Coeliacs (and Others) Assemble!

[NeverDropYourMooncup]

Inspired by another thread where somebody wants their dietary needs/wishes catered for (and for some posters, to permanently restrict the diet of other people whether they like it or not), I thought maybe those of us who have absolutely bugger all choice about the matter for medical reasons might want to vent, suggest decent foods that aren't just made of sadness and disappointment - or simply plan to take over the world?

I'm pissed off. Been feeling rough recently whilst waiting for my biologics delivery, skin crawling, horrible pain - and found that my happy discovery of Tesco's Free From Snacks, including Cheese Flavour Balls and Bacon Rashers - specifically labelled Gluten Free - contain, guess what? That's right. Fucking Gluten.

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/your-gluten-free-hub/food-and-drink-information/food-alerts/tesco-recalls-free-from-snacks-because-of-undeclared-gluten/

you can get a refund if you haven't actually eaten the bastard things yet. Anything if you have eaten them? Of course not.

This follows close on from Eat Real Gluten Free Lentil chips where the manufacturer gave the wrong batch numbers as being contaminated first time round. And of course, they are sold under different names for some supermarkets.

And the Gosh falafels (vegan, by the way) and pakoras the month before.

And Suma lentil soup, and Alpro Rice Milk, and all the other things you're supposed to be grateful for paying an ridiculously high price for in exchange for something vaguely resembling food....

It would be far easier if gluten/avenin/etc were just banned for everybody, wouldn't it?

There are only so many jacket potatoes and homemade chips (because you can't trust oven chips, 95% of which are dusted in wheat to make them crunchier and browner) one person can consume before they get a tensy bit bored...

Who's with me? What shall we call ourselves?

How about the Coeliac and Allergy Liberation Front?

I'm Coeliac too. I bought McCains chips this week they say Gluten free on the front, made with potato and sunflower oil, they are nice in the air fryer
I'm really liking Aldi sausages and Tempura chicken and Tempura chicken nuggets.
I have invested in a soup maker and am enjoying lots flavours I can no longer eat from a premade can of soup. Mushroom and Mushroom and chicken are favourites and a close second is Lentil and Chorizo.
When I find a good snack I tend to binge on it so try to avoid with mixed results.
Asda Caramel rice cakes (in the normal cracker isle) are a good snack for me.

Ugh no not that instructor. I'm sure the vegans must get annoyed about being fobbed off with our terrible pizza bases and ice cream cones, too.

But there must be a happy medium between "Let's see if we can put aged cheese in everything savoury that a coeliac could safely eat in this establishment and all others" and "Here is your all-purpose hypoallergenic multi-faith-compliant human nutritional product. Please ingest."

I'm exaggerating, obviously, about the level of everywhereness. But I have just this one, circumscribed, violent aversion, and it's something that other people love and think belongs in everything 😭 It's not a new thing for me, unwelcome cheese, but BCD (before coeliac disease) its prevalence was pretty easy to deal with, because I always had plenty of options, some of which would almost always be cheese-free.

Even before giving up gluten I'd look at an eatery menu bemoaning the cheese on everything and walk past. I used to love hard cheese, then the migraines started and they were the messy sort.

It must be awful if it's something you love, Pick. There's certainly nothing else that's quite like it.

For me, having a medical contraindication was a welcome justification to call upon

I am fine with middle of the road cheese but totally agree @off about anything aged enough to have turned a different colour or something so runny it can't be picked off. So many places do seem to just go for the 'all-purpose hypoallergenic multi-faith-compliant human nutritional product'.

I found this too. Cheese was in everything. Found the odd place that did vegan cheese (which was gross!) so could have something like pizza. I also couldn't have cheese spread or lactose free cheese spread.

I'm now ok with cheese but mustn't overdo it.

It was only cheese that contains cows milk so ended up with a lot of goats cheese.

The only half decent vegan cheese I found was sheese. The spread was quite nice.

DD is coaching at a residential camp this week. Was told she'd be catered for.... here's yesterdays lunch and brekkers this morning..... obligatory jacket potato for dinner 🙄

Localher0 That looks miserable and not enough food. I'm always wary of sausages, it's hit and miss if they are gluten free so I avoid unless I'm told the brand or they can see ingredients on the box.

It's bloody pathetic. And given how little they've provided overall, would it have killed them to let her have more than a single lank strand of the fried onion?

I'd be really wary of that sausage! A lot of good quality sausages you buy in the supermarkets are gluten free but ime any sort of caterer doesn't use gf sausages. I've not yet been to a hotel where the sausages at breakfast are suitable and I've been to a lot of places that offer 'gluten free' breakfasts that just remove the sausage and bread from a standard breakfast (no discount of course!!)

They've given her less than 200 kcal for each of those meals. The odds on the jacket potato containing 1600 kcal is vanishingly remote.

I'd be going apeshit - and pointing out that they are actively discriminating. Because they've got 'some' gluten free stuff - so they could have bought enough.

I wonder what children whose parents are paying for the residential camp get if they're coeliac?

Thanks all - it's insane isn't it? For lunch today she had potato salad - no protein and she hates potato salad 😳. She's 19 so doesn't want me to intervene but she's kicked up a stink. She's had to go to Sainsburys to get food and is insisting they reimburse her. Also she's coaching next week at a different residential camp and has said she won't do it unless the guarantee she'll be properly catered for. Given that both camps are at established boarding schools who must have students with dietary restrictions it's mind boggling bad.

Got somewhere like that down the road from me 'we cater for a range of dietary requirements'. Look at the menu, though, and there's a jacket potato and salad each day, everything else is bread, bakes, pasta, pasta, pasta, noodles, pizza, pasta, cakes and pasta.

I once ticked on a form I was dairy free. I couldn't find anything dairy free on the menu and was told I could have something vegan. But I'm not vegan.

A friend of mine (we're both diagnosed coeliac) told me that her fortnight's holiday was great as she was only glutened and ill once. I found that so sad. I cope well at home but dread holidays. Before a long haul flight I tend to almost starve myself as I'm so scared of gluten symptoms on the plane.

Dd is back from Italy and said it was amazing. That the bread and the cakes tasted normal. Every cafe and restaurant understood coeliac, could cater for it, understood cross contamination. They did gf tiramisu and pizzas and pasta. She said she felt normal for the first time in years and is now planning on moving there. She’s literally come back to get stuff and is flying back in a few weeks and is planning to find work out there! 🤷‍♀️

Not coeliac, but have not so much irritable bowel as raging fucking furious bowel. I have MS, which = muscle spasms, and that’s my explanation for my angry gut, which is as good an explanation as any for me, given that even the most helpful of doctors admit they can’t explain it.

I did FODMAP elimination and found I could manage it, felt so good about managing the situation. Then I had breast cancer and have to take Tamoxifen (which induces menopause) and now anything vegetable that contains any protein or fructose gives me massive bloat. I know I need to do the elimination diet again, but at the moment I’m so pissed off about how much work I put in to get my diet right, and now I have to start again! Hey ho, off I go again.

@HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas does she have EU nationality? As it's really not that simple.

No and I told her this last night which took the wind out her sails. She has met quite a few Americans and English people out there working in bars and hostels and has swapped Instagram details so she’s now contacting them to ask how they have managed. But from me googling it looks like if she gets a job she can then apply for a work visa .

@HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas there's a reason for this- many Brits will be there with rights as they have been there pre Brexit and Americans have'preferred' arrangements - they did when we lived in Denmark too. UK could have had this but would have to have been reciprocal and this gvt did not offer that to EU citizens- quite the opposite in fact.

I don't think she will find getting a job easy as it's much easier to offer jobs to say someone from Sweden or France without the visa hassle- she must not take a casual job without the visa- she can just be thrown out and is then banned from Schengen

I ask for my gluten containing sausage and toast on a separate plate and I give it to DH. Or I take the sausage home for the dog. I’m paying for it so I want it even if I can’t eat it!

Here is your all-purpose hypoallergenic multi-faith-compliant human nutritional product
I hate this. I’m not vegan, and I won’t eat halal because it’s cruel. It’s not possible to produce an all-purpose free-from product that suits everyone. The gluten and dairy free people don’t want to be vegan. The vegan and dairy free people don’t want to be gluten free - why would they eat gluten free if that don’t have to, it’s awful!

Thanks @Crikeyalmighty thsts useful to know. Shame for her but can’t say I’m overly upset 😁

@HaveYouHeardOfARoadAtlas Yep- sorry to have to rain on her parade.

My daughter is coeliac and we have holidayed in Italy last couple of years it was amazing my daughter ate so well and was never glutened. Hope your daughter figures out a way to work there 😄