It's officially Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit. As a 'Rabbit' myself I'm hoping this will be the year of all things fabulous! The mystic blog pages online say it should be a year of diplomacy and good times so let's see....
Anyhow it got me thinking about food, mood and Coeliac Disease. We all know that having CD can result in nutritional and vitamin deficiencies that affect our hormones and moods. Yet putting that those aside how does it affect our lives in terms of socialising, relationships and feelings? Whether you have Coeliac Disease yourself or are a parent of a child who has CD it does change your life.
We tend to associate seasonal celebrations as revolving around food, family and friends. For spontaneous types life 'post CD' can be challenging. Whatever happened to that impromptu Pizza after work with mates? Celebration time and eating out can be challenging for us. There's all the usual worry of 'Can I eat anything on the menu?, Will the waiter understand and ask the chef the right questions ? Will they take care to avoid cross contamination? Will my friends drift off as I double check that the meal they bring me is gluten free?' Not to mention that many Coeliacs hate asking lots of questions at outings or don't want to feel responsible for forcing others to eat out at the only relatively safe gluten free eatery that they've tried before. The results of our new poll have been very interesting so far (thanks for those that've voted!), have a peek and comment if you haven't so far.
I found eating out and explaining CD tough at first as I expect most newbie Coeliacs do. Unlike my Coeliac sister I didn't avoid socialising out as I wanted to maintain the lifestyle I had before and not be constrained by the evil Gluten. In hindsight this actually made life tougher for myself as I had to get to grips with CD, shopping, cooking and analysing menus and food places. Luckily I've never been a shy retiring type so after a period of internal ranting and bemoaning gluten I decided to view these additional 'Coeliac' gluten free challenges as an opportunity to raise awareness of Coeliac Disease (sorry waiters!) and a way to visit new food places.
SOCIAL LIVES AFTER CD:
One of the biggest areas that I think Coeliac Disease has an impact on is how and where you socialise. I find it particularly difficult when I encounter new people or work situations. For example at a music festival last year I was amazed to discover that I felt just like a newbie Coeliac all over again. The drive down was hard as friends of friends were offering and sharing gluten snacks (which I just decided to politely refuse). Yet I made an effort to share mine so I didn't seem anti-social. I didn't want the palarva of explaining what gluten was etc as that can go on and on as awareness and understanding of it is still so low. It was pretty daunting trawling the food stalls to ascertain what was truly gluten free (thankfully I packed the equivalent of a small Sainsbury's Local with me!). As I sat quietly snacking on some GF bread by torchlight in my tent one evening I felt simultaneously fed up and ridiculous all at the same time. Everyone else was tucking into a burger and fries from the local country pub, yet I'd made an excuse to nip back to the tent for my GF supplies as I was tired and didn't have the energy or wish to inflict my GF requests on the busy pub staff. As I sat there feeling sorry for myself I was pleased to see the funny side of things. Who ever thought I'd be sneaking off to eat some GF bread on my own? Honestly!? I never knew before CD that bread could be such an emotive subject - did you ?!
FEEDBACK:
So how has Coeliac Disease affected your mood and lifestyle? Do you have low moments? Or has it been a positive change as you now experiment and eat more healthy whilst understanding how your food is produced? What occasions / places do you find hardest post CD?
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FionaGFG
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It really is a pain eating out and I now avoid chinese food like the plague, due to all the soy sauce, batter, etc. Shame, really, I used to love it.
Since going GF my mood has improved plus I am more aware of what I am putting into my body. I still have low moments - despite what I like to think, I am only human - especially when passing a bakery and smelling the warm bread. I find birthdays hard as cakes will have gluten in them and around 90% of the "snacks" put out will not be gf friendly. If going out for a meal, most people will have automatically considered my "issues", as they're nice like that, but I do always call ahead to the restaurant to make sure they can cater for me. If they respond with "Coeliac? Oh yeah, that's that wheat fing, innit? Yeah, you can have naan, chapati......" then I tend to beg for a venue change.
Yes - the cross contamination is such a bugger. Mind you I have found it an eye opener and that some of the best places to eat out often don't mix and match e.g. 'Why would we cook the chips in the same oil as the fish!' or 'Don't worry a lot of our customers are Coeliacs, let me bring the gravy jar out for you so you can check the ingredients yourself'. Yet Chinese is often harder as so much of the food is cooked with soy sauce or stir fried etc. Luckily Thai food is a little easier and I've found a lot of that is naturally gluten free.
I do like your example though. Ringing ahead really is a must isn't it?
Yes Miss C varied responses abound. Not to be confused with the response 'Coo-li-ack, ah yeah you can't eat potatoes or rice can ya? Nah we can't guarantee any of your food will be gluten free. Although why don't ya just have the salad, that should be safe. The dressing - errr I dunno let me check'. We should start a blog post on Coeliac boo-boos!
On the plus side orgs like twitter.com/CoeliacMapUK and leaveitout.com/ do make things a little simpler. The problem is info needs to be regularly updated so checking for yourself in advance is a must.
I also agree with miss C about avoiding Chinese resteraunts but Chinese food shops have lots of foods that are gluten and wheat free, ie: tapioca starch, rice flour, rice papers and a range of rice and tapioca based noodles. Some Chinese shops also sell jars of gluten which I find a bit off putting but I just give that the evil eye!!!
I am a foodie and enjoy baking so when I invite freinds around for food they do not see me as on a restricted diet. I made sponge cake for my lady and she said it reminded her of ones her mum made when she was a child, (I used rice flour and tapioca starch) I also make my own baking powder as I read they add aluminium sulphite to some baking powders as an anti caking agent.
Even tho' I cope really well on my diet I have been diagnosed for 15 years now, I wish that I wasn't a coeliac and wish that I could anything that I like, its the fear of being made ill by food that gets to me and I hate having to explain my self so I do not eat out and thats the price I pay for being coeliac because I do not enjoy eating out wondering if I am going to be ill afterwards, takes the pleasure out of it for me.
Everyone who has a dissability of any sort wonders why me and feels it's not fair and this I believe causes the isolation often felt by coeliac. And because socialising tends to revolve around eating and drinking being a coeliac is in your face.
Our emotional well being is as important a part of us as is a good diet and we should try and see being a coeliac holistically rather than just the diet.
Just my 2 cents worth, to a very intelligent post.
I think you've hit the nail on the head as a lot of Coeliacs feel:
>they wish they didn't have Coeliac Disease
>hate having to constantly explain what Coeliac Disease is to friends, family, colleagues, restaurant staff (and put up with the look of 'is it all in your head, are you exaggerating etc
>hate the worry of eating out
>feel fed up that we can't escape Coeliac Disease (after all most of us eat 3 times a day and we're bombarded by TV ads, mags, billboards oozing with food and drinks we can't have any more) plus as you rightly say socialising relies so heavily on food and drink.
Yet the learning curve for myself and many others appears to be overcoming this initial fear and mentality of what we can't have and embracing what we can have. In a way eating gluten free is a challenge and leads us to experiment with new foods and experiences. I've often stumbled across a new recipe or been dragged to a new food place that I'd never have set foot in before and been delighted to discover it! As a long life hater of beetroot, mushrooms and salmon I've actually forced myself to eat these to spice up my diet and I've even found some nice ways to eat them.
As you point out - there's nothing better than making something for a non Coeliac friend and impressing them as they can't even taste the difference. One of the huge plus sides I've discovered is home entertaining. I used to eat out about 2-3 times a week. From a 'can't cook - won't cook' person I now morphed into a 'bugger it give it a go cook' and inflict my celebrity cookbook recipes and creative creations on friends. However, I'm still a huge advocate for Coeliacs asking for gf options and eating out, as if we don't show there is demand for this you can bet restaurants aren't going to add gf options. In these tough economic times they need to realise there is a financial benefit to increase their footfall and sales. After all we Coeliacs don't dine out on our own very often do we? Read this as for every £20 we spend eating out there's usually another £20 / £40 from our families/ friends that dine out with us as well!
I have to say that you are right that coeliac should talk to resteraunts about their diet if they want to eat there and if it is local and a success they will go back with their friends. I'm a great believer in shopping locally and I live really close the a vibrant shopping rd so I don't even need my car for shopping and I can get everything for my diet with in walking distance. I asked my local butcher if he would make me some gf sausages and he said I'll get some out of the feezer if you want, so he had already responded to a need. I also go in a whole food shop run by South Americans and they sell freshly made gf falafels and they have a cafe upstairs and I used to have gf cakes there when the owner made them. They made their gf cakes seperately and then wrapped them idividually and gave it to you on a plate like that for you to unwrap, so they had it covered.
So you are right that coeliac have to communicate their needs to caterers.
I would really like to see cafe bakeries catering for coeliac where wheaties were welcome but it was stress free for coeliac, I'm more a cafe person than a resteraunt one if I'm honest.
Jerry
Ps, A few months after diagnosis I was feeling fed up with being a coeliac and this really interesting documentary came on TV about these financially poor desert nomads and it showed them make a fire and then make some flat breads with millet flour and water in a Tagine over the open fire.
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