Think I've Been Glutened, Please Check My Menu :)

[tygwyn]

I've not been diagnosed as Celiac but my doctor is convinced I'm gluten intolerant... so I'm giving it a go. I've been Gluten free for 10 days. The first week I felt pretty bad... diaorhea (sp?) worse and anxiety also worst. Things calmed down yesterday and I started to feel much better but for the last hour I've been getting little cramps, I'm very windy and very bloated. I was hoping that someone here would be able to check what I've eaten today and tell me if theres anything you can see that I've made an error with. Like I say... I'm very new to this!

Breakfast:

Gluten Free Cereal with Semi Skimmed Pasteurized milk

Orange Juice

Lunch:

Gluten Free Crackerbread with Cheddar Cheese slices

Corn on the Cob on a stick with butter (bought at a market place... could this be it?)

Dinner:

Kangaroo Steak cooked on the barbie with Canola Oil

Salad (lettuce, tomato, onion) with French Dressing

Feta Cheese

Mashed Potato with margarine

Egg

Gluten Free Mayo

Orange Juice

My problem is that when I check the ingredients I only know to look for 'wheat' 'oats' or 'rye' - what else should I be looking for?

Any help or advice is really appreciated... big learning curve this isnt it?!

Rach xxxx

[KathiSharpe]

Corn on the Cob on a stick with butter (bought at a market place... could this be it?)

That looks like the #1 possibility... tho my initial reaction would be "how". If I was gonna cook corn on a stick it would be in plain water with some butter or margerine. Cross-contamination, or maybe they put some boil (seasoning) in the water????? Lots of spices and seasonings have gluten and it's not exactly declared well on the labels.

The other possibility I can think of is that you cooked a gluten-containing food on your grill (er... barbie) previously, and tiny amounts remained.

There's a great list here on celiac.com of foods and ingredients to avoid - (back up to the main celiac.com page and it's linked from there) BUT you'll probably want something Oz specific (assuming you're Aussie because of the 'roo and barbie reference, but it's getting to where you can get kangaroo meat here in the US too <yum!>)

[darlindeb25]

10 days is too early to be worrying. It takes time for your body to rid itself of gluten, 10 days is not enough time.

In the beginning, you should stay away from gluten free processed foods. You need to give your body time to heal. Eat whole foods, potatoes, fresh meat, veggies, fruits, eggs, etc. The processed stuff can be too heavy, and just add to the problem.

[JillianLindsay]

Good morning Rachel, and welcome I'm a bit of a newbie too (one month gluten-free) but I noticed a couple possibilities.

How clean is your BBQ grill? -- if you've cooked meats with gluten or toasted buns on the grill there could still be crumbs on it that can cross-contaminate your food -- give it a really good clean and if you have others in your household who use the grill you can use tin foil to avoid cc.

French dressing -- look on the company website to see if it lists whether or not the product is gluten-free (or do a google search), or call the manufacturer

**Things such as artificial and natural flavours, spices (with no specifics) can be hidden sources of gluten. Check out the list on this website of safe and unsafe ingredients to look for. Unfortunately there are a lot more than just wheat, oats, rye and barley to look for.

Check your margarne. I believe most are gluten-free, but I've always checked mine to be safe. *You should probably have your own dedicated margarine if there are others in your household who eat gluten. If they use the margarine for their toast they will easily get toast crumbs in the margarine which can make you sick.

It is quite a learning curve, but with reading and practice you'll catch on very quickly

Good luck and good health!

Jillian

I've not been diagnosed as Celiac but my doctor is convinced I'm gluten intolerant... so I'm giving it a go. I've been Gluten free for 10 days. The first week I felt pretty bad... diaorhea (sp?) worse and anxiety also worst. Things calmed down yesterday and I started to feel much better but for the last hour I've been getting little cramps, I'm very windy and very bloated. I was hoping that someone here would be able to check what I've eaten today and tell me if theres anything you can see that I've made an error with. Like I say... I'm very new to this!

Breakfast:

Gluten Free Cereal with Semi Skimmed Pasteurized milk

Orange Juice

Lunch:

Gluten Free Crackerbread with Cheddar Cheese slices

Corn on the Cob on a stick with butter (bought at a market place... could this be it?)

Dinner:

Kangaroo Steak cooked on the barbie with Canola Oil

Salad (lettuce, tomato, onion) with French Dressing

Feta Cheese

Mashed Potato with margarine

Egg

Gluten Free Mayo

Orange Juice

My problem is that when I check the ingredients I only know to look for 'wheat' 'oats' or 'rye' - what else should I be looking for?

Any help or advice is really appreciated... big learning curve this isnt it?!

Rach xxxx

[Mango04]

tygwyn - Are you in Australia? If so, your country clearly labels allergens and you don't need to worry so much about hidden gluten as mentioned above and in many other places around this forum. So...you're already looking for the right things...wheat, rye and barley.

[tygwyn]

Wow that was some seriously fast replies ... thanks ever so much!

Great detective work too, yes I am in Australia... Sydney to be precise and yes Roo is YUM! Nice and healthy too so all the more reason to eat it!

The grills for the barbie were actually brand new, bought today so no worries there.

Mango... thanks for the heads up regarding the labelling. I'm still not sure how this works though? Does that mean that EVERYTHING that is gluten free is labelled as such, or is it just that the gluten ingredients need to be listed? I'm still not sure what I should be looking for.

Thanks again everyone - very very much appreciated!

[darlindeb25]

I don't know about Australia, yet here in the US, rye and barley are not required to be listed on the label. Only wheat, other glutens were excluded. Just keep that in mind.

[Mango04]

I don't know about Australia, yet here in the US, rye and barley are not required to be listed on the label. Only wheat, other glutens were excluded. Just keep that in mind.

That's just in the US. In Australia (at least when I was there a few years ago - Sydney as well ) gluten had to be clearly labeled, and I was told I could simply read labels to find out if gluten was present in the product. Of course you should double check my info, but my advice would be to ask the gluten-free Aussies, as things work quite differently there in terms of products, labelling, what's safe, what's not etc. (it's possible for a US brand name product to contain gluten while the equivalent Australian product with the exact same name might be safe, and vice versa).

I just feel bad when a lot of Australians worry unnecessarily after taking US-specific advice from this site - there's lots of good info here but make sure you can pick out the advice that only applies to specific countries.

[tygwyn]

Thanks Mango - great advise there - I'll head over to the overseas section and try and find some helpful aussies there

Much appreciated

That's just in the US. In Australia (at least when I was there a few years ago - Sydney as well ) gluten had to be clearly labeled, and I was told I could simply read labels to find out if gluten was present in the product. Of course you should double check my info, but my advice would be to ask the gluten-free Aussies, as things work quite differently there in terms of products, labelling, what's safe, what's not etc. (it's possible for a US brand name product to contain gluten while the equivalent Australian product with the exact same name might be safe, and vice versa).

I just feel bad when a lot of Australians worry unnecessarily after taking US-specific advice from this site - there's lots of good info here but make sure you can pick out the advice that only applies to specific countries.

[captaincrab55]

I've not been diagnosed as Celiac but my doctor is convinced I'm gluten intolerant... so I'm giving it a go. I've been Gluten free for 10 days. The first week I felt pretty bad... diaorhea (sp?) worse and anxiety also worst. Things calmed down yesterday and I started to feel much better but for the last hour I've been getting little cramps, I'm very windy and very bloated. I was hoping that someone here would be able to check what I've eaten today and tell me if theres anything you can see that I've made an error with. Like I say... I'm very new to this!

Breakfast:

Gluten Free Cereal with Semi Skimmed Pasteurized milk

Orange Juice

Any help or advice is really appreciated... big learning curve this isnt it?!

Rach xxxx

Semi Skimmed Pasteurized milk could be a problem..

[Jackie927]

Could the whole dairy thing be causing the problems....my doctor told me to stay away from dairy being gluten intolerant?

Semi Skimmed Pasteurized milk could be a problem..

[elle's mom]

Could the whole dairy thing be causing the problems....my doctor told me to stay away from dairy being gluten intolerant?

I was also thinking maybe the dairy could be an issue. I noticed you have dairy at every sitting.....when my daughter was diagnosed, they said no dairy for at least the first 30 days as during the healing process you are technically lactose intolerant. You may be able to tolerate it better later on, thankfully my daughter can.

[georgie]

What about the orange juice ? Did you squeeze that fresh yourself ? Some commercial juices are made from concentrates imported from overseas... and may not be labelled correctly. I am wary of processed foods when they use words like 'concentrate' or 'made from imported ingredients' - as I think a few seem to slip through our labelling laws.

Maybe you have a dairy or fructose intolerance as well as Coeliac ?

Maybe the corn was too hard to digest ? Was the corn buttered at the stall ? What else had they used that butter for , and the knife ? Was it real butter or a blend ?

Did everyone in the house eat gluten-free ? Could it be cc from bench tops/ plates etc?

[ang1e0251]

Dairy, sure but you've been having it. Try to give it up for a few days and see.

The orange juice doesn't seem like it could have gluten in it but I can tell you, in the beginning I couldn't handle any fruit. Just too much on my sensitive system. Now I can eat any kind again.

I would wonder about the corn.. In the 60's when we sold corn on the cob at fairs, we also served it on the stick and it was deep fried!! Sounds icky now but it was delicious and we sold a lot. In the fryer next to it, we cooked corn dogs. Believe me, there was major CC!

Just be aware when eating out that the way a food is cooked is just as important as what's in it.

[Billygean]

Butter from the marketplace. They will undoubedtly have spread butter on bread and dipped the knife back in. Our butter is full of my boyfriend's crumbs so I have my own!

[suemorton]

Hi! Between teh french dressing, margarine and the grill - all or some of them could have affected you.....the thing I'm finding most difficult is the cross contamination on the grills - cause you can never (I find anyway) get them completely spick and span.........I have a list of the safe/unsafe foods you can and can't eat. If anyone's interested, please feel free to email me at jamiensue@hotmail.com and I can send the attachments to you!

Take care,

Sue