Roxanne's TOP TEN Things NOT To Say To A Celiac!

Friends and Family Disclaimer:  All of these came from you.  Don't try and deny it.  I promise I won't call you out on it but go ahead and take a guess. I'm sure you can remember what you said :) Let's just be glad we can laugh about it now!

Drum Roll...


1.  I really think this is something you made up.  Nobody else in the family has it. 

2.  Just say screw it and take a small bite.  What's the worst that could happen?

3.  Aren't you being a little extreme about this cross contamination stuff?

4.  Mmm...this bagel is so good.  You don't know what you're missing!

5.  Damn! That sucks! What can you eat?!

6.  We didn't invite you to the BBQ cause you can't eat anything anyway.

7.  It's just an allergy right? Take a Benadryl or something.

8.  I was hungry so I borrowed some of your gfree food.  

9.  Neat! Are you doing the gfree diet? Is it like low carb?

10. I'm really proud of you! You're really getting into this whole gluten free thing.  

And the bonus one that always scares the beejeezus outta me:

I made this especially for you.  It's Gluten Free!

I have great friends and family.  I really do.  For the most part everyone has come a long way from these statements.   Most of them...LOL

Finding Unintentional Humor in this Gfree World

More and more I find myself not wanting to eat out.  It's scary.  I have to ask a million questions and then trust that they are going to be just as honest in the kitchen as they are at my table standing in front of me.

I want to be nice.  I swear I do, but today was just not the day.  I was down near the beach and decided to pull out my handy dandy App called Find me Gfree.  Now let me begin with the fact that these Apps are hit and miss.  Sometimes you are better off just googling 'gluten free in...' and then stick in the city you're in.  But I do like the fact that others provide reviews within the App and typically it's spot on.

It was getting late and I was really hungry for food and not a snack from the oh-so-convenient Sprouts store.  I typically use the App and then call the place to ask a few questions before actually driving to the location.  I am not wasting my gas for unsafe celiac restaurants.

Here's the App I used, and here is the best option for my location.  The place was called Bistro West and it had three good lengthy reviews.

Hmmm, seems cool.  Let me give them a call. It went down hill from there. (I'm still laughing as I type this.)

Them:  Hi, Bistro West, how can I help you?
Me:  Hi there.  Can you tell me if you still offer a gluten free menu?
Them:  Umm...long pause...yes we do.  Would you like me to read it?
Me: No thanks.  I saw it online and wanted to make sure it was still current and also check to see if you are stringent regarding cross-contamination.  Do you have a dedicated portion of your kitchen for gluten free prep?
Them:  Um...yeah...we have our own garden and use our own vegetables.

WHAT THE WHAT-WHAT??

Are you cooking in this garden?!  I sat there dumbstruck and tried not to laugh.  I had the call on speaker and my daughters are trying not to laugh.  I couldn't even take the time to educate her.  Not today.  I just said thanks and good-bye.

So back to my comment about wanting to be nice.  I would MUCH rather blog about a great experience at a restaurant than a bad one.  But this garden crap was so mind blowing that I had to blog about it.  Sorry Bistro West.  But seriously-- if you are going to have a gfree menu online and within several Apps, puuuleeeze educate your staff. Especially your hostess.  She's on the front-line of customer service.

So off to Sprouts I went.  Luckily, there was one just two minutes away where I grabbed some hummus before my 45 minute drive home.

For what it's worth Bistro West girl, I think it's great you have a garden.  But what are you doing about cross-contamination?  LOL...at least I can find humor in this, right?

FDA is showing a little love for Gfree labeling

Well it's about time!  After more than six years, the FDA is finally showing some love for gluten free labeling.  Here's a link to the ABC article, but in a nutshell, companies will only be allowed to utilize gfree phrasing on their items if it's 20 ppm (parts per million) or less.

To put the whole ppm into perspective, the University of Minnesota provides some helpful analogies that may help you visualize the scale involved with ppm.

One ppm is like:
• one inch in 16 miles, or
• one second in 11.5 days, or
• one minute in two years, or
• one car in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Cleveland to San Francisco

Doesn't seem like much right?  Well to someone with Celiac disease it is.  Trust me.  Sounds absolutely crazy, I know. BUT SERIOUSLY...JUST TRUST ME.

There's good and bad with this of course.  Check out the labels below from two products I've eaten.

 
The 'good' is that manufacturers in the top pic will have to continue to test for gluten at or below 20 ppm in order to claim it's gluten free.  They will have to consistently look at the contamination in their facilities and how it impacts the ppm's.

The bad is this-- why isn't the FDA insisting that barley and rye also be listed as a top allergen?  The above only shows wheat.  There are three components to gluten--wheat, barley and rye.  Barley is hidden in so many things but isn't listed.  That barley is tricky.

Regardless though, I stopped eating anything with the top claim because if you are manufacturing on the same equipment or facility with wheat, there is a remote chance it's in my food.  It makes me second guess if it's gfree and I want no parts of that.

The bottom label is great because it's certified gluten free. Most certifications test at 5-10ppm.  And two- the label clearly indicates that there is no wheat in their facility.

All in all-- it's a huge pain! You constantly feel like a private investigator scouring over labels and ingredients.  So, I've found that if you stick to natural foods that aren't processed, you tend to have less of a headache...pun intended. 

But what happens when you want a snack? Like candy or chips?  Because let's face it.  I can't be good all the time.  Well, those are the times that you go into Sprouts, Whole Foods or Roots and buy an overpriced bag of non-gmo, gfree chips or gfree chocolate that have been produced in a certified gfree facility with no stinking gluten on the premises...grrrr!  And speaking of price-- now that manufacturers have to do this and have a year to comply, prices on gfree food will only get higher.  And that my friends is a whole other talk show blog post.