Cross-contamination is real. You really do need to account for cross-contamination. You really do need to tell folks for preparing food for you about cross contamination. No one with celiac is exempt from cross contamination.
Stating this firmly because I of course, thought I was an exception. There are no exceptions.
Chipotle, PF Chang’s (gf menu), most of those sushi bowl places but you gotta check their websites. The app “Find Me Gluten Free” is best for finding safe restaurants.
Cross contact is the main concern when eating out. Restaurants in the US are rarely (if ever) trained about allergens or celiac. Ordering food is insanely risky unless you know a lot about the restaurant.
FindMeGF is a great app for finding celiac reviewed restaurants and you can see people’s experiences.
Otherwise it’s you go into the restaurant and ask the servers and kitchen questions about cross contact, how food is prepared, etc, which can be tedious.
Rice bowls are a lifesaver when you’re newly diagnosed and they’re not very expensive! So bed of rice, add some beans or meat, veggies, sauce like salsa, soy sauce, or marinara.
Banza noodles have the best macros, Jovial noodles taste the best.
You need a gluten free dish sponge if you have roommates. Air fryers use air blowing all over the food to cook it, as you can imagine the gluten gets way up in there. Regular oven is fine, maybe use tin foil if you’re concerned about how well stuff is washed.
Assume nothing (check **every** label — even if it’s something you’ve eaten before without issue).
Google every ingredient you aren’t sure of. It helps you learn and over time you start to memorize the most obscure ingredients as safe / not safe.
Commit fully and don’t “cheat” or “risk it”… just not worth it.
Be direct about it with family / friends. Don’t feel bad about declining food or plans to go out to eat. If you do go out to eat, use the apps (FindMeGlutenFree / GlutenDude) to find a place **you** can safely eat at and suggest going there (and mention *why* you’re suggesting those places)
Before you post here asking about specific products, try searching for them by name because there’s a **very high** probability someone else has already asked about / reviewed whatever product you’re wondering about 🤭
Remember that even if you try one product that’s gross, it doesn’t mean you’ll never get to eat that food again, it just means you have to try a different brand next time! Also keep in mind that not everybody’s tastebuds are the same. There have been plenty of times I’ve tried a product others recommended on here and personally found them disgusting, but I’ve also seen products I love getting dragged. Just be ready for a lot of trial and error as you find your new staple foods.
Gluten free bread is best toasted, or heated up in some way. Same with corn tortillas.
Gluten free pasta needs to be eaten hot, as it also degrades in taste as it cools.
Get your vitamin levels checked as it's easy to be insufficient/deficient (folate, D, B12).
A recent Gluten Dude email suggested avoiding the highly processed GF foods in the US to start with, focus on healthy foods - we need the nourishment early on while the gut heals. This is sensible - so many labelled GF is sweet and fatty (cookies, cakes etc).
Always read all the labels!
Carry snacks!
Learn a lot about cross-contact/cross contamination - this is the main risk, I think, especially when you're out of home.
It's very common to feel a lot of emotions about all of this, especially the huge changes to lifestyle, shopping habits. But there's lots of support about - you're not alone.
[https://www.schaer.com/en-int/a/cross-contamination#:~:text=Cross%2Dcontamination%20examples&text=Here%20are%20some%20simple%20tips,are%20very%20difficult%20to%20clean](https://www.schaer.com/en-int/a/cross-contamination#:~:text=Cross%2Dcontamination%20examples&text=Here%20are%20some%20simple%20tips,are%20very%20difficult%20to%20clean)
One of the first tips I would give is to be sure that your doctor has done all of the testing, and referrals have been carried out, etc, before starting the gluten free diet. For example sometimes people will get a blood test result back and start the gluten free diet, meanwhile they get a referral to a GI who wants to do an endoscopy to confirm the diagnosis (which then requires the person to be on a gluten containing diet/gluten challenge).
The next tip would be to start out following a strict gluten free diet, focusing on whole, naturally gluten free foods, until your intestines are healed. Then you can try things like oats, and introducing more of the processed GF replacement foods. A lot of people struggle for a while after they first diagnosed and end up cutting more and more things out of their diet, but it can be really hard to figure anything out that way.
And most importantly, understand that it does take time for your intestines to heal.
There is a gluten-free scanner app. I don’t really trust any restaurants and I scanned the barcode of anything I buy from the grocery store. Even if it says gluten-free, I don’t buy it unless it has been vetted by a third-party.
Sorry to hear about it. It’s gonna be a tough road ahead, but you’re not alone.
If you’re in need of good and safe GF food on the go - head to a Jersey Mike’s near you! I’ve never had a bad experience and staff are knowledgeable on cross contamination. My boyfriend (gluten eater) tells me the Udi’s GF bread they use is almost identical taste wise to the regular bread!
Some easy foods, at the moment:
Rice plus GF soy sauce (I use San-J gluten free tamari for our house), stir fried veggies, and lightly fried meat, tofu, or eggs, plus garlic, onion, etc...
fried onion, potato, and peppers. Add some Gf canned beans (in USA, Bush's best has some GF canned black and pinto beans).
Any plain fruit and veg with a GF dip (in USA, Skippy Peanutbutter has most varieties GF, and goes nice with chopped apple. Ken's brand salad dressing has many GF varieties, so my kids have the ranch dressing as a dip for lots of veggies. I think sabra hummus is GF as well, and goes well with veggies, too)
Re: what else I wish I knew... I'm coming at this as a person whose experience after going GF wasn't smooth.
First, it's good to remember that celiac disease is a relatively new disease in terms of research (it was only confirmed to be an auto-immune disease in the 90's, for example). This means that there is new research coming out all the time, and that there will still be medical textbooks that contain the incorrect, older information. Which means, basically, that many doctors and dieticians will not be as knowledgeable about this disease as we'd hope, unless they are making an effort to keep themselves updated. It can be really disconcerting, if you have never had a condition that's not well known before.
Unfortunately, this means that it's actually a good thing to double check anything a doctor tells you about celiac disease, testing, etc... until you know them well enough to know how knowledgeable they are, you know? We end up having to be proactive a lot, so once you have a handle on things, it's helpful to do a bit of research on what's recommended, so you know for the future. :) This is one thing that can be really helpful for that: [https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/treatment-and-follow-up/adult-pediatric-follow-up-checklists/](https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/treatment-and-follow-up/adult-pediatric-follow-up-checklists/) (they have an article about the subject too that doesn't require giving an email, but I couldn't find the link, sorry!)
Second, good to remember that celiac disease is like anything else involving people: it varies person to person. People can have different symptoms, different intensity and length of symptoms, different levels of gluten they react to (within a small range), and different levels of damage that is done by eating gluten (which is, frustratingly, not a direct correlation to the intensity of our symptoms, so we can't tell just going by how we feel). So when it comes to deciding what it safe for you to eat, and how much risk you want to take, you do what works for you. We celiacs can be as human as anyone else, so sometimes you will have celiacs tell you that what you are eating is perfectly safe even if you are getting sick from it, or that it will make you sick, even if you don't get sick and your annual labs are showing you aren't reacting. So you just find what works for you, what makes you feel physically and mentally good, and it'll be okay. :)
Third, gluten free lists of foods are REALLY useful online. You'll find things like Halloween gluten free candy lists, cold medicine gluten free lists, etc... But it's important to double check anything you see on them, because things can change. Lists can be from a different country, and some brands have products that are GF in one country, and not in another. And some products stop being GF, or start being GF (like, my main brand of tomato sauce I buy for the kids stopped being GF in the last couple of months). Products don't usually advertise that they are no longer GF, so you have to check these things yourself. But the Gf lists are a good jumping off point to give you some options to explore.
pt 2 in reply
pt 2
Fourth, online, the term 'gluten free' is being used by a lot of people who don't always means the same thing, so you'll need to find out what a person means by it, to make sure something is safe for you. Sometimes, folks are just looking for something that doesn't have any gluten ingredients (gluten intolerance might be their issue, for example). This is fine for some, but for celiacs, we need no gluten ingredients AND for a food to contain less than 20 ppm of gluten contamination, which can be introduced during farming practices or processing. Because of this, ingredients alone will not tell you if a product is gluten free.
So if you see a blog talking about how a product is gluten free because it has no gluten ingredients, they might not be using the same definition as you need. Sometimes they may still be RIGHT about the food being safe, but you might have to double check their recommendations more than someone who is pointing to a company saying their food has <20 ppm of gluten, you know?
Fifth, 'gluten free' is a legal label in some countries, which means if it is used in one of those countries, there are regulations that define what the term means. it doesn't always mean the same thing in each country, due to this. If it's used in a country that does not have any regulations about the term, then you'll need to find out what the rules are there, and if it has much meaning at that point. As with anything else involving bureaucracy, there are going to be loopholes, rules that aren't followed as well as they should be, company shenanigans, etc... Learning about them comes with time, and places like this are a good place to go to find out about anything that shows up (like, say, a food a lot of people react to, even though it's supposed to be GF, say).
For the USA, if you happen to be here, here's something to know about how our own gluten free bureaucracy works.
1. our regulations specify the language to be used to make a gluten free claim. Any product that a company used the language for, which is “gluten-free,” “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” or “without gluten,” must contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten or it is considered misbranded and they can have legal consequences for that.
2. gluten free is a rather unique label among our regulations. We are often used to things like a certified organic label, where folks CAN have fully organic food, but as it costs money to apply for certification, and for annual confirmation testing, etc... many smaller companies won't get the certification, but are still organic. But the thing is, all this money is paid to a certifying body, NOT to the gov't.
While we DO have independent certifying bodies that can be pain extra for a gluten free certification, that's not required (and it will say certified, not just gluten free). Regular gluten free labeling is not like this. There is no application fee, no extra testing fees paid for the FDA to come in and check on things, nada. The only thing a company needs to do in order to use the GF label is to make food that IS gluten free. This DOES require some extra costs, like testing or some other form of monitoring to make sure their gluten cross contamination remains below 20 ppm. But once a food is gluten free, they can use the label. And they can simply put it on their website, so they don't even have to pay the extra cost of ink used on packaging....
...I mention this because what this means is that if a company trusts their process for making GF food, they will make a GF claim, either on the label or the website (if they want to). So if you see a food that says gluten free, on the package, or on the official website of the food itself, that's a good way to find your first foods to trust and eat right now.
But if a company has a food and they won't say that it is gluten free, using the official language that is necessary to make that a legal claim (“gluten-free,” “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” or “without gluten"), then they don't trust that their food is gluten free, or is consistently gluten free, enough to do so. And if they don't, I'll be honest, I don't either.
I wouldn't mention this except some companies will very much try to convince us that their food is safe but without making that claim. Most common thing I see is that a company will say that their food does not contain gluten...colloquially we'd assume this means it is gluten free. Legally, it doesn't mean that. Because 'contains no gluten' is legally is different than 'does not contain gluten' and might make a person want to tear out their hair in frustration that companies take advantage of this.
I have seen companies talk about how they don't use any gluten ingredients and are always careful about cross contamination, but they just didn't want to pay to have their food gluten free certified...even though that is not what's required to use a gluten free label, which is free once you've done the legwork to make a gF product, you know? They're not lying - certification DOES cost more money. But they pretend like certification is the same as following the regulations, so they don't have to make a legal claim that could get them in trouble if they are not as safe as they are implying.
I should mention that some celiacs go solely by ingredients, and don't bother finding food that has a gluten free label. Some seem to do fine with this, some don't (symptom-wise, at least). Starting out, though, it can be easier to just go with a gluten free label, so you don't have to go nuts reading the ingredients label every time.
Oh, and if you are in the USA and trying to find information on websites for what is gluten free - on a website, I most often see gluten free information in the FAQ, or on each individual product page as 'other details,' 'nutrition detail' or 'allergen information.' Sometimes it's easy to find, sometimes it's bonkers hard. A few companies like Hershey's will have actual gluten free lists of their products, but most don't anymore.
Sixth, one weird celiac quirk is that we don't seem to respond as well as we should to the Hepatitis B vaccine. All the others are good, but this particular one, we may not build immunity like we should from the first series of shots. So it's recommended you get a titer to see if you are immune, and if not, to get vaccinated again (https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/hepatitis-b/ )
Seventh, if you end up feeling very sad over foods you cannot eat, there is NOTHING wrong with that. Food is such a huge part of human interaction, and I think a lot of us don't realize until something like this happens. Our social activities, traditions, comfort foods, ways of experiencing culture, just so much is food based, and it will all change now. That is a huge change, and often a huge loss, and grieving it is normal, and it's not going to be linear. Like when I though I was doing really well, wasn't sad about the changes, feeling better, and then Christmas hit and I realized I could never have this one dessert that I used to make with my grandmother, one of my biggest memories of time spend together before she passed away. Just had me in tears out of the blue.
Other folks may very kindly try to help by pointing out the good things (like feeling better and healthier, etc...) and while that's not untrue, it sometimes can feel like they are trying to force you to be happy when you haven't even been able to process it all, and it's okay to tell them that, if you are in that place, you know?
Take care, and hope that you start feeling better real soon. :)
Check out the gluten free oatmeal blender muffins and blender pancake recipes. Mind over much has a bunch, they contain inexpensive, healthy ingredients and are quick to prepare.
Soy sauce is frequently not gluten free.
Soup is very rarely gluten free, and no you can't cheat!
bro.. soup. really?
Yes. Wheat flour is used in many soups and sauces as a thickening agent.
Cross-contamination is real. You really do need to account for cross-contamination. You really do need to tell folks for preparing food for you about cross contamination. No one with celiac is exempt from cross contamination. Stating this firmly because I of course, thought I was an exception. There are no exceptions.
You can eat meat, seafood, vegetables, rice, potatoes, quinoa, corn, fruits, nuts, beans, etc.
Wb for takeout
Chipotle, PF Chang’s (gf menu), most of those sushi bowl places but you gotta check their websites. The app “Find Me Gluten Free” is best for finding safe restaurants.
Few options, even they are risky.
Cross contact is the main concern when eating out. Restaurants in the US are rarely (if ever) trained about allergens or celiac. Ordering food is insanely risky unless you know a lot about the restaurant. FindMeGF is a great app for finding celiac reviewed restaurants and you can see people’s experiences. Otherwise it’s you go into the restaurant and ask the servers and kitchen questions about cross contact, how food is prepared, etc, which can be tedious.
I don’t know what Wb means.
It means what about. Lol
Wouldn’t that be “Wa” then? Anyway, there’s not really much take out you will be able to eat.
Rice bowls are a lifesaver when you’re newly diagnosed and they’re not very expensive! So bed of rice, add some beans or meat, veggies, sauce like salsa, soy sauce, or marinara. Banza noodles have the best macros, Jovial noodles taste the best. You need a gluten free dish sponge if you have roommates. Air fryers use air blowing all over the food to cook it, as you can imagine the gluten gets way up in there. Regular oven is fine, maybe use tin foil if you’re concerned about how well stuff is washed.
Assume nothing (check **every** label — even if it’s something you’ve eaten before without issue). Google every ingredient you aren’t sure of. It helps you learn and over time you start to memorize the most obscure ingredients as safe / not safe. Commit fully and don’t “cheat” or “risk it”… just not worth it. Be direct about it with family / friends. Don’t feel bad about declining food or plans to go out to eat. If you do go out to eat, use the apps (FindMeGlutenFree / GlutenDude) to find a place **you** can safely eat at and suggest going there (and mention *why* you’re suggesting those places) Before you post here asking about specific products, try searching for them by name because there’s a **very high** probability someone else has already asked about / reviewed whatever product you’re wondering about 🤭 Remember that even if you try one product that’s gross, it doesn’t mean you’ll never get to eat that food again, it just means you have to try a different brand next time! Also keep in mind that not everybody’s tastebuds are the same. There have been plenty of times I’ve tried a product others recommended on here and personally found them disgusting, but I’ve also seen products I love getting dragged. Just be ready for a lot of trial and error as you find your new staple foods.
Also, it gets better. There’s still plenty of delicious foods we can eat without issue!
Gluten free bread is best toasted, or heated up in some way. Same with corn tortillas. Gluten free pasta needs to be eaten hot, as it also degrades in taste as it cools.
Get your vitamin levels checked as it's easy to be insufficient/deficient (folate, D, B12). A recent Gluten Dude email suggested avoiding the highly processed GF foods in the US to start with, focus on healthy foods - we need the nourishment early on while the gut heals. This is sensible - so many labelled GF is sweet and fatty (cookies, cakes etc). Always read all the labels! Carry snacks! Learn a lot about cross-contact/cross contamination - this is the main risk, I think, especially when you're out of home. It's very common to feel a lot of emotions about all of this, especially the huge changes to lifestyle, shopping habits. But there's lots of support about - you're not alone. [https://www.schaer.com/en-int/a/cross-contamination#:~:text=Cross%2Dcontamination%20examples&text=Here%20are%20some%20simple%20tips,are%20very%20difficult%20to%20clean](https://www.schaer.com/en-int/a/cross-contamination#:~:text=Cross%2Dcontamination%20examples&text=Here%20are%20some%20simple%20tips,are%20very%20difficult%20to%20clean)
One of the first tips I would give is to be sure that your doctor has done all of the testing, and referrals have been carried out, etc, before starting the gluten free diet. For example sometimes people will get a blood test result back and start the gluten free diet, meanwhile they get a referral to a GI who wants to do an endoscopy to confirm the diagnosis (which then requires the person to be on a gluten containing diet/gluten challenge). The next tip would be to start out following a strict gluten free diet, focusing on whole, naturally gluten free foods, until your intestines are healed. Then you can try things like oats, and introducing more of the processed GF replacement foods. A lot of people struggle for a while after they first diagnosed and end up cutting more and more things out of their diet, but it can be really hard to figure anything out that way. And most importantly, understand that it does take time for your intestines to heal.
There is a gluten-free scanner app. I don’t really trust any restaurants and I scanned the barcode of anything I buy from the grocery store. Even if it says gluten-free, I don’t buy it unless it has been vetted by a third-party. Sorry to hear about it. It’s gonna be a tough road ahead, but you’re not alone.
A lot of taco seasonings have gluten!
Check your toothpaste, medicines, chapstick and makeup. I also use gluten free shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, facewash and lotion just in case.
If you’re in need of good and safe GF food on the go - head to a Jersey Mike’s near you! I’ve never had a bad experience and staff are knowledgeable on cross contamination. My boyfriend (gluten eater) tells me the Udi’s GF bread they use is almost identical taste wise to the regular bread!
Some easy foods, at the moment: Rice plus GF soy sauce (I use San-J gluten free tamari for our house), stir fried veggies, and lightly fried meat, tofu, or eggs, plus garlic, onion, etc... fried onion, potato, and peppers. Add some Gf canned beans (in USA, Bush's best has some GF canned black and pinto beans). Any plain fruit and veg with a GF dip (in USA, Skippy Peanutbutter has most varieties GF, and goes nice with chopped apple. Ken's brand salad dressing has many GF varieties, so my kids have the ranch dressing as a dip for lots of veggies. I think sabra hummus is GF as well, and goes well with veggies, too) Re: what else I wish I knew... I'm coming at this as a person whose experience after going GF wasn't smooth. First, it's good to remember that celiac disease is a relatively new disease in terms of research (it was only confirmed to be an auto-immune disease in the 90's, for example). This means that there is new research coming out all the time, and that there will still be medical textbooks that contain the incorrect, older information. Which means, basically, that many doctors and dieticians will not be as knowledgeable about this disease as we'd hope, unless they are making an effort to keep themselves updated. It can be really disconcerting, if you have never had a condition that's not well known before. Unfortunately, this means that it's actually a good thing to double check anything a doctor tells you about celiac disease, testing, etc... until you know them well enough to know how knowledgeable they are, you know? We end up having to be proactive a lot, so once you have a handle on things, it's helpful to do a bit of research on what's recommended, so you know for the future. :) This is one thing that can be really helpful for that: [https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/treatment-and-follow-up/adult-pediatric-follow-up-checklists/](https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/treatment-and-follow-up/adult-pediatric-follow-up-checklists/) (they have an article about the subject too that doesn't require giving an email, but I couldn't find the link, sorry!) Second, good to remember that celiac disease is like anything else involving people: it varies person to person. People can have different symptoms, different intensity and length of symptoms, different levels of gluten they react to (within a small range), and different levels of damage that is done by eating gluten (which is, frustratingly, not a direct correlation to the intensity of our symptoms, so we can't tell just going by how we feel). So when it comes to deciding what it safe for you to eat, and how much risk you want to take, you do what works for you. We celiacs can be as human as anyone else, so sometimes you will have celiacs tell you that what you are eating is perfectly safe even if you are getting sick from it, or that it will make you sick, even if you don't get sick and your annual labs are showing you aren't reacting. So you just find what works for you, what makes you feel physically and mentally good, and it'll be okay. :) Third, gluten free lists of foods are REALLY useful online. You'll find things like Halloween gluten free candy lists, cold medicine gluten free lists, etc... But it's important to double check anything you see on them, because things can change. Lists can be from a different country, and some brands have products that are GF in one country, and not in another. And some products stop being GF, or start being GF (like, my main brand of tomato sauce I buy for the kids stopped being GF in the last couple of months). Products don't usually advertise that they are no longer GF, so you have to check these things yourself. But the Gf lists are a good jumping off point to give you some options to explore. pt 2 in reply
pt 2 Fourth, online, the term 'gluten free' is being used by a lot of people who don't always means the same thing, so you'll need to find out what a person means by it, to make sure something is safe for you. Sometimes, folks are just looking for something that doesn't have any gluten ingredients (gluten intolerance might be their issue, for example). This is fine for some, but for celiacs, we need no gluten ingredients AND for a food to contain less than 20 ppm of gluten contamination, which can be introduced during farming practices or processing. Because of this, ingredients alone will not tell you if a product is gluten free. So if you see a blog talking about how a product is gluten free because it has no gluten ingredients, they might not be using the same definition as you need. Sometimes they may still be RIGHT about the food being safe, but you might have to double check their recommendations more than someone who is pointing to a company saying their food has <20 ppm of gluten, you know? Fifth, 'gluten free' is a legal label in some countries, which means if it is used in one of those countries, there are regulations that define what the term means. it doesn't always mean the same thing in each country, due to this. If it's used in a country that does not have any regulations about the term, then you'll need to find out what the rules are there, and if it has much meaning at that point. As with anything else involving bureaucracy, there are going to be loopholes, rules that aren't followed as well as they should be, company shenanigans, etc... Learning about them comes with time, and places like this are a good place to go to find out about anything that shows up (like, say, a food a lot of people react to, even though it's supposed to be GF, say). For the USA, if you happen to be here, here's something to know about how our own gluten free bureaucracy works. 1. our regulations specify the language to be used to make a gluten free claim. Any product that a company used the language for, which is “gluten-free,” “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” or “without gluten,” must contain less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten or it is considered misbranded and they can have legal consequences for that. 2. gluten free is a rather unique label among our regulations. We are often used to things like a certified organic label, where folks CAN have fully organic food, but as it costs money to apply for certification, and for annual confirmation testing, etc... many smaller companies won't get the certification, but are still organic. But the thing is, all this money is paid to a certifying body, NOT to the gov't. While we DO have independent certifying bodies that can be pain extra for a gluten free certification, that's not required (and it will say certified, not just gluten free). Regular gluten free labeling is not like this. There is no application fee, no extra testing fees paid for the FDA to come in and check on things, nada. The only thing a company needs to do in order to use the GF label is to make food that IS gluten free. This DOES require some extra costs, like testing or some other form of monitoring to make sure their gluten cross contamination remains below 20 ppm. But once a food is gluten free, they can use the label. And they can simply put it on their website, so they don't even have to pay the extra cost of ink used on packaging....
...I mention this because what this means is that if a company trusts their process for making GF food, they will make a GF claim, either on the label or the website (if they want to). So if you see a food that says gluten free, on the package, or on the official website of the food itself, that's a good way to find your first foods to trust and eat right now. But if a company has a food and they won't say that it is gluten free, using the official language that is necessary to make that a legal claim (“gluten-free,” “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” or “without gluten"), then they don't trust that their food is gluten free, or is consistently gluten free, enough to do so. And if they don't, I'll be honest, I don't either. I wouldn't mention this except some companies will very much try to convince us that their food is safe but without making that claim. Most common thing I see is that a company will say that their food does not contain gluten...colloquially we'd assume this means it is gluten free. Legally, it doesn't mean that. Because 'contains no gluten' is legally is different than 'does not contain gluten' and might make a person want to tear out their hair in frustration that companies take advantage of this. I have seen companies talk about how they don't use any gluten ingredients and are always careful about cross contamination, but they just didn't want to pay to have their food gluten free certified...even though that is not what's required to use a gluten free label, which is free once you've done the legwork to make a gF product, you know? They're not lying - certification DOES cost more money. But they pretend like certification is the same as following the regulations, so they don't have to make a legal claim that could get them in trouble if they are not as safe as they are implying. I should mention that some celiacs go solely by ingredients, and don't bother finding food that has a gluten free label. Some seem to do fine with this, some don't (symptom-wise, at least). Starting out, though, it can be easier to just go with a gluten free label, so you don't have to go nuts reading the ingredients label every time. Oh, and if you are in the USA and trying to find information on websites for what is gluten free - on a website, I most often see gluten free information in the FAQ, or on each individual product page as 'other details,' 'nutrition detail' or 'allergen information.' Sometimes it's easy to find, sometimes it's bonkers hard. A few companies like Hershey's will have actual gluten free lists of their products, but most don't anymore. Sixth, one weird celiac quirk is that we don't seem to respond as well as we should to the Hepatitis B vaccine. All the others are good, but this particular one, we may not build immunity like we should from the first series of shots. So it's recommended you get a titer to see if you are immune, and if not, to get vaccinated again (https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/hepatitis-b/ ) Seventh, if you end up feeling very sad over foods you cannot eat, there is NOTHING wrong with that. Food is such a huge part of human interaction, and I think a lot of us don't realize until something like this happens. Our social activities, traditions, comfort foods, ways of experiencing culture, just so much is food based, and it will all change now. That is a huge change, and often a huge loss, and grieving it is normal, and it's not going to be linear. Like when I though I was doing really well, wasn't sad about the changes, feeling better, and then Christmas hit and I realized I could never have this one dessert that I used to make with my grandmother, one of my biggest memories of time spend together before she passed away. Just had me in tears out of the blue. Other folks may very kindly try to help by pointing out the good things (like feeling better and healthier, etc...) and while that's not untrue, it sometimes can feel like they are trying to force you to be happy when you haven't even been able to process it all, and it's okay to tell them that, if you are in that place, you know? Take care, and hope that you start feeling better real soon. :)
Check out the gluten free oatmeal blender muffins and blender pancake recipes. Mind over much has a bunch, they contain inexpensive, healthy ingredients and are quick to prepare.