This will be interesting. If you post a lot of gluten-free recipes, you'll gain a following among those who have celiac disease! One question - what about the onigiri rice? Sticky rice is also called "glutinous rice," so wouldn't that trigger an allergy as well?
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Never mind, I just Googled around, and "glutinous" in this case refers to the stickiness rather than the actual presence of gluten, so it ought to be safe. :)
I don't know which to hope for, that your husband feels better due to this diet change, thus confirming that he has gluten intolerance, or that he doesn't and that gluten is safe. A doctor once, seeing that I'm very thin, had me research celiac disease, and it's scary stuff. (I don't have celiac; what he thought was "wasting away" was simply watching what I eat and exercising a lot.)
Celiac disease is definitely nothing to joke about, but I think we would both be really happy if it turns out that what's been plaguing him all these years is a gluten sensitivity. And this man loves pasta, bread, cookies, and cake. It would be a hard transition, but it would be amazing for him to be pain-free. I get all teary eyed thinking about it. We're trying not to get too hopeful though. :/
If that's what it is, you're in a great position to help him through it. There's excellent pasta out there, and if you have a heavy-duty stand mixer you can make amazing GF cookies, cake and bread. He won't feel deprived at all (unless he really likes beer -- my husband switched to GF hard cider during his 9 months GF).
Good luck with the gluten free lifestyle! My bosses kid has celiac and I know they spend an arm and a leg on foods for her, so I hope it ends up being something less costly for you!
I hear you on the $$$ -- that p*ssed me off. We resorted to Whole Foods occasionally and Rainbow Foods more (huge health food co-op type place here where you can buy staples in bulk -- including weird stuff like alternative flours, xantham gum, Egg Replacer, buttermilk powder, etc.). Also made great finds getting *cheap* bags of bulk flours at Indian markets (teff flour) and Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese markets (rice flour, tapioca flour, etc.). In general, though, people will tell you to be careful of buying in bulk from open containers with shared scoops (the gravity-fed chutes are better from a cross-contamination standpoint).
My husband was misdiagnosed with celiac disease a couple of years ago and had to avoid all gluten for nine months before the docs figured out what was really wrong. There's lots of hidden gluten in many products (even in soy sauce), and to have a truly gluten-free kitchen you have to replace a lot of kitchen equipment (porous materials like woks, cast iron, wood, brushes, etc. and hard-to-cleanse equipment like sieves) and condiments to avoid cross-contamination. That's a common cause of the GF trial diets not working -- because the person is still ingesting residual gluten from the kitchen. That's actually why I got back into making bento lunches after coming back from Japan -- because my husband couldn't eat safely in restaurants anymore. Anyway, the Celiac board on Delphi Forums has an excellent GF product list and GF recipe database. Check it out.
I was so sad when I read your comment about the wok. Ah well. I have checked out so many GF lists. I need to compile my own. And I need to start calling a bunch of Asian products companies to ask them about their products. I heard that some fish sauce may contain gluten. Argh.
Yes, you'll want to avoid Three Crabs brand fish sauce -- it has gluten. Better, purer brands with more simple ingredient lists are fine. I added the Asian products I checked out to the Delphi Forums GF product list. Oh, and don't forget about checking any vitamins and medication your husband is on. Plus toothpaste, shampoo, lotions, etc. I used to brush my teeth before kissing my husband if I'd eaten gluten stuff. Huge PITA if you have gluten in the house.
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Never mind, I just Googled around, and "glutinous" in this case refers to the stickiness rather than the actual presence of gluten, so it ought to be safe. :)
I don't know which to hope for, that your husband feels better due to this diet change, thus confirming that he has gluten intolerance, or that he doesn't and that gluten is safe. A doctor once, seeing that I'm very thin, had me research celiac disease, and it's scary stuff. (I don't have celiac; what he thought was "wasting away" was simply watching what I eat and exercising a lot.)
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