Agreed!

I bought a bottle of this today at the health food store. Now I can make teriyaki chicken for my daughter. I hope it's good!

I use a tricolored corn and quinoa blend that I get at the health food store. Many people have eaten this salad and everyone has liked it.

The first time I came here, I didn't realize how old some of the posts could be. Now whenever I see something that doesn't look right, I check the date. And if replying, I will add that it is an old post.

I'm a type 2 diabetic but spent most of my life as a hypoglycemic. I can remember fainting while waiting for some eggs to boil. I had just moved to a new house. Brought the eggs with me and had no other food in the house.

I can also remember as a diabetic, thinking I was fine and delaying my meal a bit because I felt I needed to do something, then passing out. I once passed out in the refrigerator. I knew to go there, but didn't know what to do once I go there. And when roused from a passed out state, I can be very combative and refuse to eat. So that's not good.

Currently am having the opposite problem and am having trouble getting my high blood sugar back down where it should be despite two meds and two kinds of insulin.

One thing I know if you suffer from hypoglycemia is that you need to be aware of reactive hypoglycemia. That means you can't take in too many carbs at once. If you do, your blood sugar could spike. If you are not diabetic, a spike for you isn't going to be huge. But the blood sugar will go up a bit, then plummet. That's when you feel really sick. So you want to avoid quickly digesting foods like rice, at least in large quantities. You can eat a small amount say, in a soup or along with a protein.

I used to carry things with me that I could eat in small bites throughout the day. One thing I liked was Panda red licorice but that has wheat in it, so no good for you. Another thing I might take was a piece of fruit leather or those little chewy fruit snacks that kids like. I would just eat a piece or two between meals. And I made my own trail mix. Nuts, seeds, coconut, perhaps a small amount of dried fruit, chocolate or carob chips. I kept this in covered candy dishes throughout the house and also kept a bag in my purse. Having this meant never an excuse to skip a meal.

Are Dots gluten free?

Yes.