The email that launched a blog
tl;dr: my friend asked me for advice on going gluten-free and I hit her up with an awesome email full of great advice I’d been gathering online for more than a year; realized that I should start a blog because this sort of intel is hard to come by!
I’ve never blogged before. I’m just a regular guy in NYC who was diagnosed with celiac disease a little more than a year ago. Since then, I’ve done a lot of research, learned by trial and error, and have gotten to the point where it’s just another part of my life. For the most part, I’m pretty good about keeping it under the radar.
That changed recently. My wife and I were at a restaurant with some of our close friends. It was a Chinese restaurant, and as anyone with a gluten sensitivity can tell you, Chinese food = bad. That’s because everything on the menu is drenched in soy sauce—and soy sauce (despite the name) is basically wheat sauce.
I discreetly tried to ask whether they had a gluten-free menu. The first waiter didn’t know what the hell I was talking about, and loudly called over a second waiter to repeat my question in what could only be described as a “confused holler.” Of course, everyone at our table heard, but no one judged and no one said anything. I ended up ordering steamed rice and veggies (with no sauce, earning another weird look from the wait staff), and everyone moved on. We ate, went to go see an awesome musical (quick plug: go see Murder Ballad!) and that was that.
Fast forward to the other day. One of my wife’s friends sent me an email saying that she saw how she’d been having GI issues for her whole life, and watching me in the restaurant made her start to wonder whether she might have issues with gluten as well. She’d been Googling for a few days but wasn’t really able to find any good info. Here’s what she wrote me:
So I have been having bad stomach things… forever. And I figured I would try out the gluten free thing. I was looking online and found some lists of foods I can and can’t eat, but I figured I would pick your brain, and see how you go about knowing what’s right and wrong….I’m lazy when it comes to stuff like this, and I don’t want to start cooking things every day to bring to lunch, but I can’t find any info that’s like “here’s a good idea for lunch that’s easy…”
I wrote her back right away. Actually, I was excited to write her back. No one had ever asked me for advice on going gluten-free. I’d been learning about gluten sensitivity for more than a year now, and I knew firsthand how hard it could be to find reliable info online. My email back to her is below, and I gotta say, it’s full of really good intel…stuff that’s hard to come by on the web (well, not all in one place, anyway). After I hit ‘send,’ I started thinking about other things I’d learned that I could pass along to her. I came up with a list of about 85 topics without breaking a sweat. And that’s when I decided: I should start a blog!
And so here it is: the email that launched this blog, Glutenaut. And trust me, there’s a lot more to come. (And I promise, future posts won’t be nearly this long.)
Hey! I had no idea you’d been feeling this way. Sorry you have stomach issues. Have you tried a “washout” period to test whether it’s the wheat? I did it for 3 or 4 days, and it became obvious very quickly that wheat was the culprit. There are tests you can take, but they’re unreliable. Mine came up negative, but my doctor said to ignore that because it was so obvious I was feeling better after I cut out wheat.
Restaurants are tough. There are several places that have great gluten-free menus. Bareburger comes to mind. Dominos actually makes a pretty kickass gluten-free pizza (although they make it in their regular ovens, so be careful…also, it’s not as good as regular pizza). Otto makes AMAZE gluten-free pasta (as does Tony’s di Napoli). For lunch, Pret a Manger labels their salads, and places like Hale and Hearty and Fresh & Co do the same. The savior of gluten-free people is Chipotle ..the only thing on the menu with gluten are the burrito wrappers (get it as a bowl and you’re good to go).
Certain cuisines can be considered pretty safe:
Mexican: avoid flour tortillas and things that are obviously made of wheat (like bread) and you’ll almost always be fine. Corn tortillas are a godsend.
Sushi: so many good options: just watch out for soy sauce (replace with gluten-free soy sauce, also called tamari) and “crunch.” Also, I tend to have issues with eel. Not sure why…maybe they cook it in something?
Thai: most thai food uses fish sauce, not soy sauce, so I usually find a lot of things I can eat. Just avoid eggrolls and wheat/egg noodles. Most thai noodles are made of rice.
Certain cuisines are really tough:
Italian: there are some great brown rice pastas you can make at home, and a few good restaurants that offer options, but if you give up wheat, you give up a lot of Italian classics.
Chinese: This one’s tough. Everything is drenched in soy sauce, and as you saw, Chinese food sucks without soy sauce. You can make it yourself at home with gluten free soy sauce, but who on earth makes their own Chinese food? The worst part is that it’s so unnecessary: if they just used gluten-free soy sauce, there’d be so many great options on the menu.
Jewish: There are lots of good replacements. You can even buy gluten-free Kosher for Passover matzoh. And there’s a company called Udi’s that makes great frozen bagels that are better than a lot of regular frozen brands. But unfortunately, nothing comes close to a NYC bagel or matzoh ball soup from Eisenberg’s.
Beer: Obviously full of gluten. Interestingly, hard liquor made from wheat (whiskey, some vodkas, etc) are actually fine: the gluten is removed during distillation. If you’re craving beer, Whole Foods sells a brand called Omission that’s actually reeeeally good. Most gluten free beers you order in a bar (if they even have them) are made of sorghum and taste like dookie—if I’m not feeling wine or hard alcohol, I order a hard cider like Magner’s, which is totally safe.
Common pitfalls (things you don’t know are unsafe):
French fries: these are just potatoes, right? Well, the oil they fry them in has tons of breading from onion rings, chicken fingers, etc. I sometimes eat these, and sometimes I avoid them, depending on the restaurant.
Salad dressings: Any liquid that’s thick probably got thickened with gluten. That includes a lot of salad dressing. This is one of those times you have to check the label a little bit. Caesar dressing is almost always fine (but watch out for croutons on that salad!). Bleu cheese dressing is almost always not.
Chocolate: This is brand by brand, which is very annoying. Hershey’s is good about not adding wheat to their regular chocolate. Other brands seem to mix gluten in for no reason. Sometimes the regular size is ok, but the fun size has wheat in it. No rhyme or reason. I just Google whatever the chocolate is plus the word “gluten” and see what people are saying online.
Ice Cream: Thank God for Häagen Dasz. Most of their flavors are gluten-free, with the obvious exceptions of cookies and cream, cookie dough, etc. Many other brands use gluten as a thickening agent, and it’s very hard to tell from looking at the labels which is bad and which is good.
Hope that’s good for a start. I don’t bring my own lunch to work every day…usually I’m OK getting a Fage yogurt and some fruit but if I’m hungry, I run to Pret a Manger, Hale and Hearty, Chipotle, or Fresh & Co for a helpfully labeled soup or a salad.
