kbtoyssni

I work out of my car and I live in Florida, so a good cooler is a must. I like the kind that plugs into your cigarette lighter. It keeps things cool even when you turn the car off for a while, you don't have to worry about melting ice packs getting things wet and you don't have to remember to freeze something every night and put it back in the cooler. I guess it depends on what place you are using the cooler in, but for the car, this one is great. You can get them pretty cheaply on ebay.

If you need to use ice packs I found the ones that come with medicine work the best. Your doctor might have some that they can give you, or a pharmacy. I used to get a refridgerated medicine mail ordered to my house and I have a ton of those.

That's the kind of ice pack I use, too. I got mine at the local pharmacy. They don't leak at all and since they're flexible, they don't take up as much space as the hard-sided ones.

I have to laugh about the cigarette-lighter cooler. I live in Minnesota, and we only get cigarette-lighter coffee mugs to keep things warm!

I've read that Jelly Bellies are gluten-free with the exception of the buttered popcorn flavor. So what do you do about the mixed bags? Won't all the jelly bellies be contaminated if there's a buttered popcorn one in there? And if you buy them separately, I don't see how they can all be CC-free is there's one flavor that has gluten. I'm just confused on this issue... and I do love my jelly bellies...

I would not eat oats or oat flour. Most oats are contaminated. There is also some debate about whether oats do damage to celiacs - it seems that some do and some don't. So even if you got gluten-free oats you might react to them.

If you are looking for take-out type food, I suggest Thai food (rice noodles), Mexican (corn tortillas), Indian.

I just use the cheap school-lunchbox type cooler. I'm usually just bringing my lunch so it's only got to last a couple hours. Plus I don't bring things that really go bad - maybe cheese, but that will survive a few hours of not being in th fridge. For longer trips, I often freeze my drink to keep the rest of the food cold.

Your brother is really lucky to have you!

Please don't feel guilty. A lot of foods which are advertised as "healthy" contain gluten, and there's no way you could know that these foods were making him sick.

Yes, it does get easier. The first month or two is a steep learning curve, but after that you just know what brands to buy and where to get your gluten-free food. Hang in there and know that eventually it will stop being so stressful.

Try to eat very basic food for now - plain meat, veggies, etc. Then you can gradually research ingredients and add things back in. I think it would be very overwhelming to try to do all the research in a week or two.

If you have a store with gluten-free foods, I suggest Glutino brand pizza. It is excellent!

I love Bread for Life brand bread. I'd also suggest getting The Gluten Free Gourmet cookbook. The bread recipes in there are all amazing and so are the pizza crusts. And the cakes and cookies. And basically I haven't made anything from that cookbook that I haven't loved. It sounds like you might be in an area where it's hard to buy gluten-free food, so a good cookbook will be helpful.

I'm not sure about the 20ppm, but I do know that Bob's Red Mill has a separate manufacturing facility for their gluten-free flours. If it says gluten-free on the package, it's made in this facility. This is the reason that their soy flour (I think it's the soy flour) doesn't say gluten-free. Although it likely is gluten-free, it's made in the same facility as other gluten products.

Most research shows that a certain amount of gluten will not cause damage. It is in the ppm range. In countries like England that have gluten labeling laws, gluten-free products are tested and have to be under this specified ppm gluten. Of course, I can't remember what the number is right now. In theory this works well. My issue is that what if I eat several things that are all under the limit and the ppm add up to be over the limit? I don't know, it's a tough one. If the flour says gluten-free, I would eat it. If it's been tested to be below a certain ppm I guess I have to go with that. There's no way they can test for zero ppm, so this is the next best thing I guess.

I've used Ener-G egg replacer before and I find my cakes don't rise quite as much. Probably because it's sucking all the moisture out. But I didn't find a problem with taste.

I've used several bread recipes from The Gluten Free Gourmet and they were excellent. I don't have them with me right now or I'd post them. You should try their french bread We've used that before for cheese fondue, and it was wonderful!

Sorry that she's being that way. Maybe it's time to only do non-food activities with her until she is willing to be a little more understanding. Maybe she just doesn't understand why you're doing this and how much better it makes you feel? You would think that she would be fully supportive of anything that woud make her grandaughter feel healthier. Maybe you could ask her for a gift certificate to Enterolab for Christmas

I eat a lot of apple sauce and drink sprite that I've stirred with a knife to take the fizz out. I get made fun of all the time at work when I'm stirring my sprite, but I say it's better than puking on the job!

For some reason milk and cheese is one of my comfort foods when I'm feeling yucky, too. [side note - I wonder if it's because I'm intolerant to casein because I do eat a lot of dairy. I got tested and am still waiting for results.]

I wouldn't worry if they complain that there's no "normal" food in the house. Honestly, if they want to eat your food, they're just going to have to deal. And who's defining "normal" here? Food is food. I find I eat everything I used to with only a few substitutions.

Although gluten-free is more expensive in the present, I am more than willing to pay more for food if it means a lifetime of health. Not to mention all the money I'm saving on medical bills.

It may just take time. They may need to get more sick before they'll listen. For now, you could sprinkle your house with books like Dangerous Grains which talk about the correlation between celiac and mental disorders.

It is not uncommon to be overweight and celiac. I just read some new research that about 39% of celiacs are overweight at diagnosis. Here's the link: https://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=1392

I went mostly gluten-free for about two weeks on an elimination diet. At first I thought "I'm not allergic to wheat, I don't feel any better", but when I added it back in I was so, so sick. It took me a week or two to realize how much better I felt since feeling better was so gradual. But after that I would never go back to eating gluten.

Lucky you! I'm convinced that the reason why I have had such an easy time with the diet is that my friends and family are so supportive. It makes it so that my diet is just something I do, not something that adds stress to my life.

Hmmm, I never felt like I could feel the white blood cells attacking, but I did get sick from EVERYTHING until about six months post-gluten-free. Colds would last forever. Now that I'm not attacking my immune system with gluten, I seem to be able to handle germs no problem. Maybe you just need to give it time.

Peanuts and peanut butter makes me sick, too! I feel like I've been glutened so now I won't eat them anymore.

I love "The Gluten Free Gourmet" cookbook. It's got some really good bread and cake recipes.

My chiropractor suggested something similar since I don't have an official diagnosis (diagnosed myself through dietary response) so he was suggesting that maybe I didn't have celiac disease and it was my back out of whack that was causing my problems. Which I doubt since I had more than just stomach issues. I said no way.

I agree with everyone about just having to stop eating gluten. It's very likely that your body is addicted to gluten so it will be hard to cut it out at first. Hang in there, though, it will get easier and you will start feeling better.

I think there is one kind of Morningstar veggie burger that is gluten-free. I can't remember which one off the top, but you could do a search on this site. Or you could try making your own. I did manage to find one brand of veggie hot dogs that are gluten-free, but I didn't like the taste as much.

Wow, that is awful. Does the owner not realize that one bad customer service incident will cause the loss of a lot of business???? I think it is in a restaurant's best interest to try to accommodate you and if they can't to let you bring your own food. I bring my own food to restaurants all the time. If they told me I wasn't allowed to bring in my own food, I would take my and all my friends' business elsewhere.

I would write a letter explaining how disappointed you are in her response. I hate to use the peanut analogy again, but if you had a peanut allergy I'm sure she would be more accommodating. It's too bad that people don't understand how serious celiac is. Maybe you should include a brochure about cross contamination.

Molly's bakery is amazing. I make a sandwich every day on their white bread. It is good as any homemade bread out there. I could not go back to buying the commercial ones. The muffins and cupcakes are great, too. They don't even taste like something from a special diet. I give it 5 stars!!!

Wow. If it's that good, I might have to make a trip next time I'm home visiting my parents.

Gosh that's a tough one. With my mum I send her emails all the time with information I learn on this board. Things to watch out for, foods that may have contaimination issues, etc so she doesn't have to worry about doing the research herself. It sounds like your sister's husband is doing most of the research in this case, so you might want to send the info to him, too. Initially it's very time consuming to research whether different brands contain gluten so if you can just send a list of "safe" brands that eliminates most of the time (sounds like you've already done this, though).

If you can help her get her kitchen completely (or nearly) gluten free, it should be much easier for her because she'll be able to eat anything in the house. This would require the support of her whole family.

I diagnosed myself through an elimination diet. When I added wheat back in, I knew right away it was a problem. Then a few days later I tried barely and got just as sick. If you're not sure if it's gluten or just wheat, you could try something like this. The only problem is that I don't always react to gluten so if you don't react it doesn't necessarily mean that it's just wheat.

Or you could get testing done through enterolab. They'll be able to tell you if you have the [known] genes for celiac and if you're gluten inrolerant.

I think you're safe keeping plastic bowls, too. I kept all of mine and didn't have any problems. I did throw out the really beat up tupperware, but that's it.

Hello, well I just signed up for this site as I've been an online freak looking for gluten-free resources since I was advised by my doc about 2 weeks ago that I have a gluten allergy. Also from the Waukesha area, so I was wondering if you found any good gluten-free stores, other than Good Harvest in Pewaukee. I'm thinking they need a whole foods in New Berlin or something. Any info would help, I will continue to read te other pages (just started reading). Glad to see many others in WI in the same dilemma. I have found Outback, Texas Roadhouse, Chili's all have info on gluten-free if you goto their websites. It's nice to know so the rest of the family doesn't have to suffer just cause I have an allergy. I'm actually kindof glad, think of all the stuff that I can't eat now that really is crappy for you in the first place. Anyway, don't even know if this will work, but will try and will post/respond to more hopefully in the future if it works.

I've actually moved to Minneapolis now. I was only in Wisconsin for about nine months of gluten-free life (then I was better enough to move out of my parents' house and get a full time job and live on my own I did nearly all my shopping at Good Harvest. The Pick N Saves also have a decent selection of gluten-free food. Check the health-food section and the freezer section has gluten-free bread. I know there's another place in Milwaukee somewhere that I think is exclusivly gluten-free that my mum goes to a lot. I've never been there and I can't remember the name off the top.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal also had an article about Molly's Bakery in Pewaukee a while back. Here's the link: Open Original Shared Link If I remember correctly, Molly is the owner's daughter or grandaughter so he started a gluten-free bakery. Once again, I've never been there so I have no idea what it's like.