Here I am sick just when I started this new website for Long Beach Celiacs such as myself. Good thing, though, because this reminds me to tell others to watch out for those medicines.

Many pills have fillers and the most obvious is modified food starch or so often listed on medicine boxes as simply ‘food starch.’

I have a cold (so far, I hope that is all it is) and so it meant a trip to the drug store to get decongestants along with some immune boosters.

For decongestants, I found that Sudafed does not give me a gluten attack. That’s good to know for starters.

But, did you know that Dan Active is not good for celiacs? Thank goodness they say on the package that it is processed in a plant that also processes wheat.

Who needs to be sick with the cold or flu and then get a bad bout of diarrhea and add dehyrdration to the mix!

Other meds that I am taking that have not caused a celiac attack are Airborne (zesty orange), Sambucol (black elderberry cold and flu medicine) and Zicam tablets. Also, Nyquil has been okay for me.

One more note is to pretty much stay away from store brand medicines. I didn’t take the time to read the labels of Walgrens “same as” meds that are supposed to be the same as the brand name but in the past, I have often found that the cheaper store brands contain fillers (some that are listed and others hidden so that the attacks come after ingestion).

Botton line, cheaper anything usually contain fillers.

Now back to bed to recuperate so I can make our next scheduled Long Beach Gluten Free Meetup.
Stay well,
Honor

I love condiments. I need my mustard, Bar-B-Q sauce, and steak sauce (not so much catsup, though).

Did you know that distilled vinegar is a problem for us celiacs and that most condiments have distilled vinegar as an ingredient.

Turns out that distilled vinegar is a wheat based product so it may or may not be a problem. I have found that I can eat some products with distilled vinegar as an ingredient and cannot eat others.

For example,I have personally have  been able to eat A-1 Steak sauce with no problems but not mainstream mustards.

So, I was glad when I found that my favorite online gluten free store had a mustard product made with cider vinegar and yummy honey!

I highly recommend it for it’s flavor….it is soooo good.

Click here to find out where you can order really good mustard  from my favorite online store.

It happens to be on sale right now…..just in time for summer BBQ’s!

Get it here.

When I first found out I was gluten intolerant, I thought I had to give up all baked goods.

Well, I love pies, donuts and all that great fattening food and was not happy denying myself.

I rationalized that it would help me lose weight but deprivation is a hard thing for me to swallow (get the pun?).

So, imagine my delight when I found the freezer at Whole Foods full of baked goods!

I seems that Whole Foods has their own line of backed goods that are made especially for us celiacs (it’s nice to be catered too :).

You can find out more at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/gluten-free.php and don’t stop there.

Visit you local Whole Foods Market and find all the GF goodies in the freezer section. It’s a dedicated area of the freezers to ask and you shall find….

Good eating to you!
Honor

As someone who is VERY gluten sensitive, I have had to figure out the many ways cross contamination can occur in a restuarant.

For example, it’s always a risk of cross contamination even when ordering a simple dinner or tossed salad.

First, you have be sure to ask for ”no croutons” on your salad and then, you have to be sure to stress that the cook cannot put them on and then just take them off. 

I have come to learn so say that that the salad needs to be made fresh with “no contamination” and really make a big deal about it.

I hate to sound paranoid, but one learns to trust no one when ordering in a restaurant.

Also, I have learned to avoid all salad dressings except vinegar and oil and only then if the vinegar is balsamic. Anything else will not do since distilled vinegar is known to be a wheat based product.

If the restaurant does not have oil and vinegar (such as Denny’s) then I ask for lemon wedges and dress my salad with lemon juice.

Another tip is to take your own dressing with you in a small jar ….if you think of it.  Sometimes I forget and have learned the art of improvising when it comes to eating out.

More tips are coming…stay tuned here at www.GlutenFreeLongBeach.com!