Diagnosed with celiac (can't eat wheat)

[LBTC]

Hi, OTG

I'm sorry about your diagnosis, but glad for you at the same time. I, too, have had a recent diagnosis. In retrospect, I may have preferred celiac, as at least I would know immediately what to not eat. With Crohn's it's anyone's guess. It's going to take me some time to figure out what I can and can't eat and to understand this disease!

I know people who eat gluten-free, and often, I've surprised myself by choosing, based on flavour, gluten-free products myself. You'll do okay, really! There are lots of sources of carbs, including rice, corn, potatoes, and some interesting grains like quinoa.

As for carbo-loading - well, it's never really worked for me. Pasta, I think, has never gotten the energy to me when I wanted it. Potatoes, along with some kind of protein, has been the most fabulous energy food for me, for years! It was my favourite meal between laps during 24 hour racing, and also my favourite after-heavy-workout recovery food - whether that was after a long hard ride, or kickboxing.

If you want to chat about how you feel about your diagnosis, feel free to PM me. I'm new to this, too, and you may be surprised at some of your emotions!

Hugs,
~T~

[KnottedYet]

Are you on B12 shots or B12 sublingual?

I'm on sublingual, mainly because it's a whole lot cheaper than the shots. Methylcobalamine works better for me than cyanocobalamine (both are variants of B12, but methyl costs about 2x as much) If I accidentally eat some wheat and start getting sick I take an extra one. Maybe it's my imagination, but the extra one seems to help.

Once you know what to look for, it's second nature to keep away from the wheat. Especially once your tastebuds learn the association between that yummy garlic bread and being sick for days afterwards!

Eating out is a little harder, but oh so doable. Thai food is my favorite, and luckily wheat isn't an issue there.

I'm willing to suffer for beer... Suffering right now with a Boont Amber Ale!

My favorite brownie mix is Cravings Place Oooey Gooey Brownies. Their chocolate chip cookie mix is good, too. Best pizza dough mix I've found is Namaste Foods. (actually, Namaste's brownie mix isn't bad, either.) They've got a pancake mix I want to try.

You can still eat pasta to carbo load, just make sure it's rice pasta. I get mine in the asian foods section of the store, it's about 1/10 the price for the same noodles as in the GF/health food section.

Rice crackers instead of wheat crackers. Rice cakes instead of toast. Rice bread s*cks in my opinion, but there is a bread company <Ezekial Bread?> that makes a GF bread with ground pecans that is really good. It comes frozen, so you just toast a piece when you want it and it lasts in the freezer for weeks.

For energy on the bike I eat Clif Shot Bloks and Lara Bars. (Clif bars have oats, and oats do make me sick.) I usually keep a couple Lara Bars with me in case I get hungry.

PM me if you'd like!

[tattiefritter]

I don't have coeliac (my aunt had something similar as a child but outgrew it apparently) and the advice given above is what would immediately spring to mind anyway. As she couldn't eat wheat she used to get a lot of wheat free stuff on prescription (free I think). She absolutely hated the bread with a passion, my mother on the other hand (not wheat intolerant) loved it.

I have a breadmaker as I think shop brought bread is crap (and full of god knows what) and it has a setting to make gluten free bread. It mentions some gluten free breadmixes that you can buy (at least in the UK) though I have never tried them. A friend of mine was avoiding wheat for quite a while and I'm sure she used to eat rye bread and was investigating using spelt flour to make bread. Both rye and spelt flours seem to be easily available in large supermarkets in the UK.

Edit: was in supermarket at lunchtime to pick a few things up and looked at the various flours on offer. Spelt is made from an ancient wheat variety, didn't say anything about gluten levels (the rye is apparently low gluten). I'm quite shocked at that as my wheat avoiding friend was going on about it. They had gram flour which was wheat free but not sure what you could do with it.

[Offthegrid]

I ordered a bunch of gluten-free products today, and I'm going to a grocery store tonight so I have something to eat. But, no, can't have rye or barley or oats, either.

[SR500]

My husband has been off gluten for almost 20 years, he cheats some but really likes rice. He's not a celiac, I don't think you will be able to cheat as much as he does. Anyway, good health food stores have almost everything, it's more expensive, but easy enough to find good stuff. Plus will all the low carb diets, people don't even ask anymore when ordering a burger without a bun. We recently tried some Italian gluten free pasta that was exellent, is was about $8 a box, where most corn/rice pastas are $2, and I think wheat based pastas are $1. Anyway, don't be discouraged, just try to adapt, it's easier then you think.

[KnottedYet]

I get my rice pasta in the Asian foods section of the grocery store, 2 lbs for $1.19.

"Gluten free" is becoming a marketing plus, so you'll see it often on food that never had gluten in the first place. (EnviroKids corn cereal, for example.)