Sneaky Sources of Gluten

The April 17, 2010 issue of Woman's Day has a list of 12 surprising foods with gluten.

1. Soy Sauce
2. bouillon cubes
3. blue cheese
4. yogurt
5. deli meat
6. instant coffee
7. imitation crabmeat
8. baked beans
9. sour cream
10. some lipsticks
11. some toothpaste
12. some vitamins and supplements.

Sandwich Update

Okay, well, the official sandwich experiment is over. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was going to try to re-integrate some gluten into my life in the form of sandwiches. My work schedule sucks and sandwiches are really filling and easy things to make at work with the right ingredients, unfortunately, even though I might not officially be a celiac according to my blood panels, the gluten wreaked havoc on my system--it took a couple days to really manifest, but after two weeks (M-Th sandwich days), I was a goner.

So, I'm going to bring some Millet bread and toast it and make open faced sandwiches with some Pacific Soup (and bring a couple other prepared meals--like some Gluten Free Tuna Noodle Casserole) for this week. Making a fresh salad with protein is too hard, but I'll get salads on Wednesday when we go to Wacky Wednesday at the Uni Cafeteria and I can make salads for dinner on occasion. Hopefully I'll be able to break the diet coke habit I've picked up recently to compliment the sandwiches. I'm going to try to bring iced-green tea with juice.

Anyway, its been such a long time since I've had regular gluten that I forgot how much it sucks! Its good to remember this is how it used to be and that I don't have to live with a constant feeling of crappyness. I think that its good I'm not a celiac, that means that I can occasionally have birthday cake or similar, but I can't have gluten regularly or else it compounds and turns into gastro-catastro.

Eat a Sandwich

So, I got a letter from my doctor with my Celiac panels back and according to those FIVE vials of blood I do not have Celiac! So, that's a good thing!!! Now, that doesn't mean that gluten DOES NOT bother my stomach--it certainly does at times, but that does mean that gluten is not attacking my stomach lining, causing horrible damage. I will continue to eat many gluten free things--I love quinoa pasta, millet toast, gf desserts, etc. But, I won't have to police the gluten as strictly as a "real" celiac, thank goodness. There are certain things that are high in gluten that I simply can't have: like pizza crust (though there is gf pizza crust which is very good), but I think next week I might bring some Rye Bread or Oatmeal Bread along with other sandwich making things to work as an experiment to see if I could have sandwiches. I you see, my schedule is crazy again this semester and millet bread is only good toasted, so having a convenient and healthy meal option is important at least two days out of the four (I have to eat lunch & dinner at work on Tuesday & Wednesday due to my schedule). So, I will try to "eat a sandwich" with bread that has a small amount of gluten in it and see if it bothers my stomach. If it does, I'll look into a wider selection of gluten free breads. Its just an experiment--if it turns out that I just need to not eat too much gluten, then that's great.