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China Travel

Puffin

By Puffin
in Traveling with Celiac Disease

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Puffin Newbie
Puffin
Posted

I thought I might share some of my experiences traveling in China on a gluten free, dairy free, soy free, egg free,corn free, rice free, walnut free, sesame free, etc diet. It is possible!! I am seven days into a 16 day trip that will take me to most parts of China. My tricks are cans of sardines in olive oil for the just in case meals For those days you are stranded and the long plane trip and a good English speaking Chinese agent ($25.00 day).

The whole reason for this short story is to start a conversation with Celiacs who confine themselves to their homes.

I will not let my diet problems limit my travel !!!!

Good luck and God Bless

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imhungry Rookie
imhungry
Posted

This is great to hear. I get exhausted thinking about what I have to go through when I do travel and it does keep me home. There is hope. Thank you for posting, and safe travels!

MaryJones2 Enthusiast
MaryJones2
Posted

I couldn't agree with you more! I am heading back to China later this month and can't wait!

  • 3 weeks later...
mftnchn Explorer
mftnchn
Posted

I'm in NE China, Liaoning Province mostly.

I pretty much carry all my food with me, other than getting a bowl of rice. I am gluten-free and SF, and am now just re-introducing small amounts of dairy. I travel about 50% of the time. I agree about not being home-bound, however, for a sensitive celiac, China is NOT easy.

CC issues are extremely challenging for both restaurants and purchased products.

I found a local small organic food store and inquired about wheat free soy sauce when I was still eating soy. They were very nice and helpful, and ordered some for me that arrived in a couple of days. They told me to let them know about anything else I need.

I didn't seem to tolerate the local xanthan gum I bought; we found out it is grown on soy. I've switched to guar gum that I bring from the USA.

Its funny but rice flour isn't that easy to find here. What they have tends to be sweet rice flour. I found a local company that exports good quality organic rice flour and purchased in a large amount that I keep in my freezer. Potato starch is in every grocery, and is cheap. Tapioca flour I get at Metro. We grind our own sorghum flour, buckwheat flour. I was able to find arrowroot flour but no longer tolerate it.

You can find "100% buckwheat" noodles but beware--they are often not 100%. We called on one company and found out the CC issues were pretty major with their various combo of noodles and decided they were not safe.

By the way, I fly Korean Air internationally, and they do have gluten-free meals on the airplane which I did very well on.

mftnchn Explorer
mftnchn
Posted

Simplygf, maybe SH is different but up here we are blocked from reading any blogs at all, so I can't get into your site.

  • 1 year later...
breavenewworld Apprentice
breavenewworld
Posted

ni hao!

i'm happy to read this post. i was diagnosed in aug and still wanted to keep my commitment to come to vietnam. unfortunately i've been sick a lot here and think it might be due to cross contamination issues with the restaurant (i live at a hotel). i've been making my own food this week, but still decided to go home early and heal my leaky gut in the states. i love asia and want to travel in china when i feel better, but i know it might be a while.

i'm grain free so just buy fruit veggies and meat. in china is it possible to get organic grass fed meat? if so what stores, and how do you really know?? also has anyone had cross contam issues on airplanes that food makes me super nervous and i usually just let myself starve until i can cook something myself.

mftnchn, how often do you eat out? how often would u say you get glutened? do you have a gluten-free kitchen at your place in china?

what about preservatives, pesticides, chemicals, different water -- do you think any of this has effected your health? i know the food industry in the states is messed up too, but i just don't know where to start when i think about going to china!

Puffin, how did the rest of your trip go?

:)

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