NicoleAJ

I wouldn't say that not liking D.C.-- city where one has spent a great deal of time and has always gotten sick many times and hasn't found very many accomodating restaurants--is worthy of name-calling or questioning one's sanity. Let's just say that not everyone likes D.C. and save name-calling for boards other than celiac.com where we come for support and open discussion.

You may just want to ask your friend for suggestions as to what she generally eats. I imagine that any place with a good salad and an ability to mix it in a fresh bowl with oil and vinegar would probably be a good bet. If not, you might want to go with some sort of reliable Asian place (for tofu/rice dishes) and bring your own gluten free soy sauce. I have a friend who's vegan, and when she came to visit, there was almost nothing in common that we could both eat, so we went grocery shopping together and just cooked our separate stuff and ate it together. Sorry I don't have better advice--it takes so much dedication and vigilance to remain on the gluten free diet that I can't imagine further restricting foods.

With me it's hit-or-miss. I have had several meals out where I've been 100% fine, but I've had quite a few that weren't ok as well. I usually order the same few things at the same several places and ask for them in the same exact way--most of the time it works out, but sometimes it doesn't. I chock it all up to the cross contamination issues you're talking about. I don't think that the pan has to be brand new, but you are at the mercy of the dishwasher--if he/she wasn't thorough, you could have a problem--it's the risk you take, but it can be truly rewarding to have someone really give you great service and go above and beyond to prepare you meal specially. If I do get glutened, I usually try to eat at home exclusively for a few weeks, but I really love and frequent those places where I've never gotten sick.

Maltodextrin should be gluten free if it is produced in the United States, but in other places it might be questionable. I tend to make it a policy to call the company and check if the product is gluten free if I see things like maltodextrin, natural flavors, modified food starch, vinegar (if it doesn't specifiy whether or not it is distilled or a vinegar other than white) etc in the ingredients label. Usually the company will confirm that it's safe, but other times they might disclose the fact that even if the maltodextrin is ok, the product might be at risk for cross-contamination. People who have other ways of going about it might give you different advice. In my mind, it never hurts to check.

I was impressed by the graphics of the villi though--that was pretty cool. I doubt they actually turn black, but it did illustrate the point nicely.

I went 24 years undiagnosed and the only voices I hear are through an ipod. And I may have had internal bleeding, but it was coming out the other end.

Though they had to find some way of sensationalizing celiac for popular consumption and a good story line, I'm not sure that having a young crazy baby-drowning mother was the trick--it somehow seems like a retrospective apology for Andrea Yeats and other baby-killing mothers rather than being about celiac.

How many people get cancer that young without having other celiac symptoms? All press is good press, but my boyfriend accidentally bought me some gluten-filled ricotta today and I caught it in the nick of time--right before plunking it into my gluten free lasagne, and he, after the show said, I bet that drunk of a husband brought home the wrong ricotta one too many times. I can just picture one of my aunts calling me up and saying, now you won't try to kill your first-born right? You do have this thing under control don't you? It's definitely good to promote discussion, but this probably isn't the most effective way they could have done it for all of the misconceptions it could spur.

I was lactose intolerant for years, and I was still having some problems after going gluten free, so a year after my diagnosis my doctor had me do a lactose intolerance test--I just had to drink something with lactose and breathe into a bag at regular intervals--very non-invasive compared to all of the other tests I got. Turns out the test was completely negative, and I'm back to drinking tons of milk, eating cheese, ice cream, yogurt, etc.

Even if you could safeguard against all cross contamination, which would be virtually impossible, emotionally you might feel as though you are doing a great thing, but it might only add to your feelings of being isolated when it comes to partaking in particular foods. When I was first diagnosed, I had people come over for a presidential debate party, and I hadn't figured out how to make many of the gluten free goodies I know about now. Consequently, I baked pre-made cookie dough because I felt the risks would be less if I weren't mixing the flour--I felt some effects, probably from not washing my hands or the pans well enough afterwards, but emotionally I couldn't help but feel left out in my own home.

There are so many delicious things we can make for others that there's no sense in taking the risk, physically or emotionally. I teach at a univesity and a few weeks ago I took in the chocolate mousse cake with raspberry sauce that's listed in the recipe forum, and my students ate every last crumb and thanked me for bringing it in--they had no idea it was gluten free and they didn't care--they were just getting a decadent dessert and thought it was nice that their English teacher would bake for them.

BetseyCo--I hope you've found out what was going on since your last post. Don't lose hope. I'm 5'6 1/2" and was down to 94, but four years later I'm actually up to 125 and I love it--I finally fill out my clothing and spill out of my bra. When going on the gluten free diet I was so emaciated and malnourished that I couldn't really eat fatty foods, but I started introducing them slowly so they wouldn't make me sick. I eat tons of avocados (high in fat but healthy), lean red meat (I hadn't eaten that for nearly 6 years because docs thought it was too rich for my delicate digestive system), and a good share of dark chocolate. When gaining weight, I did no exercise at all, but now it's time to get back in the swing of things because I've used weight gain as an excuse not to workout but my weight has been stable for over a year and a half--guess now my only excuse is that I'm too lazy to get off my now-nicely-padded behind!

Erica,

It sounds like you have the right idea in just letting yourself heal for now. But I'm in a similar situation where I have a boyfriend finishing his dissertation, and I'll be beginning my own in the Fall. I've got some news for you--writing a dissertation is not so difficult that you cannot cope with life while its being written. My boyfriend and I have traveled to at least 10 places, moved apartments, spent significant time with our friends, and dealt with my frequent illness, all while he was writing his dissertation, and never has he accused me of trying to bring down his dissertation. I hate to be harsh, but your ex obviously has his own fears about academic inadequacy because, let's face it, it's not easy to get into academic jobs, but that is not about you, it's about him and his own insecurities.

I was diagnosed a month before beginning my doctoral program, and I moved to a college town also thinking that I would not begin to date anyone seriously and long term. However, what scared me about dating was not the fact that I had celiac disease but rather the fact that I had an ex-boyfriend who had stalked me for a year after our breakup despite repeated restraining orders and an arrest for violating those restraining orders. This is a person who once seemed normal and then turned to a total psycho, so I was truly concerned that I was simply a bad judge of character. What I'm trying to say is that everyone has their own baggage and celiac should really be the least of ours. After 4 months of living in this college town, I started dating someone I had already befriended, and he never had a problem with the fact that I have a disease. This is not a temporary relationship despite the fact that we are both living a transient existence--we're just going to have to do our best to find jobs in the same town. Sometimes I know that celiac disease has to be as much of an annoyance to him as it is to me, but he doesn't express that but just deals with it--he knows its harder on me than it is on him because I'm the one to get sick, so he's just very supportive. We have a fairly high grocery budget because of the certain special foods I have to buy, but even on a graduate stipend, we'd still both rather pay more for groceries to keep me healthy. In fact, he has said that he's eating a lot healthier now then he ever was before he met me since we're eating so many whole foods and fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. In addition, we even joke about what we will do if our children do or do not have celiac (i.e. little non-celiac Jr. will beg mommy to allow wheat bread in the house on daddy's prompting, etc). It was a much bigger obstacle for us to deal with the fact that I had a crazy ex that made me lose faith in men's ability not to fly off the handle and that he had a needy ex-girlfriend who always made herself out to be a victim in every situation. Even with all of my health issues, I'm still not a needy person and he's not an overbearing one, so we're just right for one another.

I actually took almost 3 years off of dating after my horrible college boyfriend experience, but you must determine yourself how long it will take until you feel on track and then find someone worthy of you. I felt on track during many of those times in the 3 year break, but I still hadn't met someone good enough for me yet. I have a feeling that when you do meet someone that's worthy of you, that the most significant baggage will be that you were in a 6 year relationship that wasn't working for you--not that you have celiac disease.

Also, Hall's Sugar Free varieties of Black Cherry, Strawberry, Honey-Lemon, and I think the rest of their sugar free varieties are gluten free--any of their sugar-containing cough drops are not gluten free (even though they look like it when you read the ingredients because the way or the place that they process their glucose has high contamination risks.

Yeah, all of these reactions to Sunmaid dried fruits seem strange to me. I am extremely sensitive to gluten, but I make trail mix with the Sunmaid apricots, raisins, and golden raisins (along with craisins and plain nuts), and I eat it every single day without having any problems (as long as I don't eat too much of the dried fruit). It's too bad that so many of you have reactions because this can be a great snack and source of energy.

Thanks for posting the recipe. Though I love Gluten free Pantry brownies and many other products of theirs, I was seriously underwhelmed by the angel food cake.

I'm going to visit Kalamazoo tomorrow through Saturday, and I was wondering if you have any decent restaurants that are accustomed to dealing with celiac? Or grocery/health food stores where I could buy prepared foods?

Thanks Mango for posting this topic. For those of you with allergies, how do you deal with them? I'm allergic to arrowroot, and a few months back it wasn't listed in the ingredients for a gluten free sauce that I ate (must have gone under "natural flavors"). Before diagnosis I used to just feel minor throat constriction when I ate arrowroot accidentally, but it seems that I am now more susceptible. I started with the throat constriction and called my insurance company's advice nurse, and she said I should go to the ER (it was a Sunday) just as a precaution--I thought she was overreacting, but it's a really good thing I did because after being in the waiting room for half an hour or so my thoat closed almost completely, and they had to rush me in and pump me with way too much benadryl and steroids. I don't want that to happen again, so I'd love some advice on successful procedures you've used for coping with these reactions. I don't think the allergy is bad enough to get an epi-pen, but I think it might be worth getting some benadryl to keep around--have any of you had problems with benadryl? I had it injected, so it didn't go through the GI track.

Wow, Molly, I'm also glad that you got your diagnosis in time. It's really interesting for me to hear your story because I had the exact same symptoms as a baby--vomiting and all (except for constipation--I had D instead). However, it was the late 70s and they didn't do all of those wretched tests (or even a test for celiac disease). My mom was convinced that the doctors had no clue what was going on, so after 6 weeks in the hospital she decided to change my diet herself. Instead of formula and baby food she would put sweet potatoes, green beans, cooked carrots, etc into a food processor with a bit of water, and miraculously I started to get better. She had no idea that gluten was the problem, so when I was old enough for solids, I started eating bread, etc, and I was sick frequently, but we just had no clue about celiac disease. I would have periods of being almost too sick to stand, extreme malnutrition and inordinate weight loss, dehydration, shakiness, etc on and off for years, until I was misdiagnosed with IBS at 21 and given medications that dried up my gut--these masked my celiac symptoms, and finally the damage to my system was so bad that at 24 years old I got such aweful rectal bleeding that my body could no longer take the blood loss--so bad that my doctor got me in to see the best hematologists, GIs, etc that Miami had to offer on a next-day basis. Finally, when I was almost completely non-functional, my general care physician ran my bloodwork and found that my levels indicating for celiac disease were unbelievably high. I started the diet and have been doing really well ever since, but I still get bleeding quite often because they said my system will never quite heal the way it would have if I had been diagnosed within a reasonable time frame. I'm so glad that this didn't happen to you--you are fortunate to be born in the 90s and to have such vigilant parents as well.

Woo Hoo! What great news.

When they say no gluten in their recipes they really mean it too. If they are making a dressing that contains known allergens or gluten on their line then they always produce that one after the non-allergen or gluten containing products have already been made. After they finish with the allergen or gluten containing recipes they sanitize all of the equipment using detergents and 250 degree water. I've been eating their honey mustard and I've had no problem with it.

Yes, I just edited it. Thanks for noticing. I can't imagine anything fried in only egg coating would be very good.

I just had great success with chicken fingers tonight (I also used to like Popeye's chicken). I've had lots of good fried chicken, but this was by far the best for chicken fingers. Of course I eyeballed it so none of these measurements are truly accurate.

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 Tsp potato starch

1 Tsp Adobo seasoning

2 TBSP Xanthan gum

coat chicken in 2 beaten eggs and then the flour mixture. Fry on medium high heat. cook longer for extra crispiness.

Tanya--thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so excited that you posted this list and had such a great time (with no gluten problems) in Paris, especially since I'll be there on May 24th.

By the way, when you say chicken salad do you mean a salad with grilled chicken on it or chicken salad made with mayonaise? Did you find a lot of things had mayo in them? I'm really not a fan, so I was just wondering.

In 21 months I have never cheated though I once had a chocolate croissant in my hand and could smell its flaky goodness and feel it crumble before I snapped out of my gluten-lust haze and handed it over to my boyfriend, who kindly informed me that it was stale and lackluster anyway.

I would also give anything for chicken fingers with a really thick and crunchy but soft coating--I've tried to make my own, but they just don't match up. And stuffing with gravy as well (the two I've tried haven't been so good). If you have any tried and true recipes for any of these things PLEASE let me know.

All of my friends already know and are accomodating--so much so that if they bring along people I'm unfamiliar with often they'll inform their friend rather than waiting for me to do it. But for work related things, I usually don't make a big deal about things in advance. I'll make suggestions, but if we end up at an iffy place, I just explain my problem to the waiter and then I'll handle the people at the table. I try to get a read on what would be acceptable in that circumstance--if it's a professional conference where I don't know anyone, I'll usually try to answer the humorously by saying, "yeah, I've got one of the trendiest diseases around--definitely a low-carb lifestyle." If they ask what it does to me and I'm totally unfamiliar with them, I don't even want to mention GI issues, so I'll just say with a completely straight face, something totally innocuous like, "Well, Bob, my arm just spontaneously falls off, and it's usually my left one, so since you're on my left-hand side, you may want to watch out," and then they give you a look of confusion/amusement, and I've diverted their attention enough to say, "it's just unpleasant." If sarcasm doesn't seem an appropriate response to the "what does it do to you?" question, then I'll just say that it's temporarily debilitating and can have serious medical consequences for me in the long run.

I'm with ChelsE. At first I really missed bread--particularly when they delivered hot rolls to a table at a restaurant and I watched my boyfriend, friends, or family members devour it, but I've tried enough breads to know that it's just not worth it for me, and I have neither the time nor the patience to invest in a breadmaker and make my own. I've found lots of ways around eating bread-- hello quesadillas, tostadas, enchiladas, corn tortilla roll-ups, etc...one package of Goya corn tortillas is less than $2.00 and can last for a month. I tried Bette Hagman's 'supposed' french bread--it was half way between a rice cake and silly putty. No thanks! I also really don't like the Food for Life bread--it crumbles even when I toast it, and it's just not that great. I kinda liked the Sundried Tomatoes Bread from Whole Paycheck, but I only got to eat half of the loaf before it started to taste like corkboard (and in Philadelphia it was $7.99). Personally, I don't like the taste of office products or children's toys, so I'm happy to give up bread for naturally gluten free foods.