luvs2eat

I rarely eat out anymore. Went to Applebees a long while back ... told the whole wheat/gluten/cross contamination story... ordered a spinach salad w/ shrimp... please don't put ANY croutons on it... NO roll anywhere... thought I had all my bases covered. When I got to the bottom of the bowl.... there was a layer of fried chinese noodles. I showed them to the waitress and she said, "Oh... THOSE are made w/ wheat???"

No matter how much you explain... some people just do not get it.

I wasn't as physically sensitive when I was first diagnosed... and thought I was eating gluten-free by picking croutons off salads and blowing crumbs away or taking a burger off a roll. The peeps here set me STRAIGHT!!!

The pizza place, Jules, in Doylestown, PA, offers a gluten-free pizza. I talked to them and they told me they send the pizza thru the conveyer oven on its own piece of alum. foil to avoid cross contamination.

I'm SO much more sensitive now that I used to be... and way more knowledgable than I used to be... again... thanks to the peeps HERE.

As you'll see from this awesome site... it seems like no 2 people w/ celiac disease have the same symptoms. But, my goodness... you've been dealing w/ this for a LONG time. I was diagnosed in my late 40s after only several months of intestinal symptoms. As said previously... a gluten free diet is the only treatment. It can be challenging, especially if you don't like to cook, but it's not at all impossible.

Truthfully... it took me a whole year for my intestines/bowels to get back to what I considered normal. I didn't feel sick during that time, but I made lots of mistakes w/ what I thought was a gluten free lifestyle and about finding gluten in random things.

As I said... this is the place to learn lots!! Good luck on your tests!!

Here's a recipe the peeps in the recipe chat room I hang out in swear by!! I'll be taking it to a potluck in a few weeks.

Best Corn Ever

2 pounds frozen corn kernels

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 stick real butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

Mix all together in crockpot. Cook on high for 2 hours. Stir occasionally.

I always make the Analise Robert's (her baking cookbook is the best I've found!) recipe for pie crust using her brown rice flour mix and butter, egg, etc. Works every time!

I was the first to be diagnosed in my family (at age 48). I seriously recommended my sister (who has suffered her whole life w/ allergies and eczema and asthma) and brother to be tested... I really thought my sister would come up positive. Neither she nor my bro did.

One of my 3 daughter had symptoms, was tested, and is now gluten-free. The other 2 won't get tested cause they have no symptoms and don't want to give up wheat, etc.

Do I miss wheat? You betcha... I can make lots of things gluten-free, but there are some that just don't translate.

Would I intentionally eat wheat, etc... cause I craved it so? Not on your life!

I often say, "If I don't cook it, I can't eat it." Given that your mom's glutened you w/ random ingredients she FORGETS to tell you are included... I'd adopt my phrase and stick to it.

Let me tell you what NOT to do!! Last year I went to my small company party (super fun partiers!!) and didn't even THINK to bring my own food or eat beforehand, knowing there would be nothing there I'd be able to eat. A few absolutely DELICIOUS raspberry martinis later, we were all goofing around and dancing and having fun and I fell... my feet just sort of went out from under me. No biggie... I hopped up and continued dancing!

Spent the next morning in the ER having my broken wrist casted w/ my husband snapping photos while the hospital personel cracked up. (I was NOT laughing!!) They're STILL laughing at me in the office!! Too bad I can't attend the party this year... I planned to arrive wearing a bike helmet and knee and elbow pads!!

Ugh!! I know it's not funny when you can't keep weight on, but people ask me all the time what the symptoms of Celiac are and I say, Well... one of the first seems to be unexplained weight loss..." Then I look down at myself and say, "I didn't GET that one."

I was diagnosed very quickly... only 2 months after developing obvious symptoms (unrelenting diarrhea)... and spent the next year filling up on all the foods I COULD have to ease the emotional pain of those I could NO LONGER have... 40 lbs. later, I'll be stuggling w/ my weight forever, I'm sure!!

What are the proportions you use w/ either potato starch or cornstarch? For example... I used to make a roux w/ butter and flour and add drippings and broth to make awesome gravy. I know cornstarch is supposed to be mixed w/ cold liquids... so what measurements do you use w/ either potato or cornstarch?

TIA!

Well... this is BAD news for me cause I always thought they weren't good for us (from a gluten-free standpoint... not a nutritional one) and had to be happy w/ the Chik-Fil-A fries I have a few times a year.

Knowing I can have McD's fries will NOT help my diet!!

My symptoms were all GI and I didn't notice real change for several months. It took a whole year before I considered my bowels (for lack of a better term) were what I considered back to "normal."

Pamela's makes a really good and easy bread mix. So does Manna from Anna. Bob's Red Mill bread mix isn't bad either.

Haven't had a bagel in 7 years... I'd kill for a real one. Pamela's bread mix has a bagel cooking method that wasn't bad.

Even though they are not "no boil" noodles, I don't boil them at all, I just layer them in the lasagna and then cook. comes out fine. I find them hard to handle and very sticky/slimy when I boil them first.

I don't boil them either. I do soak them in hot tap water for about 5 minutes while I'm mixing up the other ingredients. Never had a problem!

I've gained a lot of weight since going gluten-free too. I was diagnosed very quickly... w/in 3 months of developing any symptoms, so I never had the unexplained weight loss ... and eased my psychic pain for all the things I could no longer eat by eating my fill of the things I COULD eat... rice, brown rice pastas, yummy bread mixes, gluten-free baked goodies I learned to make. I've also read that many of the brown rice things we use have a higher glycemic index... which can be a problem if you're diabetic or trying to follow a lower carb diet.

The sad reality is that I'm a fool for carbs and fats. I'm now doing my best to follow a lower carb, low fat diet... lots of lean proteins and lots of fruit and veggies.

Sorry, can't help! I was diagnosed very quickly (w/ in 3 months of symptoms) and spent the next few years eating tons of stuff I COULD eat to make up for what I could no longer eat... gained about 30 lbs. Ugh!!

I like Pam's mixes too! I did the "bagel" variation w/ her bread mix and had the closest thing to a bagel I'd had in more than 5 years!!!

I'm going to take a different view, and will probably get some flak, so I am putting on my kevlar vest.

The doctor did the endoscopy, and a follow-up appointment was scheduled. Your husband chose not to keep the appointment. Who is responsible for that decision? Certainly not the doctor. Yes, the doctor's office could have called to ask about rescheduling the visit (maybe they did?).

I do agree that the doctor's attitude was reprehensible, but the root of the problem, as I see it, is a decision made by the patient (your husband).

Bundling up the flak jacket and climbing down into the bomb shelter.

Gotta agree w/ you there Peter... there is only SO much responsibility we can put on doctors to chase us down when we cancel appointments. If he'd wanted to know... he could have rescheduled or called, at least.

I was just looking at life insurance and noticed the "do you have an autoimmune disorder?" question. As one who works w/ medical insurance policies... your policy can be rescinded or voided if you don't answer these questions honestly.

People embracing a gluten free diet as a choice opens up a WHOLE new market for gluten-free processed foods. When I was diagnosed, there were little or NO processed foods available. You have to cook!! REAL FOOD!! Check out even non-specialized grocery stores now... you can find gluten-free TV dinners, frozen pot pies and hot pockets kind of crap that people shouldn't eat... gluten-free or not!!

Look at the low carb craze... a super marketing opportunity!! Newly diagnosed celiacs won't have to learn to cook w/ the ingredients we use... cause they'll be able to buy processed food already cooked!

I don't mean to scoff at people who don't like to cook and are looking for easy transitions to a gluten-free lifestyle... but when you learn to use different ingredients in your cooking... a whole 'nother world opens up. Changing one processed lifestyle for another processed lifestyle isn't so healthy.

How do Bob's Red Mill oats bake up? The oats I have (Bob's) are more like grains of kasha rather than the flaky Quaker Oats. Do the oat "kernals" bake up well?

We went to a gluten-free bakery in Portland, OR. The house looked like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel! They owners gave us tastes of so many things, our tummies were full w/ we left... as were our arms... w/ bisquits, bread, rolls, cakes!

Sorry, I don't remember what the brand of sour cream it was... and it wasn't wheat exactly. It was modified food starch and I was avoiding it in everything else. My daughter pointed it out to me, which turned out to be a good thing, cause who needs ANYTHING in their sour cream except milk and cream???

We went to our local mexican restaurant a few years ago and they'd been taken over by new owners... so we had the "celiac talk" w/ our waiter and asked him to please ask the cooks/manager if the chips they serve w/ the salsa were corn tortillas and NOT flour. He came back and said, "Would you believe that the corn tortillas we use are dusted w/ wheat flour?"

There was nothing I could eat... and we've not been back there. It's a shame.... the food and service was good.

Try coating chicken nuggets/strips with smashed up Cool Ranch Doritos! I soak 'em in buttermilk and then dip and bake. They're YUMMY!!

I was the first diagnosed in my family at age 48... altho I'm fairly certain my older sister and brother may have it. Sis suffers terribly w/ weeping eczema and food allergies galore, altho her doc blood tested and it was negative and my brother gets eczema on his hands that he finds to be much better if he even cuts back on wheat.

My middle daughter (of 3 daughters) was diagnosed several years ago. She was also the lucky recipient of bipolar disorder from my exhusband's side of the family.