Sandwich 101

[sandys]

I have this senario that has happened several times in restraunts with me and my husband. He doesn't think that I should have to cause such problems when I order and get everything separate. So he says just take the bread off. I tell him I don't think that the bread should touch my chicken. He says that if anything the bread would absorb not the other way around. If I order a salad I have asked about croutons and said I don't want any. He said honey you can pick them off. Am I being over sensitive? When I read stories from other people I read how careful they are. Sandy

[psawyer]

You are not being overly sensitive. You are being completely reasonable. Your husband, on the other hand, clearly doesn`t get it.

[Jestgar]

Well, I go to conferences where sometimes all they have are sandwiches. I carefully pull the bread off and throw it on a napkin, then use a butter knife to scrape any surface that was touching the bread - scrape, wipe knife on clean section of napkin, scrape, wipe knife on clean section of napkin, and so on. I also carefully inspect all sandwich ingredients for any sign of crumbs, and sometimes use an additional napkin to wipe off the meat or cheese or whatever. And finally, if there is anything I can't verify as being "clean" (like tomato slices not protected by larger slices of cheese) I throw it away as well.

And sometimes I still get glutened.

[StrongerToday]

Recently someone used a gluten is like raw chicken analogy... if someone had put raw chicken on top of your sandwhich, would you still just pick it off and eat the sandwich??? I know I wouldn't!

[jkmunchkin]

You are absolutely not being to picky. The reason this diet can be hard is because of the cross contamination factor. You need to be very careful about not even having a crumb. If you just pick the croutons out of the salad or just take the bread off the sandwich, etc. etc., you might as well just eat the bread and the croutons because you are doing the same damage by having the crumbs as you would be if you just ate the bread.

Like the raw chicken analogy; if that was on your bread you wouldn't say, "oh it's just a little salmonella."

[tarnalberry]

You are not being overly sensitive. Bread leaves crumbs - even your husband can see that. You cannot eat those crumbs. Tell him to deal.

Ok, maybe phrased a little nicer.

[Juliebove]

I have this senario that has happened several times in restraunts with me and my husband. He doesn't think that I should have to cause such problems when I order and get everything separate. So he says just take the bread off. I tell him I don't think that the bread should touch my chicken. He says that if anything the bread would absorb not the other way around. If I order a salad I have asked about croutons and said I don't want any. He said honey you can pick them off. Am I being over sensitive? When I read stories from other people I read how careful they are. Sandy

Your husband is wrong. We have an old fashioned drive in here and my daughter was craving their food. So I ordered some fries and also a burger patty, no bun. I failed to check the order and we took it home to eat it so I could put it on her gluten free bread.

To my dismay they had put it on a bun. I pulled off the bun, rinsed the patty, reheated it and gave it to her. And guess who got sick? Yep. About a half an hour after eating she was doubled over in pain screaming, "My tummy HURTS!" We haven't been back there since.

Here's how I explain this to people who don't understand. I find the smallest pill I can. Now it really helps if I can get one of the person's own pills, like a prescription med. If not I will use one of my daughter's Zyrtek pills. They're really small. I then say to them, what happens to you if you forget to take this pill? They'll usually answer by saying something like, "My allergies will flair up", "My legs will swell", or whatever the reason they were taking the pill for is. To which I reply, "And yet it is sooooo small. You wouldn't think something so tiny would have such an effect on you!" I might also add that most of the pill is filler and the amount of real medicine in there might not be more than a fly speck. That one usually gets them. If it doesn't then they're just hopeless.

[astyanax]

i love both the raw chicken and the medication analogies! thanks for a great way to explain to people how important avoiding cross contamination is.

[happygirl]

The other analogy that is often used on this board is that gluten is like poison to a Celiac.

Would you (or your husband) be comfortable with two big slabs of rat poison, that crumbles, on your food? Would he be comfortable picking it off, and 100% confident that not one little crumb remains? Is he willing to take that risk?

There is medical evidence that shows that very little amounts can cause damage. We are all proof that reactions occur in tiny amounts.

If you want to be gluten free, Celiacs can't be picking things off. Otherwise, you are asking to be glutened, basically. Our bodies don't care *how* the gluten got in, or what our intent was (cheating, not asking about ingredients, trying to "get rid of the gluten", etc), but if its there, its not good Celiac doesn't discriminate!

I'm sorry that your husband does not understand yet. I hope that he comes around and learns how serious this is to your health. Good luck!

Laura

[zansu]

BTW, when I was only a few weeks gluten-free, I thought I could do that -- take the meat out of the sandwiches they brought in for a meeting. I missed most of the afternoon session..... I will NOT make that mistake again.

[emcmaster]

Well, I go to conferences where sometimes all they have are sandwiches. I carefully pull the bread off and throw it on a napkin, then use a butter knife to scrape any surface that was touching the bread - scrape, wipe knife on clean section of napkin, scrape, wipe knife on clean section of napkin, and so on. I also carefully inspect all sandwich ingredients for any sign of crumbs, and sometimes use an additional napkin to wipe off the meat or cheese or whatever. And finally, if there is anything I can't verify as being "clean" (like tomato slices not protected by larger slices of cheese) I throw it away as well.

And sometimes I still get glutened.

I'm surprised (but a little jealous!) that you don't get glutened all the time. Gluten doesn't have to be visible to be there. I can't eat anything that is even made on the same counter as a piece of bread!

[Jestgar]

I do it less and less. Usually now if I'm going to do that I'll save my sammy for later and clean it up in the lunch room. And it's not a casual approach. Some of the breads are really crumby and I avoid those, and sometimes I think the meat was really dry and no matter which bread it was on it has lots of crumbs. Those I just throw out. I also don't take the veggies sandwiches because veggies don't seem to clean off as well.

I try to keep a can of soup in my desk drawer so I'm not at that point of desperation.