Gluten free living

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zaramarie81 said:
I have to roll my eyes too at the food starch lol… good to hear it’s mostly safe, but yeah, could we put a little less confusing junk in our foods??? 🙂

In regards to Communion, in our parish it’s kind of disruptive (based on the set-up) to “skip ahead” to the Cup. People sort of wonder what’s going on. So, I notified our priest ahead of time (like you did), and I walk up to him first (not an EM or anyone else), and he blesses me (usually with a smile on his face because he knows!!). Then I step in line to receive the Precious Blood. It’s great… you get blessed and you receive the Lord. 🙂

When I travel, I try to notify the priest because some parishes do not offer the Precious Blood to parishioners and others co-mingle the Body and Blood in every single cup. If I can’t find someone to notify, I go up for a blessing.
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Thank you. I think I will do what you do in regards to communion. Its just good to hear that other people do it that way.

So do you eat modified food starch? 😉 I’ll eat modified corn starch, but if everyone else was using corn, why do they call it food starch and not corn??? Maybe I’ll have to make a few phone calls to see what’s really in some of our favorite condiments.
 
We follow a gluten free diet. My boyfriend has Celiac disease. We make our own pizzas (I’ll send you a recipe), make our own fried foods, and eat at all of 5 restaurants in town. Gluten free cooking can be tasty. If it tastes weird, then it was just bad cooking. 😛

I’ll bring bread in for sandwiches, but he stays away from those. He’ll bring in candy, but I stay away from them since I’m not supposed to have sugar (weight loss surgery). If I’m making a sandwich, I DO NOT dip my knife back in the mayo after it touched bread. When we eat together it’s always rice pastas or rice. BTW, Tinkyada brand rice pastas are THE BEST.

It is actually best to stay away from ALL oats unless you know positively that the oats were NOT milled at a flour mill. Oat doesn’t contain gluten, but it’s usually milled with other flours that does have gluten. No quaker oats for you! Oh, and Bob’s Red Mill brand claims to be gluten free, but there have been tests on their “gluten free” flours and … gluten has been found.

Incidentally enough, he can take “regular” communion (latin rite, “wafer” and eastern rite, bread in wine) and he will have NO EFFECTS from the physical form of communion. NONE.

This is what is bringing both of us back to the Catholic church (we have both been lapsed for the LONGEST time). While we have always believed in the real body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (he grew up Byzantine and I grew up Roman), we don’t just believe now, we KNOW.

The Latin Rite church we attend actually will set aside “gluten free” wafers or a special cup for those who are living gluten free. They go up after everyone else. My boyfriend won’t take it. He takes communion with everyone else. And will NOT get sick.

And I’ve seen him sick when he’s had gluten. It is not pretty. He’s been tested and is positive. He’ll get sick within a 1/2 hr of ingesting even the smallest spec of gluten. When he’s been poisoned with gluten, he knows. And even I can tell just by looking at him.

It’s a miracle from Jesus. I know it. I know it in my heart and in my soul. We BOTH know it. To see my boyfriend take communion and NOT get sick is a miracle. And like I said, this is what is bring us back to the Catholic church as in actually practicing, not just believing and going about our lives.
 
I’m a “banana baby” celiac and this is the first time I noticed a thread concerning a GF diet. I think it’s great!

The advice given here is very good, although I do have a few comments:

According to Roman Canon the Host must be made of wheat flour. If it isn’t it is invalid. I know there is a lot of controversy concerning taking the host, and for many the easiest way around this is to talk to the pastor of your parish and arrange for them to partake of the cup. As for myself, I do go and receive the host. It does not seem to affect me, although just a little gluten will send me running to the toilet within thirty minutes. I do have to admit, however, that among the several symptoms I do have if I am glutened abdominal pain is, for some reason, NOT one of them.

Also, for pasta lovers, I recommend Tinkyada brand. Not only is it resonably priced, it actually tastes good :).
 
mom2Grace said:
Thank you for all of those links. I really love to bake, and I can make a 100% whole wheat bread loaf that rises so high and has a great texture. 🙂 I hope that I can learn to bake my own bread. Looks like I’ll need to search out some strange ingredients, but our grocery store does carry a lot of bob’s red mill so I just need to get a recipe together and go buy all those ingredients. I have a box of gluten free baking mix but the pre-mixed stuff is all pretty $$. I did make some lemon bars with the baking mix and they were pretty good.

As far as my sensitivity, my blood test was positive for the antibodies but I haven’t had an endoscopy or biopsy. Since I have/had almost every symptom of celiac, dr. suggests I try the diet for 3 months and then re-evaluate, instead of doing more invasive testing.

I’ve started just taking the precious blood at communion. I’m usually the first or one of the first people in line. But I’m not sure if I should go up to the person with the host and get a blessing, or just skip over to the precious blood?? What would you do? I talked to our priest to let him know my situation but he didn’t clarify what exactly I should do other than just recieve the wine.

About restaurants, I knew about the Outback, but not that Red Robin had a gluten free menu. I do know that Taco del Mar has a lot of gluten free (just not the pork or the wheat tortillas).

Shopping is a bit tricky. I’m standing there reading the long ingredient lists with baby in the front pack and toddler in the cart, and people coming up behind me wondering what’s taking so long. Soon I’ll know what to get so hopefully the shopping process can speed up. Why do they put food starch in almost everything? :rolleyes:
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Mom2Grace, you have my complete sympathy in regards to the shopping for gluten free products. I had a very severe allergy to egg whites as a child, and my mom went through seven agonies trying to find out what was in something. This was in the 1950s and no one had ingredient lists in those days.

Lately, I have been looking again at the ingredients, as I have a dear friend with severe allergies. I have spent hours in the market looking for something that did not have soy in it!

Do not let the other shoppers intimidate you. They probably aren’t really noticing you at all. We always feel embarrassed, and more than likely no one else really notices. Anyway, if I were to see you in the market, with a couple of antsy angels, looking at the labels, I’d probably ask if I could help you search! Good luck and God bless you!
 
This may be irrelevant, but I’m kind of mystified at all the people looking for substitutes for wheat flour, etc. I’m on a diet that basically eliminates carbs, which includes wheat, corn, oats, rice. . .I eat mostly protein and vegetables. There isn’t a need for carbs in the human body, though we do need protein and fats. And there are enough carbs in vegetables to provide energy.
Life is really simpler this way and I feel better. I’ve lost about 12 lbs and my cholesterol has improved a lot.
I recommend considering this if you’re spending a lot of time creating gluten free baked goods. Last time I had chocolate cake, I felt horrible for a couple of hours after. We really don’t need that stuff.
 
Okay, some of these may have been answered but: good cookbooks,

anything by Carol Fenster or Bette Hagman.

Eating out is not that difficult, if you go to a burger place ask for it without the bun or in a lettuce wrap, do watch out for the chicken at these places as it can contain wheat, let me see, the same for fries. Burger King can have dedicated fryers - that means the only thing they fry in that specific fryer is potatoes, french fries & hash rounds. Not all have dedicated fryers so you have to ask, you can’t be shy and have food allergies or intolerences. They are one of the easier places to go GF as their menu even has what is called “low carb” burger.

I have other food allergies so the places I end up eating out at are limited. I do well with Sushi, stay away from Cali. rolls unless the filling is real crab and not sashimi (that fake crab meat you see everywhere). bring your own soy sauce though as those places almost always have Kikomans and that has wheat. La Choy soy sauce and other sauces are wheat free.

Ener-G makes the bread I end up with the most but that is because I can get a light version and I need to keep my calorie intake down. Glutino is a great brand of GF snack foods and breads (found in the frozen foods aisles of health food stores). Whole Foods markets makes some really good products as well, check in the frozen foods for breads, muffins, cookies, scones, pie crusts (decent ones I can even say, my family is used to from scratch and I make a really good crust), pizza crusts and then in the mixes, their GF cake mixes are pretty good.

I do share the toaster with the rest of the family but I don’t share a butter dish. I went and found a really pretty square sugar bowl that works as a butter dish and then I found a jelly dish that is round and “crystal” that works too. It helps my husband especially stay away from my butter - he is the worse!

PM me, or better yet e-mail me if you want any more ideas (I am set up for you to be able to do that). There are just too many resources I have found and recipes I have actually developed on my own with the knowledge I gained from the two authors I mentioned above to go into detail here!

Brenda V.
 
mom2Grace said:
OK according to the children’s hospital.org website, modified food starch is safe if made in the US or Canada. If that is true, it opens up a lot more products that I can eat.
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This is no longer true due to the increased use of bio-fuels. You now have to look for the better manufacturers that specify “modified food starch (from corn)” or the “Gluten Free” label or the allergen list that says “contains: Wheat, Soy, Milk, etc.” Kroger product labels are usually very good and specify if the modified food starch is from corn or not.
 
Griff said:
According to Roman Canon the Host must be made of wheat flour. If it isn’t it is invalid. I know there is a lot of controversy concerning taking the host, and for many the easiest way around this is to talk to the pastor of your parish and arrange for them to partake of the cup.
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Low-gluten hosts are valid matter if “they contain a sufficient amount of gluten to obtain the confection of bread without the addition of foreign materials and without the use of procedures that would alter the nature of bread" according to Norms for Use of Low Gluten Bread and Mustem issued in 2003 by the CDF, under then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Completely gluten-free hosts are not valid matter. Here in the U.S. the only low-gluten hosts approved for use are made by the Benedicting Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Missouri. The hosts are made from wheat starch. They contain a small amount of gluten but it is low enough that many of those suffering from gluten intolerance or Celiac can receive it without any ill effects.

Whenever I received (btw we receive communion or the Eucharist, we don’t take it) the regular wheat host, it would taste like garbage in my mouth and I’d feel ill within a short period of time. I wouldn’t feel really well for about 3 days.

As for oats - cross contamination is the issue. I tried to use Quaker oats for awhile - sometimes I’d be okay and other times not although it was never a full-blown attack. Cream Hill Estates oatmeal is grown by farmers who have not grown wheat or related products for at least 3 years and the oats are processed in cleaned facilities. They are also tested after processing. I’ve been using them for awhile without any problems.

Re product labels - they’re all undergoing changes right now and some are better than others. The FDA was accepting comments on how the labels should be but I think the comment period closed at the end of May (not sure about the date). Bottom line is you always have to check and frequently have to call the manufacturers directly especially if you see “natural flavors” on the label. Again, the food starch on most products isn’t an issue for many U.S. products but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The other trend now appears to be companies that no longer say gluten free on certain product labels because all their products are gluten free. Dietz & Watson used to label products as gluten-free (hot dogs, ham, other meats) but I noticed it was missing. When I called, they said all are now gluten free so they won’t bother labeling it - which is a bit stupid to me but that’s they’re policy. Also, be aware that websites aren’t always kept up to date. Calling is still your best option. Email’s okay if you’re not in a rush.
 
My 13 year old son is gluten free. When we first found out, it was hard. Good news though, is it gets easier and easier. Shopping is time consuming at first, but that gets easier also The longer you are on the diet, the more and more foods you will find that you like. (my son is also lactose intolerant, and egg intolerant and a corn allergy)

Praise God that we have a faith that understands that everything can be used for the glory of God as a sacrifice. One day, in the beginning of all this, I was feeling overwhelmed while in the grocery store. I said a little prayer, and it was like God opened my eyes and said look at all these wonderful fruits and meat and vegetables etc. that I have provided for you. I realized that having a thankful heart wll get you through the hardest adjustments. Also this is a diagnosis that has so much hope, there are more and more foods and more people and stores making things available.
(we didn’t think we were going to have to be really picky, but found that he did have to have his own toaster, own butter that no one else puts their knive on wheat first etc. After being on the diet a few weeks, we would discover if we weren’t really careful, he was really sick again.) May God Bless you.
 
My youngest daugher was GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) for 18 months. She was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, but has since lost her diagnosis through therapy, biomed and the grace of God.

I bought a breadmaker and used a combination of white rice flour and tapioca flour. It was the best “white” bread we could make, but it is heavier and chewier than what you will be used to with wheat.

We also used soy flour, sourgham, and quinoa flour. I found an excellent quinoa banana bread recipie on the Internet.

Tapioca flour makes excellent pizza crust. I made a delicious completely GFCF pizza, but you don’t even have to skip the cheese. You can also find the pizza recipie on the Internet if you google GFCF pizza recipies.

I did a lot of cooking with rice, and used rice and corn based cereals.
They also make gluten free pastas.

We ended up eating many fewer bad carbs on the diet. Everyone in your family may end up losing some weight from a gluten-free diet!
 
Angels_Unaware said:
My youngest daugher was GFCF (gluten-free, casein-free) for 18 months. She was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, but has since lost her diagnosis through therapy, biomed and the grace of God.

I bought a breadmaker and used a combination of white rice flour and tapioca flour. It was the best “white” bread we could make, but it is heavier and chewier than what you will be used to with wheat.

We also used soy flour, sourgham, and quinoa flour. I found an excellent quinoa banana bread recipie on the Internet.

Tapioca flour makes excellent pizza crust. I made a delicious completely GFCF pizza, but you don’t even have to skip the cheese. You can also find the pizza recipie on the Internet if you google GFCF pizza recipies.

I did a lot of cooking with rice, and used rice and corn based cereals.
They also make gluten free pastas.

We ended up eating many fewer bad carbs on the diet. Everyone in your family may end up losing some weight from a gluten-free diet!
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I do need a pizza crust recipe. My homemade pizza and lasagna are my husband’s favorite foods. I guess I can still make them for him the usual way, but I’d like to enjoy them too. I haven’t seen any gluten free lasagna noodles, but last summer I made zucchini lasagna that was just as good so we can have that once the zucchini grows out back!

I’m scrambling to try to find enough things to keep my weight up. Once my body heals though I hope it’ll be easier to maintain a healthy weight. I’m just so used to eating all those classic american carbs and now they are cut out of my diet…well it’s just an adjustment.
 
mom2Grace said:
I do need a pizza crust recipe. My homemade pizza and lasagna are my husband’s favorite foods. I guess I can still make them for him the usual way, but I’d like to enjoy them too. I haven’t seen any gluten free lasagna noodles, but last summer I made zucchini lasagna that was just as good so we can have that once the zucchini grows out back!

I’m scrambling to try to find enough things to keep my weight up. Once my body heals though I hope it’ll be easier to maintain a healthy weight. I’m just so used to eating all those classic american carbs and now they are cut out of my diet…well it’s just an adjustment.
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Here’s a link to the pizza crust recipie I used. The blog whole site I am linking to has gluten free recipies, so you might look around and see if there are others you can use.

angelaskitchen.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/gluten-free-dairy-free-pizza-joy-yum/
 
I have been gluten free for about 17 years. Don’t know if I am a celiac or not since I discovered on my own that I reacted badly to wheat, rye, barley and contaminated oats. I have a few comments for various posters:

mom2Grace—Tinkyada has great GF lasagna noodles

sanctaeparata— Gluten Free Pantry has a to-die-for Chocolate Truffle Brownie mix.

GodisGracious—regular communion still has all the properties of wheat AFTER consecration as it did BEFORE. Only the reality of what’s there (the essence ) has changed. Perhaps in your case it’s different, but usually that’s the way it works.

Only Oats, which is distributed by FaimPureFoods in Canada is totally wheat free. They don’t claim gluten free, but I use it with no problem.

Chebe bread mixes make GREAT bread sticks with the addition of 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning or 1 teaspoon each of basil and oregano and the addition of grated Asiago cheese.

More and more restaurants are becoming aware of Celiac and accommodating to GF items. It helps to call ahead and speak to the cook, especially if you are going out for an anniversary. Some places will prepare GF things for you even if they don’t have a GF menu.

It does become easier with time.
 
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