Support Group In Fresno, California

[Guest kmmolina]

I am new to the website and a newly diagnosed with Celiac. I am looking for someone in the Fresno, California area I could confer with regarding doctors, dietitains, best placed to buy gluten free products, etc. I've been to the Whole Food Store and it had a lot of gluten-free things, but is there anything thing else in Fresno

[Guest kmmolina]

I am new to the website and a newly diagnosed with Celiac.  I am looking for someone in the Fresno, California area I could confer with regarding doctors, dietitains, best placed to buy gluten free products, etc.  I've been to the Whole Food Store and it had a lot of gluten-free things, but is there anything thing else in Fresno

I hope I am not the only one in Fresno...

[Satori]

I know this was a year ago but did you ever find anything? Were moving there in Feb and go up there all the time. I found Whole Foods to be really disappointing, the one down in Santa Clarita has way more gluten-free foods and flours.

[janelyb]

This is a bit behind but I found a group in Sacramento and one lady mentioned there they had a bay area support group too. Here is some info to check out

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

here is some more info I found

Group: Sprue Group of the SF Bay Area

City: Oakland

Contacts:

Ellen Switkes

116 Fairview Ave.

Piedmont, CA 94610

510-655-0215

Ellen Eagan

632 Miller Ave.

South San Francisco, CA 94080

415-583-6413

Cindy Breeden

510-895-9590

Elysse Paige

2401 Bowditch Street

Berkeley, CA 94702-2272

510-643-6701

510-643-8943 (fax)

Internet:

Ellen Switkes, ellen.switkes@UCOP.EDU

Ellen Eagan, eagan@pangloss.ucsf.EDU

Cindy Breeden, cbreeden@worldnet.att.net

Elysse Paige, epaige@berkeley.edu

[Paul Jackson]

I hope I am not the only one in Fresno...

Hi, Kathleen! (I hope I got your name right.) Now age 38, I've been a pretty big guy most of my life with a waistline of about 44 inches during the past decade or so. Whenever my waistline has gotten larger once every year or so, I've been accustomed to going on a reducing diet--figuring I had some genetic predisposition to megamorphism (a big body). Actually, I'm now convinced that these enlargements were warning signs of the onset of celiac disease. In the past three months (i.e,. since Dec. 2006), my waist enlarged by an astounding 20 inches to a whopping 65 inches!

About three weeks ago, I tried to go off gluten; but two weeks ago, I inadvertently ate some wheat flour at a potluck at my workplace. Within about one hour, my legs became extremely bloated and have been so ever since. With every meal, I'm taking two Diurex for Men caplets, a natural OTC diuretic that has taken the edge off this bloating. (On Jan. 30-31, 2007, I also visited the UMC Emergency Room for 24 hrs., during which I got an EKG and blood tests that found no serious cardiac issues. Neither any doctor nor nurse was willing to have a xylose blood test performed to confirm celiac disease, as suspected by a dietitican whom I'd earlier visited in the Fresno area.)

Every day, I struggle to get out of bed and spend eight or more hours doing light activity. Every day, I feel I have more physical energy; but I usually get no more than half of the eight hours of sleep I require. Until about a week ago, fatigue was a dire issue affecting my health.

Leroy, a friend of mine in the L.A. area who practices macrobiotics, believes that my physical difficulties (as my system adjusts to a gluten-free diet) will last three months--meaning I have to endure at least another month of this agony! Two things form the silver lining on this celiac cloud hanging over my head: one is that my voice has grown stronger and clearer; the other is that food nourishes me, seemingly as never before! I eat small amounts of food slowly and am satisfied! Two rice cakes and a tablespoon of unsalted peanut butter between them is an adequate breakfast (as compared to a three-course breakfast that would be my usual fare). Also, I no longer crave dairy products, which digest with grain products, so that an addiction to one may result in addiction to the other.

I can see the proverbial lining on the cloud! However, I continue to struggle each and every day.

Hoping you are coping at least as well as I am,

Paul

(559) 233-3786

pjackson32@hotmail.com

[trav]

Hey Kathleen,

I've been gluten free since Feb 2007. I was puzzled for a while that things I expected to feel good after, like pasta with TVP, or tomato sandwiches, or multi-grain crackers, I would actually feel terrible after. Finally I realized that if I had oatmeal in the morning I would be fine, but if I added wheat germ to it I would feel bad and my breakfast wouldn't digest all day. So I went off gluten and since then have gone off corn and yeast. I seem to do well with soy. I was already vegan.

The results have been mixed, I definitely haven't solved the whole problem, but I definitely feel better than when I was eating wheat.

I've been to Kristina's Natural Ranch Market on First and Barstow and they seem to have a lot of gluten-free products. Kind of expensive though.

Where's the cheapest gluten-free foods you've found?

-Travis

[Guest kmmolina]

Hey Kathleen,

I've been gluten free since Feb 2007. I was puzzled for a while that things I expected to feel good after, like pasta with TVP, or tomato sandwiches, or multi-grain crackers, I would actually feel terrible after. Finally I realized that if I had oatmeal in the morning I would be fine, but if I added wheat germ to it I would feel bad and my breakfast wouldn't digest all day. So I went off gluten and since then have gone off corn and yeast. I seem to do well with soy. I was already vegan.

The results have been mixed, I definitely haven't solved the whole problem, but I definitely feel better than when I was eating wheat.

I've been to Kristina's Natural Ranch Market on First and Barstow and they seem to have a lot of gluten-free products. Kind of expensive though.

Where's the cheapest gluten-free foods you've found?

-Travis

Hi Travis...I'm sorry I haven't responded earlier, but I haven't been on the website lately. Actually, Kristina's is the cheapest I've found. I was going to Whole Foods in Fig Garden's for awhile but I found they were often out of what I wanted, didn't always have a great selections and very expensive. I found a lot of Kinkanick (sp?) stuff at Kristina's. It seems that a lot of the gluten-free stuff is expensive. At Kristina's I pay an annual fee (I think it was $20) and I get a 10% discount, which helps a little bit. Online is usually the cheapest, but you usually have to buy in bulk Also SaveMart does carry some of the Pamela's products. Hope this helps...Kathleen

[Paul Jackson]

Affordable gluten-free Grocery Shopping in Fresno, California

Twelve-net-ounce packages of gluten-free chicken sausage sell at Kristina's Market, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods Market for $5 or more on a consistent basis. At WinCo, however, a 12-net-ounce package of Al Fresco

[Paul Jackson]

Still on the bargain hunt in Fresno, California: Without having to consult Scott Adams's Unsafe Ingredients List (handy though it is), you may find at WinCo, Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste, a 4-oz. bottle of which is about $3. Though unlabeled curry is certainly risky , Thai Kitchen labels this and a great many more of its products "gluten-free," which they certainly are. (Open Original Shared Link)

Concerning instant soups, WinCo also carries Simply Asia (a product line of Thai Kitchen), whose rice noodle soup bowl in Sesame Chicken flavor is labeled gluten free and sells for a little more than a dollar. But Trader Joe's is the cheapest at 99