Norway

[LisaP]

I am traveling to Norway next month and know it should be pretty easy to be gluten free? Anyone have any suggstions?

[Misa]

Hi Lisa

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but glutenfree in Norway is the same as eating wheat starch . There are no breads, neither in the grocery store, cafes or health stores made with alternative grains. We do have glutenfree rice-crackers in the grocery store and the healthfood stores have (very) sweet biscuits made with maize.

People in general have heard about celiac disease which does make things easier when ordering in restaurants.

We also have glutenfree hamburgers in McDonalds, and the two major pizza places across the country, Dolly Dimples and Peppes Pizza, serve glutenfree pizzas. But again, the dough is made of wheat starch.

I know you'll have a nice time here, it's an incredibly beautiful country with lots of fresh air and nature all around.

Misa

[LisaP]

Thanks for the response. I leave tomorrow and am very excited. I did my research on wheat starch and from what I have read, I have no issue with it. Usually, the US is behind Europe concerning what is acceptable for a gluten free diet.

I asked another Celiac who has a daughter who lives in Norway and she says she eats the gluten free breads provided by the hotel, burgers, and pizza and had no reaction......and she is the leader of our GIG group and very informed about Celiac.

I made my gluten free request with American Airlines and have my "stash" just in case they mess up, so I will be just fine.

My husband is already in Oslo and I cannot wait to join him.

Thanks for your input!

[aikiducky]

The codex norm (that wheat starch needs to follow to be considered safe for a celiac) might be well and good for the average celiac... I suppose they've done some long-time studies to check that it's actually safe to eat wheat starch long term and not start to show damage???

But for a super-sensitive person like me it's a PIA!!! I can't even trust products that are LABELLED gluten-free, because they might still have glucose syrup made from wheat, or plain old wheat starch, or something and just be low enough on the gluten that they comply with the norm, and I definitely react to those. So I have to check even the gluten free products!

The one thing the gluten free label does for me is, if I see there are no gluten containing ingredients, and a product is labelled gluten free, I can be fairly confident that there isn't a cross-contamination issue. But if there's a possible suspicious ingredient, I still need to contact the manufacturer...

I visit Finland a couple times a year, and one thing I like is lots of products are labelled "naturally gluten free", and that means they're really gluten free and not just codex-norm-fake gluten free.

Oh well, rant over...

Pauliina

living in Europe, if you hadn't guessed