Italian Celiac In The Us

[Brigno83]

Hello everybody,

I am Andrea and I have been an exchange student since August 2006 at University of Florida in Gainesville.

I brought many gluten free product from Italy when I first came since the health system provide them for free in my country and because I was not sure to find them here.

After 3 months I am running out of food and I would also like to travel throughout the US without carrying tons of food everywhere I go.

I would like to ask you if you can give me a list of restaurant in this area and in NY and possibly, if you have one, a list of certified gluten free product I can find in the normal grocery store.

Thank you very much in advance..I would appreciate any help!!

Andrea

[Guest nini]

since you are in Florida now I'm assuming you have a Publix near you, if so you can contact their Corporate Office and request that they send you the 9 page list of their Publix brand products that are verified gluten-free. Is there a Whole Foods near you? They generally have a good selection of gluten-free foods.

My mom just came back from Italy and she brought me some Schar biscottinos and Bi-Aglut and Schar pasta. I was very impressed with the flavor of those... You can order them from some online sources if you wanted to.

If you want to travel to the Atlanta area, let me know and I can suggest some resto's here.

[debmidge]

There are a good number of New Yorkers on the board. They will probably give you some resource info for NYC area.

There are a number of Whole Food food stores in New York area.

[cmzirkelbach]

Fairway market, Broadway and 74th street, has the biggest gluten free section in NYC. It is on the second floor. Fairway is a 'normal' grocery store, and not as pricey as Whole Foods.

[CarlaB]

PF Chang

Outback

Carraba's

Bonefish Grill

Maggiano's

Cheeseburger in Paradise

All have gluten-free menus (Maggiano's has gluten-free pasta, and cooks gluten-free, but doesn't have a gluten-free menu ... the chef comes to your table).

Wendy's -- chili, baked potato, Frosty -- are safe. And some Wendy's have dedicated fryers for their french fries.

Chick-fil-a -- grilled chicken salad, waffle fries are safe. Don't get the croutons or sunflower seeds, but you can have the tortilla strips instead.

Stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods have good gluten-free selections. So does Kroger.

Mainstream cereal that is gluten-free -- Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, and Dora the Explorer.

Kraft will clearly label -- if the product has gluten, you will be able to tell

Lays Stax are made in a gluten-free facility.

There is a member of the message board -- eleep, who also lives in Gainesville, you might send her a PM and she can give you some more local information.

[Brigno83]

Thank you very much everybody...I really appreciated!!

I am gonna look soon to Publix cause I don't think we have stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods...But anyway I'll contact the member from Gainesville!

By the way you gave me really usefull information..especially about Maggiano's..

I know that our products taste really good and I was a little bit disappointed not to find these kind of product here...but I am surviving and I think I'll make my mother send me another box..

If you need any kind of information about italian restaurant or products for your travel please do not hesitate to contact me!! I would be glad to help you!!

I have another question, do you have any kind of exemption or tax reduction if you have the celiac disease?

It is just curiosity..Thank you very much again!!

[CarlaB]

There is some kind of tax exemption, but they make it almost impossible to use. You have to fit certain criteria (I don't know what it is), then you have to know exactly how much more you're spending for your gluten-free food vs. the regular variety. At least that's my understanding. I have yet to meet someone who goes to this trouble.

If they give you the gluten-free food in Italy, that's wonderful, and it's probably cheaper for you to have your mom mail it to you than to buy it here!! Here it's waaaayy more expensive!

[eleep]

I just read this and I'm on it -- just sent a PM.

I can't necessarily help you with restaurants because I'm still figuring that one out myself -- I use a Triumph dining card and I tend to stick to sushi places right now (and I had bad luck with one of those a few months back).

I also don't know anything about getting tax discounts or anything on food here -- maybe someone else knows more about this?

[mamaw]

Brigno 83

I hope you are enjoying our country except for the gluten free race trying to buy & find food.... It is a challenge for me at times too & I live here...

What areas will you be traveling too perhaps we could help a bit more knowing what states & cities you will be in.

I would love to know what products you have in Italy. I know about Schar & Bi-Aglut, they are sooooo good. Anything else that we may need to see if we can bring it over to the states.

Carla gave a good eat -out list.....

mamaw

[Brigno83]

I know..those products are really good and they are also available in every pharmacy for free!!

That's why I brought 25 kilos (55 pounds I guess) of food from Italy..

I found a couple of good chocolate cookies and a kind of pasta.

What is missing is Happy Farm, it's a gluten free brand specialized in crackers, breads and snacks!!so good!

Thank you very much for your help, if there is a thing I learnt from american people is to be altruist, you are really generous and everybody tried to help me!maybe I've just been lucky but I appreciated it a lot!

I have just 3 weeks left to spend in florida (Gainesville basically but Miami, Orlando and Keywest for the thanksgiving holiday) and then a week in New York just before flying back home.

The only problem is that I am going to come back on June to start an internship program in Washington DC and I really don't know anything and anybody there!

Thank you again!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Andrea

Brigno 83

I hope you are enjoying our country except for the gluten free race trying to buy & find food.... It is a challenge for me at times too & I live here...

What areas will you be traveling too perhaps we could help a bit more knowing what states & cities you will be in.

I would love to know what products you have in Italy. I know about Schar & Bi-Aglut, they are sooooo good. Anything else that we may need to see if we can bring it over to the states.

Carla gave a good eat -out list.....

mamaw

[zansu]

If you're in the Virginia suburbs of DC there are several Wegmann's grocery stores that have great gluten-free sections. DC also has Whole Foods and Trader Joes, both of which are good grocery stores for gluten-free. I lived in the burbs when I was there, but someone from the city may be able to guide you to some in the city places.

[SofiEmiMom]

Hello Andrea! I wanted to e-mail you directly, but I didn't see the option. I have an unrelated question to your post...hope you don't mind:). My husband is considering a job position relocation in Italy. Myself and my two children aged 4 (preschool) and 6 (first grade) are Celiac. I was wondering what it's like to be Celiac in Italy? How accomodating are schools in Italy for children with this condition? Any insight would be very appreciated! Please email me directly at kfanelli@mac.com

thank you so much!

Kim

[moceansylvia-]

PF Chang

Outback

Carraba's

Bonefish Grill

Maggiano's

Cheeseburger in Paradise

All have gluten-free menus (Maggiano's has gluten-free pasta, and cooks gluten-free, but doesn't have a gluten-free menu ... the chef comes to your table).

Wendy's -- chili, baked potato, Frosty -- are safe. And some Wendy's have dedicated fryers for their french fries.

Chick-fil-a -- grilled chicken salad, waffle fries are safe. Don't get the croutons or sunflower seeds, but you can have the tortilla strips instead.

Stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods have good gluten-free selections. So does Kroger.

Mainstream cereal that is gluten-free -- Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, and Dora the Explorer.

Kraft will clearly label -- if the product has gluten, you will be able to tell

Lays Stax are made in a gluten-free facility.

There is a member of the message board -- eleep, who also lives in Gainesville, you might send her a PM and she can give you some more local information.

Hi,

I was just browsing this site and I feel like you have really enlightened me with all of this information. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Wendy's chili, chick-fill-a I can't wait to be able to x-mas shop without food in my pocket. I live in Philadelphia area and thank you since some of these branches are in my area.

[moceansylvia-]

PF Chang

Outback

Carraba's

Bonefish Grill

Maggiano's

Cheeseburger in Paradise

All have gluten-free menus (Maggiano's has gluten-free pasta, and cooks gluten-free, but doesn't have a gluten-free menu ... the chef comes to your table).

Wendy's -- chili, baked potato, Frosty -- are safe. And some Wendy's have dedicated fryers for their french fries.

Chick-fil-a -- grilled chicken salad, waffle fries are safe. Don't get the croutons or sunflower seeds, but you can have the tortilla strips instead.

Stores like Wild Oats and Whole Foods have good gluten-free selections. So does Kroger.

Mainstream cereal that is gluten-free -- Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, and Dora the Explorer.

Kraft will clearly label -- if the product has gluten, you will be able to tell

Lays Stax are made in a gluten-free facility.

There is a member of the message board -- eleep, who also lives in Gainesville, you might send her a PM and she can give you some more local information.

Hi,

I was just browsing this site and I feel like you have really enlightened me with all of this information. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! Wendy's chili, chick-fill-a I can't wait to be able to x-mas shop without food in my pocket. I live in Philadelphia area and thank you since some of these branches are in my area.

[cabuell]

Thanks for the info about Maggiano's.

However, I was looking at gluten-free alerts. Sometimes cereals come up because they are reformulating the boxes. A great site is the clanthompson.com celiac website.

Mainstream cereal that is gluten-free -- Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, and Dora the Explorer.