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Oh Canada!


theceliachusband

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theceliachusband Rookie

Being new to this forum, what jumped out at me first is, how active the folks from down under are in this forum. Very impressive. Not that I would like to be called a copy cat or ME TOO man, but I think in the Gluten free world Canada has so much to offer. Kinnikinnick, Glutino, Rizopia to just name a few of the best.

My wife and daughter are both Celiacs and we just moved back to Canada. One of the best places on earth.

Let's see how many Canadians are in here and can get active. Let's post things we don't have up here (Brown Cow Yoghurt the best of all, Cocoa Pebbles, the best rice based cereal), or things we found when travelling the world (Schaer products from Germany), or just plain simple exchange info.

Talk soon, :P

Peter


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Ursa Major Collaborator

Hi Peter! Well, we have El Peto products (located in Cambridge, Ontario) and Little Streams Bakery (Perth, Ontario). El Peto has just brought out a new bread, which is called 'Gourmet Bread' and it is delicious! It tastes just like light rye bread. Even my daughter, who hated all other gluten-free breads, will eat it.

psawyer Proficient

Hi, Peter, I am also Peter.

There are a number of Canadians who are regulars here, including two moderators (I am one of them).

:( In Canada, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce is not gluten-free. It is in the US.

:( Rice Chex are now gluten-free, but they have not been sold in Canada for many years.

Welcome aboard.

theceliachusband Rookie

Hi Peter,

glad to hear that are some Canadians in here. I am actually Austrian. Married to a Canadian.

So let's see what comes of it in here.

I believe that gluten free foods will become not only better, but also more widely available, as more companies become aware of the loyalty that Celiacs display.

solittletime Newbie

Checking in from Mississauga... just learning this stuff but I'm so glad for Highland Farms and their huge selection of gluten free products, especially fresh bread - Sterk's Bakery (gluten-free Italian Hi-Fibre bread) from Vineland, Ontario. :rolleyes:

Chicklet Rookie

Hello, I'm just outside of Edmonton and have been to Kinnickinick a number of times. Great stuff.

Cattle Boyz BBQ sauce is gluten free and made in Calgary. Yum. :DOpen Original Shared Link

Chicklet Rookie

Cool, I liked your blog. :)


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elye Community Regular

Hi, Peter!

I'm in Ottawa. I used to order my Kinnikinnick products form their website and have it delivered, but I've since found a health food store in town that carries almost everything in their frozen section....a great find!

The one chain that hasn't made it up here, and boy, do we need it, is Whole Foods. We went shopping in one while we were on holiday in NYC......what a terrific source for our food!

If you are ever in the nation's capital, you must have dinner at Bella Vista Restaurant. The most delicious gluten-free pizza and pasta dishes....and gluten-free beer! :)

theceliachusband Rookie

We used to live in the USA for a while and yes, Whole Foods is a tremendous place to shop. We miss it very much. Not close to you. but int eh same province they do have one.

Toronto is the only place where you will find a Whole Foods market.

H.Peter

Hi, Peter!

I'm in Ottawa. I used to order my Kinnikinnick products form their website and have it delivered, but I've since found a health food store in town that carries almost everything in their frozen section....a great find!

The one chain that hasn't made it up here, and boy, do we need it, is Whole Foods. We went shopping in one while we were on holiday in NYC......what a terrific source for our food!

If you are ever in the nation's capital, you must have dinner at Bella Vista Restaurant. The most delicious gluten-free pizza and pasta dishes....and gluten-free beer! :)

theceliachusband Rookie

I am glad you liked my scribbles. Any ideas how to make it better, just let me know

H.Peter

Cool, I liked your blog. :)
theceliachusband Rookie

Guten Tag,

I am from Austria originally, moved here in 1995. Love it in Canada. Stay in touch.

H.Peter

Hi Peter! Well, we have El Peto products (located in Cambridge, Ontario) and Little Streams Bakery (Perth, Ontario). El Peto has just brought out a new bread, which is called 'Gourmet Bread' and it is delicious! It tastes just like light rye bread. Even my daughter, who hated all other gluten-free breads, will eat it.
Gerri Explorer

Hi

Gerri, here from Kichener, Ontario not far from Cambridge, Ontario where the El Peto products are made.

Hugs

  • 3 weeks later...
hlmac Newbie

Hi everyone

My name is Heather I am in Newfoundland Canada

I was diagnosed 4 years ago and at first it was really hard to find food but I am happy to say it is much easier now and in fact there is quiet a variety here now.

For anyone else from Newfoundland or traveling to....there is a great Bakery in St. John's called Manna Bakery you are required to call them a day ahead to place your order but they make gluten free bread, kaiser rolls, carrot muffins, partridge berry muffins, blueberry muffins and then best chocolate chip cookies I have ever found.

A number of restaurants have gluten free menus as well but the best I have found is The Old Mill Ruins in Campbellton NL the father of the owner is Celiac so they almost everything they have is gluten free and they are really careful with the products that are not. They even have a separate gluten free fryer for cooking french fries and things.

I'm so glad I finally found this forum it is great to have a place to ask questions and just read how other people are dealing with the disease.

Cheers

Heather

Rondar2001 Apprentice

Hi and welcome Calgary!! This is my home town too and there are alot of great options here.

There is a fully gluten free restaraunt on 17 Avenue SE called A Tasty Menu. I also do quite a bit of shopping at Superstore, Community Natural Foods, Lakeview Bakery, and the Purified Water Stores as they all carry quite a bit of pre packaged gluten free foods. A couple of these places even hold gluten free pancake breakfasts during stampede week.

Enjoy the site and welcome.

NorthernElf Enthusiast

I'm in British Columbia.

I too love some of the Kinnikinnick stuff. I buy their sunflower & flaxseed bread mix and make it, slice it, & freeze it. I also eat their english muffins and cinnamon buns. Ugh, didn't like the cinnamon buns the first time I tried them but they grew on me. ;)

I also like Quejos out of Vancouver - they make a mannioc/cassava based "bun". I first tried them out of the freezer at Whole Foods in Vancouver. They have varieties from cheese to jalepeno. Unfortunately shipping to where I live is a tad pricey.

I LOVE Riceworks chips. Costco has a large bag of sweet chili flavor but Safeway carries several other flavors. I've taken to the plain ones for salsa after some hit & miss experiences with Tostitos.

I am also glad Walmart has that Great Value brand - some things I can find there that are gluten-free. Also - Classico & Healthy Choice pasta sauces, Cattle Boyz bbq sauce, Grimms sausages (many varieties) from Costco...sliced ham too. I buy a large bag of brown rice from Costco that say glute free as well.

I am SO happy that new labelling laws are coming in...

theceliachusband Rookie

Holidays are coming to an end....there are more posts again in some topics. :P

Not much new, I am off to Europe for a while, back to Calgary mid September.

  • 1 month later...
Mommy2Ellie Rookie

Hello! Also from Canada here! A tiny town about 5 hours east of Vancouver, BC. I have a 16 month old daughter that has been "tentatively" diagnosed with celiacs. We're trying out the diet to see! We don't have a lot of the "big-name products", but we have a lady in town that makes all gluten-free frozen foods so we order a ton from her! Anything you can think of, muffins, lasagna, breads......all yummy. Oh, and we have some El Peso stuff at the health food store. Glad to see there are a bunch of Canadians here!

  • 2 weeks later...
Wonka Apprentice

Hello from a Vancouver Celiac. One of my 13 year old triplets is also in the process of getting her diagnosis (positive ttg and rising and has the DQ2 gene, biopsy scheduled for Dec 4). We have 2 rice bakeries here, Panne Rizo and Choices Rice Bakery. I tend to make all of my own baked goods though, as I also can't have soy, all legumes(including cashews - who knew it was a legume), nightshades(tomato, potato, peppers and eggplants), carregeenan(found in commercial icecreams, sour cream, cream cheese and most dairy alternatives) and I'm off dairy because I'm not sure about it at this point.

Lots of gluten-free food to be found here. I don't buy the Capers or Choices gluten free flours because they are bought in bulk and repackaged in a non designated facility (they just aren't safe for a Celiac person to consume). Best to ask your local grocery store to bring in flours from companies that have a designated facility (ie Bob's Red Mill).

If you live in the Lower Mainland or Kelowna, there is a Gluten Free Health Fair being put on by Choices Market. See flyer Open Original Shared Link

theceliachusband Rookie

Those Fairs look pretty interesting. I googled some of the exhibitors, very good stuff some of them have.

Hello from a Vancouver Celiac. One of my 13 year old triplets is also in the process of getting her diagnosis (positive ttg and rising and has the DQ2 gene, biopsy scheduled for Dec 4). We have 2 rice bakeries here, Panne Rizo and Choices Rice Bakery. I tend to make all of my own baked goods though, as I also can't have soy, all legumes(including cashews - who knew it was a legume), nightshades(tomato, potato, peppers and eggplants), carregeenan(found in commercial icecreams, sour cream, cream cheese and most dairy alternatives) and I'm off dairy because I'm not sure about it at this point.

Lots of gluten-free food to be found here. I don't buy the Capers or Choices gluten free flours because they are bought in bulk and repackaged in a non designated facility (they just aren't safe for a Celiac person to consume). Best to ask your local grocery store to bring in flours from companies that have a designated facility (ie Bob's Red Mill).

If you live in the Lower Mainland or Kelowna, there is a Gluten Free Health Fair being put on by Choices Market. See flyer Open Original Shared Link

  • 3 weeks later...
vcSmall Newbie

Hi. I live in Calgary, AB. Born and raised! I'm new to all this celiac stuff. I just received the results of my biopsy yesterday. My symptoms are quite mild - just bloating after meals - no other discomfort.

Has anyone heard anything in the news in the last couple of days about the Canadian food labelling law? I read something in the Calgary Herald today indicating that the bill had been dropped. Not having reason to follow this until recently, I'm not familiar with what this is all about.

I have so many questions! What about oat flour as an ingredient in a cereal (Capt'n Crunch)? What about my face cream that contains some kind of barley extract and oat extract? If I apply it and wipe off my lips is that OK? What is the scoop on natural and artificial flavours? What about caramel colour or flavour? What about rye whiskey?

OK, that's enough questions for now. I'm not handling this well and want to try to figure this out.

Thanks for listening to me.

Wonka Apprentice

Hi vcSmall,

Even though you have mild symptoms, you will still be creating damage if you do not adhere to a very strict gluten free diet (my symptoms were not severe until I went gluten free and now I react strongly to any exposure to gluten). Stay away from mainstream cereals, the oats can have cross contamination issues (they get processed, transported etc with/around other grains including wheat so you are taking a big risk consuming them). There are some other cereals that are specifically labelled gluten free and these are safer choices (most mainstream cereals also use barley malt, a big no no for us).

With natural and artificial flavours, they could be perfectly safe or not. You need to contact the manufacturers to ensure that no gluten or gluten derivitives are used in these flavourings. Same for caramel colour. Most alcohols are distilled and the distillation process renders them free of gluten (there are some that are still wary but many that drink the grain alcohols without incident, I'm a non drinker so I can't give you first hand experience on this). Most vinegars are safe with the exception of malt vinegar.

I haven't heard anything about the bill being dropped. That would be a huge step backwards. I googled and checked out the Canadian Food Inspection site but found nothing about this being dropped (or moved forward).

Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed by your diagnosis? It is overwhelming at first. I started out by making small baby steps. I was overwhelmed with tackling my kitchen so I did it in stages. I cleaned a cupboard a day and designated one counter and one cupboard gluten free (one of my daughters has just been diagnosed recently so we are probably going to go completely gluten free in our house. I have been very sick recently with other food intolerances and, what I think is crosscontamination issues causing me to have leaky gut issues).

I bought a new toaster. It is impossible to clean a toaster well enough to be safe for our use. I replaced any plastic/wood utensils that were scratched. I replaced my sieve and collandar (sp?) and cutting boards.

I buy squeeze bottle condoments, and some that I label as just for my consumption (so that the gluten eaters do not contaminate them).

Cooking gluten free has not been to much of an issue for me as I have always cooked from scratch. I have just switched some of the ingredients that I used to use ( ie. gluten free soy sauce instead of reg soy sauce which contains wheat).

You will need to become a strict label reader, every time you purchase something (manufacturers are often switching ingredients so

they can change).

You will make mistakes. Forgive yourself and move on. This is a process and it does take some time getting used to.

There are some really great gluten free blogs on the internet where people share there experiences and there food/recipe successes. Eating gluten free is very doable, there are good cookbooks out there to help you out. Many good recipes are found on this site as well.

Here are some of my favourite sites:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with too much information. You can email me anytime, through this site, I have lots of tried and true recipes that I have collected and I'd happily be moral support, through this early stage, for you.

Veronica (Wonka)

Treen Bean Apprentice
Hi and welcome Calgary!! This is my home town too and there are alot of great options here.

There is a fully gluten free restaraunt on 17 Avenue SE called A Tasty Menu. I also do quite a bit of shopping at Superstore, Community Natural Foods, Lakeview Bakery, and the Purified Water Stores as they all carry quite a bit of pre packaged gluten free foods. A couple of these places even hold gluten free pancake breakfasts during stampede week.

Enjoy the site and welcome.

I'm not from Canada, but my husband and I drove through Calgary on our honeymoon. He did his research and surprised me by taking me to A Tasty Menu.... I cried! It was amazing! The cheese rolls were to die for. We bought extras to take home with us!

theceliachusband Rookie
Hi. I live in Calgary, AB. Born and raised! I'm new to all this celiac stuff. I just received the results of my biopsy yesterday. My symptoms are quite mild - just bloating after meals - no other discomfort.

Has anyone heard anything in the news in the last couple of days about the Canadian food labelling law? I read something in the Calgary Herald today indicating that the bill had been dropped. Not having reason to follow this until recently, I'm not familiar with what this is all about.

I have so many questions! What about oat flour as an ingredient in a cereal (Capt'n Crunch)? What about my face cream that contains some kind of barley extract and oat extract? If I apply it and wipe off my lips is that OK? What is the scoop on natural and artificial flavours? What about caramel colour or flavour? What about rye whiskey?

OK, that's enough questions for now. I'm not handling this well and want to try to figure this out.

Thanks for listening to me.

There is a couple of Canadian producers of "de glutened" oats.

www.Lame Advertisement.com is one of them.

As for bread and cakes, in Cochrane you can find gluten-free Patisserie.

Hope that helps

The Celiac Husband (GOOGLE)

  • 1 month later...
JJoan Newbie

Hello,

I am also a Canadian, living in London, Ontario. I was just diagnosed about a month ago and am still adjusting to the changes. I had been lactose intolerant for about 7 years but it has miraculously gone away on the gluten-free diet. I am now hoping that other things change, like my osteopenia, migraines, and fatigue.

Finding appetizing alternatives to bread and cereal have been my biggest challenge besides having to give up some of the things I love. We do have a good health food store here but I have a feeling I'm going to have to start baking.

It's great meeting some fellow Canadians on this forum. I just discovered the site this morning and am delighted to find a resource for help and sharing.

Joan

maile Newbie

Another Canadian, from Vancouver. Nice to see there's a few of us here :)

I've been haunting the local Choices recently but found that Famous Foods on Kingsway has slightly better prices for most products plus they have a seriously WIDE range of flours!!!

I have positive dietary reaction but negative bloodwork, my GP wont go to a referral for the biopsy without the positive bloodwork :( problem is I had already reduced my gluten intake for about a week or so b4 the blood test (I told him, he said take it that day anyway) and had been relatively gluten lite, by accident really, for the past couple of years.

I'm going to go the Enterolab route at this point and then take the results to my GP to discuss...any other Canucks have a similar experience with their GP?

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    • Wheatwacked
    • Wheatwacked
      Hello @Midwesteaglesfan and welcome. A result greater than 10 U/mL is considered positive. Some labs use 15 as the cutoff, but 34 is in the positive.  The endoscopy and biopsy is looking for damage to your small intestine.  I don't don't think 5 days is enough to repair the damage. This comment is effectly your answer, regardless of your biopsy results.  The endoscopy has been the Gold Standard diagnostic, and most healthcare providers won't diagnose celiac disease until your intestinal lining Marsh Score reaches stage 3. You don't really want to wait for the damage to get worse, especially since only five days mostly gluten free gave you relief.  Yes, migranes is one of the 200 symptoms that may be caused by Celiac Disease. Malabsorption Syndrome is often comorbid with celiac disease.  The western diet is deficient in many vitamins and minerals.  That's why gluten processed foods are fortified.  Gluten free processed foods are not; Vitamin D deficiency is a virtual given.  40 to 60% of the industrial population is deficient in vitamin D, Damage to the intestinal lining from celiac disease can decrease the number of vitamin D receptors.  So now you get no vitamin D from the sun (skin cancer scare) the major source of vitamin D, plus absorbtion from food is poor because of intestinal damage.   Low iodine intake is getting more of a concern because the major source of iodine used to be bread (dough conditioner with iodine was stopped in the US in the 1970s), dairy (lactose intolerance from eating quick pickles with vinegar instead of fermented pickles which supply lactase excreting lactobacillus to improve Lactose intolerance. Commercial Dairies have wheat, barley and rye added to the cow feed. Some say they are sensitive to milk protein, but it is the gluten added to supplement the cow feed to increase milk production that becomes part of the milk protein causing the problem.  And people use less iodized salt.  In the US intake of iodine dropped 50% from 1970 to 1984. Switch to Grass fed only milk and consider supplementing Liquid Iodine drops to your diet.  The omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of commercial milk is 5:1; Organic milk is 3:1 and grass fed milk is 1:1. The typical western diet is around 14:1, optimum for humans is 1:1.  Wheat flour is 22:1 omega 6:3.  Choose vegetables lower in omega 6, it is inflammatory. Eat fermented foods and switch to Grass fed only milk.  Some say they are sensitive to milk protein, but it is the gluten added to supplement the cow feed to increase milk production that becomes part of the milk protein.   
    • Midwesteaglesfan
      At 41 years old I have been fighting fatigue and joint pain for a couple months.  My family doctor kept saying nothing was wrong but I was insistent that I just didn’t feel right.  Finally after running several blood labs, one came back showing inflammation in my body and I was referred to a rheumatologist.  He was extremely thorough and sat with me and my family for a good hour asking questions and listening. He ordered X-rays of all my joints and more bloodwork.  He suspected some sort of reactive inflammatory arthritis.  My TTG (Tissue Transglutaminase) came back at 34. he told me to try going gluten free and out me on Salfasalzin to help the join inflammation.  Over the next couple days going gluten free and doing a lot of research and talking to people with celiacs,  we found that I should have an upper endoscopy for insurance purposes in the future.  I reached back out to my rheumatologist and expressed this concern and he got back to me stating I was correct and resume regular gluten diet and stop the medication until after that scope.     They were able to schedule me in for 2 days later.  I had been gluten free, or as close to it as I could be for about 5 days.  I know I ate some brats with it but wanted to use them up.  My symptoms had gotten slightly better in those 5 days.  I felt less fatigue and joint pain was slightly better(it had gotten really bad) so for these last 2 days I’ve gone crazy with wheat bread, pasta and such.  I’m hoping those 5 days didn’t screw this endoscopy up.  I can’t imagine after a life of gluten, my intestines healed in 5 days and after eating gluten again for these couple days,  my stomach hurts, joint pain is coming back up so I know the inflammation is there.   Hinesight after this diagnosis, I have had chronic migraines since my late teens.  Has that been a lingering symptom of celiacs all these years?  I’ve never really had the stomach issues, for me it came in heavy these last couple months as the fatigue, just always feeling tired and exhausted.  And the joint pain.     So getting in the car for the 2 hour drive to the hospital for this scope now.     Wish me luck!
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    • Mari
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