kbtoyssni

It's time to start eating meat. At least try some chicken. You're going to waste away otherwise.

I disagree. It's very possible to eat veggie and gluten-free and not starve. I've been gluten-free for almost three years and mostly veggie, and I'm certainly not wasting away. Eating out is tough, but eating at home isn't.

I did start eating some meat after going gluten-free (I'd been veggie for five years). I was having a lot of stomach issues for the first year or two of being gluten-free, and veggies were difficult to digest. Meat just sat in my stomach better and didn't make me feel sick. My stomach is feeling better now, and I only eat meat maybe twice a month, mostly when I'm out to eat.

Try replacing bread with corn tortillas or corn chips. You can make sandwich-wraps or "scoop" sandwich fillings like egg salad.

Use rice or potatoes as a base. I like to take this for lunch and add some cheese and salsa. I also take a salad everyday.

You can get good pasta. Tinkyada is a favorite brand around here; I also like Mrs Leepers (found at SuperTarget) and DeBoles (found at most grocery stores in the north midwest).

Try Quinoa, it's a gluten-free grain that looks like couscous that is also higher protein.

Not sure what you used to do for breakfast, but there are gluten-free cereals out there (usually have to go to a health food store to get them). I've switched to scrambled eggs (if you eat egg) or non-breakfast food. I love Thai Kitchen "ramen" noodles so I eat those sometimes with a string cheese for protein.

What's your typical diet like? We can help you come up with specific substitutions.

Caramel coloring may be made with gluten, although is usually isn't. You have to check each brand. I've never found one that wasn't gluten-free, though. Coke/Pepsi products are gluten-free. Oscar Meyer hotdogs are gluten-free. Oscar Meyer is owned by Kraft, and Kraft will always label gluten.

Ketchup - depends on the brand. Heinz is gluten-free.

Soy sauce - again, some are ok, although most aren't. La Choy is gluten-free. Wheat is usually very clearly listed on the label.

Watch for condiments that may have had a gluten-knife dipped in them. Replace your wooden spoons, toaster, collendar. Check your makeup and lotion and pet food. You don't eat this stuff, but it's so easy to accidentally get contaminated.

There's a huge learning curve, and you'll probably make a ton of mistakes in the beginning, but hang in there. This does get easier!

What about asking your middle schooler to help you bake bread and make other things he takes for lunch? Does he also pack his own lunch in the morning or night before or do you do that? You could maybe ask him to start helping. When I was growing up my dad would make my sandwich, but the rest of the lunch was up to me.

Does he have access to a microwave at school? Sometimes warm lunches are easier - you can whip up a huge batch of chili for him to take. Or have him take it in a thermos. What about easy things you don't have to do much prep on like hot dogs in boiling water in a thermos? If he does have microwave access maybe send him with a potato to bake with salsa to put on top. Or those thai kitchen ramen noodle things are great when you really don't have anything else to send.

I go to Dr Ronda Stellar in Shoreview. She's a GP, but she actually knows what celiac is and tests all her women who have infertility issues for celiac. She's a great GP because I'm never going to get the evil "are you sure you have celiac" look from her.

There is one line about how many people only "think" they have an intolerance and that for them it is a "lifestyle choice" to eat foods free of certain ingredients. Dont agree with that. Who would choose this lifestyle?

They might be referring to people who don't have an official medical diagnosis. That would include people like me who have a very obvious positive dietary response and will never eat gluten again because I like being able to get out of bed every morning and live my life, but I did technically "choose" this lifestyle rather than have a doctor tell me to go gluten-free.

I would absolutely get tested! It certainly can't hurt. With your GI symptoms plus fatigue and a family history, I'd say odds are high that you have it. Do remember that testing often results in false negatives so you may want to try the diet even if testing is negative.

My main symptoms were chronic fatigue and joint/muscle pain.

The ingredients should just say "chicken" or "beef" or whatever meat you're eating. Grass fed or organic doesn't matter in terms of gluten-free. It's once you start seeing things other than the meat like flavours or chicken broth that you have to start calling. It's pretty easy to find plain meat, so I wouldn't even bother with the stuff that has other things added.

I have food with me all the time. I've got snacks at work, snacks in my car, snacks in my purse. I know the safe food I can get at a gas station. And I've got great friends who know what I can eat and usually have something around their places I can eat. Eating can be a challenge, but I figure I'm never that far from food. And it's not like I'll starve if I have to go without for a few hours.

Hi, I'm just starting to feel good enough to get back into the dating game but wondered how quickly do you tell someone you have celiac? I don't want to scare them off before they take a chance to get to know me.

It usually comes up on the first date because the first date often involves food. I'd mention it when you first do a food-date.

I would do a few more things to try to make this new job work. First, I think you have to be more direct with the coworkers. You have to tell them you're very allergic to gluten, that you CANNOT eat at the Waffle House. I would go so far as to not go out with them if they insist on eating at places you can't eat at and you can o by yourself to a safe place or the grocery store. Obviously if it's a client dinner this may not be a possibility, but if it's just the coworkers I think it's reasonable.

If you can't travel with enough food, try to hit up a grocery store when you get there so you can make your own lunch at least. Another option is to bring your own food with you to dinner or to eat before you go in your room and just sit there during dinner.

It sounds like your boss may not care to change his ways, though. Maybe you should talk to HR about accommodations. I'm sure this falls under ADA somehow. If you're traveling for business, I think they have to make sure your dietary restrictions can be accommodated.

Smarties are gluten free. Maybe it was something else in them - like maybe one of the colors?

Just wanted to add that it depends on what country. Smarties in the USA (the pastel, chalky candies) are gluten-free. Smarties in the UK (chocolate with a colored shell, like M&Ms in the US) are NOT gluten-free.

This is the worst part for me, too. I'm usually very sharp and on top of things, but when I get glutened, I sometimes forget names of people I've known for ages and can't follow a conversation. It's embarrassing.

Sometimes the anger just wells up until I feel like I am going to burst!! I wish I could just accept and go on... in front of everyone else that is just what we are doing... but inside I just want to go ballistic on a few doctors and friends. And I feel like I am constantly beating myself up for not figuring it all out sooner, I know that isn't the right thing to do. I know that I am not to blame, but I am having such a hard time letting myself off the hook.

Maybe a good way to channel that anger is to write a letter to each of the doctors explaining how much better your son is doing on the gluten-free diet and include some information about the inaccuracy of testing in young children, the risks of letting a kid go undiagnosed, and the variety of symptoms. Your letter may at least help some other kid get diagnosed more quickly.

Most boys, as soon as I explain the "can't kiss you if you've been eating gluten" aspect get really interested in eating gluten free around me, and improve their dental hygiene immensely. If you find someone who's supportive and sees it as a fun challenge instead of a great burden then you'll be just fine.

I've found this is a huge motivator for guys to eat gluten-free, too!

I know the restaurants around me, I know what I can eat off their menus, and I try to suggest a restaurant. As long as I have some say in where we go, I don't have much trouble. I'm so far past getting embarrassed about not being able to eat gluten and asking lots of questions about the food. Eating gluten-free is just what I do. I go in, I look at a menu, I ask the waiter about ingredients and request special preparation, no big deal. That's just my life. I've gotten the questioning process pretty streamlined by now, and if I can check out the restaurant before I go, it's not too much trouble. I'm guessing if the other person senses this isn't a big deal for you, he/she won't think of it as a big deal either.

I would also say anger is part of the natural grieving/healing process. It seems very normal to be angry that your son is sick, to be angry that the doctors didn't figure it out, to be angry that they couldn't give you the diagnosis you needed. But you have dietary response, that's a valid diagnosis. Unfortunately, you were the one who had to give the diagnosis, not the doctors. You have no reason to feel guilty telling people your son has celiac - he's obviously got some form of gluten intolerance.

I do occasionally feel anger at several doctors who failed to diagnose me over the period of about eight years. What was the point in going to all those doctors if I was just going to diagnose myself??? I have no problem saying I have celiac even though I didn't have a positive blood test, but I do feel frustration over some of my joint injuries. What do I tell people? "My arm hurts, I don't know why"? That just sounds not very serious. I'm getting close to wanting to make something up so it's easier to explain. And if I'm serious about working towards a solution to the injury, maybe making up a diagnosis for me isn't so wrong. You know your son has some form of gluten intolerance. So calling it celiac and taking him off gluten and getting his health back is the best thing to do.

I don't get what your friends' problem is with not bringing their own snacks, either. Do they think their children will starve if they don't have goldfish or pretzels??? It's a short party, even if their kid hates your food they'll be fine. And I think your food sounds great. What kid doesn't love watermelon and popsicles?

I don't think you're self involved for wanting to protect your and your daughter's health. These get-togethers are social events, meant for your kids to learn to play together and for the moms to have some adult time. It's not about the food. I've got plenty of great friends who are perfectly ok with not bringing gluten into my house. And if any of them had a food allergy, I wouldn't bring that food to their house. It's just a common courtesy, a way of showing you care enough about the other person to think of their needs. That's what friendship is.

I would probably bring all my own food, too. Your boss obviously isn't going to make any accommodations for you and it's not worth sacrificing your health just to eat the restaurant food. I would feel no embarrassment pulling out my own food at a restaurant - make your boss do any of the necessary explanation to anyone who asks.

Most Celiac's will be diagnosed with either Fibro or IBS before they ever get a real diagnosis....and usually this will only come when the patient has done their research and requested the tests on their own.

This is why I say that the BEST thing to do is investigate all of the possibilities.....don't expect the Dr. to do that for you (especially in an HMO) its just not going to happen.

This is exactly what happened to me. I got my fibro diagnosis and immediately went to the library to check out every book they had on FMS. I tried 10-20 of the suggestions I found in those books. One of the suggestions happened to be eliminating gluten... and here I am today. The thing that is most frustrating is many people diagnosed with FMS are too tired and hurting and brain fogged to do a lot of this for themselves. These are people who really need help from a doctor to guide them in the many different things they can try to find the root cause.

I'm another one who thinks FMS is a description of symptoms and a good starting point for finding the root cause. I was also diagnosed with FMS, but when I went gluten-free, 99% of my symptoms went away. When I start to feel like I'm getting a fibro flare, I know it's time to do some digging into what I'm eating and make sure I'm not accidentally eating gluten somehow. It's a tough disease because there are so many different things that can cause it from celiac to lyme to environmental stress. It's hard and very time consuming to find the root cause of this one.

I bring whatever I want to grill wrapped in foil so I don't have to worry about CC on the grill or in the charcoal. I also bring a dish to pass that's gluten-free, and my friends are really good about not sharing spoons or dropping crumbs in my food. Otherwise I'd either not bring a dish to pass and just bring my whole meal or I'd take some of my dish out at home and bring the rest of the dish for other people.

This one's a tough call. I tend not to eat food that's manufactured on the same equipment as wheat products. If it's just the same facility, though, I go by my own personal experience and that of other on this board. Some brands seem to have more problems than others.

I am self diagnosed (negative blood test) with a wonderful doctor who accepts dietary response. I have celiac on my records, but if I ever have trouble with insurance I'll say "prove it". Heck, I'd be willing to do a repeat blood test right now! I think it's important to tell your doc. A celiac is more prone to other autoimmune diseases so I want her to be on the lookout for that. My mum has a similar situation and her doctor immediately tested her bone density - something the doc wouldn't have done if mum hadn't had celiac. Plus my doc wrote me a note/prescription about needing to be gluten-free so I can easily carry food with me to sporting events and airports.

I don't have a bracelet, but I do keep a note in my wallet in the same pouch as my drivers license saying "Celiac Disease (intolerant to wheat, barely, rye, oats), Peanut Intolerant". So if I'm unconscious and someone goes digging for my identity they should find it, and I've got it defined if they don't know what it is. And I'm guessing that most people will correctly assume that IVs don't have gluten and just give it to me. I use the wording "peanut intolerance" to hopefully get across the point that I'm not anaphylactic. I guess I could leave that off since the likelyhood of me being given peanut butter is extremely low.

I want to give medics info, but I certainly don't want that info to delay treatment. I have no idea. Maybe I should ask a medic.

Mamaw my thyroid was checked 2 months ago and my TSH was 3. Low normal I think.

The only thing I can think of is maybe my supplements are not gluten-free even though they say they are. I wish I knew. Maybe I will stop taking them all and see how I feel.

Maybe you could post what brand of supplements you take, and we could give you input if they give us problems. I *think* I've heard that a low thyroid can still be a problem, but it often gets ignored because it's technically in the normal range. Lots of tests are like that. Normal ranges are based on an average of many people, so the low side of the normal range may still be too low for you.