Comments on: one gluten-free day

By: phyllis

phyllis — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:34:27 +0000

I've had Celiac for 25 years, and sometimes it's still so hard to get my family not to cross contaminate my food and my prep areas. Other than that, I love my diet and I would never want to eat any other way. When gluten almost kills you, you don't want anything to do with it, so it's not hard to give up in the least...at least not for me. You did a nice job with your research, and I'm impressed. Thank you for taking the time and effort to go gluten free. It raises awareness of what it means to have to be gluten free, and ultimately makes like easier for Celiacs. Twenty five years ago I was an outcast due to my disease. It's not like that nowadays thanks to those like you.

By: Zenzoa - I Wish I Were a Bodhisattva

Zenzoa - I Wish I Were a Bodhisattva — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:27:09 +0000

[...] Not Martha’s review of Gluten-Free Girl makes me wish I was more of a Bodhisattva; a person full of loving-kindness with not a judgmental bone in my body. Or at least, imperfect and mortal that we are, someone who would be described that way. But I’m not — not yet. [...]

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:58:31 +0000

For all of you sufferers of celiac and wheat intolerance. http://www.glutenfreeda.com is a free resource with over 4000 gluten free recipes, articles, product tests, etc. It was started by my wife in 1999 when she was diagnosed with celiac.
It used to be a subscription magazine, but last year we made it free.
Please take a moment and browse, I am sure you will find it helpful.
Megan, great article. I remember when my wife first was diagnosed and the problems we had. We are now a gluten free zone at the house and office. The number of items available today is so much greater than in the early years. I look forward to the convenience coming for the gluten intolerant person. BTW Fred Meyer is now offering a good selection of gluten free foods in a number of their stores, as is Whole Foods, Food Pavillion, Huckleberries, and Trader Joe's.

By: heather

heather — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:08:14 +0000

Megan, just to clarify, it's not just wheat that we can't eat, but barley and rye too (I'd mention oats, but you already covered that in the comments). They all have the same gluten protein.

FYI, Outback and Red Robin have lists/menus of the items that people who are gluten intolerant can eat.

By: Jody

Jody — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:09:41 +0000

I have a strong intolerance for eggs, which I've only just realized... it's hard for me to eat out when I start thinking about all the places eggs COULD be used and just not knowing.

Thanks for sharing your day, I think it'll help others who haven't had to go without a certain common food product to realize what some of us go through everyday.

By: jessica

jessica — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:58:13 +0000

When my coworker found out I couldn't eat gluten he would bring in muffin recipes and tell me to "just use a different kind of flour." In a wonderful coincidence, his mother showed him an article about gluten free baking, and he came to work stunned at how much chemistry and thought is involved in substitutions. Although living gluten free is definitely effort, it becomes a learned behaviour over time so does get easier.

It's hard for most people to really grasp what it means to avoid gluten, so thank you Megan for doing this. Raising awareness is so important and one of the best things that people can do for Celiacs everywhere.

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:19:55 +0000

Nice article. For your second act, go a day trying to avoid dairy products. All of them. Six years ago I developed an allergy to all dairy. Not just intolerance, but actual allergy. To lactose and lactase. The number of things I can no longer use/eat is staggering.

By: mnfiddledragon

mnfiddledragon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:00:01 +0000

Surprisingly, there are some pasta places that do have delicious gluten free menus. In MN, Ciatti's (or I guess Chianti Grill is what it's now called) is one such place. Yum!

By: maria

maria — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:56:11 +0000

My boyfriend has a lot of food allergies: peanuts (will kill him), all legumes, soy, most seafood. Cooking for him and buying food for him has really opened my eyes. Soy is perhaps as insidious and ubiquitous as wheat. Fortunately, as long as you don't rely on too much packaged food, it's pretty easy to stay safe. :)

By: Annie

Annie — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:38:14 +0000

Miranda -- unfortunately, that's not how celiac disease works. I just want to clear this up in case other people who are just getting started or are still seeking a diagnosis read this. There's no such thing as a "less severe" case of celiac disease. There are some people who have fewer *external* symptoms when they do have soem gluten. In fact, everybody has different symptoms and there are no real "classic" symptoms of celiac disease. But if you ingest gluten, you will be doing damage to your system & increasing your risk of all kinds of associated problems -- even if you don't ingest enough to *feel* sick. It's an autoimmune response on the level of molecules, and not feeling sick to your stomach does not mean you're not making yourself quite sick.

By: miranda

miranda — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:55:49 +0000

If you weren't extremely sensitive, there are a lot of things you were concerned about that you could probably eat. It seems like you were following an extreme worst-case-scenario plan. For example: unless I'm specifically in a cycle where I'm reacting a lot to things other than wheat, steel-cut oatmeal is fine (I can't eat rolled oats ever: that might be cross-contamination, but I assumed it was just some structural difference in the oats caused by the two different processes). At the Olive Garden, trying to eat gluten free would be difficult, but I would consider something like Chicken Marsala and ask them not to dredge the chicken breasts through flour. Better not to eat there, though. But, I don't have a serious case of celiac disease. (Instead of worrying about minute amounts of contamination, I would just pull the bun off a burger... I realize that some people do have to worry about the minute amounts, but not everyone is like that.) One of the real troubles is finding gluten-free pastas that don't have a gross texture: I've been happy with Quinoa pastas and with a blended pasta called Bionaturae. Some people probably can't eat them. There is, however, a lot of stuff you did eat that I couldn't have eaten at my most reactive, when I've also had to avoid all sugars. Apple, honey for the tea, chocolate chips, diet coke... *wistful sigh* So, there isn't always one right gluten-free diet for every person, and gluten isn't always the only concern per se.

By: Gina

Gina — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:32:13 +0000

I have celiac and have been (happily and healthily) eating oatmeal for breakfast for several months now. I get mine from http://www.glutenfree.com: lara's rolled oats. They are grown in dedicated GF fields. Basically, oat and wheat fields typically get rotated with each other annually so the chance of cross-contamination is very high (I got sick trying quaker oats and I'm not that sensitive).

By: marisa

marisa — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:12:57 +0000

This is a fascinating post. Kudos to you for being so vigilant with ingredient investigations.

By: Jan

Jan — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:40:04 +0000

Thanks Megan! That's really good to know.

By: megan

megan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:56:46 +0000

Jan - Shauna addressed this at the book signing I went to. For people with celiac who are very sensitive, they can react to oats. She said that for a long time people have suspected that the protein in oats is molecularly similar to gluten. There is new evidence though that oats grown in a field next to wheat can become contaminated, or oats grown in a field where wheat was grown the year before can become contaminated. She told us that there was a teenager with celiac (or the brother of someone with celiac?) who did his 4H project on this.

She mentioned a few sources for absolutely gluten free wheats, one small farm in Canada, one in America, and soon Bob's Red Mill is opening a whole facility that will not process wheat (ever), and only processes grains that are not contaminated.