Olivegirl

I'm an Australian coeliac who has travelled a few times in the US. Here's my two cents worth:

1. Re lollies/snack food - you should find a much wider variety of chocolates, lollies etc in the US than Australia that you can eat, as they tend to use corn starch and high fructose corn syrup, rather than wheat starch/wheat glucose syrup in manufacturing snack food. Just beware of chips (crisps) which sometimes are and sometimes aren't gluten free.
2. Beware of labelling in the US. In Australia, you must by law mention in the ingredient list if there is wheat, rye, oats or barley in the product. In the US, I think all they must mark is wheat;
3. Also watch out for 'gluten free' products in the US, many of which contain oats (which aren't allowed to be labelled as gluten free in Australia);
4. Saying you have a 'wheat allergy' tends to work better in the US in my experience than saying 'gluten intolerance';
5. And finally, the best fast food option I found in the states was Mexican food - just about always gluten free!

Have a great trip!

I used to get dry mouth periodically before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease. I don't think it's anything to worry about (assuming coeliac is the cause). My doctor recommended a gel for my mouth which performs almost the same function as a moisturiser for your skin. It worked to some extent. I'm in Australia - so I don't know how available the gel is in the US - but I just bought it over the counter here.

Thanks everyone for your responses! I don't normally react to wheat glucose syryp, nor do I have other allergies - but I must admit I haven't tried a snickers in over a year - so maybe I should ty again and see what happens? (and make sure it's one that's manufactured here, not overseas). I occassionally have the same problem with the snack size cadubury's plain chocolate - but not always. So it could be something to do with chocolate per se perhaps.

Hello all

I just want to give a other thumbs up to Atom Thai in Newtown. Not only do they have a seperate gluten free menu - but it's almost as long as the 'normal' menu. Coeliac heaven :-)

On another note, also excited that Coles has started to re-stock gluten free pastry!