My Gluten Free Celiac Code

 I have a code I live by:

Love many

Trust few

Always paddle

Your own canoe

Basically it means I don't trust any product unless I've discovered for sure it's gluten free. When I eat gluten I'm sick for 3 days. It feels like I have a giant lump of cement in my gut. Every nerve ending feels like its moaning in commiseration with my tummy and all I want to do is lay down and suffer. However, in this dog eat dog world we know sometimes you just have to carry on. 

So this means if I don't see "Gluten Free" on the label I run the other way. I won't let it touch my lips until I can prove it's free of that nasty little protein in wheat, rye, barley, or (sometimes) oats: gluten. If its something I really want then I reach out to the people who make it.

Here is the response from Twinings Tea. I love flavored teas so I'm doing the happy dance!

Thank you for taking the time to contact Twinings.

All teas are inherently gluten free regardless of where the tea is sourced, our ingredient listing states “black tea” or “green tea” in additional to other ingredients a particular tea may contain.  None of these added ingredients contain gluten, so therefore our teas are gluten free.  Please note, however, that Twinings at this time does not utilize an outside agency to certify our teas as gluten free.

 Thank You,

Consumer Relations

 Twinings North America

Celiac and Weight Gain...

When first confronted with a doctor who said to me, "Could be Celiac Disease but those people are really thin, so it's not that." I believed him. What did I know? What did anyone know about Celiac Disease ten years ago?

So I began going gluten free to see if it helped and it did. Long story short, the doc now thinks I'm Celiac but to get an accurate test I'd have to go back to eating gluten which makes me sick for days.

One thing I noticed when I went gluten free was that I felt deprived. There were now so many things I couldn't eat. No cookies off the shelf, no crusty Italian bread with dinner, no Life cereal. :(

Sucks.

When I found cookies or breads on the health food store shelf I bought them all up and ate to my hearts content. After all, everyone else had so much to choose from and what did I have? An expensive trip to the Health food store and limited choices. Why shouldn't I get to have some enjoyment with food?

Oh the humanity! Oh the pounds!

Most GF food is not low cal. In fact its more high in fat than its glutenous counter parts. And it all lands on the hips and thighs. Before realizing why my pants were getting tighter I'd simply buy another size. After all, I'm Celiac; weigh is good, right?  And I deserve to enjoy food no matter what!

Wrong. A healthy weight is good....we know that, but using this disease to eat to excess was a good excuse.

It took time but gradually I came to realize that GF food needed portion control just like everything else. More salads and meat, less breads, pastas and cookies. It was a learning curve that gave me more curves but I'm fighting my way back down.
Lesson learned. GF food has calories too. Sometimes too many.