Just Started A Gluten Free Diet And Im Having Some Issues

[Molly14]

I am into a gluten free diet a week as of today and all this past week I have been experiencing some diarrhea (sorry to be graphic) and was wondering if that was normal? Also i have a bad habit of eating Chinese food. I am craving it and my graduation diner is at a chinese restaurant and i dont know what i could have. Any suggestions?

[Newbee]

For some people it can take awhile for diarrhea to subside even going gluten free. I've found I needed to eliminate a lot of other foods before I really started to have normal stools. Do you have celiac disease? Personally I would avoid the restaurant unless they could tell you they could prepare something gluten free without risk of cross contamination. But I'm a very sensitive celiac so I have to be very careful.

[Raven815]

Be careful of soy sauce. I just had fried rice from a Thai restaurant. My husband went and ordered it and was very specific about them not using any soy sauce or anything w/ wheat. When he brought it home, the rice was brown and I was paranoid to eat it, so I called the restaurant and asked her why it was brown. She said it was from the chili sauce. I asked her what was in the chili sauce and she said she personally read the label herself. I was very pleased. She also said next time we order, I could send my wheat-free soy sauce and they would cook my food with that. I told her how much I appreciated their cooperation. My point is, don't ever be afraid to be paranoid and check everything out very extensively. I have DH, so I don't ever want to have that terrible rash flare up again. It's just not worth it to get glutened. As far as eating Chinese food, just ask as many questions as you have to until you are satisfied that you will not be glutened or cc'd.

Hope I helped, Laura

[sorairobara]

I would be extremely careful about that chinese food! If the cooks or owners don't speak good english I wouldn't trust them! (Not being racist there's just a huge language barrier there and sadly most Americans won't care or understand your problem even if they speak perfect english) There are so many ways that you could get cross contamination even it everything in your meal is "safe" you don't know how well things were cleaned, where food was stored, what sauces and seasonings that should be gluten free but sadly are not because it seems like companies love adding wheat as a filler in things! If you're not very sensitive you may be able to handle the cross contamination (unless you know the restaurant extremely well. Its safe to assume the there will always be a little) but if you're just starting off being gluten free I wouldn't risk it just yet! Getting healthy can be done but you've got a long road a head of you and you don't need any set backs this early in the game! See if you can bring your own food! Make something so delicious that everyone there is jealous of your food!

[SmnthMllrX]

My first week without gluten was awful for me. I know how you feel about the cravings because for a month after I started eating gluten free for every meal I'd eat I just wanted a sub. I thought the cravings would never go away, but most of them do. I'm going on four years gluten-free and I'll admit I still crave some foods and embarrassingly I dream about eating gluten every now and then but it's easier to deal with. If you can I would recommend changing your graduation party. It's just awful to put yourself through the temptation especially when it's still all new to you. I'm not sure where you live but in my area we have a bunch of gluten-free Chinese resteraunts. My favorite is PF Changs and they also own a 'fast food' chain calle Pei Wei which is also very good. I'd suggest doing some research and finding a restaurant that you can eat at. They have all sorts of gluten-free places now-a-days. After all, it is YOUR graduation party.

Congratulations Grad! And remember if you have more questions or have a bad glutened day we're here and chances are we understand.