gfp

There was testing done awhile back, that if the alcohol is distilled and fermented that gluten cannot get through.

Where? show me the testing....

The molecules are too big or something to that affect.

So based on that all hard alcohols that are distilled and fermented are safe. That is why it is safe to drink Jack Daniels, it is made out of wheat.

Most likely your stomach is not healed well yet, there fore the alcohol is upsetting it. It is not because it has gluten in it.

-Laurie

Unfortunatley distillation doesn't work like that... its just the way its taught at undergrad chemistry but in the real world and post doc research it's really nothing like that...

The actual chemistry is pretty involved... so an easy way to look at it is....

Size is pretty much immaterial.... alcohol is much bigger than water... but it evaporates at a lower temp...

or another way.. water boils at 100C or 212F ? but it doesn't, it actually boils way below zero C ... its just on average it boils at 100C... when you see steam coming off ice you are seeing water boiling...

Its unfortunate that the explanation is so compex... but unless you know quantum mechanics all I can really do is give examples...

The bottom line is easy though.. some of us react to distilled grains ONLY... not uncolored cognac or potatoe vodka ... indeed I have a few illegal bottles of hooch from pure sugar and also potatoes... and I don't react to these or wine .. so something must be getting through... the process.... I wish I could explain it simply but the science is pretty advanced and I even asked a friend who specialises in this as a post doc (he also lectures) and he couldn't come up with a way to explain it to people with college chemistry.

num1habsfan: Its not going to help asking other friends if you were correct... what you need to decide is if she is a true friend?

If you decide she is then she is probably insecure right now and being self centered... if she is always like that then she's probably not a true friend... but if she is acting weird she could be depressed or other things are happening in her life...

I could say to you.. you don't have time to deal with this right now... and concentrate on yourself and so on.. but you know I might equally be giving her the same advice? Perhaps she is feeling lonely and that your not so close anymore?

Basically she said shes been at her bfs place almost all the time (like i needed to know that!),

Erm you don't need to know but she's saying why she has less time?

Also your lack of interest in this is indicating you are somewhat treating her as she is treating you...

you also sound a little jealous... like she shouldn't mention this because you don't have one..???

Be honest with yourself ... because if this is the case then it explains why your growing apart....

Perhaps she has self exteem issues and she feels you should be interested in her new BF?

You need to grab the olive branch or not... if you don't it will likely be withdrawn and you will put a gap in your relationship that might never heal. If you want to continue the relationship then you should take it and decide later if its worth continuing...

One new poster assualted me. Steve missed it, but it was after one of his posts that she got nasty. I called her on it, she got nastier. The WHOLE THING was deleted starting with Steve's post. One of my posts that should have been deleted wasn't, so you can still see it there and all it says is "deleted post". If that's the thread, Steve, that's what happened. I agree that your post didn't need to be deleted, but the rest did.

Probably but there should be some explanation....

I don't mind if they attacked me and the real thing is they really needed help....

The initial posts were not so understanding, I don't agree with the original poster (obviously) but the responses were a little antagonistic and really as my post pointed out we all have different ideas anyway.... wouldn't the world be boring if we didn't...

IMHO the initial posts should have been moderated ... no one special, just the overall tone ... and its not like the posts were actually wrong.. but they really didn't seem very compassionate to me and this person so obviously needed help not criticism...

They could possibly have been a spammer... they did mention one product by name... but I think as a group we failed them.. sorry... I felt like the responses were more of a club or clique reacting rather than the usual helpful posts ... I can see why but IMHO its no different from people who choose to eat "gluten-light" and brush off breadcrumbs or share a toaster etc. just a little more over the edge...

Its my opinion many people are conning themselves over shared kitchens and several other matters but that is thier opinion... I don't agree and I can be a little direct but try puitting yourself in their position... they think they found a cure they want to share and they just get very negative replies instead of being helped?

A similar thing happened over the lyme disease poster... but she was partially correct and apparently did get diagnosed earlier... and probably a few people here actually benefited from what she said?

So once again I think we failed as a group here.... and perhaps we can all learn from that...

Hi all thanks for the advices. I also know I need insurance on it (slander & libel coverage for those not so nice posts) well the deductible on that coverage alone is $25,000-$50,000. depending on site's rules.

(Rice Guy, I know exactly what I want in the site. No hesitations at all, no willy-nilly from me!)

But alas what I am looking at is too expensive, I need more than my mere "seed" money. So with regrets I have to say I can't do this.

The insurance can be bypassed by hosting it elsewhere.... (ask a lawyer but if you host it in Europe or somewhere then you're probably fine) the real problem is protecting your idea and from the way you don't seem to want to share it you must have a cracking idea??? The real prob is the patent idea just isn't going to work unless you have a lot of seed money..

You can also sell the idea...?? that might be another option...

Like I say I don't wanna be negative but I wouldn't want you to spend money and find this out later...

You can still find a high school kid and give it a try... keep it on a private server at home and you can do this easily for a couple of hundred $ including buying a seperate computer to test the idea...

I am not necessarily looking for free server. I am confused about one thing...if I use an intenet web designer, how do they know without sitting alongside me, how I want my site to be arranged? Isn't it best to sit down face to face with the designer? (Forgive me I am of the generation BEFORE PCs and I am playing "catch-up" with learning about them). I am an 8-track woman in a celiac disease world!

You can make mock-ups etc. but it really comes down as I said in the pm about what you want to do.

If you want it updating frequently or if its static.

Do you want users to be able to post or submit content etc.

If you are not sure then sitting down with someone is a good idea but they can just be a school kid... unless you do it yourself the process will be iterative.

If you can find sites that have elements you need/want then this can be looked into... the biggest step is if you need a merchant account (ability to process credit cards) ...

To put it another way you could ask how do I write a book or how do I build a model car from scratch?

You can buy pre-made car kits, you just assemble or you can have the pieces designed yourself etc. or you can make it all from wood and glue it together... it all depends what you want the model car to do...will it have an engine that works? etc...

You can prototype things yourself, on paper even...

Finally .. what works on the internet financially is almost always ideas from techy people... sorry its the way it is... from Yahoo to Google, Amazon or any of the "Web2" companies nearly all of them started out as techy ideas. Many many very good ideas have been lost on the internet and today this is getting even more pronounced because there is so much there people gravitiate towards "accepted sites" which they feel are authoritive.

You should also check if your idea has been done... its likely it has and it just didn't get a critical mass. If it hasn't got a critical mass then it's unlikely to show up in google. Equally the sucesses today need a lot of start up capital OR the person doing it to be very capable themselves. If you have the capital you can pay consultants but otherwise its up to you.

I don't want to sound too discouraging ... but unless your site is specifically local you need to attract people to the site which means they have to find it... As soon as this is the case you are competing in a world market...and people have certain expectations in this.

As I said in the pm and others here have said the chance of you patenting the idea is slim to non unless you have a outstandingly brilliant idea commercially and have a 5-6 figure sum in reserve or backing for it. Even if you do you need to enforce it... which is equally expensive.

Once again my posts have been deleted without explanation or comment.... just like they were never there???

Meanwhile there is a thread with several rule violations where people are mentioning there own websites.

Why are posts deleted or the whole thread so far as I can see in one thread and another has incvreasing rule violations and not a peep from a mod?

Nicely said johnsoniu!

Yep .. well put...

@pyoplasty

The thing is if your brother came here himself and presented that we would have no problem believing it...

A combination of mis-informed MD's and the way MD's deal with patients makes it all seem believeable...

Drinking pop to put on weight sounds a bit stupid... so does advising a diabetic who can control their insulin through diet to just not bother since most MD's find most of their diabetic patients are not willing to stick to a diet or loose weight.

Its really that simple in some ways... a MD might just tell him whatever he thinks he'll do regardless of it not being the healthiest option...

At some point you are going to have to decide if you trust your brother ... but its not so simple because he also has to trust YOU....

There is no reason he is not telling 100% the truth as he was told it... that doesn't mean he is... but somehow you or he are going to have to broach this........ sooner or later .... I'm guessing he's telling mostly the truth but that doesn't mean he is... or is not. He might also just have added a few "white lies" as well.... he could have good reason like he's waiting for some other tests for something more serious and doesn't want to worry the family or he could just have thought "they think I'm lying anyway so what the heck" BUT he could easily by no great stretch of the imagination be telling the complete truth!

However ... and this is the important part .... IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER IN SO FAR AS YOU UNDERSTANDING AND HELPING HIM. You so obviously care but I detect that your looking for evidence against what he's saying and the problem is we have ALL (more or less) been told incredible BS from MD's that makes gaining weight from soda sound sane...

If he came here asking for advice I woiuld believe his story at least enough to advise him his MD is a quack and gaining weight from pop is not a good way to do it. So like I say you have to decide if he's telling the truth as he beleives it and his MD is a quack or he's simply making stuff up OR he maybe just added a few things in for convenience....

I really think the only person can give you these answers is your brother.... and I get the impression we beleive him perhaps more than you.... DON'T WORRY your not a cruel freak... etc. THIS IS SO COMMON as to be practically normal for us... many many of us have probs with family members beleiving us... and we still love them.... they just don't get it...

HOWEVER... you have gone one better than many of our families and actually set out to help him by finding out for yourself...

Perhaps the best thing you can do is perhaps admit you found it hard to believe BUT you found this site and read up and your sorry (one of you has to make the first move).... perhaps he'll admit he was laying some parts on a little thick, perhaps it will just turn out he's repeating what he has been told by his MD... either way your a step closer

This is going to sound a bit rough but your here because you're worried about your brother so I will just say it straight...

Many of us here have problems with families believing us... heck many of us have problems with MD's believing us!

As Nantzie recounts we don't advertise our symptoms...

I'm going to hazard a guess that your brother is somewhere along not feeling comfortable and feeling noone will believe him...

He might just throw some stuff in anyway, if you don't believe him why not as it were?

Many of us has families who worry we are obsessing with celiac disease, like its a new cult-religion with secret membership and we are being somehow conned into not eating what we like.... don't take my word for it, read the threads!

"My family doesn't understand" is a recurring theme....

He can also be depressed, its not unusual becuase gluten screws with your brain if your celiac....

Now if you step back and look at all this together you can really help.... I don't think its a single thing, I don't think your family is any different to many of us... but you can make an effort to tell him you believe and find out more...I'd say its best you really do believe, not just say so .. hence spend some time searching through this board and make your own descisions....

Sorry if that sounded a bit too direct but hopefully this is easier to take comiong from someone you don't know

If Hannah is having Lactaid Ultra, then she is not "off milk," as Lactaid Ultra is milk with lactase added to take care of the lactose.

I second everything Ursa Major has written.

If soy is not a problem (sorry if I missed any info on that), you might try soy milk, or almond milk if nuts aren't a problem. Some brands of rice milk, as you probably know, are processed with barley enzymes and are therefore not safe for celiacs.

I'll third that....

The percentiles are meaningless and you shouldn't worry about them, they are based on average growth rate and average groth rate means obese unfortunatlely ...if not in the short term in the long term. Or to put it another way a large proportion of the kids in the upper 50th percentile will be clinically obese and of the rest many will become obese later in life...

You are giving your kid healthy food, you can't expect her to be up there with people who feed their kids burgers every meal!

In the same way you are also developing healthy eating habits for the future!!!!

The 5th %-ile is a little low but she has a lot of catching up to do and she might also just be naturally small and healthy!

In short you are not only doing EVERYTHING a great parent would do, you are doing a whole lot more. That Dr has a cheek!

I don't think they can do the diabetes glucose test on small children? (the one where you are starved and then flooded with the drink, its both age and weight restricted as I remember)

I was thinking of going and making an juice, we just got an juicer this weekend and havent tried it out yet.

Do i have to go somewhere to get the massage or could my hubby use the black pepper oil on me, even tho i dont know were i would be able to find it, we live in a little country town lol

paula

If he does you need to make sure you follow the directions to the letter, its one of the strongest oils so you really don't want too much, it will burn if its not diluted enough in a base oil.. (I'm no expert but my ex was a qualified aromatherapy masseusse)

Oh i dont want to take an laxative, i took one over a week ago, and i thought i was going to die, that pain was so intense, i was crying. It was more painful then having a child natural lol.

I cant drink coffee, it makes me very sick and nasious.

I guess i will just have to wait pateintly

or go buy some prunes, ewwwww

paula

Prunes are greatly under rated... eat loads or most fruit and it will help...

However since your having such a rough time can you get yourself an aromatherapy massage... black pepper oil is almost instant.

sweetie, bring your own food, they should be able to eat what they want, just as much as you should, just bring your own food, tehn you can eat whatever you want. its impossible to get sick from the couch, what are you? Licking the couch? If the couch really made you sick, do door handles, railings, public restrooms, tables at restauraunts and everything make you sick? I think its a little unlikely.

Yes, yes, yes etc. the only safe thing is the handles on restrooms since we tend to wash our hands after touching these.

You obviously mean well ... no question but I think you misconstrued her worries.... and perhaps (I hope) you are luckier with your family.

You're being a little paranoid, just be careful about washing your hands, i'm sorry if i sound unsympathetic, i have a big family, where, whenever i go, i bring my own food, because, there is no point torturing 20 other people about me not being able to eat gluten. They eat what they want, and i bring whatever i want in a nice little sealed tupperware.

And your pants, skirt .. children... etc. etc.

This is I think the problem that TinkerbellSwt has with her family....

Its acceptable to wash your hands after using the bathroom but clearly its not acceptable for her to wash her hands or insist people wash theirs before touching them...

Paranoia is a perfectly normal and healthy thing, its used by every lab handling toxic chemicals, every construction site etc. indeed its legislated... because unforseen things will happen...

If people were handling rat poision then they would be expected to wash thier hands before touching food... yet commercial rat poision is nowhere near as toxic as gluten is to a celiac. Indeed if you worked in a lab many common kitchen cleaners would be classified as toxic and safety proceedures followed handling them. If you enter a construction site you are required to wear a hrd hat... even if the construction site is essentially finished and they are just doing wiring and painting...

In French there are different words for an irrational fear and one which is rational... A fear of heights that can kill you is not irrational... a fear of poisionous snakes is not irrational.. indeed many horses are terrified of snakes when they have one of the best metabolisms for actually surviving a bite...

This is because a fear of something potentially injurious is a good thing to have... the problem is if you are scared of all snakes and even blind worms or spiders... then this becomes irrational.

Clearly, they just don't get it. It doesnt' mean they don't love you, they're just stupid in the gluten department. Good luck, stop worrying so much about getting glutened by the couch, and bring your own food! I also want to say, please stop having a pity party, there are people out there with actual diseases cthat can't be stopped by diet restriction, it's not that bad, really. Go have some ice cream, you'll feel better. And, your family doesn't not love you, they're just dopes, my own mother accidentally fed me chicken broth with wheat starch in it, and i was one sick puppy really soon after that, so even the good ones make mistakes, so, you shouldn't put your health in anyone elses hands, especially since you have such a fear of CC. I know celiac is tough bc we have to eat to live and some foods are posion, but in mo there are people who seem to enjoy bieng sick and just want to have one big pity party, life is too short, i'm sure you're a better cook than whoever was making dinner that night anyway!

This is your perception and doubtless you are correct but that doesn't mean that all people who are regarded as this really don't have a good reason, even if that reason is just depression or a chemical imbalance... indeed it could again be regarded as a survival mechanism... a plea for help that they can't handle?

One common such group though a little extreme illustrates this in those people who do self harm or half-hearted suicide attempts... are often regarded as attention seeking... perhaps they are but it doesn't mean nothing is wrong with them...

Huge cultural differences exist... in some cultures a lot of stock is put in not complaining... some cultures have no word for PMT... but this doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means they don't recognise it, give their wife a good thrashing and send her back to work....

Many of us have deliberatly cultivated a over developed protection mechanism for gluten.... for some people that is what works for them ...

Anyway... I just got invited to a dinner... I dread to think how to turn it down but luckily my girlfriend is invited to another dinner the same night... (here's to hoping the inviter doesn't change the date) ... but the real problem is I know my friend will TRY and cook gluten-free... I also know she doesn't get it... after all her SISTER was a celiac but she grew out of it!!!!

The real problem is people who do cook but don't undertstand and then get all hurt... like if you had insisted on seeing the packet for the stock....

One thing I have had to do is stop cooking for others so often... partly helped by having a smaller appt.

But the problem is I'm well known for cooking.. people fight to be invited then like to reciprocate only I can't accept the reciprocal meal and then they get offended ... this is partly because Im known to be a great cook... they think its because I don't want to eat their food because of this but its not.. its the gluten issue and CC. I've found it easier to take food to places where their are no meals owed etc.

my gastro specialist said i could try to get pregnant after only 1 mth gluten free - i waited 3-4 to be cautious!

Well you could but I agree with Ursa, its not ideal.

Also I have had a blood test done recently and my celiac results came back 'normal' on all the tests. my gastro specialist and celiac society specialists here also had no knowlegde of lack of tollerating vitamins being related to celiac - so i had thought it was unrelated. ? but hey you do get the same symptoms.

My stomach reacted to almost anything for a while, especially when i was starting off and thought I was gluten-free.

5 years+ down the line and I look back at that I thought was gluten-free with horror.

Yes Im sure they were gluten free - the laws on gluten labelling here are pretty strict (not US) and I tried 3 spearate brands all stating gluten free.

You might want to check the laws to the letter.

For instance most of the EU has allergen laws but they are very vague and allow a lot of leeway... unfortunately I found most of the laws are at least cowritten by the food industry and you need to be in lawyer mode to understand them.

Many have terms such as "knowingly", in other words iof the manufacturer doesn't ASK SPECIFICALLY they can be considered in the clear. Also check if vitamins come under "food" or "medication", laws are often different.

I am so glad i saw this thread this morning. Last night i was talking with hubby and debating if we should all go gluten free, or if i should just have my own shelf and keep things seperate. I still dont have an official diagnoses, but i do know how i feel not eating gluten, and how my step-son feels not eating much gluten(we are working on that). But i sit here and think if i do come out postiive for celiac, wont that make my kids have a very good chance of celiac or at least gluten-intolerance. So it would be in my best interest to go gluten free in the whole house.

I know when i have been heating things up for me i have uses paper products to reheat them, then i just throw them away. After being glutened the other day from touching the same utensils of hubby, i am kinda scared to keep gluten in the house.

I guess i will just have to think about this a little more, before i decide what i am doing. I just hate to make 5 other people go gluten free cause 2 of us have problems.

paula

I'm really glad it helped....

As for the kids.... yes they have an increased risk BUT as far as inconvenience they also get a new mom... one who is less ill, has more energy and for many of us much more even tempered.

Let me put it from a different perspective... the time you spend with your kids (and hubby) only happen once.

Four score years is shorter than it feels when we are 5-6 ... so your kids are not misisng out they are gaining....

Lets say you suffer from mood swings like a lot of us do... what would it be worth financially to get rid of that with no medication and side effects? How much is it worth to have a wife/mom who has the energy to do everything she wants to do with her kids, hubby...

The brilliant thing is YOU CAN TRY FOR FREE.... take my offer its got a 100% money back guarantee if your not entirely satisfied and the only cost is not exposing yourself to gluten....

If I knew what I do now... and could magically take this knowledge back I would gain back 2-3 years of my life... but like I say some things have to be experienced.

If you can get a 100% gluten-free kitchen and try it for 3 months all you waste is buying some cheap extra pans for 3 months.. (and you can clean the good stainless ones.. etc.) .. honestly you have little to lose except finding out what I did the hard way....

After 3 months you can try eating out and see how it affects you ... you can try having a gluten-free area or the inverse... etc. and see what happens. My experience is we all mess up from time to time because cooking is a semi-autonomous action...

Thanks everyone! Its so nice to not feel crazy about a 'hunch'. The biopsy took only two samples and I've also been reading about the various stages of celiac disease and the spectrum of gluten intolerance/allergy. Its funny--I guess I've been a bit naive about the medical system. I'm a scientist, so I just assumed that medical knowledge was based on the same kind of methodical testing that we do in physical sciences, but I'm learning its not true. Its often an art as much as anything, and the studies they do can be far from rigorous, or overlook obvious assumptions that render the results meaningless.

I am just checking out all the 'other ingredients' in my vitamins and whatever else I thought was gluten free but isn't (like the pickled beets I just bought tonight!).

Andrea

Oh please don't start me on this... !!!

Look up oxymoron and the definition is medical science!

If anyone noticed my long posts

Open Original Shared Link

Yes this is ME....

As a one off I would find the worst possible gluten-free muffins or similar .. the ones taste and have a texture worse than the box they come in ... and take them in gratis.... in the box so they can see they are not tampered with etc. Its winter make sure they are as cold as possible...

If you did add laxative you could find yourself in very deep legal hot water.... tempting as it must be!

Equally your HR dept should be aware that this is injurious to your health at best not to mention constiutes a discriminatory work practice and that although you are willing to ignore the fact its discriminatory because you don't expect everyone to cater specially for you this does not extend to you being pressured!!!!!!

This would apply equally if you were obese and simply trying to follow medical advice, being pressured into donuts is not acceptable but in this case a siongle crumb can make you sick...

Well, the first step is definately DON'T PANICK!

After this its a progressive step... or lots of little steps... but as many have said things become second nature ...

The biggest step by far is the descision to go 100% gluten-free... including all risks.

Many of us here made niaeve first steps at gluten-free. I certainly did.

Equally many of us saw initial improvement and reached a plateau. Again I did.

I still eat out and its always a risk... anywhere with gluten in the kitchen is an ever present risk... and as someone once wisely said here, it might be down to luck BUT we make our own luck!

Sometimes I get caught out... its a fact of life if you don't allow the illness to take over your life completely. However when I do I have my own gluten-free haven which is completely and utterly 100%...

This works for me.... I can go home and not eat anytihng with any risk at all for 2 weeks, and be confident I am not missing something or convincing myself something isn't causing me damage.

Additionally and I think this is just as important is the phychological advantage this gives me.

We all get upset tummies gluten issues aside... and a single glutening can have effects for up to 6 weeks and for neurological effects much longer but even sticking with random GI effects you can drive yourself crazy trying to work out how the heck it happened.

So back to the biggest step...

If you do make your kitchen 100% gluten-free you can always be confident .. its much easier to isolate etc. if you eat outside you have a safe haven.

Dishwashers are OK... but they are not faultless. Teflon pans are usually OK but not faultless. Wooden spoons etc. are pretty much guaranteed...to CC. Stainless steel can be scrubbed with metal scouring pads (which are then thrown away) ...

I'll just illustrate the dishwasher problem.

Commerically gluten is seperated from the starch and other proteins in wheat by hot water. The more efficient process uses a hot alkaline solution (it even has a name I forget) .. and this is what you use in your dishwasher. Most dishwasher tablets are KOH a very strong alkalai ... the reason being that it reduces fats...

However gluten by itself is basically a glue... and a very good one... so putting it in a dishwasher is concentrating the gluten and also making it into a very sticky substance...

Its not so dissimilar form casein in this respect (elmers wood glue) .. you can try sticking some food dye in elmers on a wooden spoon and stick it in your dishwasher...

In the end its all about risk.... other than living on our own garden zero risk just isn't possible so we have to define what is acceptable risk and what isn't. I have a friend who gets seizures .. her definition of risk is not the same as mine... each one is potentially life threatening to her, imagine having a seizure while driving!

But that's the whole point... driving is inherently risky... crossing the road is inherently risky. Some people live near really dangerous black-spots with blind corners etc. .. of these some people will avoid that blackspot... others will accept its a risk and be extra careful but it can't always be enough because of the other person... if a bus comes round on the wrong side of the road out of control all the care int he world won't save you.

MY advice would be go 100% gluten-free... but I would love to bottle my experiences and give them to you... but I can't..neither would I have believed ME back when my gluten-free journey was just beiginning, indeed I would have laughed at ME pretty hard!

I can't bottle my experiences, just like being a parent you can't protect your children from every last thing... some things it seems we have to find out for ourselves.

All I can ask is you consider this and bear it in mind.... you are probably a lot less cynical than I am... I was at the front of the queue when it was handed out I think

I only go to restaurants with gluten-free menus with a couple exceptions. I don't mind that the menu is small ... most restaurant's menus are WAY too long anyway! This narrows down my choices a bit. I will not eat at a chain restaurant that does not have a gluten-free menu. I will eat at an independent one though. I usually check it out first, and if I don't, then I go during off hours.

.....

True but you really have little option when your travelling a lot for work....

I do the same on vacation but not the rest of the time.... and I can be pretty certain to get caught in a 3 week vacation (we more days off here)

This disease is a hassle, both for you and for those serving you. Don't be apologetic, but be thankful.

Very true....

My local Italian deli I put in touch with the best Milanese resto and possibly best Italian resto in Paris... I often take my deli little gifts (she also often gives me little gifts) and both the deli and resto self-import so putting them together worked out real well and Italian celiac certification for gluten-free is very good... so it really works for me....

Overall what I have done locally is cultivate the resto's.... but its not cheap.... ... A couple of really good resto's I take rare wine or food for the owners and leave huge tips both at the table and seperately for the kitchen staff. I have now trained quite a few chefs .... but its a long process... I'm lucky to be a good cook (OK blush.. I'm really very good) so I often cook gluten-free treats and take samples for the chefs... and try and make it a story .. last time at the Milanese we had a dessert wine and only finished half the bottle but I made some almond and apricot slices with the apricots cooked in the wine and reduced and then used this as an excuse to drop them off for the chef... and owners... Now they are trained they'll do anything for me and the chef joked about making the almond slices for the resto (its a joke the wine is $200 a bottle) but perhaps he'll use a cheaper wine

As I say its not cheap but I count eating out as a treat and you can't enjoy it if you are worried the whole time.... so I cultivate my local places (usually high mid-range resto's that are no too large) and eat out less often...

If you want to take a RISK (I ate 3x and got caught out once) then Malaya is FANTASTIC FOOD .... they say they can do gluten-free but I did get caught out but I'm extremely sensitive!

There were 2x pizza places at (Hugo's kinda celeb place) and another just opposite at Kings Cross ....

Overall it was a little difficult, the australian idea of gluten free catering doesn't seem to be my idea... that is it seems to have become so common its not really treated seriously.

For instance there was a pub, just before the rocks at the exit from the bridge footway on the S. side and the waiter said he was gluten intolerant, said they could make stuff and then didn't seem to understand beer contains gluten????

Damned annoying, as in quite a few places I paid for food I didn't eat... so we developed a technique whereby I would order 1st and my girlfriend would then eat if it looked suscpicious.

I think the most important thing is to find something you like.

Absolutely.....

For strength loose weights are unbeatable... or to put it another way that's what practically every keen or pro sportsman does for strength on top of their sport but if you hate it you will never stick at it...

My 70 something year old father swears by his pilates machine....

I personally would find it hard to work out at home with weights ... or at least keep it up...

I'm just glad you're home, safe, and healthy! I was getting really worried for a while there.

I wonder--if your mom ever looks back on her tantrums with embarrassment. Maybe you could print out some stuff about neuro celiac and rage? Maybe she'd feel a bit better about it if she could feel that it is not entirely her fault (blame the gluten!), and then she'd be more likely to stay gluten-free in the future and be more understanding of you to boot!

(Yeah, yeah, I live in a dreamworld!)

Welcme back, anyway.

I guess but its not just me, its everyone she knows....

She has a list of ex-best friends... as long as my arm and now I find even her own sister is avoiding her because of this.

Bear in mind this is the sister looked after my brother and myself when things were tough... and mom was too sick to look after us or when we literally just didn't have enough money for food/electricity etc.

My borther is also avoiding her as well and she gewts very hurt but she never has a good thing to say about anyone... that isn't tempered by some story of something she can't repeat...

I feel she has a lot of my Aspie tendencies but she can't control them anywhere near so well as I do...

It doesn't help that I find it very hard to just apologise when I know I did nothing wrong...

She lives in self imposed exile..in the middle of nowhere ... I actually own her house but nothing is ever OK .(my brother provides cash).. she's complaining that her dishwasher is old... ??? it was a gift from her sister and works perfectly well... my brother just compensates with gifts.. she has a new flat panel TV and satellite etc. she complains she can't afford electricity so I went out and spent over a hundred pounds on low energy bulbs .. for every major light in the house... and a reading lamp with a natural daylight bulb for reading and knitting ... fitted it and wired it in and she complains about the wiring.. (which is behinf the sofa and can't be seen unless you pull out the sofa....) the table is too large... etc. etc.

I'm at my wits end....

She did stop eating the codex stuff and ..... well lets just say I think the withdrawal was what caused her temper swings..

Ah... I dunno what can I do? If I went home more often perhaps but she makes it so hard... since I got rid of my car I have no insurance so I'm pretty much trapped .. a 5 mile walk to the nearest town/village ... she won't visit me because she won't leave her dog...

I think I'm just moaning now... I mean things could be so much worse... at least I still have both parents...

Like Richard said the body fluids thing has been discussed and seems pretty OK except saliva.... Im guessing you meant another type but seriously saliva is a prob if they are eating gluten and have not really thoroughly cleaned their teeth...!!!!

Feeding dogs etc. I'd say switch to gluten-free food.... even if you can wear a mask and gloves dogs are not the cleanest eaters ... at least dobermans don't have beards but half of what dogs eat gets rubbed round their face...

As for meat.... I would avoid the digestive tract itself... and I would probably not eat pigs intestine if it was fed wheat ..

As far as I know cows can't eat wheat..(or any ruminant). Im pretty sure they would explode... but they can perhaps eat artificial food containing it so tripes are probably not a good idea from non-organic sources... a mask when i feed him???......

If there is non-gluten free baking done in the household how long does the flour particles stay in the air?....wearing a mask would naturally be my first step....

This is probably 100x riskier than your other concerns.... it stays in the air and settlers until you clean/vacuum etc. then it is back in the air... very fine flour can float for days...

I'm seriously wondering if this glutening did some damage if it wasn't just CC and those breadcrumbs were REAL.

In my experience the quantity doesn't seem to matter.... it can but then every so often the tiniest CC can have me knocked for 6...

Another theory I have is our body stores up gluten in fat... (well around fat) and when we starve and start using the stored fat for energy we release the toxins... indeed we probably release lots of toxins so if your not eating then your using up your fat reserves and releasing the toxins stored away which can make you feel icky all by itself....

On the + side.... you are getting rid of these toxins... once and for all instead oif hiding them away...

I hope you are able to reflect back and find something positive that comes out of it--maybe that your mom finally *truly* realizes just how sensitive you are to gluten. Maybe you have helped her in some strange way. Considering how angry you were at her, I'm amazed that you actually went back to her place at all, and then to help her with the things that she needed...you're a good guy, Steve.

CL

Well you can't choose your parents.... and as someone else said, what if its the last time we ever speak?

The funny thing is she hasn't spoken to my father for 4-5 years.... although they have been divorced for 26+ yrs... something happened 4-y yrs ago???

This has made it very difficult to go home, my father is very reasonable and accepts mom will sulk of throw fits if I stop with him...

yet the chance of it being the last time I see him is pretty high each time... he's been through mutliple bypasses, pacemakers and cancer... and to say his prognosios could be better is an understatement....

So my uncle and aunt actually rang me about how to invite my father... since my cousin wanted him present... and we chatted at some length... even my moms sister is avoidiong her because of mood swings and what in a 5 yr olds wouild be called temper tantrums.... when a 64 yr old does them.. what are they called?

I don't know if it was the asking of my father by my aunt or if she is just like this now... but I honestly didn't know what to do/say.... I'm cooking dinner, fixing her concealed lighting u7nder the work surface and also the ceiling etc. etc. she doesn't want to have to reset the video so I have to work on the electricity live ??? (its OK I know what I'm doing but it takes 10x longer) etc. etc. and I'm being selfish???

I actually spent the WHOLE vacation doing stuff for other people with the exception of a single day....I took my camera and took photo's... and my girlfriend also went along with everything.... and my poor father suffered the whole thing as well....

Still now they are actually speaking??? she called me up on the way to the airport all tearful...

Oh well....