What Just Happened?

[MJ-S]

Feeling confused right now. I went out for a drink with my husband, and had one vodka tonic (with Karlsson's potato vodka). Not even halfway through I started to feel strong gas pains. That was a couple hours ago - I've been extremely gassy since then.

I have vodka tonics all the time (they're my safe drink, as long as they're made with potato vodka) so I'm confused.

I don't see how I could have been glutened with anything else - I was feeling great before going, and have been eating only at home (gluten-free kitchen). It's been a frustrating month for me - I was glutened/caseined (hard to tell which) at a wedding on July 30, and I've been up and down since then. I thought I'd finally turned the corner and was feeling better. Just in case, I've been avoiding soy as well.

So back to the vodka tonic - not sure if I should blame the carbonation? Corn syrup? I never drink soda except with vodka tonics. I've never had a problem with tonic water in the past (I buy the kind with sugar at home, but I assume I'm getting corn syrup anytime I order one out, which isn't all that often, but still).

[rosetapper23]

All I can think of is that the glass wasn't washed thoroughly enough or the person who served your drink had just touched gluten. Cross-contamination is common with glassware in restaurants.

[psawyer]

The carbonation is not a concern, but you could have an issue with high fructose corn syrup which is used as the sweetener in almost every non-diet soda sold in the US. You can find sugar-sweetened ones in bottles in some markets, but if it came from the fountain it has HFCS.

[pricklypear1971]

Oh I can sympathize. Last night was a work party...drank vodka and soda...it was the grain vodka or the soda.

I was absolutely lethargic all day.

[thleensd]

One of my friends is a bar tender. When I mentioned vodka/tonic as a safe drink she laughed...Most bars have huge potential from CC, and they are just not very safe places. Think of all the beer. Pre-celiac I remember seeing a glass rim-side down on a bar covered in beer. I think the bartender just kind of wiped it off and used the glass anyway.

Often selzer/tonic water comes in those little guns that also connect to various soft drinks. I've seen drinks prepared where they dunk the whole head of the thing in whatever drink it is.

It's a pain, but if you're going to drink out, make friends with your server or sit at the bar so you can watch them prepare your drink.

[lovegrov]

Very possibly nothing to do with celiac. "Normal" people get gas all the time.

richard

[T.H.]

I'd vote for the gluten cc as the first potential culprit, too.

Tons of drinks, tons of gluten snacks (depending on where you went), and very often servers and bartenders pick up glasses with fingers that touch the lip of the glass or pick it up with a few fingers on the outside AND the inside. We just ran into that going to the movies, where I let my son have a drink, and I saw the server give a hotdog to the customer before us, and then pick up the glass with his fingers inside the lid when he went to get my son's drink.

I think that when we eat out, the odds for gluten cc are so high, with so many variables, that we need to try the same ingredients at home before we make a judgement call, you know?