need advice from Gluten-free friends

[gretelmom]

Okay. So I'm not a confirmed Celiac but have been gf for ten+ years and my health was bad before, is good now...

So there's a pizzeria here in S.Cal that makes GF pizzas, and they've been taught by someone official (can't remember who) how to not-cross contaminate, how to check mfrs about gluten, etc. I have seen them take pizzas out of the oven they have special tools, plates, boxes, everything, for the gf pizzas. The owners do all the work, and they're very knowlegable.

However every time I eat a pizza of theirs I get sick the next morning with raging diarrhea! I have two theories about what could cause this: 1) the crust is made with Amaranth - am I just not used to it? 2) my toppings are: chicken, onion, fresh tomato, roasted red peppers and fresh yellow peppers - is it just too much fiber? Sounds crazy but I eat more than half the pizza for dinner - I've been deprived for so long I can't stop myself!!! And those toppings are heaped on.

They also put cheese on it (there is a dairy free cheese option), and I take Lactaid since I'm intolerant. I eat that much cheese in other stuff and don't seem to have the same problem.

Does it seem like these could be the causes or should I worry about gluten there?

[kjbrown92]

Well you could duplicate their recipe at home and see if you react to it. If not, then you know it's a cross contamination issue.

Could you try a different topping and see what happens? Have you had all those toppings separately and you're okay with all of them?

If it's already happened twice, I don't know that I'd keep eating it, whatever the issue is.

And you're sure that you've had that much cheese before without a problem? Different cheeses have different amounts of lactose in them.

[FairyRae]

Could you order a cheeseless one and try it, just to be sure it isn't the cheese? Then you'd be more likely to KNOW there was an issue w/ the dough itself...

HTH!


Lauren

[Shelsi]

You might want to look for reviews online too of their GF pizzas...if you read others complaining of the same problem you could probably assume gluten contamination.

Or maybe it's just because you eat a lot in one sitting and your body is not used to it.

[crunchy_mama]

I would try cheeseless as the first option as well. Also- I would want an ingredient list to see if perhaps you are reacting to something else.

[gretelmom]

Smart idea, ordering it cheeseless.... still sounds delicious too. It is LOADED with veggies, so another option would be mellowing out on the veggies. It's probably a total of three or more peppers on the whole thing and half an onion plus at least half a tomato not counting fresh sauce. I normally would eat half a pepper on a salad, with half a tomato, etc...

Also, where would I ask for reviews? I don't even know where to start in asking others if they've had good or bad experiences there... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for all the great help you've given me so far.

[Chinese Pistache]

Maybe you can't tolerate amaranth? Do they make the dough themselves, right there? Or do they come premade?

[thepeach80]

Godfathers here offers a gluten free option, but b/c of all it takes to avoid gluten, they order them in frozen and just sell them that way. You can't change the toppings and they all come w/ cheese.

[gretelmom]

Originally Posted by Shelsi

You might want to look for reviews online too of their GF pizzas...if you read others complaining of the same problem you could probably assume gluten contamination.

Or maybe it's just because you eat a lot in one sitting and your body is not used to it.

How do I do this? Any ideas where I could look for that?

[Marie2375]

Try Celiac.com forums. There are lots of restaurant reviews there. Are you on the Silly Yaks yahoo! Group? Reviews come through there too. I recommend doing the daily digest for that group. It is busy.

[Shelsi]

Originally Posted by gretelmom

How do I do this? Any ideas where I could look for that?

Sorry, I just got back to this thread. I would just google their name and see what pops up. People might leave reviews on google.com itself (I think it's with their map function), there could be reviews on restaurant sites, etc. Of course there could be nothing at all but I bet a good google search will bring up something. Maybe even do "Restaurant Name & gluten" or "Restaurant Name & gluten-free pizza" to get detailed info.