Poppi

So after about a week with no coffee I made a Caramel Via when my sister in law came by this afternoon. Half way through the cup the headache and muscle aches started. Still not sure if it's the Via or coffee in general but I think I'll be going back to my Rooibos tea from now on.

The easter candy could have been packaged on shared lines too. I've noticed that a lot.

-Daisy

I wish I still had the bag so I could look at the ingredients but it definitely didn't have a "may contain..." or "manufactured in the same facility..." statement. I don't buy those items. I'll have to double check but I think those statements are law in Canada or at least they will be law by 2012 and some manufacturers are phasing them in already.

Although, now that I've had this experience I've been noticing items with a "Gluten Free" label on them that also have "may contain wheat" or "manufactured in the same facility as wheat" written after the ingredients. How the heck can you call yourself gluten free if this is the case?

I noticed that on the Black Diamond Nut Thins. They say "Gluten Free" on the front and have a Celiac Disease Foundation label as well but then state that they are manufactured in the same facility as wheat. I don't get it.

K8ling I can sympathize.

During my last pregnancy I was so sick. I threw up for the first time the day before I took my pregnancy test (3 weeks 5 days) and for the last time an hour before my daughter was born. Inbetween I threw up 1-12 times a day, every single day. I was on Diclectin, Gravol, Zofran and Benadryl. I had a serious allergic reaction to Phenergran so that was out. The cocktail of drugs made it possible for me to stay out of the hospital for the most part but I was still admitted for rehydration and IV nutrition on a number of occasions.

I had other complications during that pregnancy. I have anti phospholipid antibody syndrome so I was injecting myself with heparin twice a day to stop my blood from clotting. As a result I was on bedrest from 20 weeks until I delivered at 37 weeks. My husband worked out of town 5 days a week and I had a 3 year old son and a 13 year old son to take care of.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying I understand what you are going through, you're not alone. I would suggest checking out the forums at Open Original Shared Link, wonderful women who can help you.

Good luck!

This is in the super sensitive section. This could be corrected to "no chance of gluten over 10 ppm" - I looked it up and they are certified by GFCO which uses a 10 ppm cut off.

Huh. Learn something new every day. I guess I should have been more specific and just said it was something I hadn't reacted to in the past.

I didn't have the bag anymore and even went to the store to see if they still had some of the candy around but they didn't and they couldn't tell me the company because the only description I had was "the marshmallow eggs in the brown bag"... not very descriptive.

My scones actually had corn flour in them so I don't think it was corn and I make myself a homemade corn tortilla with avocado and cheese on it for lunch a few times a week and feel fine after.

A lady on another site had a great suggestion for me that I will definitely be implementing. She suggested that any time I eat a processed food for the first time I cut out the ingredient panel (and write the name of the product on it) and put it in a big ziploc bag. If I get sick from it I put the ingredient panel in another bag marked "SICK!" and once I have a few items in there I can compare ingredients and see if there is anything in the sick bag that is not present in the other bag.

Worth a shot. At the least it'll help me keep track of stuff that works and stuff that doesn't.

Thanks for the info everyone. Luckily it was a fairly minor hit, I've had a off and on headache/neckache since yesterday but no joint pain or stomach issues.

So when I was shopping for the kids easter candy I bought Reese’s mini cups, Icy Squares, chocolate coins (the foil wrapped kind) and a bag of chocolate covered marshmallow eggs that said “gluten free” on the bag.

So we did our candy hunt and I had some of the kids chocolate (it all read clean on the ingredients) and I felt awful. Definitely glutened. I figured it was anything other than the clearly labeled gluten free marshmallow eggs, right?

So today I had Udi’s cinnamon raisin bread, butter and tea for breakfast - no chance of gluten! For lunch I had more tea and a strawberry scone I made myself from scratch - again, no chance of gluten.

After my scone (yes I realize I am eating horribly today) I had one single chocolate marshmallow egg and 2 hours later I hurt all over. My stomach is fine but my back hurts, my head hurts and I’m cranky.

Feels like gluten but is that possible?

The kid in the old green pic- up with Kansas liscense plates, a Mtn bike & a snow board standing at your door in a few days is J. He will be your new son.

He'd probably love it here. We live within a few hours of great skiing/snowboarding, the best surfing in the world and we are surrounded by really nice beaches and other outdoorsy type stuff like mountain biking, scuba diving, camping, rock climbing etc etc

We've already got 5 kids, I'm sure we can cram another one in downstairs without hardly noticing.

That sounds like a dream. I should check bylaws here but I'm pretty sure I can't have chickens in small town Sask.. I'm guessing lots of people would and it would be a circus trying to keep things clean and neat. My family has farmland outside of town but with few trees and not much rain usually (and no well), it would be hard to have an acreage there. You have treeeeees... you lucky girl... I love trees.

If you're coming for a visit, Kareng, I'm guessing you would like trees over tumbleweeds.

Don't forget the ocean. I'm on an island. It's a fairly big island I suppose but we are still only a 5 minute drive or a 25 minute walk from the beach.

Darn...I was hoping it would be some place close to Maui. I'm probably next door. Comon Kareng! You've always wanted to come visit the home of the Mounties, moose and..the mighty beaver.

If I lived on an acreage I would have chickens, a cow, some sheep... and dogs and cats. Also chinchillas but not for making coats or anything ...ssshhhhhh don't want to talk too loud or Chilli will hear.. And as long as I'm fantasizing.. I would like a garden that would supply all my veggie needs..and a hothouse for winter fresh veggies powered off of a geothermic, solar, wind powered system that would have left over power that I could sell... and a fresh water spring... and a million dollars....

Where are you? I'm on Vancouver Island so you're probably not next door.

We have a decent size city lot but thanks to city bylaws we are allowed 4 laying hens and a large vegetable garden. I'm only putting in 50 square feet of garden space this year but if it goes well I hope to double that for next year. Once our oldest 3 leave home we are hoping to move about 30 minutes north with the 2 younger ones and have a small hobby farm. DH wants a shooting range and I want 10 chickens, enough garden space to provide all our veggies plus some to sell at the market and maybe a couple of sheep because I spin yarn and knit.

I react to skittles because of the food colouring but aside from that they made me feel gross because of the sheer vast amount of sugar entering my blood stream all at once.

Eat chocolate.

I love you.

I'm not sure what the selection is like in the States but up here in Canada my surefire safe (for me that means gluten and artificial colour free) fallbacks are Cadbury Fruit and Nut, Cocoa Camino Dark Chocolate with Orange and the gigantic Lindt Dark Chocolate bars you can get at the grocery store for $6. I always have at least one of those things lurking in the closet. The nice thing about dark chocolate is you can kill a chocolate craving with a couple small squares.

The biggest thing for me in satisfying cravings is having really good baked treats in the freezer. I bake things like flourless chocolate cake, Gluten Free Pantry chocolate truffle brownies (I add almonds), gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and gluten-free apple crisp (I can handle Bob's gluten-free oats) and once the family has had a serving each I divide the rest up into single servings and freeze them for me. It's nice to be able to grab a brownie or a piece of cake or a snack size ziploc with 3 cookies in it when I have a craving or if we're going somewhere and I want to take a dessert with me.

I also keep a tub of Chapman's ice cream (it's Canadian I think) in the freezer for my personal consumption.

My boys could help yours build a robot chicken with laser beam eyes that lays chocolate eggs.

I want one!

This would be worth the trip to make it happen!!!

Yup, anyone want to come to Canada this summer?

I read that you can put it through the self clean cycle and then reseason it and it will be fine. If you don't have a self clean cycle then perhaps the hottest your oven goes for an hour or two? Not positive there.

Cute! I so wish I could have chickens. I currently rent and I don't think my landlord would take to kindly to it.

Maybe someday....

Someday! I've wanted chickens for years but we were renting and then there were a few years after we bought this house that my husband was living and working 2 hours away and we weren't sure if we were still going to be here long term. As soon as his long-awaited transfer came through and we knew we were going to be living here permanently we ordered our chicks. They are so sweet... a bit cranky right now with the molting and everything but cute and fun for the kids to watch.

Those names sound a little 'prophetic'.... keep an eye on Killbot

My son insists he is going to train him to focus his energy enough to shoot lasers from his eyes.

Looks like two of them are Rhode Island reds??? They are so sweet

Yup, 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Silver Laced Wyandottes. They are 9 days old today and already escaping from the bin we have them in. Oh dear.

Chicken Killer is a good dog name. We had a rabbit named Stew who got eaten by a cougar but my Dad always threatened to have Rabbit Stew for dinner one night.

Glutened by a steering wheel? Did you lick it? I don't mean to be a smart a**, but doesn't the gluten have to enter your digestive system? I don't think you get glutened by surface contact. Maybe I'm wrong. I do touch my husband's regular bread and carefully wash my hands. I've had no problem from that.

Don't you ever eat in the car?

I can see my husband eating a burger while driving and then me sitting in the same seat the next day driving and eating a bag of rice chips. For a very sensitive individual this is totally plausible. I'm not quite that sensitive but not far off.

They get played with a lot ... maybe even too much.

They do have names. Our 5 year old named one Chickie, our two older girls named one Fifi, I named one Bennie (mmmmm... eggs bennie) and our 15 year old son named one Killbot. Teenage boys are so weird.

So I have a big family. Myself, my husband, our 3 kids plus our two Vietnamese girls who are living with us for several years while they study in Canada. (Plus 4 chicks who currently live in a rubbermaid tub in the upstairs kitchen).

Right now I am discovering that I am quite sensitive to even small amounts of cross contamination. I grabbed the wrong peanut butter jar a couple weeks ago and was sick for a whole day when there weren't even visible crumbs.

We are lucky to have 2 kitchens so the upstairs kitchen is mostly gluten free and the downstairs kitchen (where the 3 teenagers live) is full of gluten foods. The only exception to this rule is cans of soup (no crumbs) and a couple of loaves of gluten bread in the upstairs chest freezer that my husband will use to make the little kids toast or sandwiches but he only uses the top of the freezer for that food prep and I don't put my food on that surface.

We have a toaster oven so I feel safe taking the rack out to wash before I toast my bread and my husband is pretty good about wiping it when he's done and dumping out the crumbs.

I can't afford to replace my pots but they aren't Teflon, They are Circulon which is a different type of non stick. I am hoping to replace them in August or September but not before then. So far I don't think they are bothering me though.

I try to avoid contact with gluten foods and crumbs but a certain level is inevitable while cleaning the dining room and emptying lunch boxes and such.

Anyone else with a large family of gluten eaters? How do you keep yourself healthy?

So now we have 11 mouths to feed in our house. With some love and care though these little girls will be feeding us eggs next year. I can't wait! For now the kids are all thrilled to have 4 chickens living in the kitchen. I have to admit they are cute. The lady at the farm supply store looked at me like I was a crazy person when I asked if there was gluten free chick feed. I don't allow gluten foods in the upstairs kitchen where the chicks live though so it really was a reasonable question.

Between gluten free food for myself, the fact that myself and both of our sons are allergic to food dyes and petroleum-based preservatives, I can't tolerate perfumes and being in Canada couponing is pretty much out of the question. We buy almost no processed food and I'm very picky about our toiletries and household cleaning products.

We don't get coupons in the paper in Canada and stores never, ever double them anyway. I'm lucky if I can get 50 cents off my laundry soap once in a while.

I don't have a blood test or a biopsy. I went gluten free for a few weeks to see how I felt and there was such a drastic and sudden change in my health that people I barely knew were stopping me to comment on how amazing I looked. My husband and I thought maybe it would be good to start eating gluten again so I could have the test. I had one small serving of a gluten food as an experiment on Monday and I'm still sick 72 hours later. There is no way I am going to make myself extremely ill for months so I can have a doctor tell me what my body has already made crystal clear to me.

The only question I will have to learn to live with is whether I am gluten intolerant or truly celiac. I can live with that uncertainty since the treatment is the same either way.

I'm sorry you were treated that way. He was wrong.

I have a celiac friend who was very overweight and lost 60 pounds when she went gluten free. I am thin but not super skinny and lost 10 pounds randomly in the first week I was gluten free. I think fixing your diet will allow you to have the body you are supposed to have. If you're overweight perhaps you'll lose weight and if you're underweight you'll likely gain weight.

Also, severe body aches are my biggest and most painful symptom.

I think it's possible. I won't cook the kids gluten food because I don't want to expose myself to crumbs. It can take as little as one crumb to get sick so it's just not worth the exposure. You could have accidentally wiped crumbs and/or flour on your clothes and then had it contaminate your food that way. Or inhaled aerated gluten from the cleaning.

I've learned to never underestimate the risk.

In our house the only gluten food in the upstairs kitchen (our 3 teenagers have a seperate gluten kitchen downstairs that I never cook, clean or eat in) is bread that is in the chest freezer for the little kids. My husband will prepare them toast and sandwiches using the top of the chest freezer and the toaster that is on the shelf above the freezer. Then the surface gets wiped off and I never put my food on that surface even if it looks clean.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup white rice flour

1 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup potato starch

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

combine dry ingredients with a whisk and set aside

In the mixer, cream the shortening and sugars until smooth

Add vanilla and 2 eggs, beat until nice and fluffy, scraping the bowl a few times.

Gradually beat in flour mixture until well combined

Stir in chocolate chips

Bake rounded tablespoons on parchment paper (on cookie sheets obviously) at 350 degrees (I used the convection setting in my oven so watch the first batch carefully in your own and adjust time or temperature accordingly) for approximately 10 minutes.

Cool on a rack.

ENJOY!

* You could try using butter instead of shortening but when I tried that the cookies spread too much, even when I chilled the dough.

I have a celiac friend in my knitting group who also enjoyed these cookies tonight. I hope you like them too.