Commentary – Page 2 – Gluten Free Finds

Restaurant Fail… If they can’t make it Celiac Safe, they shouldn’t plate it

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I’m fresh from returning for an overall great trip to Seattle. Look for a sizable trip report soon. Also: Trip Reports tag. I did want to tell you a quick story about a bad experience that I had in hopes that you’ll learn from my misfortune.

The primary reason we went to the Seattle area was a family function. We flew from the Midwest to Seattle. The family function had an associated luncheon with it. Great… that’s always fun for a Celiac [About Me].

I called the restaurant a few days in advance and spoke with the Chef. He was polite and respectful. I asked him if he knew what Celiac Disease was and he said… not really, could I tell him about it. I explained it in general and let him know that I’m very sensitive to even small amounts of gluten.

After chatting, he told me he didn’t feel comfortable providing food to me. Surprising, since this was an actual Chef at what appeared to be a well-rated and moderately expensive restaurant. Nevertheless, I would have rather heard this vs sweet nothings combined with sickness from gluten. He suggested that I bring my own food in and they would plate it. Good solution. I asked him if I should just ask for a plate and he said that he would prefer that I give them the food for plating. Ok.

The morning of the event I drove 25 miles in the wrong direction to get a gluten free breakfast at a highly rated Seattle based dedicated gluten free restaurant. It was delicious. The restaurant also prepared and packed up a lunch for me. Yay! I have no doubts that the lunch I received was gluten free and Celiac safe.

Upon arriving at the luncheon, I spoke with staff to let them know I was there and went over plating my food. They immediately knew who I was and what my situation was. They expected to see me and seemed to have it under control. The last thing I said before giving them my food was… that whoever touched my food needed to wash their hands and change their gloves prior to doing so.

Upon receiving the food (a panini and a cup of soup), I knew that the food had been warmed up. My assumption was that this had been done in a microwave (wrong). Within a couple hours, I became certain that I had been poisoned by gluten. I would say it was a small amount of cross contamination.

I emailed the manager about this. He was apologetic and confused at what happened. He said that “kitchen staff had washed their hands multiple times” preparing my food. Wait.. preparing my food? I was already told that the restaurant didn’t have the capacity to safely prepare my food. Their task was to… put it on a plate. Yet, they felt the need to “play chef” and contaminate my food. Note that he (rightly) never disputed the gluten free status of the food I brought.

This leads me to a new rule that I’ve made up for myself… If they can’t make it then they shouldn’t plate it. If a restaurant staff isn’t trained to understand basic food safety, including cross contamination, then they can pretty easily botch anything up. If you’re in a similar situation to me, I’d say skip the eating altogether. If for whatever reason you feel that they must plate your food then I would suggest that you talk directly with a Chef or cook and walk through every single step that the food will take.

Lesson Learned.

I had a good discussion with the management and asked them to commit to discussing this issue among their team. They agreed.

Also: Gluten Free Dining Out Cards (English and Spanish Edition) – Review

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Get This Book: Jennifer’s Way

I typically try to read a book while on vacation. We just got back from a trip to Seattle. My choice for this trip was “Jennifer’s Way: My Journey with Celiac Disease–What Doctors Don’t Tell You and How You Can Learn to Live Again”

All I can say is… wow. Jennifer Esposito tells her compelling and sometimes heartbreaking storing of dealing with celiac disease for nearly her whole life.

If you have celiac disease or think you may have celiac disease, I think you should read this book. Also… if you are in the healthcare industry or know someone who is a doctor or nurse… buy them this book. Jennifer’s story shatters the myth that this is fad or minor disease. This would also be a good title to share with family and friends to let them know just how serious this condition can be.

I don’t share the severity and length of Jennifer’s story or the severity of her symptoms, but I do see shadows of what she has gone through in my own experience. I was essentially told I was crazy when I suggested to my general practitioner that I may have celiac disease. Crazy. Even after my GP received blood work results were a clear indication of celiac, I was told that “I might want to try a gluten free diet”. No referral to Gastroenterologist or additional information. Just… give it a shot and see what happens. Had I not diagnosed myself through internet research and trial and error, I may have gone years and years without a diagnosis. If it was up to my GP…. I would be trying to relax try and relieve the stress in my life that was causing my health problems.

My own situation has frustrated and confused me but I am utterly flabbergasted at Jennifer Esposito’s story. I think you should get this book and share it with the people in your life.

Jennifer’s Way: My Journey with Celiac Disease–What Doctors Don’t Tell You and How You Can Learn to Live Again

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Gluten Free Things I Actually Like

Pictured: Justin’s Nut Butter Mini Peanut Butter Cups Dark Chocolate

As far as eating at home, I am able to eat many of the same things that I enjoyed prior to being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Many without modification. A few with slight modifications. For example, the chili that we make has always been gluten free, we just never knew it.

Beyond that, I have tried (and am trying) off the shelf gluten free items. Some of those items look like the thing that they are supposed to be… but do not taste like it.

All that to say… there are some gluten free food items that are very good and that I enjoy. This post is dedicated to listing those. I’ll add to it as I come across more items.

Simple Mills Farmhouse Cheddar Almond Flour Snack Crackers
Justin’s Nut Butter Peanut Butter Cups – Whether you need to eat gluten free or not, these are straight up delicious.
NuGo Dark Chocolate Chip Bars – After being diagnosed, I went on a bar buying rampage. I suppose I thought I was going to starve and needed bars for every situation. I’d say 2/3rds of those bars weren’t great. NuGo’s Dark Chocolate Chip Bars are an exception. They taste great, have 10g of protein and aren’t overly sweet.
evol foods gluten free frozen meals – I’ve tried several and liked everyone one I’ve tried including – Teriyaki Chicken, Sriracha Chicken, Chicken Enchilada Bake and Fire Grilled Steak
King Arthur Gluten Free Pancake Mix – I love these pancakes. They turn out amazing and you’d be hard pressed to identify as gluten free.
Amy’s Rice Mac & Cheese – One of the best Mac & Cheese’s I’ve eaten, regardless of gluten content.
Green’s India Pale Ale IPA – as a former craft beer lover, I was depressed when I tried my first gluten free beer. I tried a couple before I got to Green’s IPA. It’s a full bodied IPA with lots of flavor. At least to my celiac taste buds, I think it tastes just like a traditional IPA.
Schar Baguettes – Toasted with butter and garlic
KIND Healthy Grains Granola Clusters – multiple flavors available. I eat this as a breakfast cereal.
Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Brownie Mix – Delicious (albeit not low calorie) brownies
C20 Coconut Water
Sun Bum Sunscreen – not a food, but I was very happy to see that I could still use this. Best sunscren I’ve ever used hands down.
Mellow Mushroom – Gluten Free Crust, Menu and Practices
Smart Flour Food Frozen Pizzas
GH Cretors Popcorn Chicago Mix – Delicious

That’s all for now, stay tuned for updates

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Always check ingredients to confirm gluten free status. If in doubt, contact the manufacturer with questions.

resourcepost:thingsilike

About Me: I am a… Celiac

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It start about two years ago, around the spring of 2014. It was so subtle, I didn’t even really notice. I thought the things I was experiencing were related to getting older. After all I had just turned 40. Having never been 40 before I assumed the changes were natural.

The first symptom I can recall is what I would now call “brain fog”. Occasionally, maybe every week or two at first. My brain felt like someone turned the power switch off. As if 90% of my ability to comprehend was just gone. I thought I had narrowed this down to eating certain things and tried to avoid those. Over the next year and half the brain fog continued and over time, more things started happening. I had odd skin things happens – tingling and numbness, I started to get joint pain, I had near constant ear problems and infections, heart palpitations and on.

These were all incremental enough that I thought they may be normal. That is until about a year and a half had passed. Somewhere around that time period the brain fog became a near constant. I couldn’t think, I was forgetful (walking away from my running vehicle and several occasions) and I knew something was wrong. I knew that my symptoms were not normal.

Not being the go-to-the doctor sort. I started looking for solutions. I tried several things including diet changes, weight loss and too many vitamins. At one point I became convinced that I was suffering from a Candida imbalance. Many of my symptoms seemed to match Herxheimer reaction “die-off”. That sent me down a path of digestive enzymes, molybdenum supplements and probiotics. I had a few days where I convinced myself I was feeling better, but those were short-lived and probably mostly wishful thinking.

Finally… I ran across a forum post that described some of the same symptoms I was having. The person initially thought the were suffering from Candida imbalance but had figured out that they had Celiac Disease. I thought it was worth a try and started a “gluten free” diet. Gluten free is in quotes because I didn’t really realize the extent to which gluten permeates our food supply. Nonetheless within a few days I felt much, much better.

Having what I believe to be my diagnosis in hand, I was ready to go to my Doctor. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s what happened. I explained my symptoms and thinking and was pretty quickly dismissed. Having Celiac Disease without classic GI symptoms was not something that my Dr had run into. He just didn’t believe I had it. I spouted off that only a minority of people with Celiac have diarrhea and was shrugged off. He actually had me convinced I was crazy. In any case he ran a battery of tests including the Transglutaminase IgA antibody test. At my follow up I was told… everything looks good. Oh, except your Transglutaminase IgA antibody test result was very high. He said I *may* want to consider a gluten free diet. His recommendation was to try that and if it didn’t seem to work he would refer me to a specialist. In retrospect, that was bad advice. It didn’t take Celiac Disease seriously and it was contrary to what most sources, that I’ve read, say the next step is. I should have been referred to a gastroenterologist. I made my own appointment. Shortly after I had an endoscopy and was officially diagnosed with Celiac Disease.

My initial emotion was… happiness. I was glad that I didn’t have a more serious condition. I was glad to know what I had and how to treat it. That emotion faded and in short order was replaced with depression. In a certain sense, I felt like a stranger to myself. After all, I had been able to do A, B and C why could I no longer do those things? It’s odd to say, but I felt like I didn’t know me. I also felt like I was a foreigner in my own home town. I’ve done some traveling to third world countries and as I drove around I felt like I was driving around in a foreign country. After all many of the places I looked at were just as unsafe for me as a restaurant in the hill country of Guatemala. These people that were doing the things they had always done were now different from me. That didn’t last all to long, but it wasn’t a fun period.

I’m happy to say that I’m feeling healthier. I also have endoscopy results that show my small intestine as healthy. Although I wouldn’t choose this disease, I do accept that I have it and am committed to living a healthy gluten free lifestyle.

I don’t have what I would term classic symptoms.

Here are my basic symptoms…

“Brain Fog” – forgetfulness, problems concentrating, my brain feels like it is switched off. Dizziness.
Tingling sensations, numbness (peripheral neuropathy) – at times feels like adrenaline and then numbness like Novocain wearing off – warm face
Fatigue – sometimes extreme
Joint pain
Muscle twitches
dark circles and bags under my eyes
Sinus pressure
Post nasal drip
Heart palpitations
Ear sensitivity and ear infections
Ringing in the Ears – Tinnitus
Forgetfulness, fatigue, problems concentrating

Since going strictly gluten free, I have become more sensitive to even small amounts (cross contamination level) of gluten. My immediate reaction to cross contamination are more similar to what I would call classic symptoms. Those include gas and stomach cramps. I didn’t really have these symptoms, at least that I noticed, before going gluten free.

A large percentage of Celiac Disease is undiagnosed. If you think you may have Celiac Disease based on these symptoms or others you have read, I would encourage you to get a blood test. It’s an easy thing to do.

Learn more…

Mayo Clinic Going Gluten Free: Essential Guide to Managing Celiac Disease and Related Conditions – my first read on Celiac Disease. Written by Joseph A Murray – great overview of conditions of celiac disease and other gluten related conditions.
Gluten Is My Bitch: Rants, Recipes, and Ridiculousness for the Gluten-Free – a (sometimes) funny, informative and practical look at celiac disease
Jennifer’s Way: My Journey with Celiac Disease–What Doctors Don’t Tell You and How You Can Learn to Live Again – If you, a loved one or a medical professional in your life, doubt the seriousness and impact of celiac disease… read this book. Jennifer’s story is sometimes heartbreaking and speaks to the need for celiac awareness among medical professionals.

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Find Me Gluten Free – for iPhone and Android

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“Find Me Gluten Free” for iOS (also available on Android), is my go-to app for finding gluten free restaurants. I love the user reviews and ratings as well as the “find near me feature”.

If you decide to give it a try, I would encourage you to rate and review restaurants you go to, both good and bad. If it’s a good location, also head over to the more mainstream yelp.com and give it a good review there. You can also suggest new restaurants for Find me Gluten Free to add to their list. We want to spread good information and support great gluten-free-friendly businesses.

“Find Me Gluten Free” on iTunes and Google Play

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