Newbie To Celiacs

[ruby-slippers]

Not quite sure what I'm doing yet...I have only been doing this for a week..haven't been diagnosed with Celiac's yet..just the blood work came back positive and my doctor said I have many of the symptoms...He has asked me to go gluten free until my next appt to see if I start feeling better but I have to say that I have found it very difficult especially with a less than supportive family. I haven't found to many breads as of yet but I do enjoy seafood...its lunch that I seem to have a problem with...can anyone out there give me some support?

[GlutenGalAZ]

Somethings I make for lunches are:

Salad (Wishbone and Kraft dressing will list gluten ingredients if present)

Delimex Beef Taquitos (in the corn tortillas) does contain Milk and Soybeans if you have problems with those.

Progresso Soups are good with labeling -- lunch or dinner

Dinty Moore Beef Stew is gluten free (I add a little cheese and pepper for flavor) -- lunch or dinner

Pasta Salad with something else (Kraft dressing with some shredded cheese and Hormel Salami & whatever else you want).

Kinnikinnick makes gluten free pizza crusts

If you like Rice -- Uncle Ben's Fast & Natural Whole Grain Instant Brown Rice is gluten free (says on the back of the box)

There are a lot of lunch meats (pre-package if you don't trust your deli) that are gluten free you can make wraps with lettuce and or Mission White Corn Tortillas are gluten free -- says on the back as well.

Left overs from dinner

Here is a link of companies that label gluten if present in the food:

Open Original Shared Link

If you have a WalMart that carries food their brand Great Value will say gluten free on the back of the box/package if it is. Hormel has a list on their website of gluten free items. You can always look up the foods/items that you really like and see if their websites have a gluten free list or have a comment about gluten free items. You can also call the 800 line on the box or e-mail the company. Or do a search or post on here.

Oh....be careful of CC at home if you live with family or friends that eat gluten. Watch out for toasters, pots/pans, counters etc that may have crumbs on them or in them. Mayo containers, butter, peanut butter, jam etc be careful if others are using them b/c their knife touches their bread and gets crumbs on it then chances are they get more out of the container. You'll also want to be careful of any lotions, toothpastes, soaps, makeup etc that they may contain gluten.

It gets easier as time goes by and you learn what to watch out for and be cautious of.

Best of Luck.....

[ruby-slippers]

Somethings I make for lunches are:

Salad (Wishbone and Kraft dressing will list gluten ingredients if present)

Delimex Beef Taquitos (in the corn tortillas) does contain Milk and Soybeans if you have problems with those.

Progresso Soups are good with labeling -- lunch or dinner

Dinty Moore Beef Stew is gluten free (I add a little cheese and pepper for flavor) -- lunch or dinner

Pasta Salad with something else (Kraft dressing with some shredded cheese and Hormel Salami & whatever else you want).

Kinnikinnick makes gluten free pizza crusts

If you like Rice -- Uncle Ben's Fast & Natural Whole Grain Instant Brown Rice is gluten free (says on the back of the box)

There are a lot of lunch meats (pre-package if you don't trust your deli) that are gluten free you can make wraps with lettuce and or Mission White Corn Tortillas are gluten free -- says on the back as well.

Left overs from dinner

Here is a link of companies that label gluten if present in the food:

Open Original Shared Link

If you have a WalMart that carries food their brand Great Value will say gluten free on the back of the box/package if it is. Hormel has a list on their website of gluten free items. You can always look up the foods/items that you really like and see if their websites have a gluten free list or have a comment about gluten free items. You can also call the 800 line on the box or e-mail the company. Or do a search or post on here.

Oh....be careful of CC at home if you live with family or friends that eat gluten. Watch out for toasters, pots/pans, counters etc that may have crumbs on them or in them. Mayo containers, butter, peanut butter, jam etc be careful if others are using them b/c their knife touches their bread and gets crumbs on it then chances are they get more out of the container. You'll also want to be careful of any lotions, toothpastes, soaps, makeup etc that they may contain gluten.

It gets easier as time goes by and you learn what to watch out for and be cautious of.

Best of Luck.....

thanks for the help...but it seems like its going to get harder before it gets easier

[YoloGx]

Not quite sure what I'm doing yet...I have only been doing this for a week..haven't been diagnosed with Celiac's yet..just the blood work came back positive and my doctor said I have many of the symptoms...He has asked me to go gluten free until my next appt to see if I start feeling better but I have to say that I have found it very difficult especially with a less than supportive family. I haven't found to many breads as of yet but I do enjoy seafood...its lunch that I seem to have a problem with...can anyone out there give me some support?

What Gluten Gal suggested is good--though be sure with the pasta salad to use gluten free pasta. They sell it at most natural foods stores and Trader Joe's.

However what is even better especially while you are healing is to use root vegetables and squashes. Its very easy and cheap. You can cook extra ahead of time maybe at dinner the night before so you can have it for lunch. You can also prepare brown rice, washed quinoa (there is a natural protective surficant that needs to be washed off first), quinoa flour, gluten free buckwheat flour or grain, teff flour, amaranth flour or grain, sorghum flour, gluten free cornmeal. You can usually find these items in your natural foods store--and some at Trader Joe's. Just make sure not to buy from the bulk bins since they may have gotten contaminated by gluten. It helps too if they say gluten free on the package.

The grains can be cooked up like oatmeal--though each has its own consistency and cooking time. Usually they cook up in roughly 15 minutes. You can cook extra to have later or use in baking. I often put extra cooked quinoa for instance into my pancakes.

The various flours can easily be combined with a small amount of sweet potato or plain potato (1 tsp flour or 1/8 cup mashed) or an egg and made into pancakes and with some adjustment of your old recipes and an addition of tapioca (usually 1/2 cup) and a little (usually 1 tsp) xanthum gum you can make them into muffins.

Soups are also a great idea. You can make your own easily by investing in a slow cooker. You can soak and then slow cook beans or lentils or split pea with or without some meat and then later add vegetables towards the end. Or just slow cook say some chicken and add tomatoes, root vegetables (I like sweet potatoes) or brown rice and veggies towards the end or separately on the stove (and just save the chicken stock to add to new/more soup later on). When you make a lot of soup just put it in small containers and freeze so its ready whenever you need it. Then heat it up say and put it in a thermos for soup to take to work for lunch.

Hope this helps!

Bea

[CeliacMom2008]

Hang in there! It really well get easier and you'll be surprised how quickly you adjust. My son was diagnosed in Dec and our house has been almost entirely gluten free (except for cereal that I bought pre-diagnosis - who could believe I had stocked up so much cereal!!) ever since. We still have our down moments, but I'm amazed at how far we've come in a few months. Actually, after about a month I was really starting to relax a bit.

As for lunch, we use Gluten Free Pantry sandwich bread for sandwiches. It bakes up nice, tastes pretty darn good, and freezes great. We make a loaf, cool, slice, freeze and then pull out two slices at a time for sandwiches (mostly PB&J around here!).

Good luck and stick around here! The seasoned veterans are a wealth of knowledge!

[Ivanna44]

Not quite sure what I'm doing yet...I have only been doing this for a week..haven't been diagnosed with Celiac's yet..just the blood work came back positive and my doctor said I have many of the symptoms...He has asked me to go gluten free until my next appt to see if I start feeling better but I have to say that I have found it very difficult especially with a less than supportive family. I haven't found to many breads as of yet but I do enjoy seafood...its lunch that I seem to have a problem with...can anyone out there give me some support?

Hi ruby_slippers,

First off, welcome to the forums. You are in the right place for information, support, encouragement as well as venting

I hear you on a lot of issues, I was where you are about a month ago. I didn't find this forum till I was into my 2nd week. I haven't been diagnosed with Celiac, but like you there were some issues in my blood tests and an ulcer that was not healing, along with a few other problems. That my doctor had the insight enough (prehaps just experience with it) to say to me, even before the blood tests were done, that she wondered if I had gluten sensitivity or intolerance, she ordered those extra tests. At the time I was more concerned about diabetics as my dad has it, and its strong with his side of the family.

My doc told me to try out the gluten free diet to see if it helped. It did. I just saw her this past Monday for a followup and based on my reactions to gluten, one experimental the other time, accidently. I was way worse the 2nd time around. Really sick for 3 days. I never wanna touch the stuff again. My doc said, see, stay on the gluten free diet, and lets recheck the blood in a couple of months time, after some healing is done. She is positive some #s will come down.

I very much hear you on the "no" support. No one chooses to be gluten sensitive/intolerant or have Celiac disease. To never have a Tim Horton's donut again, to never be able to grab a pizza while out at the shopping mall. That's Tough!!!!!!!! But, when you've reacted to gluten and end up really sick due to it. Your health comes first. You will adjust, you will learn to make your own donuts and pizza, thats every bit as good and tempting, as the wheat ones.

I don'thave any support that. I know if it was one of my kids, the whole house would be 'gluten free" but as I'm just the mom, cooker and cleaner so on.. Forgive I'm really angry today. It just erks me, that my husband who's said in the past, that I do research and I read better than him so on. Is treating me, like this is some "fad" diet I'm on. GRRRRRRR No one chooses this.

As for the lunches, you did not mention where you located in Canada, or the USA. There are different suppliers for each area. There's a lot of suppliers ( gluten-free companies) in the States, and a few in Canada. Making bread with rice flour combos is hard, its a chemistry science experiment, but you do figure it out, >>or so I'm told

Most of the breads that are gluten-free are found in the grocery store /ice cream cake freezers. Remember you can have things like rice pasta with plain toritalla chips (plain potatoe chips ) so on. Just be sure to read the labels, and RE Read them. A great place for you to start is to call up local support chapter for Celiac disease, just tell them that you have positive in the blood tests for Celiac, and are being told to go on the gluten-free diet. Ask that chapter support group, where you could find places that sell things like the premade gluten-free breads, rice pasta so on. They'll get you started. They are there for support.

It does get easier, the first week I think I cheated most days, to the gluten temptation.

The 2nd-3rd week I did the experiment and reacted 2 hours later to some italian bread.

The 4th week I accidently gluttened myself with some crackers, I presumed were gluten-free >they were not. I was sick 3 days and it took 10 mins after eating them, for me to react to the gluten invader.

I think once you've had your first reaction to it, it gives you that ammo to stick to it. Merely cause you don't want to be that sick again.

Continue to post here or in the other Topic forums for your many questions. There's a ton of great people here, who choose NOT to be gluten sensitive/ or Celiac and bravely take on this diet, for their health. That will give you a number of resources to help you through this time. But, I know how hard it is when you don't have immediate family support. I was looking today at a nice pair of high spiked, pointed toed pair of heels, and thought Yeah, that'd get him but good. <evil grin>

hugs