Gluten In Enchiladas Or Refried Beans?

[EllaBella]

Has anyone found gluten in enchiladas?   I went to a party last night.  I read labels for most things but there were enchiladas and refried beans without labels.  I can't imagine why there would be gluten in either of those.  This morning it is painful to drink.  I don't want to think about eating.  This is what happened when I reintroduced gluten the last time.  Each day my symptoms got worse.  I'm hoping all symptoms won't be repeated!

 

I also had ice cream and some potato chips but I read the labels on those. 

 

This makes me not want to eat anything I didn't make! 

 

I haven't been diagnosed with Celiac Disease but I'm waiting for the tests to come back.  This could be something totally different.  I don't know what is happening!

 

[kareng]

Some canned enchilada sauces have wheat for a thickener. Some places fry things in shared oil. If its a party, who knows what someone might have dropped on the buffet - a roll on their plate falls on the enchiladas and they just take it off and you never know. Personally, I would NEVER eat something like that at a party. Just because I would have never put flour in a sauce or used a flour tortilla in the enchiladas, doesn't mean everyone uses the same recipe as I do.

Hope you feel better soon.

[GottaSki]

There are gluten-free enchilada sauces, but many of the canned ones do contain gluten.  If no label...don't eat it.

[BlessedMommy]

As a rule of thumb for celiacs/NCGI, when dealing with food provided by others it's best to stick with single ingredient foods unless the person has been educated on celiac disease. The enchiladas may have been cross contaminated. Or they may have had actual wheat in them--not all enchilada sauces are gluten free. 

 

If you're changing over to gluten free, are you finished with all testing? It's difficult to get any celiac testing while gluten free, because being gluten free causes your antibody levels to fall and renders tests invalid, generally speaking.

 

Best wishes on finding out your DX!

[EllaBella]

I had the Celiac Panel tests done last week.  I had stopped eating gluten when I found a thread on this site where people were describing their symptoms.  Then I started eating it again after reading the tests come out better when you are eating gluten.  I tried to stay on it but couldn't keep eating it.  I stopped 3 days before the test because my symptoms all came back worse and I had other symptoms.  It was too painful to continue.  My doctor thinks 3 days won't make a difference.  I'm just hoping he is right.  I don't ever want to eat gluten again! 

 

This morning I realized it was probably dumb to eat the enchiladas but I couldn't imagine them having wheat.  Thickener for sauce makes sense.  I think I'll just bring my own food from now on.  My mother in law told me I could eat her German hamburgers.  I know she mixes a roll in with the meat before cooking so I can't have them anymore.  She in a nice way kinda argued with me that her hamburgers don't have gluten.  I had to explain it...  I think that could happen with a lot of people. 

[BlessedMommy]

Don't beat yourself up, I think that we've all had those moments. I remember once finding out that a SALAD that I thought was gluten-free and had checked the ingredients with the lady who made it, had a seasoning with soy sauce in it in the homemade dressing.  I thought that I had ingredient checked and apparently I wasn't thorough enough.

 

Yep, a lot of enchilada sauce has wheat. This one is an example of a gluteny enchilada sauce: Open Original Shared Link

 

My favorite enchilada sauce is La Victoria. It is gluten free, says so clearly on the label and has fairly simple ingredients. 

 

Open Original Shared Link

[MissyBB]

Who knows. Honestly, even those people in my life who KNOW I am gluten-free have good intentions when making things for me to eat and they *think* they made it gluten-free. Most of the time, by the next morning I KNOW it had gluten in it. I know that just yesterday I was looking at corn tortillas and I found a brand that had wheat gluten in it. Heck, even CORN tortillas are being messed with!

 

I am lucky in that when I get glutened I just have cramping and gas and once I pass it in my stool (sorry, TMI!) I am good to go again. But that doesn't  mean I want to intentionally eat the gluten anyway!

 

I feel your pain. I really do. This is such a complex thing and it's in so many items that unless you are really, really vigilant and well-read up on what exactly gluten-free means, even the most well-intentioned friends and family members WILL gluten you and not know it. 

 

Now I pretty much just stick to whole foods that haven't been messed with too much. Stuff like plain old baked potatoes or a salad with no dressing etc. Less chance of gluten inadvertently being in there.

 

And then some people never get it. Just today my MIL brought me some left over pizza that was just "oh, so good".     Some people NEVER get it. 

 

I hope you feel better soon!