To add to that, celiac can be so bad that even the smallest cross contamination can be devastating.
Think about it like this:
You cut some raw chicken on a cutting board, then wipe(not wash) the cutting board and reuse it with something else.
That cutting board is now likely to contaminate anything else you put on it with salmonella.
The same is true for gluten. While the effects of gluten contamination is not likely to be be fatal from one contamination, a celiac will be sick for the next week or two and causes lasting damage to the small intestine.
Celiac is not cured, but with a totally gluten free diet within approx 5 years the damage to the villi has seen to be mostly healed (depends on the individual). Each contamination sets this back. Important to note that celiacs still must not ever have gluten even after the villi have recovered.
My wife has celiac, I have a gluten sensitivity (causes migraines, brain fog, other intestinal issues). When we go out we just say we both have celiac.
So many restaurants claim to be be gluten conscious but really have no idea... Sometimes it's obvious ("hey, I can see that you put croutons on this and then took them off"), often not without seeing the kitchen, though.
When we found out my wife has celiac we had to replace all of our cookware, toaster (obviously!... But didn't think about it at first), cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc.
The good news of celiac is that it is easy to treat and feel much better relatively quickly. Societal nicities like going to to a restaurant, eating at a friend's or family's house, having a drink, etc are all much more stressful, though.
I can't imagine having to adjust that way. It's awful. I love everything wheat so much.
I'm sure much of the lax approach to celiac meal care is the recent "gluten free" trend that caused many uninformed people to think it wasn't something worth taking seriously.
My girlfriend's stepmother has celiac and it was eye-opening to learn about. She's kicking ass in spite of having to eliminate easy energy sources like that—Iron Man worlds this fall in Kona.
It certainly explains why her dad went so crazy on the baguettes when we went out for dinner, though :)
I think it is one of those things, where attitude goes a long way, because as far as curve balls live throws at you go, coeliac disease really is pretty easily dealt with and, more importantly, the negative effects to your body entirely avoidable when cared for properly. There is a huge amount of industry effort spent in that field thanks to a lot of people talking themselves out of gluten due to various real and made up reasons, which makes substitutes for most things readily available (albeit still at a pretty steep premium).
The shittiest part really is the whole disease flying below the radar for so long and people suffering severe pain and internal damage years or even decades on end. Due to awareness having increased immensely that should thankfully happen less and less from here on out.
> You cut some raw chicken on a cutting board, then wipe(not wash) the cutting board and reuse it with something else. That cutting board is now likely to contaminate anything else you put on it with salmonella.
> When we found out my wife has celiac we had to replace all of our cookware, toaster (obviously!... But didn't think about it at first), cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc.
Can you explain this more? That doesn't really make sense to me. Salmonella is a bacteria. And on a unwashed surface can probably start growing. But gluten? Can't you just wash everything really well? The toaster makes sense to me, but even then, can't you sacrifice a few pieces of gluten free something and turn it on for 5 minutes to burn things off?
Gluten is not alive. Perhaps cooking at a very high heat and charing it maybe could break it down enough?
Cleaning, very well, works for some things... But Teflon, anodized aluminum, etc are all quite porous... use at your own risk (some say these aren't safe materials to cook with anyway).
I removed the outer metal casing, put the whole thing in the dish washer. Put the metal casing back afterwards. The toaster was like brand new and worked fine.
I had no clue that such trace amounts would have a meaningful effect. Very interesting. That makes eating out much more difficult. How do you ever have confidence that prepared foods are truly gluten free?
Eating out is hard. Where we are it's pretty difficult simply because most people here don't know about celiac at all. There are apps similar to Yelp to help... "Find Me Gluten Free", "Allergy Eats" to name a couple... Where you can read reviews of other people about the place specifically focused on GF, see what other celiacs have said about it, etc.
There are two quite yummy, dedicated GF places here that are very nice to have.
Think about it like this:
You cut some raw chicken on a cutting board, then wipe(not wash) the cutting board and reuse it with something else. That cutting board is now likely to contaminate anything else you put on it with salmonella.
The same is true for gluten. While the effects of gluten contamination is not likely to be be fatal from one contamination, a celiac will be sick for the next week or two and causes lasting damage to the small intestine.
Celiac is not cured, but with a totally gluten free diet within approx 5 years the damage to the villi has seen to be mostly healed (depends on the individual). Each contamination sets this back. Important to note that celiacs still must not ever have gluten even after the villi have recovered.
My wife has celiac, I have a gluten sensitivity (causes migraines, brain fog, other intestinal issues). When we go out we just say we both have celiac. So many restaurants claim to be be gluten conscious but really have no idea... Sometimes it's obvious ("hey, I can see that you put croutons on this and then took them off"), often not without seeing the kitchen, though.
When we found out my wife has celiac we had to replace all of our cookware, toaster (obviously!... But didn't think about it at first), cooking utensils, pots and pans, etc.
The good news of celiac is that it is easy to treat and feel much better relatively quickly. Societal nicities like going to to a restaurant, eating at a friend's or family's house, having a drink, etc are all much more stressful, though.