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- cristiana replied to colinukcoeliac's topic in Gluten-Free Restaurants5What should I expect from a UK restaurant advertising / offering "Gluten Free" food
Hi Colin I share your frustration. My coeliac disease was diagnosed in 2013 and it took some years for my TTG levels to settle to normal levels in blood tests. I had to make a few significant changes at home to make sure our house was as gluten free as possible (I share a house with gluten eaters) but time and time again I found I was glutened... -
- RMJ replied to colinukcoeliac's topic in Gluten-Free Restaurants5What should I expect from a UK restaurant advertising / offering "Gluten Free" food
Hopefully @Cristiana will see this question, as she also lives in the UK. -
- knitty kitty replied to Mihai's topic in Post Diagnosis, Recovery & Treatment of Celiac Disease14Pain in the right side of abdomen
@Theresa2407, My Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFD), now called Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), cleared up, resolved, after supplementing with Thiamine B1 and Riboflavin B2. "Specifically, higher intakes of vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 were negatively associated with the risk of NAFLD. Consequently, providing... -
- trents replied to colinukcoeliac's topic in Gluten-Free Restaurants5What should I expect from a UK restaurant advertising / offering "Gluten Free" food
Welcome to the the celiac.com community @colinukcoeliac! I am in the USA but I don't think it is any different here in my experience. In some large cities there are dedicated gluten free restaurants where only gluten free ingredients are found. However, there are a growing number of mainstream eatery chains that advertise gluten free menu items but they...- 1
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- Scott Adams replied to colinukcoeliac's topic in Gluten-Free Restaurants5What should I expect from a UK restaurant advertising / offering "Gluten Free" food
This is a very common source of frustration within the celiac community. Many restaurants, including large chain restaurants, now offer a "gluten-free" menu, or mark items on their menu as gluten-free. Some of them then include a standard CYA disclaimer like what you experienced--that they can't guarantee your food will be gluten-free. Should they even bother...
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Hi Colin I share your frustration. My coeliac disease was diagnosed in 2013 and it took some years for my TTG levels to settle to normal levels in blood tests. I had to make a few significant changes at home to make sure our house was as gluten free as possible (I share a house with gluten eaters) but time and time again I found I was glutened (or nearly glutened whilst eating out - like regular bread being served with a gluten-free meal ). Even eating in chains that Coeliac UK were recommending as safe for coeliacs. So I gave up eating in restaurants for a while. My blood tests normalised. But here's the thing: the lowest my TTG readings ever got to were 4.5 (10 and under being my local lab's normal levels) and now that I am eating out again more regularly, they've gone up to 10 again. I am quite convinced this gluten is coming from exposure whilst eating out. Small levels, that don't make me violently sick, but might give me a mild stomach upset. My next coeliac blood review is in September and I mean to give up eating out a few months before to see if that helps my blood results get back on track. It seems to me that there are few restaurants which really 'get it' - and a lot of restaurants that don't 'get it' at all. I've found one restaurant in Somerset and a hotel in East Sussex where they really know what they are doing. The restaurant in Somerset hardly uses flour in any of their dishes; the hotel in East Sussex takes in trainees from the local college, so they are teaching best standards. But it has taken a lot of searching and trial and effort on my part to find these two places. There are certainly others in the UK, but it seems to me the only real way to find them is trial and error, or perhaps from the personal recommendation of other strict coeliacs (Incidentally, my coeliac hairdresser tells me that if a Michelin star restaurant has to have a separate food preparation so she has never been glutened in one - I can't say I've ever eaten in one!) For the rest, I think we just have to accept that gluten may be in the air in kitchens, if not on the surfaces, and there will always be some level of risk wherever one dines, unless the restaurant cooks exclusively gluten free dishes. Cristiana
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Hopefully @Cristiana will see this question, as she also lives in the UK.
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By knitty kitty · Posted
@Theresa2407, My Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFD), now called Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), cleared up, resolved, after supplementing with Thiamine B1 and Riboflavin B2. "Specifically, higher intakes of vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 were negatively associated with the risk of NAFLD. Consequently, providing adequate levels of Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2 in the daily diets of postmenopausal women could potentially serve as a preventive measure against NAFLD." Association between dietary intakes of B vitamins and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10621796/ High-dose vitamin B1 therapy prevents the development of experimental fatty liver driven by overnutrition https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7988776/ -
Welcome to the the celiac.com community @colinukcoeliac! I am in the USA but I don't think it is any different here in my experience. In some large cities there are dedicated gluten free restaurants where only gluten free ingredients are found. However, there are a growing number of mainstream eatery chains that advertise gluten free menu items but they are likely cooked and prepared along with gluten containing foods. They are just not set up to offer a dedicated gluten free cooking, preparation and handling environment. There simply isn't space for it and it would not be cost effective. And I think you probably realize that restaurants operate on a thin margin of profit. As the food industry has become more aware of celiac disease and the issue of cross contamination I have noticed that some eateries that used to offer "gluten free" menu items not have changed their terminology to "low gluten" to reflect the possibility of cross contamination. I would have to say that I appreciate the openness and honesty of the response you got from your email inquiry. It also needs to be said that the degree of cross contamination happening in that eatery may still allow the food they advertise as gluten free to meet the regulatory standards of gluten free advertising which, in the USA is not more than 20ppm of gluten. And that is acceptable for most celiacs and those who are gluten sensitive. Perhaps you might suggest to the eatery that they add a disclaimer about cross contamination to the menu itself.
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By Scott Adams · Posted
This is a very common source of frustration within the celiac community. Many restaurants, including large chain restaurants, now offer a "gluten-free" menu, or mark items on their menu as gluten-free. Some of them then include a standard CYA disclaimer like what you experienced--that they can't guarantee your food will be gluten-free. Should they even bother at all? This is a good question, and if they can't actually deliver gluten-free food, should they even be legally allowed to make any claims around it? Personally I view a gluten-free menu as a basic guide that can help me order, but I still explain that I really have celiac disease and need my food to be gluten-free. Then I take some AN-PEP enzymes when my food arrives just in case there may be contamination. So far this has worked for me, and for others here. It is frustrating that ordering off a gluten-free menu doesn't mean it's actually safe, however, I do feel somewhat thankful that it does at least signal an awareness on their part, and an attempt to provide safe food. For legal reasons they likely need to add the disclaimer, but it may also be necessary because on a busy night, who knows what could happen?
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