What In The World?

[lorka150]

Hey everyone,

Tonight I went out to a restaurant with my mom to a place very knowledgeable with the disease - they have a few people who work there with it. Luckily, our waitress is best friends with one of them, so I am almost positive there was no problem.

Anyway, I ordered my gluten free meal (really good, by the way: shrimp, scallops, mussels, tonnes of veggies in a really rich pasta sauce. Yum! Served on rice, but I am allergic to rice so I nixed that.

Anyway, I ate about half of it, got up to use the bathroom, and felt great (usually when I get up, I know if I am getting sick because i am weak and dizzy and tired). So I know it was okay.

Anyway, I came back to the table and my mom (who is also gluten-free - she has MS), had ordered a different meal - grilled veggies with a meat trio of lamb, steak and chicken.

I tried a bite of her chicken. Immediately, I got a little dizzy. How weird is that?

She felt fine, but doesn't feel the symptoms really. She feels overall better from the diet, but doesn't get glutened.

My question is - could it have been the chicken? And the deal is, I've eaten chicken a few times (I eat it quite rarely) over the last few months, and felt not so great. I don't really eat meat (ever), so could there be a thing with if it is 'grain fed'? Because I don't eat it often, could it bother me because my system isn't used it to it? I've only been gluten free for about 2 months. Actually, one time that I got bothered was turkey, and I've eaten that once and chicken about three times in the last two months.

Sorry so long, but what do you all think? Esp. about the grain-fed deal. I realize tonnes of people on here probably eat grain-fed meats with no problems, but could I be more sensitive?

Any ideas?

Someone mentioned that I could have developed an allergy - but what about the gluten-y symptoms?

Thanks

Lorka

Oh (sorry, I added this later), in addition to the dizzyness from the chicken, I got a bit of stomach pain, then went to the bathroom there twice, and three times since I got home. The pain has went away, but I keep going to the bathroom.)

And... I forgot to mention the other day, I had the salad bar at Whole Foods (which I have had before with no problem because they are careful there, but you know...) anyway, and felt ill - woke up the next day with diarreah and felt over all blah for the next three days.

Could eating out and having a sensitivity to chicken be worse because of the recent Whole Foods trip?

[Nicolette]

Hm, sounds intriguing. Never really thought about the fact that chickens are 'grain fed'. It's a thought, isn't it? Anyone out there got the answer to this one?

Nicolette

[Merika]

There is no gluten in meat, no matter what they ate. There *could* be gluten in milk-based products. What you may have found at the restaurant (though most likely cross-contamination) is a chicken that was previously injected with a gluten-containing broth to make it appear plumper and fresher to the buyer. The chicken factory would be responsible for this, not the restaurant, so unless they read closely the box the chicken came in, they would not be aware of this.

Merika

[Guest nini]

I've noticed that I, and other celiac's, have trouble with commercial poultry. I do fine if I eat "clean" meats... (organic, free range, hormone free, antibiotic free) but if I eat commercial poultry ie: Tysons, Perdue, or in a restaurant, I get gluten like symptoms almost like food poisoning. I'm also allergic to penicillin and other antibiotics, so that might be part of it.

[Nicolette]

Good God, we have to think about everything, don't we?

[kimjoy24]

Yes we do, though I find it amazing how quickly I became adept at speed-reading food labels of everything in a store before buying it. It feels like second nature now. The real problem is those mystery glutened moments, like the one discussed in this thread. I'm always curious about what might have made me ill, though usually not enough to consume the suspect food right away again. If I worked from home, I'd be more willing to be my own personal guinea pig.

Good God, we have to think about everything, don't we? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[sb4480]

I don't think we should be so quick to eliminate chicken as a possibility. Commercial chicken is often injected with stock or water to increase the weight of the chicken and make it appear more plump. Have you ever compared a package of perdue chicken to a package of free range cicken from Whole Foods? the whole foods chicken looks anorexic compared to the perdue. I personally get sick from commercial chicken. Or I did anyway, they may have changed their practices(I think someone on here said that perdue is okay, I was just using that as an example of a commercial brand.)

Stephanie

[tarnalberry]

I don't think we should be so quick to eliminate chicken as a possibility.  Commercial chicken is often injected with stock or water to increase the weight of the chicken and make it appear more plump.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any raw meat product that has any additives with nutritional value (which wheat is considered to provide) must be labeled, according to USDA regulations. If the stock contains gluten, it must say so on the package labeling. Labeling is allowed to use the word "spices" in broth ingredients on raw meat, but this particular use of the word spices includes a few vegetables (onion, carrot, and one or two others) and does NOT include any grains whatsoever. (The rules for meat are a bit different from other foods.)

[hez]

I remember when my Mom was a vegetarian and would eat meat (even a few bites) she would get sick. Could this be possible? Just a thought!

Hez

[Meredith]

I often get sick when I eat restaurant chicken. Restaurants sometimes marinate meat in sauces that contain wheat - even when the chicken appears to be "plain". Restaurants also often marinate chicken in buttermilk, which would be a problem for CF people.

[gabby]

There could also have been cross-contamination from the grill or pan where they prepared the chicken. Even something like using the same tongs to turn over the meat that they used for something else (like fried chicken).

As for the sald bar.....this is just my personal opinion....but I would stay away from any sort of open buffet-style food. I have watched lots of people pick up food from one place and drop it into another. Or use the tongs from the noodles to pick up lettuce. Or dip the ladel from one soup into the next. The list goes on and on.