[krankedyann]

My kids and I were diagnosed as celiac this week. I'm getting past the shock now and am trying to figure out what I'm going to do and how we're going to cope with this. Depression is starting t set in, too.

Anyone here celiac and can offer advice on what and how to eat that would be NT-compatible. I'm ashamed to say I'm a chapter leader and should know this stuff, but I'm so foggy and overwhelmed and so very sick right now that I can't think. I'm not getting out of bed much and can't function. My kids aren't nearly as sick as I am, though, so they spend their days watching TV and eating whatever I can muster right now while I lay on the mattress on the floor and suffer.

 

[tboroson]

Sorta. My dad has celiac. I tested a "mild" positive in blood tests for gluten sensitivity three and a half years ago, and my doctor (very progressive, anthroposophically minded) recommended that I "limit" gluten, but didn't have to exclude it. About two years ago, after the birth of my second daughter, I started experiencing geographic tongue, and a little less than a year ago realized that it was linked to gluten. Meanwhile, dd2 was experiencing a face rash that wouldn't go away and very painful bowel movements (though neither diarhea or constipation). I cut gluten out of both our diets and the symptoms cleared up. We ate NT-ish and completely gluten free for over six months. Then I started experimenting with grains other than wheat - spelt, barley, oats. DD seems to be doing just fine. I thought I was doing great, after weeks of eating spelt. But, my geographic tongue has come back these last few days

Now, twice I've tried wheat to see if I was right and it came from gluten, and the symptom came back *immediately*. So, it strikes me as odd that it would take weeks for it to come back if it were from spelt or barley. And, last week I indulged in some hot wings from a pizza place - almost certainly contaminated. If there wasn't wheat in the sauce or coating the wings themselves, they were certainly fried in oil that had fried breaded foods. SO... to make a long story short, I can't decide if my reaction is a delayed reaction to two months worth of spelt, or to contamination in the hot wings.

Anyway, all that rambling... Despite my recent experiments with spelt and barley, I'd been eating NT and 100% gluten free for a long time. Currently, I'm eating those ingredients in very limited amounts - less than once a day usually.

Since NT is so whole-foods oriented, I really haven't found it that difficult to cut out the gluten. After all, you're (theoretically

I know I'm not perfect, but I try...) not likely to be eating, say, bottled salad dressing or canned soup, so you don't have to worry about small ingredients in those. You can experiment with soaking GF grain and bean flours before using them. Or, there are a lot of great baking recipes that are egg based. Bette Hagman has one in her original Gluten Free Gourmet book that is a quickbread based on eggs. It has, I think, rice flour and another kind of flour; I would like to experiment with subbing home ground almond flour for the rice flour. Honestly, after a while, you get used to not having many of the things. My husband gets pissed at me because I *never* remember to buy him hamburger rolls when I buy fixings for burgers

I'm just so used to eating them off a plate, covered in cheese and avocado and stuff. The one thing that was just killing me, though, was not eating barley stews

I want to try hato mugi in it's place, but it's so expensive.

 

[krankedyann]

:bump

Anyone else? I'm needing some help here!

I am having a hard time cutting out the gluten for my kids, because they're little carb monsters. I don't want to give them too much fresh fruit, but they're bottomless pits and I really don't know what to feed them.

Any suggestions?

 

[JaneS]

I'll be back... but there is a good GFCF Native Nutrition Yahoo group you may want to join.

Irish oats are gluten free, apparently US ones are contaminated.

Make a lot of rice puddings.

Baked potatoes, with skins for snacks.

Many of the SCD recipes with nuts are great for kids: Peanut Butter Brownies for example. But it is a long process for soaking, etc. then making recipe, I know firsthand!

 

[RAF]

Hello,

I am also a WAPF chapter leader with celiac. My kids and husband are also on the diet, and we won't even allow gluten in our home. I started NT after being gluten free for a couple of years, so it wasn't much of a difference at that point. What exactly are you looking for? Specific recipes? We eat homemade gf bread, biscuits, trail mix, smoothies, lots of eggs, meat, raw veggies, nut butters, hot cereal made from millet and sweet brown rice, flat breads, sprouted corn tortillas with guacamole, lots of potatoes. We make homemade french fries and fried potatoes. I like to make homemade gf muffins too for snacks. We sometimes have raw veggies with a homemade dip of some sort that is high in fat for calories. My kids eat alot of carbs too and do tend to go heavy on the fruit, but they are healthy so far. We also try to have lots of crispy nuts/seeds for the kids too. Oh and dairy products. We raise goats, so we have raw yogurt and kefir for them to eat with their berries. Anyway, if this isn't helpful enough, let me know exactly what it is you are looking for.

BTW, my kids are 6 and 3 years old.

 

[Gale Force]

Kerry Ann,

These transitions are very difficult and of course you are fuzzy headed.

What types of foods or recipes are you having difficulty giving up or replacing?

Amanda

 

[onlyboys]

Forgive me, as I don't know what NT is. But, I can give you some carbs for Celiacs!

We eat lots of corn tortillas, with cheese, PB&J, etc. We love rice cakes and rice noodles (rice sticks are the best), and chebe bread (mantioc flour). "French fries" are great, and we eat tons of potatoes too. Rice! Lots of rice. And, then fruits and veggies too.

Hope that helps!

 

[Mommabelle]

My Dad is Celiac and I grew up that way. We used rice for alot of things..like we had rice instead of spaghetti with sauce...I still really like this! We had rollups...roll up your "sandwhich" with meat. We ate alot of beans..like Pinto and Navy..cooked with ham or sausage. We never had rice flour bread or any of that...just tasted aweful to us. I need to go back to eating gluten free. My husband has Crohn's disease...my poor kids...I worry so about them with gut problems on both sides of the family. I tell you the hardest meal of the day is breakfast. We are southern so we ate grits growing up..but these days with traffic so aweful..it's really hard to get up that early and cook. Toast is so easy! Any fast breakfast ideas out there?

 

[sarah10998]

It is a really hard transition to go gluten-free. Especially when you stop eating wheat bread and stuff I have found that I am more hungry because a meal without bread fills you up differently. You eventually get used to it but I suspect your kids are feeling hungry all of the time. If you can afford it ejoy-life foods have GREAT gluten-free bars and cookies, I also love the glutino brand gluten-free stuff. I have a web-site somewhere for true gluten-free oats which can be a lifesaver. FYI right now Amazon has a promo going in their new grocery section. With the code GROCERY2 you get $10 off a $49 purchase plus usually free shipping which is a life saver. If you would like to talk message me and I would be more than happy to share my (hard-earned) gluten free experience HTH Sarah

 

[Pattyla]

I started NT and GF at the same time.

:

We currently follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet with modifications to make it as NT as I have the energy to do.

What are your specific concerns? Getting rid of bread? I make pancakes and waffles with ground up pecans for the flour and it is as good or better than normal pancakes (for example).

I remember the begining I was starving all the time, both becasue of my body getting used to eating differently and becasue it was so much work to figure out what to eat! But trust me it becomes easier in time. You will learn this new way of eating, just like you learned NT. It will take time, and you will make mistakes. Let them go.

One thing that helps me is making meal plans. That way I know what I have to eat and when I'm going to eat it. It also helps me to think ahead so that I don't get stuck with nothing to eat.

It also helped that I completely purged gluten from our home when we went GF. I gave it all away or threw it away. Then when we went grain free I got rid of all the other grains too. I still have some rice pasta in hopes that some day I'll be able to eat it again... (I miss pasta

). Not having it on hand showed me just how empty the pantry shelves were and helped me see the gaps that needed to be filled.

Be gentle with yourself.

 

[Mommabelle]

I am really interested in the gluten free oats. I never knew there was such a thing. Growing it was easy because my Dad really is happy eating a very simple and unvaried diet. My husband is another story! He likes to eat variety all the time. He also will not tell people he can't have certain things. This is really frustrating for me. He will be sick for days afterwards sometimes. He is getting somewhat better as he has been really unwell with Crohns this summer...for the first time in over 10 years and he's getting older. I will look at some of those gluten free foods mentioned above. I tried some from Whole Foods and I just didn't care for them.

 

[tboroson]

The oats from Ireland are reputed to have a lower contamination rate, but they're not totally contamination-free. There are two sources of contamination for oats - volunteer plants in the field from crop rotation (i.e. they planted wheat there last year, a few grains fell during harvesting and sprouted with the oats this spring), and milling equipment that's not cleaned between different grains. In some studies, Irish oats were found to have a lower contamination rate; in others, the rate was similar to American oats. In one study, Country Choice were found to have the lowest contamination rate on average (but the rate varied greatly from one package to the next). But, even at it's highest level of comtamination, Country Choice brand was found to be only very slightly over the level specified by the Codex Alimentarius to be labeled "gluten-free". So, it looks like that brand is your best bet. McCann's, which is the brand many people say is very clean, tested on average very close to Quaker.

There are two new brands, one out of the US and the other from Canada, that are being tightly controlled for gluten contamination. I think one might be called the Gluten Free Oats company? I had an article about them, but will have to dig to find it. Both companies are new and can't keep up with demand just yet, so it's hard to get ahold of their product. The companies are currently out of stock. But, if you bookmark their pages and wait to jump on it when they get some in stock... they're pricey, because of all the controls - their prices from the farmers are higher because they have to require the farmers not grow any other glutinous grains at all; they test extensively; they run their own boutique mills.

 

[Panserbjorne]

I have never heard that before-Irish oats in all the studies Ive read were fine

: and I've read alot. Ugh, just the idea that it may not be true is hard-where did you find the info?

WE try to eat traditional foods as much as possible, we just tend to go grain free. Every now and again the kids get oats or rice, but not often. We do all grass fed meat when we do it and wild caught fish. Otherwise we have some significant limitations so I don't know that you want my help. I gravitated awhile ago to eating raw (with the exception of meat-which isn't always raw) because it was more compatible with my needs. We can't do gluten, dairy, eggs, shellfish or soy over here. Raw food tends to be very safe-even the prepackaged stuff. The only thing you have to watch for is nama shoyu but the vast majority of it is soaked, sprouted and GF. Very NT friendly.

I'll help where I can, but just wanted to say congrats on a concrete diagnosis. You will be fine after the initial transition, and maybe some of us celiacs will even benefit-you have great recipes!

 

[tboroson]

http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p...36106549309.5a

Quote:

To summarize the study-12 containers of oats representing 4 different lots of 3 brands (Quaker, Country Choice, and McCann's) were tested for gluten contamination using the R5 ELISA developed by Mendez. Contamination levels ranged from below the limit of detection (3 ppm gluten) to 1807 ppm gluten. Three of the 12 oat samples contained gluten levels of less than 20 ppm, and the other nine had levels that ranged from 23 to 1,807 ppm. All brands of oats tested had at least 1 container of oats that tested above 200 ppm gluten. It is interesting to note that Country Choice oats ranged from below the limit of detection to 210 ppm-an amount that is nearly at the level allowed by the Codex Alimentarius for products that normally contain gluten but have had their gluten removed-and of the three brands had the least amount of cross-contamination.

 

[Panserbjorne]

Ugh.

 

[tboroson]

Another article mentions a brand used in an Irish study. The brand was actually German, called Peter Kölln:

Quote:

Peter Kölln Postfach 609 D-25306 Elmshorn Germany

 

[tboroson]

Aha, found that reference. The canadian company selling pure oats is Chateau Cream Hill Estates. www.creamhillestates.com