– Mrs. Dude called celiac a “silent curse” this morning. That sounds about right.
– We bought a bunch of frozen veggies last night…corn, broccoli, etc. We got home and realized on the back of the packages (all of them), it says “Product may contain wheat.” Seriously?
– I am loving connecting with others in the celiac community…it’s really been a great journey in that sense (and that sense ONLY).
– It is so cool when two people carry on a conversation on my blog in an effort to help each other.
– If I follow you on Twitter and I get an automated message to “connect on Facebook” or “purchase our products”, guess what? I am no longer following you on Twitter.
– It breaks my heart when I hear people say they can’t afford to get tested for celiac disease, even though they have all of the symptoms. What kind of country do we live in when you need to make a choice between your health and your wallet?
– I wish the medical community would educate themselves more about celiac disease. Way too many people suffering and going undiagnosed.
– I’ve lost four pounds in the past two weeks…without trying. Should I be concerned??
– The Miley Cyrus saga sure had a lot of legs, didn’t it?
– I wish I could find Daura beer by me. I’ve heard from some folks it’s the best gluten-free beer on the market. Well…there’s always Titos.
– I need to break out of my food rut and start using some of my fellow bloggers’ amazing recipes.
– God bless Mrs. Dude. She is my rock.
Great post.
Daura is readily available in our area. Did you try a liquor store and if not most grocery stores will special order. My husband likes IPA’s too and has tried all of them I think lol.
Would you like me to ask him which beers he likes best so far? I know we have Daura in the frig. I thinkhe is making his own too at least I think that is what is in the exta frig in the basement.
Care to share what brand the frozen vegetables are?
What part of the country are you in?
Yes…feel free to share his favorite beers.
The veggies were “Great Value” I was in Wal Mart buying a hose and decided to load up on veggies when I saw them. The bags also say they may contain milk and almonds. In corn???
We live near Atlanta. Sherlocks carries Daura. I heard Dogfish has a new GF beer that is good as well.
I will get back to you on the brands after I talk to my husband.
Seriously why would veges have all that extra stuff? Makes no sense unless it is shared equipment.
So sweet your last point! It’s wonderful to have a strong and supporting system in place.
And to the no health insurance…I’ve been seeing a lot of people on twitter say you should go get tested, etc. I wish! Easier said than done. I don’t think they realize there are people like me who need to get tested but dont have health insurance so can’t. For me, all signs point to Celiac and have been since childhood but I’d rather have money for gluten free food which is not cheap if you want bread, soup, etc, than the dozen tests that I need to take. As one one doctor who I saw told me the only way to care for Celiac Disease is eating gluten free anyway so that’s what I’m doing and I’ve never felt better!
Have you been working out and that’s why you lost weight? Or is it that you’re not eating enough or need an extra boost through supplements and/or food? Smh I swear Celiac Disease just sucks and I hope it’s just that your eating healthier and that’s why you lost weight.
Thanks for a great post!
Frustrating about the insurance, isn’t it? Really sux.
Have not been working out as much the past two weeks cause I’ve been so tired. We’ll see.
Love this post! So many points ring true for me as well. It’s especially irritating to listen to people (via fb or face to face) complain about health problems and NOT change their diet but continue to eat crap! So frustrating. I also have a rock and without his love and support I’d have days where I would fall apart. New planet beer is amazing! Just tried some at GF expo in Chicago….it’s coming to my state of MI soon!
Yep…either make the change or stop complaining.
Thanks for the post! 🙂
Well I live in South Africa and the main frozen food company is called McCain’s, I saw that they had oven bake sweet potato chips and after reading the ingredients couldn’t buy them. I emailed them about the fact that most of their products contained wheat flour and asked why they weren’t looking into an alternative, their reply was there isn’t a need to… So I stick to buying everything fresh and making it from scratch…
As for the beer… (firstly I don’t drink) but if you ask people in this country what gluten is they give you a blank look so I doubt we’d have anything of the sort… 🙂
Funny comment Tami (in a sad kind of way)…
I agree with Melody, New Planet beer is pretty good (http://newplanetbeer.com). I love their 3R Raspberry. My non-GF, beer-snob husband even said it was pretty good:)
All right…I’m all over New Planet. I was once a beer snob too.
Oh…and get yourself inked…you’ll love it (saw on your blog you’re considering it.)
You’ve got to try New Planet off the grid pale ale, and then all three varieties of Green’s. I don’t think Bard’s is bad either! We’ve got a ton of options – thankfully 🙂
Ms. Dude has it right: the silent curse. Good book title, get her writing!
Some frozen vegetables contain wheat as a starch to prevent the vegetables from sticking together. Sad but true. I’ve had to toss entire bags of frozen vegetables for the same reason. I’ve found plenty that do not contain wheat starch, just read your labels.
I also found that some nuts (from Costco–in Canada) can have wheat starch on them for the same reason.
Other strange things I have recently discovered where they hide wheat starch and it’s not always labelled is on spices. If you purchase pre-ground spice blends be careful because for example, onion powder and garlic powder will clump up in the bottle so the manufacturers will add wheat starch so that we can shake the poison out onto our plates easier. I’ve got a great indoor herb garden now and that’s all I using.
Growing your own…good call. I used to grow my own herbs but the cops busted me. Totally just kidding.
Also, I’ve had a lot of issues with frozen vegetables that “may” (or actually do) contain wheat. Sucks. I’ve tossed a ton because of it, and now I just steam fresh veggies. 🙁
I mean we’re talking veggies here…veggies. Their ingredients should simply say “veggies”.
Curse Great Valu! They used to be better at being gluten-free…I read somewhere they changed…I’ll see if I can find it. BUT, just wanted to say I can relate. TRYING TO SAVE MONEY, I bought bacon (2 for 1) from Mitchell’s Gourmet Foods, which is a Maple Leaf company. No gluten ingredients, but called them and they can’t guarantee gluten-free. Same with Lilydale Tailgate Turkey Smokies (on sale). They said they clean and disinfect lines after each use, but can’t guarantee gluten-free. Such a shame, but I have no room to take chances, and I guess I have to reward the companies that CAN label gluten-free on the packages (but incidentally, PAY more). But vegetables?? I’ve never heard of “gluten-free” frozen vegetables, because it should be a non-issue. At the same time, who knows what the heck they’re cookin’ up in these factories. I wish I could go back to when they thought I just had hypoglycemia and nut allergies…where I was still safe eating something that said “May contain traces of nuts”!
LOL Thanks for letting me have a little Friday rant 😉 Sorry about your veggies…Walmart DOES have a pretty wicked return policy; is it worth a shot? In related news, I briefly caught a commercial for Schneider’s country naturals that I swear said, “and now gluten-free”. Could be a little cheaper than Grimm’s or Freybe. Do you have “gluten-free ears”, too? Anytime I hear gluten-free, I perk up haha
Have a good (gluten-free) weekend!
PS: do you weigh yourself all the time? I find with celiac-related bloating and whatnot that my weight can fluctuate within a 5lb range daily. Funny, most people would be stoked for weight loss, but again…we have to be concerned!
You can rant on my blog any time you want Sassy.
We’ll be returning all the veggies later today.
My weight is pretty consistent so dropping that much so quickly is a little odd for me, especially cause I haven’t been to the gym as much as I should. But I’m sure it’s nothing.
Gluten Dude –
Unexplained weight loss – get your thyroid checked!!! Not to freak you out, but it is serious. In this day and age unexplained weight loss is a big clue that something else is going on. And autoimmune thyroid disease is best friends with celiac disease. Graves’ disease is a possibility. I have both and I know quite a few other folks here in my small city who have both too. Check out my post on my diagnosis and the symptoms: http://beyondriceandtofu.com/2012/01/23/a-not-so-grave-diagnosis/
I hope for you that it is something else, but I couldn’t read this and not say anything. I started dropping weight the last two months before my diagnosis and was happy about it and hadn’t really thought about it. All my other symptoms I had written off as something else. And so had my doctor.
And as for this country not valuing insurance and universal health care – it is very sad. After 9 years together my boyfriend and I chose to get married because we were moving across the country for his job and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find a job right away and can’t be without health insurance. If I had to get insurance on my own, the rates were outrageous even though my celiac is well under control. And this was BEFORE the Graves’ diagnosis. I can’t imagine the rates now. So very sad. And yet my family members who know all of my issues, and have plenty of their own, don’t think that universal health care is important. One major illness can put you into bankruptcy – that’s frightening.
And those statements on the veggies, they are purely “CYA” statements. And while I am thankful they are putting them on products, sometimes I wonder how much a risk there really is or if they just choose to put that statement on everything so they don’t have to *really* think about it. Frustrating. Hopefully the new FDA rule will (eventually) help us understand those statements a little bit better. Altho ‘may contain’ is a bit stronger to me than ‘made in a facility with…’ I hope when you take them back you explain exactly why you are returning them. But being GLuten Dude, I think you probably will. 🙂
Renee
The thing is, Renee, because the public has no way of testing to see if the “May contain” products actually DO contain (okay, we DO, but it’s $12.50/test, $18/test in Canada) how are we supposed to make that call?
I am not saying that one should eat the products. I am just saying that we need to be aware of what they are (or are not) saying by putting this on a package. What does “may contain” really mean? Does it mean made on shared equipment? Does it mean made in a shared facility? Okay, and what if it is a giant facility and that the only wheat containing processed ingredient (not wheat flour, but a processed wheat containing ingredient) is processed on equipment 3000′ feet away, in another room? And so they feel they need to put a CYA statement on the package. I feel that there is more risk in eating out or at someone else’s home than the above scenario.
That was my pioint, these statements are not especially helpful in determining risk. And we each have to decide for ourselves what level of risk is acceptable to us. Just like each of us chooses how much risk we take by running that yellow light, or whether we put on sunscreen every day, or whether we choose to smoke or drink alcohol, eat fried foods, or whatever may be detrimental to our health, both immediate and/or cumulative (like celiac). We each make these choices every day. And so we each have to determine our own level of comfort and risk based upon the information we have. But unfortunately these statements are not overly helpful because they can mean so many things, when you get down to it.
I agree, they are not very helpful, and can, in fact, be quite limiting 🙁
Thanks so much for your input Renee. I will indeed monitor the weight loss very closely and take the necessary actions should it continue. I read your Graves story on your site. I’d like to smack your Primary Care doctor. Glad you got diagnosed (but sorry about the diagnosis if that makes sense.)
As for health insurance, I had to go on a separate policy from my family because of my “health issues”. My individual policy is $100 more per month than their family policy.
Is this a great country or what?
By the way, took me about five minutes to figure out what CYA stood for. Got it. 🙂
I totally hate labels. My allergy list is CRAZY long, it’s actually shorter for me to list the foods I CAN eat then the ones I CAN’T so I sympathize. I find nuts and gluten snuck into all sort of weird places – its coconut and fish that I find people putting really odd spots. Fish gelatin in orange juice?!? And I recently had to return orange juice because it had non-sourced beta-carotine, Tropicana was disbelieving when I explained I was deathly allergic to carrots.
My allergist assured me that weight loss with gluten free diets is normal, but only at first. If your tired and losing weight I would call the doctor – it does sound thyroid symptomatic.
I totally agree, the allergy and celiac communities are very supportive!
Thanks Summer. When I hear stories like yours, I’m thankful it’s only gluten for me (well…and dairy and soy).
Weight loss? Well, you are on the gluten free diet, aren’t you? I thought that according to the experts (= Miley, Kim, Gwenyth, etc.) the gluten free diet was the best way to lose weight!
touché 🙂
Bit off topic but in tennis today Nadal destroyed Djokovic 63 61 . If Nadal keeps beating Djokovic that will help get rid of the gluten free fad in the sporting world 🙂
Yeah, when I grocery shop its almost 90% label free. I was about to eat a bag of chips once when I realized there was dairy in them. In POTATO CHIPS! That whole situation is out of control, I feel ya. If you find any good, fast recipes, please let me know. I always want to try recipes I find, but I’m usually very intimidated by the ingredient list + following a million directions when I have no clue what they’re talking about. I never used to cook! Plus, I’m gluten, dairy, soy, and tomato free (and for the most part sugar).
There are tons of great gfree recipe sites out there, but I’m with you. I need ultra simple and ultra delicious. I am not at my best in the kitchen.
I always read all labels, even when it says GF. I have other food allergies.
“Product may contain wheat.” – I do see store brands have this statement on most of their packages. But as for frozen veggies, I don’t worry can I always wash them off first.
For those who comment that they can’t afford to get tested. In you live in Iowa you can get tested for $25. Yes that’s right… I said $25. All you have to do is WALK IN, go to the lab and ask for the celiac blood test at the Mary Greeley Medical Hospital in Ames, Ia no questions asked.
My main complaint is I go into a store and all the GF foods are with the other foods. And I ask for the manger and say, ‘You have a selection for Chinese, Mexican, Baby, Diabetics, but nothing for us that are looking for Gluten free, why?’ Their answer is they don’t have the room’ …. WHAT! I do this every time I go in any stores. Several times I never found what I was looking for and go in the next week and find it on the shelf (it was there the whole time but they move it down 1 shelf). And another peeve I have our GF foods are either on the very top or bottom shelf.
My local stores all seem to have gluten free sections, but that’s usually where you find the overpriced, processed crap.
I don’t purchase any of that crap either. But it would be nice to see our foods in one section; flours, pasta, mixes or bread.