New Here

[Aightball]

Hi all.

I would like to introduce myself.

I am new to this gluten stuff, as well as dairy allergy stuff. I was diagonised in January. Previous to that, I was on Paxil CR, and all at once, in about September, I'd get a nauseating pain in my upper stomach (below the breast line), then it went from pain to pain with dihereea, and then pain with dihreea and vomiting, then all that with lower abdomen pain.

I was tested and have an ovarian cyst, but my EGD and colonoscopy were normal. An allergy test confirmed the dairy allergy and the allergy doc suggested I was intolerant of gluten and wheat. I have not been tested for celiac disease, however. I was tested twice for H-Pylori and both times it was negative.

I have found that some gluten foods don't bother me, but I have also been told to not eat these . I have found some gluten, wheat, and dairy free food that does taste good, but more that doesn't. Being from Iowa, and in a small town, I have to take the time to drive to the larger cities around to get something that tastes good and won't poison me .

I guess I'm just wondering about what brands have worked for others. I hate, hate, hate, hate tapioca bread! I now use plain rice cakes for sandwhiches and that's much better! I also dislike gluten free flour. YUCK! Mom is convinced that I can have regular flour in small doses and I cannot seem to convince her that I cannot.

Grr.

Also, is it normal to get so frustrated that you just have to cry sometimes? I get very down about thi8s stuff and I don't know why. There's nothing I can do about it...so why complain?

Thanks for listening .

-Kel

[Guest Libbyk]

YES- it is normal to get frustrated and just cry sometimes. For better or worse, a lot of seem to go through times when it is really hard to be positive. I know I sure do. It is a frustrating process in general, this healing thing. We are not the Strong, Robust bodies we want to be. Maybe we have to re-assess some goals.

for me, learning I had celiac disease has been an overwhelmingly positive experience, but I still break down and cry from time to time. I just have to accept that I am more sensitive than I want to be sometimes, and that this is a process of emotional cleansing as well as physical cleansing.

Just yesterday I had a melt down in the kitchen becasue I was supposed to go hiking, but felt nauseaus and just wanted to hide in a hole until 2005. (that and NOTHING looked good for breakfast that morning .)

I gues what I really mean is, you're NOT alone. (I HATE gluten-free bread too, but then, I never really liked normal bread.) I use corn cakes for sandwiches, they hold up a lot better than rice cakes. also, heated up corn tortillas work.

Peace be with you

Libby

[KAthyB]

Libby, I see you like the corn tortillas. Have you tried the new Don Pancho Gluten Free Wraps? My daughter actually prefers them to regular flour tortillas and they make great quesadillas. The are lighter than the corn tortillas and I found them on-line at the gluten free mall site.

Kathy

[SadiesMomma]

I have many many allergies... wheat, eggs, nuts, soy, dairy, corn... So I am very very limited on what I can and cannot eat. If anyone out there knows of ANY foods that dont have any of these Id love to know...

Anyway... I have found a wonderful bread from "Food For Life" which is a rice bread. It is premade and tastes great when you toast it and add some McCormik cinnamon and sugar. Yumm! It is a Brown Rice bread that I normally get but they also have others such as white rice bread and some others like cinnamin and raisin or pecan. Check them out at www.foodforlife.com

Good eating!

[gf4life]

KathyB,

I looked into the gluten-free Wraps you were talking about. I may get some for my kids, but why does everyone have to use soybean oil! I am allergic to soy, and it is so hard to find things that don't have soybean oil, soy lecethin, soy protein, etc...

Are they good? My kids are sort of picky, but they love flour tortillas, and I would love to be able to find a good gluten-free substitute.

Thanks for posting the info.

God bless,

Mariann

[Guest Libbyk]

thanks kathy, I'll give them a shot. I liek corn tortillas, but I wish they were more elastic. It is a paiin to have to hat them up to get tehm to bend. (Not so road-friendly.) do you know if you can get them at regular stores? O rjust on line specialy sites?

Libby

[KAthyB]

Mariann, I doubt you could find anyone as picky as my 18 year old daughter and she truly prefers them to flour tortillas. I have an electric quesadilla maker and she likes the standard cheese, chicken and veggie combo and also the very simple gluten-free ham and american cheese which is similar to a hot pocket.

That's too bad about the soy. I keep worrying that we are going to find out she has more food allergies and then she'll never eat. She still doesn't feel terrfic and has been gluten-free for 2 mos. She is soooo thin.

Libby, They are thinner and lighter than a corn tortilla and more flexible. They make great wraps, I would suggest warming them a little before you wrap and then they would be fine to pack for lunch.

I don't mean to sound like a commercial but my daughter refuses to eat most gluten-free food replacements and she likes these. She also like the pizza shells from Food by George so you might want to check them out. They sell ready made frozen pizzas

but don't ship them. Their is a specialty shop in my area (Phila) that carries them.

So far, I have only found the tortillas on-line but they seem to arrive in about 3 business days.

Kathy

[gf4life]

Mariann, I doubt you could find anyone as picky as my 18 year old daughter

How about my boys(ages 7 & 9) who don't eat cheese, ham, ground beef, eggs, veggies (except corn, steamed broccoli, and raw carrots), and have never touched pizza (ever) and have never eaten anything with cheese or any form of cheese-like food. No sauce on anything they eat, no butter either. The only dairy they eat is milk, yogurt and ice cream. I am glad that so far I have found many gluten free foods that they like. They have never eaten lunch at school and lived on chicken nuggets and fries when we used to eat out. I can go on and on... Thank God my daughter is a more adventurous eater or I would think it was how I was raising them!

I'll try the wraps for them. Thanks.

God bless,

Mariann

[jaimek]

KathyB- I live in the philly area. Can you tell me where the specialty store is that has premade pizzas? I would love to buy some! Thanks.

[lauradawn]

Kel,

I have never been a fan of bread...but since going gluten-free I knew I would need to find something that would work. I have not done a lot of experimenting yet, but I bought a mix at our health food store. It's called "Bob's Red Mill wonderful gluten-free bread mix". It's excellent. I has turned out everytime I have made it. I make it in the oven, instead of the bread maker. It makes excellent sandwhich slices, and just snack on bread. This sounds crazy but I actually PREFER it to reg bread.

Hope this helps.

Laura

[Wish]

Kel,

It is definitely normal to get so frustrated that you just cry sometimes. Personally, I think it's better to cry than to try to pretend it's no big deal b/c I always find that when I let out my frustration by crying, I'm less likely to take out my irritation on family/friends.

Anyway, I would second the advice to try Food for Life bread. Just make sure to defrost it in the refrigerator and KEEP IT THERE...it tastes worse than cardboard if you let it sit at room temperature for too long. I have tried the Brown rice, Red rice, Rice almond, and Rice pecan breads so far and have liked all of them. My favorite is the red rice bread. The bread is especially good if you toast it or put a couple slices in the microwave for ~30 seconds.

SadiesMomma,

Have you checked out the Very Berry and Cinnamon Crunch granola cereals at www.enjoylifefoods.com? I think they're free of everything you're allergic to, although I'm not totally sure b/c I'm only used to looking for gluten, casein, and lactose on ingredient labels. In any case, the ingredient list is online, and if the list looks okay, I'd really recommend the granola--it tastes great warmed with a little bit of almond milk.