What Was In My Dinner?!

[scole2]

Hi,

I am a newly diagnosed celiac and have been doing my best for the past few months to be as gluten free as possible.

Symptoms are....better but not gone. My dietician recommended going dairy free for a few weeks to see if that helps. Keeping the dairy free/gluten free thing in mind I thought dinner tonight was safe until I was running for the bathroom about 10 min after dinner.

Dinner consisted of:

Grilled chicken rubbed in cumin and olive oil

pre-made polenta

grilled nectarines/blackberries and cilantro w/ lime juice

Very basic ingredients and yet my stomach is quite unhappy. Anyone have any ideas?

It is so frustrating to be diagnosed and yet still not understand what is making me sick. Any ideas will be much appreciated!

Sara

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Is this stuff you usually eat? I don't eat corn products a lot, so, sometimes I get tummy aches from them.

[Gfresh404]

My guess would either be (as previously mentioned) the corn and or the berries. I myself have to be very careful about when and what I eat fruit with. I make sure to always eat it first and to wait at least 20 minutes before eating anything else.

I remember a couple of times before I used to eat a banana and a brown rice bar at the same time. This would send me running to the bathroom. I believe it has something to do with the fact that the fruit digests so much faster than everything else.

Or it could just be the combination of the corn and the fats (the olive oil). I try to avoid all insoluble fibers at all cost. For some reason they seem to completely throw my digestion of fats out of whack. This includes all whole grains (white rice is ok), cruciferous vegetables (brussel sprouts, lettuce, etc.), and skins of fruits and vegetables. It has been difficult to eat healthy while avoiding insoluble fiber since a lot of the healthiest foods contain this type of fiber. I try to stick to a lot of potatoes without the skin, carrots, peas, bananas, apples w/o skin, oranges, strawberries, grapes/raisins, and lean meats. I also eat a fair amount of white rice but have been trying to cut back.

Have you noticed any other disturbances when you knew you were being gluten free?

How long have you been gluten-free?

And do you tolerate other grains well?

[ravenwoodglass]

It could have been the premade polenta may not have been gluten free, not all are.

Also were you using a grill that had been used or was also being used for nongluten free food? That could be another source of CC.

Or because some of us have delayed reactions it could have been something from the day before.

[OptimisticMom42]

I would think CC on the grill or in the polenta. Also check your spices. Some of the off brand ones have fillers. I found a "chili pepper" spice that my son purchased that had three ingredients. Although they all seemed OK I haven't been the same since using it to make taco seasoning. I'm in the C club rather than D so I'm not up on the fruit and fiber part but it sounds like you have recieved some great advise in that area.

Take Care,

OptimisticMom42

[scole2]

Thanks for the help!

I double checked the polenta, nothing suspicious in the ingredients. I eat other corn products and grains fairly often with no effects.

Double checked the cumin, companies website says all the spices are single ingredient and gluten free.

The grill has not been used for anything w/ gluten recently, but could probably use a good cleaning.

The only thing in the dinner I have not eaten since diagnosis is the nectarine. Judging by Gfresh404's comments maybe it was the skin.

I was diagnosed in March of 2009 so this is all still pretty new. In the past few weeks I am learning that it is more than just about being gluten free since I seem to be reacting to things that I know are gluten free. I have tried to reduce CC as much as humanly possible. Hopefully these intolerances that are popping up are a result of healing villi and will get better with time. Or I could be just deluding myelf!

Thanks for the suggestions. I never feel more frustrated than when I get sick after a meal and I did everything I could to not use gluten containing ingredients and avoid CC!

Sara