Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):
    GliadinX



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):
    GliadinX


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Is Anything Safe At Mcdonalds?


dandelionmom

Recommended Posts

dandelionmom Enthusiast

Maybe the ice cream? Milk shake? Anything?!


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Food for Life
GliadinX



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):
GliadinX


Lisa Mentor
Maybe the ice cream? Milk shake? Anything?!

Open Original Shared Link

I thought that they had a gluten free listing, but this is what I found.

ryebaby0 Enthusiast

Our experience at McDonald's has always been good, but your mileage may vary.....

My son and husband eat:

blizzards (just the M&M ones, obviously the oreos are out!)

fries

hash browns

plain sausage patties

burgers without the buns

yogurt parfaits (take off the packet of granola)

I think the milkshakes are gluten-free, but we don't eat them, so I don't know!

We never go to a McDonald's at "high lunchtime" i.e. noonish, or go through the drive through of McDonald's we've never been to. (We go through the drivethrough of our local all the time) I will instead go in, and watch the line and the food prep. In 4 years with 2 celiacs, I've only ever had one idiot try to peel a bun off the burger, and the manager was all over him before I was. I have decided against buying food in one or two McD's that were dirty, staffed by clueless people, and/or otherwise giving off a "run away! run away!" vibe.

We've never gotten sick -- but some people do, so you do need to be careful at first. That being said, I've never had any manager or counter person be anything but helpful. Mc D's is a subject of great emotion amongst some celiacs, so make your own choices :) And happy fries!

Owen'sMom Rookie
Our experience at McDonald's has always been good, but your mileage may vary.....

My son and husband eat:

blizzards (just the M&M ones, obviously the oreos are out!)

fries

hash browns

plain sausage patties

burgers without the buns

yogurt parfaits (take off the packet of granola)

I think the milkshakes are gluten-free, but we don't eat them, so I don't know!

We never go to a McDonald's at "high lunchtime" i.e. noonish, or go through the drive through of McDonald's we've never been to. (We go through the drivethrough of our local all the time) I will instead go in, and watch the line and the food prep. In 4 years with 2 celiacs, I've only ever had one idiot try to peel a bun off the burger, and the manager was all over him before I was. I have decided against buying food in one or two McD's that were dirty, staffed by clueless people, and/or otherwise giving off a "run away! run away!" vibe.

We've never gotten sick -- but some people do, so you do need to be careful at first. That being said, I've never had any manager or counter person be anything but helpful. Mc D's is a subject of great emotion amongst some celiacs, so make your own choices :) And happy fries!

The Fries and Hashbrowns are not gluten free at McDonalds. On their website it states that they contain wheat.

JennyC Enthusiast
:o Not this debate again! The french fries have been tested for gluten and they contain less than the amount they test for, so they are considered gluten free. However, they do have WHEAT in them and I don't give my son ANYTHING with wheat, barley, rye or mainstream oats. There is enough risk of cross contamination in processed foods that do not contain gluten grains. Occasionally we will go there for a treat and get a milkshake or ice cream.
Lisa Mentor

I enjoy their fries.

Now, do some reasearch on the VERY EXTENSIVE DISCUSSION regarding McD's fries on this site in the past and come to your own conclusion. :D

Open Original Shared Link

dandelionmom Enthusiast

Ice cream it is! Thanks everyone! :)


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
GliadinX
Tierra Farm



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):
Authentic Foods


ryebaby0 Enthusiast

As I said, great emotion....

Mc Donald's has changed to a cooking oil with no wheat protein (and the original oil tested negative for gluten anyway) and the fries are cooked in dedicated fryers. (yes, I know, you need to check your restaurant) Websites tend to be much less up-to-date than is generally assumed. Also, if you are overseas or in Canada the website info can be different. ClanThompson just reported all this, btw, but my celiacs have been eating fries on a semi-regular basis with no reaction (and they react to everything) and no elevation in their blood testing levels (and my son has a tTg test every 10 weeks to go with his other medical bloodwork).

As I said, make up your own mind, but we're eating fries!

Jodi Mills Apprentice

Hope Ya'll enjoy your MC D's, I personally React to everything at Mcdonalds, I think its just me, so i dont eat there, or any fast food place anymore, they all make me sick, could just be a personal thing and not the celiac, but the feeling i get is the same as when i do get glutened.

Happy Eating!

Belinda Meeker Apprentice

Hey All....

Just a lil of my own experament with Mc'D's :(

I hadn't cheated in any way and have been super careful not to get Gluttened,

BUT I did try eating at local Mc'D's just a few weeks back and man-o-man they r not safe by no means, even if u r careful wht u order,my son use to work at one and he was passing out cooking the fries and working the grill so go figure <_< Yes he has Celiac Spru!

So if anyone wants to try it's is your own choice, just be careful I aslo got cross contamination at our local Wendy's safe meanu, so it is by our choice if we ever do eat out again we r staying with the only safe eat joint we have never been glutened and it is Chili's :)

Good Luck To All!

Bea

larry mac Enthusiast

Not everyone's cut out to work fast food. It's hot, fast paced and greasy. There's a lot of messy cleaning up, it's really hard work for low pay. Quite often, teenagers want to quit working there for a variety of teenage related reasons.

Probably not the best place for Celiac workers anyway, what with all the sandwich buns, biscuits, english muffins, pancakes, breaded fried chicken nuggets/patties, fried fish patties, cookies, big bread pretzels, ice cream cones, burritos, wraps, croutons, etc.

I eat the fries, bunless burgers, eggs, sausage and hash browns. Haven't had a problem yet.

But, I feel safer seeing my food prepared, like at McDonalds. I'm more nervous at Chili's, where you don't know what's going on in the kitchen. I ate there last week, and despite ordering very carefully, my food was served with garlic toast. Our waitress simply said "oh, they forgot to take that off". Made me wonder what else they forgot!

My teenage son also worked at McDonalds. He said they always used a dedicated fryer for the fries. I've been following this issue for over a year. I don't believe there is any wheat in the fries. If I was to get sick eating there however, I would probably be forced to reconsider.

best regards, lm

Ursa Major Collaborator

I go to McDonald's (here in Canada) about twice a month. I usually get the warm salad, either the Caesar salad or the ranch salad with the grilled chicken (of course, the crunchy chicken is breaded), and sometimes fries.

In fact, I ate the same thing in Germany! I've never been sick so far eating the salad. And neither has my daughter, who started eating the oriental salad (with the Italian dressing, as the oriental dressing has wheat-containing soy sauce) with the grilled chicken after she tested gluten intolerant with Enterolab. She hasn't had a problem, either.

jenilee Newbie

Check on what is in their modified food starch because lat I checked it wasd in their ice cream. The ONLY thing I give my lil guy from there is the fruit n walnut thing. And he only eats the fruit. The walnuts are coated.

ryebaby0 Enthusiast

Modified food starch in the US is, by definition, made only with corn starch, and is gluten free. Anything with wheat starch as a base would say so. (Any food product, that is, pharmaceuticals are not included in labelling laws)

mairin Apprentice

Here is a list of ingredients, from McD's in Canada:

Open Original Shared Link

Of course, it is prudent to check if the oil for fries/hash browns is dedicated.

We have not eaten at McD's since my daughter was diagnosed, we go to Wendy's instead as they provide a gluten-free menu (on their website) and we always ask about the dedicated fryer.

cruelshoes Enthusiast
I go to McDonald's (here in Canada) about twice a month. I usually get the warm salad, either the Caesar salad or the ranch salad with the grilled chicken (of course, the crunchy chicken is breaded), and sometimes fries.

In fact, I ate the same thing in Germany! I've never been sick so far eating the salad. And neither has my daughter, who started eating the oriental salad (with the Italian dressing, as the oriental dressing has wheat-containing soy sauce) with the grilled chicken after she tested gluten intolerant with Enterolab. She hasn't had a problem, either.

I'm so jealous! The grilled chicken in the US McDonald's salads has wheat in it. Yet another stupid place for wheat to be.

  • 2 weeks later...
Katester Enthusiast

I went to McDonalds and got the Asian Salad. I put the dressing on and was about to take a bite as I was reading the package. I found out the salad dressing that came with had gluten in it. I brought it back to the counter and told them I have an allergy to wheat. The man gave me a new salad and gluten-free dressings to choose from. He was really great about it. The French dressing is gluten-free and delicious. I forget what the other one was... :)

AliB Enthusiast

Oh yuk. How anyone could consider going to McDonalds a treat I really cannot fathom!

What about an afternoon at a zoo or a park with a nice scrummy (healthy) picnic? Eating out is such a minefield. If you can find a great healthy gluten free restaurant, hang on to it like mad!

We went to the cafe at our local Hospital today (after yet another blood test) and I had a slice of ham, some plain salad and chips. I have had a pain in my back all afternoon. The chips were reconstituted potato and unbeknown to me they almost likely had gluten or dairy in them. What ever happened to good ole-fashioned REAL food????

mamaw Community Regular

cruelshoes, did you say the US mickey D's grilled chicken contain wheat? Now, I knew of course the breaded one has wheat but the plain grilled chicken now has wheat?

I hope that was a typo error! I was going to get a grilled chicken salad this week...... arrrrrgh.

thanks

mamaw

Lisa Mentor
cruelshoes, did you say the US mickey D's grilled chicken contain wheat? Now, I knew of course the breaded one has wheat but the plain grilled chicken now has wheat?

I hope that was a typo error! I was going to get a grilled chicken salad this week...... arrrrrgh.

thanks

mamaw

Open Original Shared Link

process=menuitems

Grilled Chicken Breast Filet

Chicken breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food starch-modified, maltodextrin, spices, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and animal source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika), modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates. CONTAINS: SOY AND WHEAT. Prepared with liquid margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color). CONTAINS: SOY LECITHIN

cruelshoes Enthusiast
cruelshoes, did you say the US mickey D's grilled chicken contain wheat? Now, I knew of course the breaded one has wheat but the plain grilled chicken now has wheat?

I hope that was a typo error! I was going to get a grilled chicken salad this week...... arrrrrgh.

thanks

mamaw

Nope not a typo. The grilled chicken has wheat, and has for at least the last few years since I have been diagnosed. Mama Goose posted the ingredients above. Stupid place to find wheat, huh?

dandelionmom Enthusiast
Oh yuk. How anyone could consider going to McDonalds a treat I really cannot fathom!

What about an afternoon at a zoo or a park with a nice scrummy (healthy) picnic? Eating out is such a minefield. If you can find a great healthy gluten free restaurant, hang on to it like mad!

They're 3 and 6. And the windchill has been in the single digits for the last few weeks.

larry mac Enthusiast
hydrolyzed [corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten] proteins

Hey mg,

This is exactly the ingredient that's keeping me from buying some items at our ultra gourmet food store/health food store Central Market. From some of their fresh made soups to their various versions of tamales, there is this abomination.

I wish they'd make up their mind which one it is. Surely, it's not all three. Sounds like a catch-all statement.

best regards, lm

Lisa Mentor
Hey mg,

This is exactly the ingredient that's keeping me from buying some items at our ultra gourmet food store/health food store Central Market. From some of their fresh made soups to their various versions of tamales, there is this abomination.

I wish they'd make up their mind which one it is. Surely, it's not all three. Sounds like a catch-all statement.

best regards, lm

I totally agree. Perhaps we should initiate an onslaught of phone calls with this inquiry.

mamaw Community Regular

Thanks Everyone. I had a phone call from Mickey D's this morning.

I guess we all need to fight back......

mamaw

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):
    Food for Life



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      130,534
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Barbx4
    Newest Member
    Barbx4
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):
    Tierra Farm


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.3k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):
    GliadinX



  • Who's Online (See full list)


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):
    Little Northern Bakehouse



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Fabrizio
      Thanks for your article. 
    • NCalvo822
      Thank you.  Very helpful.
    • knitty kitty
      Migraines can be caused by Thiamine deficiency.  Thiamine is a B vitamin that becomes depleted quickly because it can't be stored long.  All the  B vitamins work together to make energy, ATP, which is used to fuel all the cell activity.  Without Thiamine, the energy production cycle doesn't even get started.   There's studies done on mice showing thiamine deficiency affects the offspring of thiamine deficient mothers and fathers.  The offspring have fewer thiamine receptors and are prone to becoming thiamine insufficient quickly.  They have a higher metabolic need for thiamine.  Supplementing with extra thiamine helped them  tremendously. Migraines have run in my family for several generations, too.  Once I started taking TTFD, a form of thiamine that can enter cells without using thiamine transporters, my migraines have vanished.  TTFD is tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide. Benfotiamine is another form that can improve migraine frequency, too. Thiamine is safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  There is no upper limit because thiamine has never caused a death even in high doses.  It is excreted via kidneys if not needed or not absorbed.
    • knitty kitty
      Thank you, @Oldturdle, I greatly appreciate that.  I've always been a curious kitty.  I wanted to figure out why I didn't feel well because I knew it wasn't all in my head like they told me.  It pleases me to be able to help others in the same boat. Yes, alcohol prevents the absorption of thiamine and stops thiamine from working properly.  This can lead to Wernicke's Encephalopathy and Korsakoff syndrome, where thiamine deficiency severely affects brain function.  Doctors are trained to look for the triad of symptoms: opthalmoplegia (nystagmus), ataxia, and altered mental state.  However, not all people present with all three symptoms.  Many (80%) don't get diagnosed until their autopsy.   Alcohol has to be processed through the liver.  If there's insufficient thiamine, Alcoholic Fatty Liver develops.  In thiamine insufficiency, calories are turned into fat and stored in the liver instead of being turned into fuel ATP for the body.  Alcohol also prevents absorption of calories from food and other nutrients.   Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver can develop in nonalcoholics, storing excess calories as fat in the liver.  However, excess calories can also be turned into fat and stored in the abdomen, hence the increase in obesity.   In Celiac disease, we don't absorb sufficient nutrients like thiamine from our food.  If we eat a diet high in carbohydrates, we can run out of vitamins like thiamine and the other Bs needed to turn those calories into fuel ATP.  For every extra thousand calories of carbohydrates consumed, our bodies require 500 to 1000 mg of additional thiamine to process them into fuel, ATP,  the "bitcoin" of energy in our bodies.   Wernicke's encephalopathy can occur in non-alcoholic people, but doctors can miss the symptoms because the patient doesn't drink, and doesn't have all three symptoms of the classic Triad of symptoms seen in Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.  My doctors failed to diagnose me with thiamine deficiency, Wernicke's Encephalopathy,  because I didn't drink alcohol, although I had ataxia and an altered mental state.   Doctors don't think outside the box!   I went home and took thiamine.  I had improvement in my symptoms within an hour.  High doses of thiamine are required to correct Thiamine deficiency.  Thank God I had studied nutrition, microbiology, and the research of Dr. Derrick Lonsdale and Dr. Chandler Marrs.  ("Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition" is Drs. Lonsdale and Marrs' book.).  And I've kept learning and sharing that knowledge to help others.   It's wonderful you've been supplementing with vitamins so long!  Don't worry about the bright yellow urine.  That's excess Riboflavin B 2.  Interesting note, Riboflavin glows under black light!  Those lights used to detect where pets have soiled outside of the box, that's the Riboflavin in urine glowing.  Riboflavin can be put in sugar syrup when making rock candy and it will glow under black light.  Fun for Halloween. I hope you feel better, @Oldturdle.  If I can be of further help anytime, you can send a personal message here.  Thanks for reading my posts.  P.S. Thiamine deficiency and Wernicke's Encephalopathy are completely reversible if treated promptly with high dose Thiamine.
    • DebJ14
      Migraines ran in my family, on my father's side.  All of my female first cousins on that side, and our grandmother suffered from Migraines.  Grandmother died in 1984 so we do not know if she ever would have been diagnosed with celiac disease. However, all 4 of us cousins were diagnosed with celiac disease between 2003 and 2007.  The dermatitis herpetiformis rash is a blistery, super itchy rash.  When they do the biopsy they take it from non-involved skin that is next to the rash.  If done wrong, the results may not be accurate.  Have you ever had one done? In that case, I agree that maybe she has you still on gluten for a biopsy.  But, if she has not ordered it nor referred you to a gastroenterologist, then I would question her advice.  
×
×
  • Create New...