Morning, Who gets angry and anxious when going to buy gluten free food or going out for food?
I feel that things have got better but more training needs to be done on staff and caterers.
Also, although I have nothing agains vegans or vegitarians, I get fed up when company's and cafe's say we have vegan when you say your gluten free. WTF.
Whenever their is a diet craze companys jump on the band wagon and people with medical health problems get left by the wayside.
Also Christmas really annoys me. Asda used to have lovely gluten free pork pies but no longer sells them. Also gluten free stuff reduces for christmas. It makes me feel excluded from having lovely food at Christmas.
Sorry for the outburst. But felt it had to be said
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Sorrento
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Feel free to rant. We have an illness with very poor understanding. I feel the same. Veganism is a generally choice (although some religions and has worked some illness - helped Serena Williams with her Sjorgens).
None of my family understand having a gluten free home, cross contamination. I had specifically said nothing crosses my boundary. A Twix was brought - I said do not dare open that in this house. See I’m ranting too 🤣😂
Ah yeah, we have a couple of vegetarian friends and any time they come over, we insist they don't need to bring anything, we will have plenty nice GF beers for them. They always turn up with a bunch of gluten beers for themselves to drink. Really frustrating, because I wouldn't dream of turning up at theirs with my own cocktail sausages to snack on!
I always feel very, very, uncomfortable eating in friends' homes and try to avoid it because they always want to buy things in for me. Sadly there is often something in the small print which I can't have. It makes us feel bad, as much as it does you Cooper27, especially when you are being so generous. Why not ask your friends for the name of the drinks they can have and ask them to send an image of them to your phone.
They don't bring their own because we buy in non-suitable drinks, they bring their own because they feel like they're being polite by not turning up empty handed.
My main point is though, if they do wish to turn up with their own stuff, they should make an effort to meet our dietary needs, as much as we would theirs.
That's a fair comment Cooper27. If I am taking my own food or drink, which I prefer to do, to anything, I always notify them in advance and thank them for their understanding.
Absolutely! Especially with the free from section becoming more about meat free than allergies. I was recently in hospital and even the nursing staff struggled to understand what I could and couldn’t eat. I was given a cup of tea with alpro milk “just incase”
I was lucky last time in that my hubby brought in stuff for me, but it was only for 36hrs so not too difficult. He even brought in my antihistamines when I reacted to the bed linen...and, after they were checked by the doctor to ensure they were OK, they made a big difference to my comfort. I don't understand why, when we say that something triggers an adverse response, we are disbelieved initially until they see the reaction for themselves. Not meaning to moan...I'm incredibly grateful for the NHS and all that is done for me...this just trigged a memory!
After a prolonged stay in hospital 4 months in a coma I found the peg feeds were milk based while I was unconscious I’m lactose intolerant and when I was conscious for one whole week I lived on boiled eggs and potatoes because they couldn’t guarantee anything was gluten-free needless to say I learned to walk again quickly because I was bloody starving
As bad as that is at least you found an upside of it in that it stimulated to get better quickly and get out of there! Keep trying to see the funny side...even though it's pretty hard to do so sometimes! 👍
There are aspects of the NHS that are scarily bad. A hospital that can not guarantee a gluten free meal for someone with coeliac is beyond incompetency and failure in duty of care. You go to hospital to improve your health not risk making it worse. Seems no one even bothered doing anything to improve it either as there is a lengthy thread on here from 8 years ago on this very topic. If only we had a representative charity that gets funding to do that type of thing. Oh, ye, we do, I forgot.........
I don't have much helpful to say, bit sorry you've had a rough time.
M&S sell a GF pork pie - not very helpfully, it's sold amongst the regular pork pies instead of in the free from section (where you'd expect to find it).
M&S have a really annoying policy of moving stuff around to make you have to browse and pick up more than you went in for. I expect at some point it will move back into the GF section, and then move back out again.
I've found some of the best gluten free foods in Asda are hiding in their dedicated vegan section. Loads of things that should be in the 'free from', but the 'free from' section seems dominated by their own brand things. I think it's a ploy at times to push certain brands at people. I avoid (from experience) all GFs now, but did spot Booja Booja chocolates in the vegan section, whereas they are the only 'safe brand' of gluten free chocolates I would risk, and they should be in the free from section which only stocks Asda's own crappy dairy free/gluten free chocolate.
Numo dark chocolate is gluten and dairy free but only available, as far as I know, from Holland and Barratt. Supermarket home brand chocolate is, I find, really disappointing. I look forward to hearing of any other brands that readily available. I don't have a sweet tooth these days, but do enjoy a square of really dark choc!
Yes! You are right - both angry and anxious are the right words!I avoid processed GF food, so less worried about supermarkets, but restaurants, pubs cafes - many are totally hopeless, and even my favourite, trusted one put a naan bread on the side of my GF curry and rice on one occasion this summer.
Recently I was not offered cream with my meringue because I was GF! (and the waitress was at great pains to "reassure" me that the ice cream and whipped cream were dairy-free). I can't eat so much, and now she was trying to deprive me of something I can eat! I sent her back for the cream that my friends had with theirs.
I am very lucky with my family and friends though - they really do care and consult me about anything they are unsure of, and try to include me in everything. (Except that I get noticeably fewer invitations from extended family and some friends!)
There seems to be a general lack of understanding about GF, and even less knowledge about cross contamination. I was recently served a bowl of GF soup, complete with wheat based croutons... I often go out for lunch with a good friend and we have two or three places that are 'safe', where I have not had an issue. I cannot describe what a treat it was recently to have a cheese & onion toastie, kept seperate by using a toasting bag. It's not that difficult.
It is so frustrating. I have to strictly avoid gluten, dairy and a host of other foods including onion, apple and honey. So many shops say 'Free From' but dairy is in the product! Coconut oil is another 'can't have' but seems to be all the rage recently and added to many 'free from' foods. So rant away, you aren't just doing it for yourself but for the rest of us too.
Must be Sod’s law - when I go out, as a vegetarian, I generally find the gf food contains meat - except for the permanently available mushroom risotto (I’m allergic to mushrooms - extremely inconvenient for a vegetarian). I’ve also had to go on a very low fat diet, so the best I can hope for is a jacket potato and baked beans…
I'm a vegetarian too and I find non vegetarians appear to be catered for better in the gf options both in supermarkets and in restaurants. Luckily I'm fine with mushrooms and enjoy a good risotto but I have a red/green/yellow pepper allergy and quite a few gf dishes have peppers in so I'm often back on the old staple of baked potatoes, cheese and beans too.
Even the baked beans kicked back at me one...Heinz low sugar...who would have thought they would have honey in? They have removed it now, but I still react to them though not as badly. I'm fine with the normal Heinz beans. It's really weird!
Rice and white fish is a safe bet for me...it's what I ate with the occasional addition of green beans for my main meal on holiday overseas once! It was self service and they were using the same utensils for more than one food. I just couldn't risk that. I made up for it during the day, to ensure that I had eaten sufficient foods containing all the vitamins and minerals I needed. It was cooked perfectly, separately for me, and the generous amount of fish, with lemon juice on it was delicious. I was offered chicken but without a sauce I find it too dry. All things considered I was a happy, and safe, bunny.
Well, I could have had the green beans 😊! Glad it worked for you, but rice (other than small portions of basmati) messes up my diabetes, and obviously the fish and chicken don’t work for a vegetarian… It’s why I stick to self catering holidays - much safer. The only time I’ve been fed in a hotel and felt confident was a place owned and run by a coeliac, who knew how it felt, not just the theory. Another short break somewhere run by a dietitian (who apparently knew all about special diets 🙄) was a disaster ☹️.
Tough about the rice...it's a staple go to for me when out...and I do feel fortunate in the respect of being able to have soya...since all of my starch intake is by soya, rice or potatoes. Guess I'm lucky that I love potatoes! I find malic acid is a huge problem for me (apple) and when pectin is added I have to ring the company (usually yoghurts) to make sure that it is from citrus fruit and not apple, the latter being the most common. Counting my blessings because it was so much harder twenty years ago.
I love potatoes too - just have to ration myself (diabetes again)! My carbs are restricted - not low-carbing, just limited - so I don't have much problem getting enough starch. Funny, I suppose we each get used to what we can't have and think other people's out of bounds lists are worse. I'm fine with apples, but have problems with citrus - especially when things just say 'citrus', as I'm allergic to orange and grapefruit, but fine with lime and lemon, and generic citrus means I can't risk it. I originally tested negative for coeliac, so had to do a full elimination diet (when I reacted to barley, rye and wheat, and nothing else...), and I was so grateful that I was ok with onions - onions and potatoes were the first things I reintroduced as the ones I couldn't live without! And I'm thankful that I haven't got Sapphire10's allergy to peppers. I do well on a Mediterranean diet (aubergines, mmm) - Greek holidays are my favourite, and I manage to eat out at least sometimes without being glutened, too. And yes, while there's always room for improvement, things are easier than they used to be - I'm 16 years in, but I first knew (and cooked for) coeliacs in the 80s - boil-in-the-tin gluten free bread, anyone?
It’s what the prescription bread was in 1978… Never tried it myself, I’m glad to say, but I gather it was pretty dire. Then in the 80s such limited gluten free food as could be bought came from Boots, not the supermarket, at even higher prices than free from food now. Even when I was first diagnosed everything had to be ‘refreshed’ in the microwave or toaster - I still remember the amazement at a cookery demo by Juvela when they served bread and butter, launching their new fresh bread which could be eaten straight out of the packet. Things really have changed, honest!
Hi. I do have the same feeling . I’m in London right now ,visiting my sister and just trip to enjoy,but I’m getting angrier. I’m not able to go out with them and have fun and eat. Every time I do my research before going out,finding “gf restaurants “ and every single time I’m being told Oooohh we are sorry but there is no definition like GF in our restaurants,we have 1 kitchen and make all of the food in the same kitchen,so there are traces of gluten everywhere, I’m the manager I’m being honest with you it’s better for you to not eat here. My reaction like OMG why would you put gf in front of every single food in your menu?!?!?! That’s not right! Like for marketing you are fooling people. Or the other day I went to tea house and saw a lot of gf cake and pastries, I got excited and asked lady oh my god it looks so delicious m,are they 100% gf,she says NO,I make all my pastries in the same kitchen and use a lot flowers there)))). Why would you put GF then. Like common . I think restaurants or cafes owners still think like having issues with gluten is a new trend or it’s new fashion. I think if you offer GF menu you should be responsible to people that have celiac or other issues with gluten. Anyway very dissapointed and angry.
They are all breaking the law. Since 2018 if you put GF on menu, you have to guarantee it is safe. Report the lot of them to their local authority. Only way to clamp down on this crap.
When some of the chains do have a food allergy list every part of the meal is listed separately and it takes ages to search through it. Talk about feeling a nuisance whilst the other guests wait, hopefully patiently. In a Harvester once, the manageress made me a plain omelette in a new pan. I thought that was going the extra mile.
Agree with you 100%, I am fed up with all the pushing for vegetarian and vegan, they need to prioritise GF options as it is not a choice but a necessity. I haven’t eaten out for a couple of years now mainly because I hate it when I have to ask for GF when the menus are marked for the veggie/vegan options and whilst they may be sometimes appealing I am not and never will be anything but an omnivore!
I don't think you're unreasonable at all. I feel exactly the same. I get bored of the same crappy free from sections that I buy very little from as it's generally rubbish and unappetising and I never eat out anymore after being glutened a couple of times. I like cooking and baking but I haven't got a lot of free time for that at the moment. It's also really disappointing that there are very few solely gluten free places now. I used to love going to beyond bread in London, such a shame that went. There's literally nowhere now it seems!
I totally agree , my local Marks and Spencers have cut down on Gluten Free products and been replaced with Plant Kitchen products - which mostly have gluten or oats in - which I cant eat either. I have followed a gluten free diet all my life and it was rubbish years ago and the bread was terrible so from then to now the food has definitely improved but I feel could be better as like you say they cater for vegans more than coeliacs and our diet is not by choice .
On the back of this thread, I visited our local M&S yesterday and GF really does seem to have taken a back seat. They seem to have removed the GF label from their sausages for some reason. They have been GF for years, and still are from the ingredient list. Don't see the logic in removing the GF label, unless it reduces production cost of course. The other chilled GF products were hidden away and the sign above the aisle made no mention of it. I did buy some GF samosas, never seen them before. There is the potential for a lot of waste in the chilled GF section, but it is disappointing that the range has been reduced until it is vanishingly small, but if people can't find it in the store, they can't buy it. I wonder if the long term plan is to get rid of it. The ambient section was better, but boring. Apart from bread and stuffing mix it was all sweet stuff.
It's strange re the oats...I thought I was alone in not being able to have them. About thirty years ago that was the first food that I reacted adversely to...and I used to love my porridge with a pinch of salt!
Sorry to hear of your stress and difficulties. I have found after years of trial that avoiding all grains and sticking to just meat, veges, fruit and raw dairy has been the best decision for me. I figure that most people who are not Celiac are ignorant and it's not their problem, anyway. I don't really try to educate others as to my situation, I rely on educating myself and staying away from whatever I know will be troublesome. I also read labels and stay away from packaged and prepared foods.
Rant away. The majority of vegan foods seem to include gluten in some form and are therefore totally toxic to gluten intolerant people. And there seem to be far more vegan choices available in the shops and restaurants these days compared to real gf options. When I go out to eat, I often choose meat or fish dishes because they’re safer. It was particularly galling the other week, when I attended a party meal and had the steak option, giving my separate bowl of chips to another person because I didn’t trust the oil they’d been cooked in. Another person at the table pointedly told me that my menu choice wasn’t very good for the planet and then went on to describe how they ate vegan two days a week and vegetarian the rest of the time. They remained unrepentant when I pointed out why I couldn’t really do that in this case. What can you do?
The only way I found to resolve my anger was to stop eating out. I still get caught out whenever I chance the so-called gluten free foods, so avoid them also. It's a miserable lot we have, and no proper advocacy or lobbying anywhere.
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