Happy Celiac Awareness Day!

September 13th is Celiac Awareness Day.

You might have heard this statistic already: that 1 in 133 people have Celiac disease. That might not sound like very many to you, but if you think of how many restaurants are Celiac friendly, it's more like 1 in a waaaaaaaay too many!

How to celebrate Celiac Awareness Day?

1. Take your favorite Celiac Diva (that would be me for most of my readers!) out to one of the few Celiac friendly restaurants. If you don't know which restaurants can be trusted, you can check out:The Gluten Intolerance Group's list of restaurants that have their gluten-free food service accredidation.
My personal favorite restaurant right now is Asquew Grill.

Or just ask said Celiac Diva and s/he will be happy to tell you.


2. If there aren't any great choices, a home cooked meal is a good way to go. Just make sure all utensils, dishes and surfaces are cleaned well (no bread crumbs). Gluten-contamination is a huge issue even in food items labeled "gluten-free."  To be safe, only cook with raw ingredients or items that are Certified Gluten Free. Items that you might never think twice about, like ketchup, are things that this Celiac diva makes sure to get certified gluten -free. One of my favorite brands is Organicville.

How to continue to support your Celiac friends?


Besides celebrating, let's create more awareness about gluten-free issues! The mainstream knowledge of gluten-free is tainted with an imagine of fad dieters. Often, when I tell people I don't eat gluten, they think I'm doing it for weight loss. The reality is, that Celiac disease is a very serious health condition that requires much stricter adherence to a truly 100% gluten-free diet. Unfortunately, the mainstream idea of gluten-free is more aligned with Trader Joe's (not a Celiac friendly place) clever phrase "no gluten ingredients used." Just because there are no gluten ingredients used, does not make it gluten-free! My new term that I will be using now, rather than "gluten free," is "Celiac friendly." Spread the word!


Stay tuned for future blogs:

• Three Stone Hearth
• Asquew Grill
• Pacific Catch
• Ristorante Bacco
• Mariposa Baking Company
• Pica Pica Maize
• The Northwest Public House (in Portland)

 Thanks for reading and happy Celiac Awareness Day! 

EO Body Products: Certified Gluten Free!

Gluten free body products??!! Wah? Do we really need to worry about that?

I say, any gluten you put in or on your body is not good for Celiacs. Some doctors say that the concentration of gluten that would be found in body products is too low to have an effect. But if I can find good gluten free body products, that makes me happier. There is a good article on this issue at Celiac.com.

Where would one find gluten in a body product? I think the most concentrated source of gluten in body products would be wheat aminos that are often put in hair conditioners. Upon scouring the ingredients of several conditioners and leave in hair treatments, I found that many have wheat aminos. Some just say "aminos," and you have to wonder what kind. Some products do have soy or quinoa aminos. You can't just believe the front of the label though; for example, Aveda's Quinoa hair products actually have more wheat aminos in them than quinoa.

Another common gluten ingredient is wheat germ oil, although this should theoretically have all the gluten proteins filtered out, it's possible it could have some in it. Additionally, oats could be contaminated. 

EO is a brand I've known about for a long time, but never was impressed with their products, mostly because they were expensive and the scents didn't intrigue. I recently bought their lavender lotion, to use lavender to help me relax at night. However, the lotion itself is incredibly silky and luxurious. I can't believe I never tried it!

My most recent purchase is a product that I had tried before, and liked. I bought it again, gleeful in my knowing that it is gluten free. It's a great product, making your hair silky smooth. One key thing, that I think is necessary with lots of all natural products, is to emulsify the hair product before putting it in your hair. I pump out a dime sized amount in my hand, then pour some water and get it all mixed up. Then I distribute it through my hair. The wild lime & ginger scent is one of the EO ones that I do like, though it's subtle.

EO is not paying me to write this review. Certified gluten free products are few and far between, and I want to support them, so they persist and create more demand for certified gluten free.

Nuts for Gluten-Free Nuts at the Farmer's Market

Today at the Upper Haight Farmer's Market, the lady selling a plethora of nuts, flavored, salted etc, looked at me like I was nuts for asking about whether hers nuts possibly were exposed to gluten. As I asked her a few more questions about how the nuts are processed and packaged, she seemed annoyed by me and finally walked away suddenly to help another customer. She clearly thought I was NUTS and didn't want to waist more time with my silly questions.

I walked away without buying anything.

This situation may be due to both our ignorance. I certainly don't know a lot about how nuts are handled, processed and packaged. I have heard that I do need to be careful about that, because sometimes nuts are processed in the same facilities as wheat or other gluten. While I was told raw nuts usually aren't cause for concern, one can never be too careful. The great thing about Farmer's Markets, is you can speak to the employees or owners. You don't always get an immediate answer. At the Inner Sunset Farmer's Market, I asked one of the guys at the nut stand about their nuts, and he didn't know. He said he could check with his boss when she got back from vacation, and I told him I would come back in one of the following weeks.

This guy did mention that at least one of their nut products was seasoned with a gluten ingredient, and I would guess this would be the case for the nut lady at Upper Haight. However, as I walked away from her stand, I found a fruit stand that also sold raw almonds. I asked the cashier if the nuts could have been exposed to gluten. She wasn't sure, so she asked her boss, and he said they went straight from the tree, into the bags, and there was no gluten in the facility. Eureka! I bought a 5 pound bad for $20.

As an end note, some people may think I am NUTS for nit picking over the details about how the food I eat is processed. Well, they won't get my business. My health is not a trivial manner. If these people knew how bad I feel for months if I am exposed to a tiny bit of gluten, maybe they would get it. I do need to make myself more aware about how the foods I want to buy are processed. I welcome any comments - if anyone knows how nuts are generally processed, both for raw nuts and salted nuts. I'm specifically curious about Trader Joe's - one of these days I am going to do research on their policies and procedures and write a blog about that.

In-N-Out, Daly City

It's an ironic twist that something seemingly so healthy-nutty such as "the gluten-free" diet, is actually usually best accommodated at chain restaurants. Many charming restaurants in San Francisco are still clueless about gluten-free issues, especially cross contamination issues for those of us with Celiac disease. The fact that chain restaurants are more adequately meeting the needs of the gluten-free crowd than are the mom-n-pop places is probably a matter of numbers - more customers means more people who are demanding gluten-free.

I knew In-N-Out had a "protein-style" burger, which is basically their burger wrapped in lettuce instead of between a bun. Their menu is simple, so fries are the only thing in their fryers - no onion rings adding gluten crumbs to the oil. After researching online forums, I read in-depth details about how many In-N-Out customers had tried to figure out the level of gluten-free-ness of the chain.

The scoop, thanks to one women's hard detective work, is that In-N-Out's only gluten containing item is the bun. The issue of cross contamination comes into play in three places: the surface on which the meals are prepared, the utensils which flip the burger and place it onto the bun, thereby possibly transferring crumbs onto future burgers, and the knife used to spread the special sauce onto the buns. This sauce has relish in it, and cannot be put into squeeze bottles like the ketchup and mustard. The recommendation was to go at a non-peak hour, request clean surfaces and utensils and/or ask for the special sauce in a packet.

I visited the Daly City In-N-Out at 10:30am on a Thursday. I felt confident that was not a peak hour, however, they only had one line, which was long and the cashier was rushed. I prepared my speech in my head, and as soon as the waitress heard no-gluten she told me very knowingly that she would mark my order for gluten-allergy. While this is technically incorrect as I have Celiac disease which is an auto-immune disorder, I was just glad they had a system in place to deal with people who need gluten-free food. I asked her if they could use clean utensils and she kept punching things into her screen and while she vaguely responded, did not give me the reassurance I wanted. She did turn and tell the cook that the order had a gluten-allergy, but she did not tell me what exactly the cook would do differently. I got my sauce on the side.

It was an absolute delight, biting into that charbroiled flavor. Although, I did bite into some paper that got between some lettuce. Not tasty. I never loved their fries, but now that I am gluten-free, fries are such a novelty since most fryers are contaminated. While In-N-Out's system is not perfect, they are doing far better than most places. I probably won't go there a lot, based on this experience, but, it is one of my best options when in a pinch. I hope they will continue to improve the dining experience for those of us with Celiac disease! They may just need more customer service training on the importance of reassuring customers that every measure is taken to avoid contamination.

Minako's Organic Japanese Restaurant, Mission District, San Francisco

For the gluten-free, this place is a gem! The main waitress, whose family runs the place totally "gets it" in regards to being 100% gluten-free. I went there with a party of four, me being the only gluten-free person. She gave me my own Wasabi and ginger dish, so that the others would not contaminate mine with their chop sticks because they were eating some non-gluten-free stuff (it's all gluten-free Tamari there though). It is so reassuring for those of us with Celiac disease when the waitstaff understand details like that. She explained to us that they have two tempura fryers to avoid contamination there, and she even told me Tobiko is not gluten free! I did not know that. It turns out Tobiko is usually processed with wheat starch.

The first time I went there, we mostly had sushi and I was not super impressed, not being a fan of brown rice in my sushi. The gluten free tempura was definitely a disappointment. However, at Minako's is the only gluten free inari I've found so far. So we went back. This time I ordered the gluten free Chicken Katsu and it was AMAZING. I can't wait to go back for more.

One thing that sucks about being gluten-free is that even though restaurants are getting better at coming up with gluten-free options, it's usually a regular menu item without the yummy sauce because the yummy sauce that really makes the dish has gluten in it. I'm pretty sure that this is the only place in San Francisco that has gluten-free Chicken Katsu with gluten-free sauce! YAY! I can't wait to go back for that.

Not only do they accommodate the gluten-free, but they are also very vegan friendly, all while offering plenty of options for those who eat the full spectrum off foods.

On a totally unimportant side note - their bathroom is super cute!