Gluten Free Toronto

Jun
11
By Laura

Beautiful Toronto

I LOVE Toronto. It’s one of my favourite cities in the world. What a fantastic city with so much going on. I moved to Toronto to live and work for a year when I was 21. What did I eat and drink in this lovely Canadian city? A lot of poutine and beer. Not very celiac friendly choices but don’t worry, this was in pre-celiac days. I often wonder what Toronto is like for gluten free options as I plan to return soon to explore old haunts and reconnect with old friends. For now though I asked my friend and fellow celiac, Sile Farrell, to share her experiences of gluten free travelling in Toronto, Canada. I also spoke with my cousin, Kim, who just returned from a year of living and working in Toronto. We are in luck! Toronto is a fantastic place for celiacs and other gluten free-ers to go for some gluten free travelling! 😀

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Canada Travel Adventures 11 Comments

IgA Deficienct Celiac

Jun
06
By Laura

IgA Antibody

Have you tested negative in the celiac blood test but still suffering from lots of horrible symptoms which sound like undiagnosed celiac disease? The test may have yielded a false negative for a number of reasons. One obvious reason for a false negative on the celiac blood test is that you haven’t been eating gluten, or haven’t been eating enough gluten. You must be eating gluten consistently to get a positive result! Another reason is that you could be IgA deficient. I am.

The results of my celiac blood test were inconclusive because I am IgA deficient. Following this result, as I was suffering from almost all the text book symptoms of celiac disease, my doctors did an endoscopy. My endoscopy showed signs of villous atrophy and I was diagnosed with celiac disease. If they had stopped at the negative blood test I would probably still be feeling like crap everyday, or at least I wouldn’t have the answers I do today!

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Lifestyle 4 Comments

Gluten Free Hot Salad

Jun
05
By Laura

Tasty hot salad!

Colourful veggies

Is it just me or do veggies taste best when they’re all mixed up with other veggies. Recently I’ve been eating a lot of ‘hot salad’ as I like to call it. I love veggies and I have a bunch more energy when I eat them so I aim to get a whole rainbow of them into my diet every day. My local farmer’s market is amazing and the best place to stock up on local, flavoursome veggies and a colourful, hot salad is my favourite way to eat them. Tasty, healthy, simple and most importantly, naturally gluten free!

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Simple Recipes 2 Comments

Gluten Free London

May
31
By Laura

Beautiful London

London is one of those cities you just have to see. It’s huge and it’s amazing. There’s always something going on. Lucky for gluten free travellers hoping to explore the UK’s capital city, London has a bunch of gluten free options for celiac visitors. As London is only nine hours by car or bus from Glasgow and even less by train, I’ve done the trip a bunch of times and I’ve always had a great time. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t, there is so much to see and do in London. John and I will probably live there at some point in our future and at that point I’ll have even more gluten free suggestions for you!

When I was back in the UK in the Spring of 2011 I went to visit one of my best friends who lives just outside of London. This was my first time in London as a celiac. These are the gluten free eateries I came across in my research for this trip.

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Europe Travel Adventures United Kingdom 13 Comments

Do You Trust Other Celiacs?

May
29
By Laura

She's my friend. She can't eat gluten. Would I trust her to cook for me?

It’s hard to trust other people cooking for you when the consequences are so serious if something goes wrong. Fact! If you’re celiac and you accidentally eat gluten it can be a pretty horrible experience so there’s no way you can have just anyone cooking for you. When I was first diagnosed with celiac I felt a little mean saying no to people who wanted to cook me a nice ‘gluten free’ meal. I say ‘gluten free’ because I’m pretty sure some of the meals made for me in earlier days were not completely free from cross contamination. Pretty quickly though I got comfortable saying no and these days I have absolutely no concerns with saying NO! Sorry but you can’t cook for me unless I really trust that you fully understand what you’re doing.

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Lifestyle 12 Comments

Gluten Free Disaster Kit

May
25
By Laura

Are you ready for a disaster?

Bad things happen. We don’t like to think about it but we need to be prepared, just incase. 72hours.com asks whether we would be prepared in the event of a major disaster and provides information and tips on what you should do in order to be prepared. In terms of food they suggest that everyone should “Store enough emergency food to provide for your family for at least 3 days.” For celiacs that means you need to have 3 days worth of gluten free food supplies. These foods should be non perishable foods as there may be no electricity, gas or running water for a while after a disaster.

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Gluten Free Almond Butter

May
23
By Laura

Tasty almond butter

I’ve been a HUGE fan of peanut butter for a long time now but I’ve only recently been introduced to it’s lovely nutty cousin, almond butter and so far I’m very impressed. I’ve been using a lot of almond milk recently so it’s no surprise that I enjoy almond butter too.

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Gluten Free Frito Lay

May
18
By Laura

Gluten free chips

UPDATE: Jan, 2015

Updated this month, Frito Lay now have a list of U.S. Gluten-Free Products and a separate list of U.S Products Not Containing Gluten Ingredients. Frito Lay say they have “validated through analytical testing that the following products contain less than 20ppm of gluten, the level put forward in the FDA’s Gluten Free Food Labeling Final Rule.”

Looking at the Gluten-Free Products list, loads of their chips and on there. If you want to know whether your favourite bag of Cheetos, Fritos or Lay’s is gluten-free, check out the gluten-free list!

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Frito Lay make a whole lot of chips in the United States. Lay’s! Ruffles! Tostitos! Fritos! Cheetos! Doritos! and many more. The great thing about these chips is that you can find them pretty much anywhere in the US so if we know which of these chips are gluten free then we can always find a safe bag of chips no matter where in the country we are. This is important information for any gluten free traveller.

So which of these chips are gluten free and safe for celiacs?

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I want (gluten free) candy! Product Reviews 6 Comments

Are Nuts Safe For Celiacs?

May
17
By Laura

 

Naturally gluten free but do they contain ‘traces of gluten’?

Are nuts safe for celiacs? Some of you may be reading this and thinking, seriously? Is this gluten free traveller chick really trying to tell me that I can’t eat nuts now? She’s already made me uncertain about my morning coffee and I KNOW that nuts are gluten free. In theory, YES. Nuts themselves are of course naturally gluten free but in my experience it’s extremely difficult to find any which are free from the threat of cross contamination. And if you’re celiac then this is a real concern.

Here’s what led me to write this post..

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Lifestyle Product Reviews 45 Comments

Celiacs! Stop Making Excuses For Cheating

May
15
By Laura

Any gluten at all equals 🙁

“I can’t find anything gluten free”, “Gluten free food tastes awful”, “Being gluten free is too expensive”, “Nothing happens when I just eat a tiny but of gluten.” Have you said any of these things? Have you had heard someone say any of these things? Read on..

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Lifestyle 20 Comments