gluten-free expo product reviews.

You may remember, a few posts ago, when I talked about going to the Gluten Free Living Now EXPO in Carmel, Indiana. I was able to sample many delicious products and I came home with a boatload of delicious samples and tasty items. I'd like to take a few minutes and give you my reviews of what I consider to be the best products that were offered that day.

I do want to make plain that these companies did not ask me to review their products, and most of them had no idea I even wrote a blog (I did tell a couple). Therefore, they did not influence me in any way; I'm simply picking the items and products I personally liked. So, here you go, in no particular order:

a special shoutout to some special people.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I attended two days of the Gluten Free Living Now Expo in Carmel, Indiana. I'll blog more about it later (and on some of the products which really stood out to me), but I'd like to take this opportunity to send a special thank you to the wonderful folks at Kinnikinnick foods, the people of Gluten Free Living Now, and the staff of The Fountains Banquet & Conference Center in Carmel, Indiana, where the Expo was held.

I had to drive over an hour just to get to the Expo, and by the time I got going and found the place, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. Since I knew they were closing down in a half hour, I tried to look around as much as possible before I had to leave. I knew I would be coming back the next day, but I didn't want my trip Friday to be for nothing!

I had collected quite a few samples and a free reusable grocery bag by five o'clock, and I was ready to go. Now, when I know I am going to be walking around a lot, I don't like to carry a heavy purse; I will bring along a smaller bag and put just the essentials in it, such as my wallet and the key to my van. I pulled out the key to my van, and was holding it in my hand (along with my phone and my bag and the shopping bag full of samples) when I suddenly remembered a photo I wanted to take to jog my memory. I walked back, took the photo (of the Harvest Cafe Coffee Roasters booth; their coffee is great, buy some!) and walked just out the door to the outside. It was at this point that I made a discovery which no person likes to make...I didn't have my key.

gluten free living now expo in carmel, indiana; october 7-9, 2011.

I'd like to invite everyone to the Gluten Free Living Now Expo in Carmel, Indiana, on October 7-9, 2011. Yes, I know that's today; sorry about the late notification!

They will be having booths, samples, lots of information, test items, and a chance to interact with other people who live with Celiac Disease. There will be some free informational sessions as well as cooking demonstrations. They will also have some paid lectures and speakers, if that is something you are interested in.

General admission to the Expo is free, but they are requesting a $2 donation to help fund a camp for children with Celiac Disease, and also for the Food For Celiacs program. If you donate, you'll also be entered in the door prize drawings.

It will be held at The Fountains in Carmel, and the times are 10AM-5PM each day. If you're interested, there's a map here.

I am really looking forward to this event. Hope to see you there! :)

free celiac screening in the chicago area.

For those of you in and around the Chicago area, they are having a Free Celiac Disease Screening put on by the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.

You must be eating gluten for at least twelve weeks, and the test is the tTg-IgA (anti-tissue transglutaminase test). This is the most sensitive Celiac screening available.

The test is Saturday, October 15, 2011. This is a great opportunity for those of you who's insurance is balking at paying for a Celiac screen, or for those of you who don't have insurance at all. Pre-registration is required because NO walk-ins will be accepted.

If you're in the area, take advantage of this wonderful, free opportunity!

a quick, easy, gluten-free dinner: teriyaki chicken and rice with broccoli.

It isn't easy coming up with a variety of tasty, delicious dinners that are also gluten-free. However, there is one company who is making it a little easier...La Choy. Yes, I know that Asian-style sauces often contain soy sauce, which usually has wheat as one of its main ingredients, and therefore is persona non grata at the Celiac's table. However, La Choy makes some delicious sauces in their Stir-Fry Sauce and Marinade line that make eating gluten-free delicious and fun, because they don't contain wheat!

Here's a dinner that's sure to please your taste buds and your gluten-sensitive digestion:

First, get some boneless chicken breast tenderloins; I'd say at least three tenderloins for each family member. Put them in a large freezer baggie and pour in some of the La Choy Stir-Fry Sauce and Marinade in the flavor of your choice; it comes in Original, Orange Ginger, and Teriyaki (the photo is Teriyaki, and I've also tried the Orange Ginger; both are delicious!). If you want, add some chunk pineapple.

Shake well to cover everything, and then put them on an aluminum-foil lined cookie sheet that has been sprayed with a little gluten-free cooking spray (the foil keeps the cookie sheet clean and free of any gluten cross-contamination, as long as you use it for each meal prepared in it). Bake them in the oven at 375°F until they register 165°F with a meat thermometer (about 30 minutes or so).

In the meantime, whip up some white rice in a rice cooker or a non-contaminated saucepot. Keep warm.

About five minutes before the chicken and rice are done, grab a microwave steam packet of broccoli florets out of the freezer and zap them in the microwave. Birds Eye Steamfresh Broccoli Florets or Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers are both a good choice for fast, easy, gluten-free veggies.

Arrange some of the rice on the plate. Pour the chicken, pineapple, and sauce on top of the rice. You can either add the broccoli as a side, or you can put it on top of the rice as well and cover with the chicken and sauce. Add a little more sauce to the broccoli if you want.

Boom baby! You've got a quick and easy meal that is light on calories and no gluten anywhere. The white rice is good for sensitive digestive systems, you've got some fruits and veggies from the broccoli and pineapple, the boneless and skinless chicken breast is a delicious lean meat choice, and the sauce only has 25 calories a tablespoon! Best of all, you don't have to special order the sauce or drive to a special organic or health food store to buy it; it's at your local grocery. If you're like me, and you live at least an hour or more from any sort of specialty store, that is a big plus.

Have fun!

communion, celiac disease, and you.

Recently, I came up against yet another hurdle in my life with Celiac Disease...what does the Celiac do when it's time to take Communion?

(Let me preface this blog post by saying I don't care what religion you are, or if you're no religion at all; that's not the point. If you have Celiac Disease, you're more than welcome here. These are just my thoughts and my feelings; feel free to skip this post if you want.)

I was told I have Celiac Disease on July 14, 2011. Shortly after, we had Communion at church. I belong to one of the largest mainstream Protestant denominations in the world, and it's basically up to each local church how often they celebrate Communion. Some do it every couple of weeks, once a month, a few times a year, it just depends on each local church and their pastor.We have communion about six to eight times a year. I was fortunate enough to find out beforehand the last time, and came prepared with my own rice cracker. This was early in my diagnosis, so I didn't even think about possible cross-contamination of the little cups of juice.

Since then, however, I have learned a lot more about cross-contamination, and when I showed up at church on Sunday morning (my daughter and I have to be there at 8:30 due to music practice being at that time) and learned we were having Communion, I kind of panicked. I wasn't prepared!

now, let's look at the good things about gluten intolerance.

In a previous post, I spent some time talking about the bad things about Celiac Disease; the rough things we have to do, the various hurdles we have to deal with on a daily basis, stuff like that. I was trying to put forth a worst-case scenario to make a point about how people who can eat whatever they want just taking that fact for granted.  Now, I'd like to take a moment and talk about all of the positives that Celiac Disease has brought to my life.

• It's taught me that I can't just put anything in my body and expect to be healthy.

For years, I abused my body. I just fed it anything and expected it to run and run and run, go at top speed and stay in mint condition. Oh sure, every once in a while I'd try to make a change. I followed a fad diet put out by a cult leader and lost fifty pounds. I was a vegetarian for about a day and a half. I tried to be low-carb until I saw that "low-carb" meant "no pbj". And, if you've followed this blog at all, you'll know that I followed an IBS diet plan for about two years, back when I thought this was IBS (lesson to you:  Don't self-diagnose; find a good physician).

But this has really forced me to stop and take a good, hard look at my life and my eating. Even back when I was eating for IBS, I rationalized that having a bite or two of "forbidden" food wasn't going to really hurt me that much. But now, I realize that eating gluten will have a very serious negative effect on my health.  Even one bite will have an almost automatic detrimental effect on my gut. Not only are there long-term, shapeless, faceless consequences, but there are immediate short-term consequences. Whenever I want to cheat, I just look at whatever is tempting me and think:  "Okay...do I eat this and have gut-bombs and get cancer, or do I just skip it?"  Let me tell you, the choice is easy when I think about it that way.

• It's taught me that good things can come in oddly-wrapped packages.

For years, I have prayed to God to please, please, please help me lose weight. And this has been my answer. I know...you're thinking, "Why would God send you a disease just to help you lose weight?" But you see, I wouldn't listen any other way. I wanted to lose weight, but I wanted to do on my terms, which in my case meant that I could have ice cream every night and candy bars every day. As long as I was relatively healthy I could rationalize my weight away, even though I was seriously unhappy about how I looked. But now that I'm getting older (forty-two years young), I realize that I'm not ten feet tall and bulletproof. If I want the rest of my life to be happy, healthy, and fun, I need to lose this extra weight. I've lost around ten pounds so far by going gluten-free; add that to the ten I'd already lost, and that's twenty unhealthy pounds gone.  Only...um, a lot more to go.

• It's taught me to make good food choices.

You know how it goes; you're out running errands, and you forget to eat. Suddenly, you find that you're starving. What to do? If you're like me, you often chose the easiest route...hit a drive-thru and order a double cheeseburger, only cheese and onions. Or, if you're standing in a checkout, you grab a bag of cookies or a candy bar. But now with a diagnosis of CD, those options are out. I've found that I won't starve to death before I get home, and I'm really truly hungry to the point of a problem (I have mild hypoglycemia), I'll grab a single serving of string cheese or a banana or a gluten-free snack bar (Larabars are a good option). Of course, I've also learned that I need to be prepared, so I normally have a gluten-free snack in my purse. That's another part of making a good food choice, because if you're prepared with a healthy snack you're much less likely to make a bad food choice on impulse.

• It's taught me that life could be much worse.

Yes, when I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I was not thrilled. Sure, I was happy that what I was suffering with finally had a name, and that it wasn't all in my head like my previous physician tried to make me believe. But, at the same time, I couldn't help but have some days when I just sat around and felt sorry for myself. The more I learned about what to avoid, the more I realized just how many foods contained gluten, including some of my favorite foods. I still don't know how I'm going to handle Thanksgiving and Christmas (I always make homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning...I'm going to have to do some experimenting).

But at the same time, I could have life much, much worse. After all, if all I have to give up is some gluten to have a fairly healthy life, that's not such a big price to pay, is it? Is eating a full-floured cinnamon roll really worth getting cancer for? Is what I'm being asked to do really that tough? After all, it's just food. It isn't the center of my universe. God is, followed by my family.

And that's probably the best lesson of all.

september 13: national celiac awareness day!

Now, I’d like to point out that I’m focusing on the worst case scenarios in this little example.  If you’ve dealing with Celiac Disease for longer than a couple of weeks, you already know the basics of how to deal with these situations.  But I wanted to lay out an exaggerated set of circumstances just to make a point. Okay? Okay.

In honor of National Celiac Awareness Day, I’d like you to take a moment and consider doing the following:

Let’s live a day in the life of someone with Celiac Disease.

so...have you ever received this reaction?

Lots of times when I tell people I have Celiac Disease, I get a blank stare in return.  Many people simply have never heard of it, or can conceive that someone might have something like a "wheat intolerance".  I get several questions and/or comments in return, and most of them go something like this:

• What in the world do you eat, if you can't eat wheat?
• Well, what about this? [shows me a random oat product, such as instant oatmeal or a granola bar]  This isn't wheat, why can't you eat this?
• So nobody can even touch you if they have eaten a sandwich?
• How do you go out to eat?
• I could never do that.  I would just eat some spaghetti and be done with it.
• But I made this special!  Can't you try at least one bite?
• What in the world kind of doctor would diagnose you with something so weird?  That just doesn't make sense.
• I think I'd put up with a little diarrhea if it meant I could have bread.
• I've never heard of anyone being allergic to wheat.

Once they get to that last one, I literally have to hold myself back from saying, "It's not an allergy, it's an intolerance. Weren't you listening?"

I know what I say (and I'll post that later on), but what do you respond to questions or comments like these?

my upper endoscopy, or egd.

So a few days ago, I told you that I was scheduled to have an EGD, or esophagogastroduodenoscopy, or upper endoscopy (which is much easier to pronounce).  Let me tell you about what happened, which I must stress is only indicative of my own experience.  YRMV.

I showed up at the medical center in jeans, t-shirt, and flip-flops.  When I had my colonoscopy, I wore black yoga pants, mainly for comfort but somewhat for camouflage against any, um, stains (which I fortunately didn't need to worry about).  I didn't figure it would matter too much for a scope scoping out the other end, and it turns out I was right.  I was taken back to a prep room, where I was asked to remove my shirt (bra stayed on) and to don a hospital gown.  I was then sat in a lovely overstuffed leather recliner while a nurse asked me a series of questions that I've already answered a thousand times.  Another nurse came in and attempted to place an IV in the crook of my elbow.

Let me stop at this point to say that I have very shy veins.  They don't like to come out and play with the nurses with the funny needles, and I can't say as I blame them.  I really, really, really don't like needles.  So anyway...I have one good vein, in my right inner elbow, about a knuckle's width from a certain freckle, and I always point it out to the nurses as a sure bet.  That way, they're not poking me unnecessarily.  I know that hitting the same vein over and over can't be good, but since I don't get stuck but once every so often I'm not overly concerned.  If I ever get to the point where I'm having to have blood taken or an IV inserted on a continuous basis, we might have to look around for more veins to mine.

So, continuing...the first nurse couldn't find a vein.  She poked my inner right elbow, the back of my left hand, and then the back of my right hand.  By this point, I was getting quite anxious (I was being good, though) and she was obviously getting flustered.  Fortunately for me, she went and got a nurse who was able to get an IV in the back of my right hand.

so it's kinda like the colonoscopy, except from the other direction.

I had an appointment with the gastroenterologist today (hey, Google, why is there a squiggly red line underneath that word?) and, to make a long story short, she's ordered an EGD for me to undergo today.  For those of you unfamiliar with that particular acronym (as I was), it stands for esophogastroduodenoscopy (there's that squiggly red line again...even "squiggly" doesn't have a red line).  Basically, what they're gonna do is put me under just like they did for the colonoscopy, and then run a scope down my throat and take a look at my esophagus, stomach, and the first part of the small intestine, called the duodenum.  The first thing I asked the doctor was if I would be awake for this particular procedure...thankfully, the answer was no.  :)

She is a young doctor, but she does seem to know what she is doing.  That makes me feel good, because I don't want to trust my gut to anyone that I don't have a good gut feeling about.

I also have an appointment next week with a dietitian, so we can discuss various things related to Celiac Disease, foods, and food prep.  I'm actually looking forward to that, since it will give me a chance to ask some questions I have about cross-contamination and just how careful I truly have to be.  Right now, I feel like all I'm doing is washing my hands.  Seriously, I go through so many paper towels, I've probably killed a forest.  Celiac Disease and OCD go together like fire and gasoline.

Truth be told, I'm also looking forward to the procedure later today.  I'm curious as to what is in there, what it looks like, and just how much damage has been done.  The prep is a lot easier (only water to drink and nothing to eat after midnight, and no water after 5 AM) and I should get some answers to questions I've had for a long time.

I'll let you know how things go, what I find out, and how the whole thing felt.  :)  Stay tuned!

don't take anything for granted...gluten hides everywhere.

I've had a bad couple of days.  Please, allow me to indulge in a little pity party for a while.  Catharsis is good for the soul.

I had some leftover ham and a hambone.  Growing up in the Midwest (with parents from Kentucky), it's practically a law that when this happens, you make soup beans.  I was in the bean aisle, thinking about what I wanted to make, when I spotted 15 Bean Soup.  Yay!  I haven't had this in darn near forever.  I read the ingredients, saw that they had no wheat or gluten, and so I tossed them in the cart.  After all, it's beans.  Come on.  Beans!  Perfect, right?

The next day, I thought...oh no, I can't have ham and bean soup without cornbread!  Come on.  You gotta have cornbread with beans.  But, I've been doing this for a couple of months now, and I realize that just because it's cornmeal doesn't mean it's gluten free.  Lots of manufacturers process corn on the same machines that process wheat. So, off I trotted to the store to find me some gluten-free cornmeal.

a thought about cross-contamination.

It occurred to me early on in my journey with Celiac Disease that there might be a risk for cross-contamination in the foods I might be eating.  It hit me one day when I was getting ready to make a peanut butter sandwich...I was using gluten-free bread, yes, but when I got ready to dip my knife in the peanut butter I suddenly remembered my husband also making a peanut butter sandwich earlier that day.  I thought...well, if he spread the peanut butter on regular bread, and then if I spread the same peanut butter on my bread, aren't I contaminating my bread?  Great.  No PB&J for me that day.

I solved my problem by going out and buying my own jars or bottles or tubs of peanut butter, jelly, margarine, mayonnaise, and whatever else might become cross-contaminated through regular daily use.  These items are clearly marked as mine and everyone else in the house has strict instructions not to touch or eat out of them.  It isn't selfishness, it's survival.  (I later read in The Complete Idiot's Guide For Gluten-Free Eating that this is a good idea...hey, GMTA.)

So, I've become pretty sensitive to cross-contamination, such as touching a "contaminated" food and then touching a "safe" food.  Therefore, it upsets me when I go to a store and see something like this:

Various flours side by side at a store.

Now, if you look at the box of wheat gluten, you'll see that it says it is in a "sealed bag".  Okay, so if it is sealed, it might be safe...but then again, it might not, since the box itself could be harboring contaminants from the packaging process.  Have you ever used flour in your kitchen?  It gets everywhere, no matter how neat you try to be. But, look at the white flour bag and the soy flour bag.  They are not sealed inside, other than the sealing used on the bag itself, which is made of paper.  Pick up a paper bag of flour and plop it down on the counter.  See that cloud?

Once I got home, I looked at that photo and noticed something I hadn't noticed at the store (in my defense, I was in a hurry, and I didn't want to get in trouble for taking photos in this particular huge big-box world-wide retailer).  I went back today, and took a new photo.  Look at the bottom of the paper bag of soy flour:

See the white powder?

That is some sort of white powder on the paper bag of soy flour.  Is it soy flour that has leaked out of its bag?  Or is it some of the white flour from the bag next to it?  It doesn't look like the bag of white flour has leaked, but how do you know?  Maybe it leaked from the back or the bottom.  And, as someone with Celiac Disease, who knows that you absolutely cannot have any sort of wheat, rye, barley, or anything contaminated with those grains, do you really want to take that chance?

We must educate retailers as to the proper handling, storage, and display of gluten-free products and products for those of us with Celiac Disease.  If we are kind, concerned, knowledgeable, and persistent, maybe we can help bring this to the attention of employers who don't even know that this could be extremely dangerous to a certain segment of people.

i'm back...new year, new name, new diagnosis.

I bet you thought I fell off the earth, huh?  Nope...but I've had quite a journey.

I've been gone from the blog because I became totally disillusioned with the whole Eating For IBS thing, mainly because it just wasn't working for me.  That's not to say that it doesn't work (clearly it does, for many people who suffer), but if you don't have IBS in the first place it isn't going to do you any good.  It's kinda like taking a Benadryl for a broken arm...right medicine for what it is designed for but completely inadequate for what it isn't designed for.  Quite honestly, it was just flat depressing to come here and post again and again that I was not feeling any better despite following the program to a T.  I wasn't making any progress, and I just felt like I wasn't being any help to anyone...least of all, myself.  I was feeling worse and worse and popping Imodium like it was candy.  For a while, I just quit following it altogether and ate whatever it was I wanted...I couldn't feel any worse, I reasoned.  It was certainly no way to live.

I decided to take my life back.

It was time to jettison the dead weight, so to speak.  I got rid of my physician.  She was a nurse practitioner who took over my old doctor's practice, and we had been going to her for the past several years; but she gradually got worse and worse until finally I just couldn't justify going to her any longer.  She had moved what was left of her practice to a quick-stop clinic-type place in a strip shopping center, and I felt like the service I was getting was second-rate at best.  Besides, she is the one who told me that everything was just fine with my colonoscopy, and that these problems I was having were all in my head, when it turns out I have Celiac Disease...a problem she never even tested for.

I asked around and found a new doctor, an actual doctor-type doctor, one who is treating me with the respect I deserve and who is hearing me instead of turning a deaf ear.  She has listened to me, taken me seriously, realized my symptoms were real, and ordered the appropriate tests.  Not only has she diagnosed me with Celiac Disease (confirmed by bloodwork), but she also ordered a sleep study to be done and it turns out I need to be on a CPAP machine (more on that later).

After switching over to a gluten-free diet, I can say that while I don't feel 100% better, I do feel more like a human being.  My Imodium intake has slowed; I'm trying to wean myself off of them.  The gas and bloating has practically stopped and I no longer look like I am pregnant.  I'm still overweight, but at my last doctor's visit they told me I had lost five pounds, which makes about twenty pounds altogether.  All in all, I feel better and look better and I know this is the diagnosis I've been waiting for.  And, as it turns out, some of the things I was doing on the Eating For IBS plan were totally counter-productive to what I needed to be doing.  Again, they can work if you're suffering with IBS, but they aren't exactly compatible with Celiac Disease.

I have big ideas for this blog, and I hope to share with you those ideas soon.  In the meantime, just know this...

You are not alone, it is not in your head, and your problems are real.  You deserve to be treated with respect, and you deserve to treat yourself with respect.  It's time to take your life back.  Come with me!