Ah~Ha! Finally Figured It Out!

[lucky28]

After my initial good response to going gluten-free~I had a 3~4 month bout of bad GI symptoms and had gotten really depressed and discouraged by it. Well we moved from our house the last weekend of January and at the same time I had been working more hours @ work~leaving me NO time to unpack anything but the basics. Starting about a week into living @ the new house my GI symptoms had drastically improved! In fact this whole week my Gi system has been textbook NORMAL! :-) I realized earlier this week what I was doing different~I had been using fresh garlic instead of the granulated garlic that I had been using practically EVERY night since the end of September!

I feel like such a dummy,but at the same time I am so relieved that it's not anything more serious!

btw the website for the spice company (not mcormicks) says that the spice is gluten-free so I don't know if it is maybe a cc issue or if i have some other issue with it~ all I know is that I'm so happy to have my symptoms resolved!

[Lisa]

  On 2/13/2012 at 2:41 AM, lucky28 said:

After my initial good response to going gluten-free~I had a 3~4 month bout of bad GI symptoms and had gotten really depressed and discouraged by it. Well we moved from our house the last weekend of January and at the same time I had been working more hours @ work~leaving me NO time to unpack anything but the basics. Starting about a week into living @ the new house my GI symptoms had drastically improved! In fact this whole week my Gi system has been textbook NORMAL! :-) I realized earlier this week what I was doing different~I had been using fresh garlic instead of the granulated garlic that I had been using practically EVERY night since the end of September!

I feel like such a dummy,but at the same time I am so relieved that it's not anything more serious!

btw the website for the spice company (not mcormicks) says that the spice is gluten-free so I don't know if it is maybe a cc issue or if i have some other issue with it~ all I know is that I'm so happy to have my symptoms resolved!

Wow, you sure had a lot going on. Maybe settling in to you new place has relieved some stress. Stress can create havoc on your system. It kicked in my Celiac. Sometimes, outside elements can turn us upside down. Maybe it might not be the garlic. And... my philosophy, fresh is always best. Anyway, so glad you're feeling better.

[Roda]

Were you using the spices before you were gluten free? Any chance that it could have been CC'd at your house? Is there anything else ingredient wise in it like an anticaking agent that you possiblly could be having trouble with? Just some ideas to toss at you. Glad your feeling better.

[Takala]

I also had a reaction to granulated dried garlic also, from a "reputable" company that claims all spices are gluten free. I noticed the country of origin for that garlic was China. I no longer use dried granulated garlic.

It was easy enough to test this. We had just purchased a new bottle, and had used it on hamburgers. We used it several times and I got sick after each time. I thought, "what is new?" and common to each incidence. And voila, left it off the next batch. No problem. I eat very plainly, meat/veg/potato a lot for dinner, so there aren't too many "exotic" ingredients.

I am so tired of this cya claims from these companies. They are not batch testing everything for gluten, and with foreign sources you really have no idea.

I just started having problems with a brand of balsamic vinegar I had successfully used for years.... checked the label and can't believe what is on the ingredient list now. "...boiled grape must, caramel color" Technically, this product should be gluten free because I have been told that American sourced caramel color is supposedly safe. But it is using Italian/European ingredients. Boiled wine dregs from the bottom of the aging caskets... dreck...yummy. While this is my fault for not double checking a purchase by a family member, and assuming that a bottle labeled "Balsamic Wine Vinegar" would actually continue to be vinegar, it still shows that in an effort to cut costs, we do not really know what much of our condiments are made out of, at all.

[lucky28]

Thanks for all the support! Hopefully things remain calm (if you know what I mean!) I had really gotten so upset about my relapse because my symptoms had resolved so quickly after going gluten-free then it seemed as though nothing I did was making any difference. I had moved my 6month biopsy follow-up to an earlier date, thinking that something serious was going on (refractory sprue, lymphoma, etc). Thankfully my appt was on the 9th and my symptoms had stopped by then! I discussed it with my gastro and he said as long as I remain symptom free he doesn't want to see me for a year. Hopefully I've got everything else under control, I have done alot of research, took a lot of advice from ppl on this board, and have not once intentionally cheated; except when I'm dreaming

I just hope that others with unresolved problems will find an easy solution like I did!