Cross Contamination

[paige350z]

My family members don't seem to believe me when I say I got sick from CC of something and always try to justify that it was something else. For a Super Sensitive, this is aggrivating. I know my system and my symptoms and I know the difference between a bad food and CC. Can some of you (super sensitives please) explain the great extend at which we can get sick? Or a past experience when you got sick from the most minor of CC?

[paige350z]

My family members don't seem to believe me when I say I got sick from CC of something and always try to justify that it was something else. For a Super Sensitive, this is aggrivating. I know my system and my symptoms and I know the difference between a bad food and CC. Can some of you (super sensitives please) explain the great extend at which we can get sick? Or a past experience when you got sick from the most minor of CC?

Using this as proof to my family to show that yes, even the most minor, no brainer mistake can make us sick!!

[kareng]

Show them this website from experts on celiac. You can google celiac centers and find more if you need to.

A lifetime commitment

The gluten-free diet is a lifetime requirement. Eating any gluten, no matter how small an amount, can damage your intestine. This is true for anyone with the disease, including people who do not have noticeable symptoms. It can take weeks for antibody levels (indicating intestinal damage) to normalize after a person with celiac disease has consumed gluten. Depending on a person

[Bubba's Mom]

My family members don't seem to believe me when I say I got sick from CC of something and always try to justify that it was something else. For a Super Sensitive, this is aggrivating. I know my system and my symptoms and I know the difference between a bad food and CC. Can some of you (super sensitives please) explain the great extend at which we can get sick? Or a past experience when you got sick from the most minor of CC?

On March 20 I cleaned the kitchen. I wiped down the inside of the cabinet that used to have flour stored in it. I didn't eat any flour, and wore rubber gloves..but must have breathed some in? I got hyper a while later, that progressed to insomnia that night, followed by a feeling of being off balance/dizzy. I'm still feeling the off balance effects and it's been over 2 weeks!

My family just don't "get it" either. Nobody is careful about their gluten foods. I finally broke down and got my own microwave. I got tired of seeing the crud from canned pasta plastered all over the insides of our shared one.

I wish you could see gluten under a black light or something? It would be so helpful to have a way of seeing cc?

[Kansas]

I used a knife my husband had spread his jam with, I used it to cut a banana, was sick 20 minutes later. I also have been using Diamond brand walnuts in my muffins without any problems. One morning for breakfast, had my usual muffin and twenty minutes later I was sick. Read the label, "nuts are processed on same lines as wheat, other nuts etc. I get sick with anything that shares equipment, I am learning to read labels everytime I purchase something.

[T.H.]

A friend's gluten cc moment is probably a more useful one for your relatives. :-)

I have a friend who went out to a fast food place with her family. She didn't eat anything there and just got a 'water cup' so she could get water from the soda fountain. It was one of those spouts that is usually lemonade but you could press the 'water only' button to get water from it. She had some and was horribly, horribly sick from the water.

She later found out that the lemonade that comes from the same spout has gluten in the powdered mix it is made from, and whatever was left in the spout mixed with her water and zapped her. :-(

[Di2011]

* the corn-only corn flour that isn't just corn (probably factory related, can't trust restaurants etc)

* nuts (even "natural" that are processed or transported on common lines)

* ((I am very sensitive)) gluten free processed foods that are tested (how often??) at a particular level but my DH can't tolerate any much...

this is the hardest one. Rice and rice noodles from Thailand factories seem to be the most reliable for me as they are likely produced in a rice only platform.

There is a great company here in Australia "Freedom Foods" who have several products that are now my only "gluten-free" production line foods. I really need to get online and thank them. They even track their (I believe newly introduced) oat products to ensure the oats are produced, transported etc etc without glutens. And they then test every batch that comes to the factory. They are truly a company that regularly amazes me. I wonder and won't be surprised if the owner/boss is a serious DH/celiac sufferer (i hate the word sufferer.. any suggestions for something more positive??)) !!

This past week I introduced Freedom Foods Crunchola which is a toasted muesli type product. It has been my lunch every day so far this week. And with breakfast being such a problem my entire life I find it thoughtfully amusing to being eating a massive bowl of toasted oats for lunch 3 days in row. No reaction. I might actually get to be a breakfast person yet...

Okay that is way too much about me. You have two options

1. Get the friends and family informed. This is not a traditional epipen type allergy but it could kill you - the slow and surely type of cancer vs a heart attack type of death

or

2. Get stuffed ((not sure if this is just an Australian saying??)).. I'm not hungry, I can't trust anyones food so don't be offended because I tend to react with anything outside my own kitchen .. I hope you get the idea. If you don't...

In Australia 'get stuffed' tends to mean don't bother.. if you can't get it then I'll pretend you are a bit slow on the uptake and give you little subtle ideas of what it might actually mean. If you don't get it you probably aren't worth the effort.

A symbol of our great British and convict history.