Gluten Free Cookbook

Archive for the ‘Celiac Diet’ Category

I was diagnosed a dew days ago with Celiac sprue. I am doing alot of ach on this disease. Does anyone know if I can still drink diet sodas? Are regular eggs ok or do I have to have organic eggs? And are there non-food products that have gluten, such as lipstick, envelopes and stamps?

It really depends on how sensitive you are to the gluten products. I have lived with this since I was 5 (I am 27 now) and have just adapted. Diet soda is fine, regular eggs are fine, and yes, there are non-food products that have gluten – soap, toothpaste, etc, but many people have no problems using these products. Lots of good info and message boards on the web, but don’t believe everything you read – trust your doctor and TRUST YOUR BODY!!!

Okay… would somebody with a gluten intolerance or Celiac disease have white, soft, sticky spots on their teeth despite diligent oral hygiene? After being on a gluten free diet, would these spots on the teeth go away?

Yes, you can get spots.

Celiac disease causes you to miss out on many nutrients. This can cause the spots, as well as many other health problems.

Following a gluten free diet should help.

good luck

I just got diagnosed. It’s basically a wheat/barley/rye intolerance. This makes it so there’s a very good chance I couldn’t serve in the military. However, though it’s probably not the smartest thing to do, could I just avoid mentioning it and get in? Probably a stupid question >.>
bkc99xx – Ahh..good point. That isn’t the best thing to hear but probably necessary. Kind of a wake up call. Thanks.

Although I don’t have Celiac disease, I’m very familiar with it. I asked some recruiters last year about the possibility of a friend of mine getting a waiver to join the military with Celiac disease. They said it was impossible due to the potential health hazards. When stationed in places that don’t offer a wide variety of food choices, (BMT, in the field, bases overseas) the chow halls only serve generic food that the majority of the population will eat. This is just for convenience sake and to save money. So, at BMT, vegetarians might not be able to find a salad on the lunch line, and unfortunately for people with Celiac disease, a lot of the meats are probably processed. When you’re in the field, you’ll only have MREs to eat. Sadly enough, it’s all gluten. I’ve tried many different ones, and I don’t recall ever seeing one that didn’t have some form of wheat/flour in it.

In BMT, you should only have to eat MREs for a week, so it’s up to your discretion if you’d want to try to put yourself through that. Now try to imagine eating MREs for much longer, say, if you were on an exercise in the field for weeks at a time.

I guess theoretically, you could pick a job that wouldn’t require you to ever be in the field, and when it came time for BMT, you’d just have to stick with baked chicken and rice the entire time… except when it came time for Warrior Week/Hell Week/etc where all you get is MREs. Then you’ll just have to tough it out. Note that this also depends on how badly you’re allergic. The typical "non-gluten" food, such as baked chicken, rice, canned vegetables, etc. that the chow halls serve might have some slight gluten contamination just from being around the other food.

So, yeah. I guess it’s possible. But you’d be in a hell of a lot of trouble if you got really sick, got sent to the hospital, and they found out you had Celiac and KNEW about it… lol.

Edit: And I don’t think wanting to get in while hiding it has anything to do with your character or maturity level. The fact that you want to serve and are well aware that it will be difficult for you says a lot about your character. In fact, a large percentage of the military serves in secret because there’s a regulation that could kick them out… but that’s another debate.

If you are a busy mom with 9-5 job plus additional responsibilities; sometimes it is very hard to find gf food on the run. You may have to carry homemade dish with you all the time…It can be also very much frustrating to explain to the waiter while everybody else is waiting to order.

Hi, I am fine with it now that I pretty much know what I am doing. You can always order a salad w/o croutons and bring those Kraft packets with safe salad dressing in them as a safe meal. There is also a gf guide to eating out that I carry so it makes it easy if you go to any of the big food chains. Go here (I got mine from the gf mall on celiac.com)

http://www.triumphdining.com/

and then there is this:

http://www.celiachandbook.com/restaurant-guide.html

and this to help:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/850639/2008_guide_to_gluten_free_restaurant.html?cat=22

As for lunches, I eat a lot of Thai Kitchen, Taste of Thai, Amy’s and Annie’s frozen stuff, or just a salad with egg or some meat left over from dinner (I eat fish, eggs, chicken only though) when I need something quickly. Otherwise it is just bread from this bakery as a sandwich:

http://www.legardenbakery.com/

EVERYTHING from here is awesome and worth every penny. You will get addicted, just to warn you…..

Hope this helps and hang in there. I promise it WILL get easier. The better you feel the more you will want to stick with the diet, I promise!
Happy Healing and welcome to the club!

awefull I was wondering if anyone else that has to be on this type of diet could tell me of some food products that actually taste really good. I dont like fish or rice.

Hi, congrats on your diagnosis! You can now begin to heal and get well!
If you like a lot of processed foods, this is going to be a huge change for you, so I am sorry for that, but simply put, most celiacs eat fresh foods. They taste better and you can know that they are all gluten free.
If that is simply unrealistic, then there are also plenty of mainstream foods that are gf. I don’t know what country you are in, but in the US it is getting pretty good.
You need this shopping guide (or the clan thompson):

http://www.celiac.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=802

it has most of the gf foods (you have to add and delete often, so you still have to check labels) organized in a really easy to find manner, once you get the hang of it.
Some companies list their products gluten status. Frito Lay, Budding meats, Jimmy Dean products, Snapple, Jennie O, Hillshire farms, Mt. Olive, Kraft,Burt’s Bees,.. the list goes on and on all have gluten information on their websites.
As for specific gf products, I like tinkyada brown rice pasta, it hold together really well and tastes just like wheat pasta, anything by Glutino is pretty good,especially the pretzels. Mi Del has great cookies, but there are a bunch that make great cookies!
Bob’s Red Mill products are just awesome, they also have cert. gf OATS, and I think I like their gf pizza crust as much as enerG.

http://www.bobsredmill.com/home.php

The gf pantry makes a mean cornbread mix, as well as a great gingerbread cake mix.
There really is so much out there, you just need to be patient with yourself and try different products.
Here are some links that I think will be really helpful!:

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/ (find the recipie button on the right, they have some awesome ones!)
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/ (one of my fav!)

I am newly diagnosed. No symptoms now except occassional abdominal tenderness. Found out about doing the gluten free diet on the internet. Doctor did not suggest it.

No, you only need to do the gluten free diet if you have Celiac disease. They say that with your type of colitis you should get checked out to see if you have celiac disease because it might be the cause. But if you had the blood test done to check for the antibodies and it was negative, or if you have an endoscopy performed and the doc checked out your small intestine for signs of Celiac and you didn’t have any, then you definitely don’t have to go on the gluten free diet. If you’re having problems with your colitis and the medicine your doc prescribes isn’t working for you, I’d recommend trying acupuncture or energy work. Those two methods are more effective in treating my colitis than the medicine. Good luck!

my step children are on a gluten free diet, their mother "self diagnosed" them four years ago and their father is tired of these children being deprived of every-day foods. their mother said testing would no longer work on them since they are already on a gluten free diet. i need to know if that is true and if there is anything their father can do about it.

The blood tests and endoscopic exam would be a waste of time since they both need the person to have celiac disease and consistent exposure to gluten so that the body can develop antibodies in the blood and the intestines to be damaged so the endoscopic exam can pick that up.

So if the tests were given today, they would show negative for celiac disease since they either don’t have it or they have celiac disease but no gluten exposure.

The best that could be done at this point is to get them genetically tested to see if they have the genes to develop celiac disease.

I think I have celiac disease (I get blood test results back this week). I have a million other health problems including anxiety, OCD, attention issues, bad memory, irritability…and those are just the mental ones lol. Has anyone with similar issues (including just an overall issue with stress) gotten better after being on a gluten free diet?? I would LOVE if my stuff went away…even if it meant giving up my favorite foods.

If they are gluten-related, they will eventually go away with a gluten-free diet.

I had all sorts of psych issues – nightmares and anxiety dreams, insomnia, exhaustion, anxiety, depression, irritability, anger, memory issues, ADD, and what we call "brain fog".

It’s pretty common in the celiac / gluten intolerance world.

Come visit these message boards –

www.glutenfreeforum.com (over 11,000 registered members)
www.celiacforums.com

As far as giving up your favorite foods, there’s not much you have to give up. There is a lot you have to >modify<, but not much to give up. I have been gluten-free since Jan 06 and regularly eat gluten free versions of bread, pasta, pizza, cookies, pies, cake, crackers, etc.

To be honest, the difference in my psychological symptoms is so dramatic that it’s the psych symptoms that keep me on the straight and narrow with the gluten-free diet. I can handle the GI symptoms. I can handle the mobility issues an body pain (similar to fibromyalgia). But I can’t handle the anxiety attacks and nightmares.

I hope you start feeling better soon. I hope to see you on the boards.

Hugs,

Nancy

i also have migraines and fibromyalgia and kidney disease and ibd. the last word is suppose to be diverticulitis in the question. i need to lose weight and am having a hard time getting these diets to work together and i’m just getting bigger and bigger even though i still exercise. i also suffer from a tilted pelvis and spinal stenosis and radicuopothy.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune intestinal disorder, whose specific trigger is gluten. There are several long term conditions that can develop if your Cd is untreated. Among them are Vitamin and mineral deficiencies, Iron anemia, nervous systom disorders, and lactose intolerance. Fibromyalgia is loosely linked to CD.

Unfortuantely, the only cure/treatment for CD is to live a gluten-free diet.

I have not been formally diagnosed (drs. appt. Tues.) but I have all the symptoms of the disease. I started a gluten-free diet 3 days ago and I already feel worlds better. Would I feel better this soon or is it in my head? Yesterday and Today I actually had a lust for life and I haven’t in a long time.

yes keep on the menu you will detox your body, i am losing wt not feeling slow and sluggish i even try eatting REAL food with wheat and usually get a bad Reaction i wake up bloated and pain nausea and or diarrhea, sometimes i can eat real food but i am better on the GF menu now fast food you can eat at outback restaurant the 99 ninety nine , they have a GF menu , i can eat McD fries and BK fries probably all fries, as its shared oil i’m not a serious celiac i have the wheat INTOLERANCE i have in tolerances to everything so its never a dull moment, email me i have lots of simple recipes i use for my menu
I eat alot of POLENTA fried in basil oil