Help! Glutened By A Friend!

[Twister2]

Hey all, anyone else ever been accidently glutened by a friend??? We had friends over for dinner, and my husband was making homemeade burgers. A friend of ours was mixing the meat up and put a beer in there to add flavor. I ate the burger and have been sick for two days and itching like crazy! I told my husband the next day that I couldn't figure out what I had eaten, but I felt terrible and he said "oh yeah, our friend put a beer in the hamburger." I was so mad even though neither of them meant to make me sick. My hubby said "well it was just beer, I thought it was fine" Sheesh.....it's like beer is its own food group or something!!!

[KaitiUSA]

Hey all, anyone else ever been accidently glutened by a friend??? We had friends over for dinner, and my husband was making homemeade burgers. A friend of ours was mixing the meat up and put a beer in there to add flavor. I ate the burger and have been sick for two days and itching like crazy! I told my husband the next day that I couldn't figure out what I had eaten, but I felt terrible and he said "oh yeah, our friend put a beer in the hamburger." I was so mad even though neither of them meant to make me sick. My hubby said "well it was just beer, I thought it was fine" Sheesh.....it's like beer is its own food group or something!!!

Just beer..I would have said o next time I'll add just a little bit of rat poison...just a little bit..see if thats ok for you.

I have been glutened by my friends before. I hope you feel better soon

[luvs2eat]

That rat poison example is a really good illustration to explain the gluten-free diet...

It's a pain to have to ask all the time what's in stuff... cause it seems to me 9 times out of 10, there's something in stuff that I can't have when we're at friend's... and it makes THEM feel so bad.

I hope you feel better soon too!!

[jenvan]

Ugh! That's stinks! I'm sorry! So many times our friends don't really get the long term consequences of being glutened. Don't be afraid to be honest and decline even if you are suspicious. Maybe you'll have to give them a long lists of non gluten-free foods... I had a friend recently say she was going to bake me a gluten-free surprise for a cook out we were having. She is sweet, but not detail-oriented, so I called her back later and mentioned contamination etc, and that I wasn't really comfortable with the idea. Well, it turned out she made gluten-free chocolate brownies and remembered later I can't eat chocolate !! See-attention to detail, she knows I can't eat chocolate, and forgot It's always good to remember our health is more important than trying to be nice...not that we can't decline nicely of course ! Hope you feel better soon !

[Carriefaith]

It's always good to remember our health is more important than trying to be nice...not that we can't decline nicely of course!

That's so true! I have people make stuff and say I "can" eat it and sometimes I do not eat it. It's not that I don't like them... it's just that they don't always know how careful they have to be!

[tarnalberry]

I feel safe if a friend who is making me something asks about pretty much every last ingredient - even an "obvious" one. I don't feel safe if the person asks no questions at all. :-)

As for the beer... I'd cut them a bit of slack - most people don't know what goes into beer, and a lot who have a clue might only say hops. Lesson learned for them.

[skbird]

Yeah, I feel bad about making friends feel bad about not having anything I can eat. I have this one friend who keeps telling me that she asks for a list of what to avoid but I haven't had time to sit down with her yet to explain so I haven't given her one for that reason. I instead just bring things I can eat with me.

But you guys are right, it's more important to be safe for yourself than to not hurt someone else's feelings. Just hard trying to figure the best way for some people...

Stephanie

[Guest nini]

my sister is one of those not so detail oriented people... she tries really hard to make gluten free things that I can eat, but inevitably she puts something in without thinking about it (like flour to thicken the sauce) or uses a seasoning without checking it first. I know it hurts her feelings if I won't eat anything she makes but after being accidentally glutened by her on more than one occasion, I just can't take a chance anymore. I tried telling her, just make what she wants to make, don't worry about trying to make it gluten free, that I'll fend for myself. She really wants to make something for everyone that my daughter and I can eat as well, but she just gets distracted too easily. (like the time she iced all of my gluten-free cupcakes that I made with the same icing and crumb filled knife that she had just used to ice all of the non gluten-free cupcakes)

[louie]

I've been glutened by well meaning friends, especially when I was first diagnosed, I've even had friends buying food that they think is gluten free for me and then I'm apologsing for not being able to eat it which is embarressing, but at the end of the day it's my stomach thats going to ache, not thiers.

I ended up just telling people that it's a very complicated diet , i can basically only eat plain meat, rice vegetables and fruits with no sauces/ dressings, and this seems to have worked well with my friends

I just hate it when I go somewhere and what I can and can't eat becomes the main topic of conversation, I'm someone who hates being the centre of attention at the best of times and sometimes people just start asking questions and coming up with all kinds of useless advice and recipes that are not gluten free, suddenly everyones an expert of celiac!

I've become good at changing the topic when this happens.

I have one freind who I will take food from she is Italian and used to cook for a resaturant and her food is FANTASTIC!!

she makes everything from scratch (even stock!) and is fanatical about getting my food gluten free.

In my last year of uni when I was going crazy trying to finish my hons dissertation on time, she arrived at my house with 2 weeks worth of frozen gluten free Italian meals

[marycubs]

Okay - just to add a little humor to our gluten free lives:

when I read the topic "I've been glutened by a friend"... the Rollings Stones song "I'm just waitin on a friend" came to mind.

I bet there are alot of songs we can play with -

To the tune of "Born Free"... (for all you age 40+ posters):

"Wheat Free...

though pizza surrounds us...

our hotdogs are bunless ...

Wheat Free...

we must continue to be"

[Guest Viola]

Ahhh, Mary that is funny We do need a sense of humour around here.

I even try and discourage friends from buying gluten free products. For one thing, they usually buy something that is if maybe edible, pretty bland and boring. Then when I leave they are stuck with this awful expensive stuff. We spend a lot of time trying out and finding 'good' gluten free products, and know what to look for. So I keep telling them to please not waste any money on a gluten free product, when we go to play cards, or visit, I'll bring my own. And of course they are surprised that things like Lays Stax can be gluten free