Misc Questions About How To Do This

[cait]

I'm new to this and still figuring a lot out. Not officially diagnosed celiac (negative blood test - full battery - and negative biopsy) but my dad has it, I have one of the genes for it, and I feel better off gluten and react badly to it now that I'm off. My questions:

1) We are currently a vegetarian household. I can change that if I have to, but I'd like to see if I can do gluten-free in a healthy way while still remaining vegetarian. Any gluten-free veggies out there have any suggestions?

2) The rest of my family still eats gluten, including two young children (5 and 2.5). How do we manage this so that I'm not being constantly cross contaminated? I have my own toaster and cooking implements on my own designated section of kitchen counter, and we're working on refining this, but are there other things we should be doing? My partner refers to our son (the two year old) as "Edward Glutenhands" because of his intense love of bagels and other wheat products and his amazing ability to coat himself with whatever he eats. I had a reaction to a gluten free pizza last week, and we're not sure if it was cross contamination from the restaurant or from sitting next to him as he ate his regular pizza.

3) After an initial drop in joint pain and headaches that seemed only to return when I clearly encountered gluten, I've had a string of more painful days this week. I'm a teacher and it's the end of the school year, so things are insane. It could just be that my body is exhausted and freaking out. I could be getting exposed to something low-level that I can't identify. I'm also on an antidepressant that has trace amounts of gluten. I'm working on getting off of it, though my shrink thought it shouldn't be an issue. According to things I've found here, it's a very small amount so shouldn't be a problem (the med is Pristiq, if anyone has experience with it). I've only been off gluten for a few weeks, so it's hard for me to tell what's going on some of the time. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

[lizard00]

I can't help much with 1 and 3 (though there are lots of gluten-free veggies out there!), but I can offer my two cents worth for question number 2:

I tried to do the same. It didn't work. My kids aren't gluten-free either, but there is no gluten eating allowed in the house. I get pretzels for my son's lunch, or some sort of crackers that are in idividual sizes so they go into his lunch, but at the house, they don't eat wheat bread, crackers or anything. I was driving myself crazy cleaning up after them, and my daughter is 21 mos old and throws stuff everywhere. And then wants to be all over my food, etc. Just couldn't do it. My son doesn't really notice the difference; there's enough good gluten-free crackers and such, and I have a baking business, so there's all kinds of stuff around most of the time.

I don't expect them to be gluten-free all the time, but I just can't deal with it in my house.

[Marilyn R]

If your experience is similar to mine, you may find that you don't need anti-deppresants at all anymore. In fact, the gluten in your anti-D could be causing depression. I'd ask your doctor about weaning off of the anti-D.

If you want to stay vegetarian, it can be tough. My need for protein made me eat meats again. I definitely receommend purchasing a pressure cooker if you don't have one. You can make all kinds of beans and legumes plus soups or stews or vegetables in minutes vs. hours. Lorna Sass has a great cookbook "Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressue".

If you can, I'd go for gluten-free for Edward, at least for the time being. I'm not a mother though, so I may be giving bad advice! I bet he'd love a gluten-free bagel just as much as a glutinous one.)

Good luck, hope you feel better and have better days ahead.

[Takala]

You're discovering that if you keep consuming gluten in trace amounts, it makes you just as sick as if you are consuming it in gross amounts.

Earlier discussion on this Pristiq stuff:

[cait]

You're discovering that if you keep consuming gluten in trace amounts, it makes you just as sick as if you are consuming it in gross amounts.

Earlier discussion on this Pristiq stuff:

Yeah, I found that thread and also another one where someone gave a pretty convincing argument for it not containing enough to be an issue. I guess it's pretty individual. Either way I'm starting to wean off of it. I have pretty bad withdrawal when I go off stuff like this, so my shrink wants to do it super slowly. I may switch meds for a short time to get the gluten gone faster and then see about weaning off entirely once I've been gluten-free a little longer. Either way it's staying around for longer than I'd like.

My concern with staying veg is really about getting enough protein. But i'm already changing so many things about food in our household that bringing meat back in seems like a lot to ask. As does making the whole house gluten-free. I think it's even harder to imagine imposing these kinds of changes since the celiac tests came back negative. I'm still stuck in the "I must be making all of this up" phase, which tends to last a long time for me...

[cahill]

1) We are currently a vegetarian household. I can change that if I have to, but I'd like to see if I can do gluten-free in a healthy way while still remaining vegetarian. Any gluten-free veggies out there have any suggestions?

Thanks!

This is a link to gluten free vegan recipes

Open Original Shared Link

I would be cautious of soy .I was vegan .Wheat and soy filled my diet. Now I can not tolerate soy.I become extremely ill with even the tiniest amounts of soy. Everyone is different,you may not have a problem with soy but for some of us it is a BIG problem .

[sb2178]

If you're okay with eggs, or soy/milk, it's very feasible. I did not find beans terribly digestible and was avoiding eggs so in the very beginning I switched back to eating meat regularly. After about two months, I began to be able to eat beans again and started eating eggs regularly. Absolutely no problem being gluten-free and veg now. I do eat some fish, though. Always have, so it's not 100% vegetarian.

You need about 5 of the list below per day but if your digestion is really off, aim for for a few more and maybe try a digestive enzyme.

2 T peanut butter

1 oz nuts or seeds

1 egg

1/4 c tofu

1/4 c beans/lentils

1 c soymilk or milk

1 c yogurt

1/4 c cottage cheese (if you can eat dairy)

So, if you have 2 T peanut butter, an apple, 1 c milk/soymilk and some crackers/rice/bread/waffle for breakfast; 3/4 c beans with vegetables and rice for lunch; and noodles with tofu or egg for supper, you're good. Message me if you want more specific ideas.

I'd take the little one of gluten too.

[cait]

Thank you! That list was very helpful. I definitely need to make a more conscious effort to include enough protein. I felt much better for doing so yesterday and today.

I also wonder if I felt better today because I didn't take pristiq yesterday (skipping 2 doses a week for a few weeks to begin the weaning process). I felt awful and dizzy this morning from not having it in my system. Then once my levels from today's dose evened out I felt better than I've felt in a while. Now I'm crashing again. So hard to tell what's a fluke and what's gluten related. I wish I could just stop taking the stuff.

[sb2178]

yeah, but I had a college friend who ended up with seizures in the ER from dropping one, so patience may be painful but probably worth it. Was switching to gluten-free option a no-go?

Also, just a note, you'll want to be careful of depending too much on dairy for protein. Dairy is generally low in iron and celiac sort of = anemia in the beginning so keeping dietary iron up is helpful (if you're on supplements, it doesn't really matter tho).

[Jenniferxgfx]

Beans and lentils are great for protein and iron both. Most Americans get much too much protein, but beans, nuts, seeds, brown rice, quinoa, and plenty of veggies are good sources.

Also, another vote for possibly not needing an antidepressant with gluten gone from your life!

Veggie representin'

[cait]

yeah, but I had a college friend who ended up with seizures in the ER from dropping one, so patience may be painful but probably worth it. Was switching to gluten-free option a no-go?

I may end up doing that, but she wanted me to get some of the pristiq out of my system first.

Thanks for the various bits of veg advice. Hopefully all of this will get easier once we finish the school year. My partner and I are both teachers so are ridiculously busy and exhausted right now. Once we have a moment to breathe I think many things will seem much more manageable. Two weeks... (that is if we ignore the week of work I have after the kids are done)

[Marie1976]

I've been a vegan for a long time but just diagnosed celiac a couple months ago. I'm still trying to figure it all out too. Here are some of the things I've been eating:

*steamed rice with stir fry veggies and tofu

*quinoa with peas & carrots and soy sauce. (Quinoa has a lot of protein. I use La Choy soy sauce, supposedly gluten free)

*eggplant "parmesan" (layer fried eggplant, mashed tofu, basil, oregano, spinach, marinara and Daiya cheese in a casserole dish and bake it for 30 minutes)

*tacos (corn tortillas are gluten free and instead of meat I use black beans or I fry up a mixture of mashed tofu, zucchini and spinach)

*Stonewall's Jerquee (the pepperoni flavor is the only one I like)

*Lara bars (cashew flavor) and Pure bars (brownie flavor)

*rice crackers, rice cakes

*smoothies made with rice milk, bananas, frozen berries, soy yogurt (or almond or coconut yogurt) and protein powder

Now I'm hungry. Ha ha. Good luck!

[Marie1976]

Just wanted to add that there's a vegetarian gluten free site called vegiac.com and you might also want to check out cookbooks by Dawn Grey.

[Judy3]

I'm new to this and still figuring a lot out. Not officially diagnosed celiac (negative blood test - full battery - and negative biopsy) but my dad has it, I have one of the genes for it, and I feel better off gluten and react badly to it now that I'm off. My questions:

1) We are currently a vegetarian household. I can change that if I have to, but I'd like to see if I can do gluten-free in a healthy way while still remaining vegetarian. Any gluten-free veggies out there have any suggestions?

2) The rest of my family still eats gluten, including two young children (5 and 2.5). How do we manage this so that I'm not being constantly cross contaminated? I have my own toaster and cooking implements on my own designated section of kitchen counter, and we're working on refining this, but are there other things we should be doing? My partner refers to our son (the two year old) as "Edward Glutenhands" because of his intense love of bagels and other wheat products and his amazing ability to coat himself with whatever he eats. I had a reaction to a gluten free pizza last week, and we're not sure if it was cross contamination from the restaurant or from sitting next to him as he ate his regular pizza.

3) After an initial drop in joint pain and headaches that seemed only to return when I clearly encountered gluten, I've had a string of more painful days this week. I'm a teacher and it's the end of the school year, so things are insane. It could just be that my body is exhausted and freaking out. I could be getting exposed to something low-level that I can't identify. I'm also on an antidepressant that has trace amounts of gluten. I'm working on getting off of it, though my shrink thought it shouldn't be an issue. According to things I've found here, it's a very small amount so shouldn't be a problem (the med is Pristiq, if anyone has experience with it). I've only been off gluten for a few weeks, so it's hard for me to tell what's going on some of the time. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

Regarding #1 Vegetarian check out this website... lots of recipes and suggestions Open Original Shared Link

[cait]

Awesome! When I finish progress reports and other insanity, I'm looking forward to checking out those resources. Now if I can just stop glutening myself. It's taking shockingly little to make me feel like crap now.

[Poppi]

My kids are 2, 5, 15, 17 and 20. The oldest two girls are pretty good about what they touch and don't touch and they do 90% of their cooking and eating in the downstairs kitchen which is the gluten zone. My 15 year old son tries but he's not great about cleaning up crumbs or keeping his sandwich making to the designated gluten-prep area in the upstairs kitchen.

My 2 year old and 5 year old are, well, 2 and 5. Can't expect anything from them. I'm currently feeling the effects of my youngest touching my dinner last night while she was eating a sandwich. Even though it's inconvenient we are considering making gluten completely off limits upstairs for my health. We have a system in place which has been working but once you throw a 2 year old into the mix it's hard to keep things clean.

My 2 year old is also being tested for celiac next week because she has pica (she eats non-food items like metal, chalk, drywall etc) and that's a huge celiac red flag. If she tests positive then the upstairs will have to be a 100% no gluten zone. Even the 5 year old will have to go gluten free because the eat and play and cuddle together so much.

[sb2178]

Beans and lentils are great for protein and iron both. Most Americans get much too much protein, but beans, nuts, seeds, brown rice, quinoa, and plenty of veggies are good sources.

Also, another vote for possibly not needing an antidepressant with gluten gone from your life!

Veggie representin'

Yeah, the average American gets way more protein than necessary. The average vegetarian/vegan malabsorbing celiac patient is unlikely to have an excess of protein actually entering the bloodstream. Low blood protein levels is actually one of the markers of advanced celiac disease, and that is not something your body allows to happen easily. Similarly, anemia and iron deficiency are regular issues. Recovery from illness, especially with significant tissue damage, does require extra protein as well.

Brown rice, vegetables, and quinoa are great nutritious foods. However, they're relatively low in calories and protein. You have to eat something like 15 cups of broccoli to get enough protein for one day and broccoli is a vegetable that is really high in protein. Most people would max out around 2 cups, less than 20% of their daily needs. Rice, similarly, a great whole grain but pretty low in protein. Even quinoa doesn't have a huge amount. It's so well loved because it has all the amino acids humans need. You really need those beans, nuts, and seeds in significant amounts with your rice and veggies. I'm not saying that you can't or shouldn't eat a plant-based diet, just that recovery from illness (esp malabsorption) requires more than brown rice and broccoli. Just add some lentils! or peanut butter... or tofu...

Edit: i'm really tired and may not have read/interpreted the original post all that well. Nevertheless. Please, dear veg-folk, do take my point even if the original post means to balance rice and veg with beans & lentils as I can read it either way.