BlessedMommy

Duck eggs are awesome! They have a lot more B12 than chicken eggs. My neighbor raises chickens and a duck and often would put 1-2 duck eggs in every dozen eggs that I got from her.

So, did your friend reply back about you bringing your own food? 

LOL! We ate breakfast at a friend's house when we ending up staying over at their house unplanned and as I ate (I had carefully made scrambled eggs prepared by me on a rewashed stainless steel pan and some fresh and canned fruit) my friend quipped as he pointed to his cereal boxes, "These cereals might as well be labelled "Shredded Death" and "Nutty Casket." (Shredded Wheat and Nutty Nuggets)

LOL! It's good to have a friend that "gets" the seriousness of avoiding gluten.

I call my MIL and my inlaws are fine with bringing all the regular pizza, which makes it a moot point.   It's nice not to have to worry about it! After converting my kitchen to gluten-free, it feels like bringing in a biohazard! LOL! 

Hmm....actually occurred to me that I could also just have the inlaw's cook all the regular pizza at their house and bring it over and never bring it into my house.

My hubby and I are having a combined birthday party, because our birthdays are 4 weeks apart. Hubby and I would like a pizza party.

However, it would be a lot cheaper and easier if I could provide regular pizza for the gluten eaters.

But recently I've converted my kitchen to gluten free. If someone gives something glutenous to hubby, my normal practice is to have him bag it immediately and remove it from the house, eating it only at work.

Would there be any CC issues if I brought in frozen regular pizza, quickly baked it in my oven, and then removed it and put it outside, serving all the food on disposable plates and with disposable utensils?

I don't have a shared kitchen, my kitchen is actually dedicated gluten-free, but I was more thinking along the lines of restaurants and the like.

If plastic utensils can't be shared between gluten free and regular food, wouldn't that rule out any eating anywhere that isn't dedicated gluten-free? 

I stopped at a gluten-free bakery in Atlanta but we didn't end up buying much, just a few cupcakes as a treat, because their bread was $12 a loaf! 

Oh, and regarding meals on the road, there are a lot of simple meals that can be thrown together while you're traveling. One favorite of mine was spanish rice & beans cooked up in my rice cooker. Fast, easy, safe, and cheap!

For breakfast while travelling, we made up gluten-free oatmeal in the rice cooker and served it with jam on top and some soymilk and fruit.

Also, maybe could you explain to people that you mean no offense to them, but with the severity of your condition, you simply can't risk eating anything that wasn't prepared in a dedicated gluten-free facility. You could even say that your doctor recommends that.

Do they realize that even a little bit could send you to the hospital? Do they understand that what you have is basically the equivalent of an anaphalactic peanut allergy? 

I would absolutely make sure that you have all your meals planned out and taken care of, yourself. I would bring literature for them to read on the deadly severity of celiac and what it can do to you. I would try to make them understand that some people DIE from untreated celiac.

I would try to explain to them just what the consequences can be. Most people are fairly supportive of my gluten-free diet, because they remember seeing my very severe skin rash and remember my trip to the ER for a TIA. I try to explain that neurological complications can be deadly and I prefer not to gamble with my life, especially since I have kids to raise.

One thing that I did when traveling was pick up frozen gluten free breakfast entrees and heat them in the microwave of the hotel. With fresh fruit and hardboiled eggs (I rinsed them off just to make sure!) it was a pretty decent breakfast. 

So sorry that you're having to deal with people who don't get it. 

So really the bulk of the concern over wood is mostly about using wooden utensils, because of their extensive content with gluten items. (i.e. stirring pasta, etc.) It doesn't seem to me that bread crumbs would absorb into wood, the way pasta water would.

So does that mean that I'm okay to eat stuff prepared at my MIL's house if she washed the cutting board beforehand? 

Best wishes!

I don't have a diagnosis myself and I wish that I did, but in my situation, the doctors I consulted didn't help me, I did some working on my own to figure out my problem, consulted with a naturopath, and by the time that I realized that I definitely wanted the celiac antibody tests, it was too late....I wasn't able to tolerate a gluten challenge.

Unfortunately celiac testing isn't low cost and available to everyone, sometimes you have to go through hoops to get it! Luckily, though, you don't need a doctor's permission to eat gluten free, although a medical diagnosis can be helpful when dealing with others.

I hope that you feel better soon and figure out exactly what's causing your issues!

I guess that my thought was that you don't know if the person chopped the veggies or fruit on a wooden cutting board that had been previously used for gluten items. Apparently, though, that's not much of an issue and maybe is an extremely remote risk?

What about salads that are all fruit/veggies with no dressing of any kind already on them?

I just wondered what other people do in regards to eating single ingredient items when out of the house. How far do you take precautions to avoid CC? Do you literally never eat anything that's come from anyone else's house or has been arranged or chopped by them?

What about fresh fruit or vegetables or cooked vegetables? Do you eat carrot sticks or black olives from the relish tray? 

Have you ever been glutened by eating a single ingredient food in a social situation?

I'd echo the advice that it's basically a personal choice. I would personally give the caveat though that you need to be very, very careful about reintroducing gluten after eliminating it, if you decide to go the gluten challenge route. (see my sig for my experience!)

I've noticed something and it's that people have a tendency to proclaim that they're not celiac and then give a follow up line about not being as careful on the gluten-free diet.

My thoughts are as follows:

1) Really? How do you know that you're not celiac? If a person went on the gluten free diet without bloodwork, then they definitely haven't ruled out celiac.

Those who have been blood tested could've gotten a false negative. Even if they did a biopsy, they could've missed the section of your intestine that has it.

2) How do you scientifically know that doing a lax version of the gluten-free diet won't hurt you?

I just am not sure why people go around proclaiming 2 different sets of rules for celiac and non-celiac gluten free diets. Rhetorical question: Is there any scientific information proving that purposefully cross contaminating myself is a good idea? 

This came from a conversation that I overheard at the health food store. The employee was advising a gluten intolerant person about oats and though I didn't hear the whole conversation, it sounded like she may have been encouraging the person that eating non certified oats was fine, because "you're not celiac."

I started chatting with the lady while standing in line and as it turns out, although she's supposedly not celiac, she is pretty much bedridden and violently ill if she gets any gluten.

I advised her that even if the celiac tests don't show celiac, it doesn't mean that she's not.

I don't have a clue, but it annoys me that it's in there.

I'll either:

a. wash my hands after feeding them

b. make somebody else do it

c. pour their food directly out of their container without touching it

That is so frustrating! It's annoying when the chance to get a good diagnosis is blown away by medical professionals who won't take you seriously.

Could you call around and find a dermatology office that will do a DH biopsy for you? It doesn't sound like your current doctor is much help....

I hope that it works great for you! KUP!

It is so hard to work with doctors when they won't even order the tests that you need!

I understand the desperation of just itching constantly and wanting it to be over with.

Here is a before gluten-free picture, I was newly post partum with my first baby. This was not the worst of my rash, not by a long shot, it was much worse when I was pregnant. But you can see the obvious swelling, lines under my eyes, and general look of unwellness.

Open Original Shared Link

And here is a photo of me about 6 years later, and about 2 1/2 years into being gluten-free. I was feeling MUCH, MUCH better, as you can visibly tell!

Open Original Shared Link

Thank you Ruth for your support...I have a question, since you have been gluten free for 4 yrs has your rash cleared up?

 

Elaine

My skin is much, much better than it used to be. Is it perfect? No and sometimes I still have flare ups (plus have contact dermatitis hand trouble that I attribute to too much contact with soap and water in the winter), but certainly nothing like what it used to be. Another symptom of my gluten intolerance was swelling. In another thread, I had a before gluten-free and after gluten-free picture, I'll have to paste them and show them to you.