Is it really gluten-free?

So, I know it has been a while since I have posted anything on this site. That is largely because I have been trying to cut back on eating out so much which I thought kind of defeated the whole purpose of having a restaurant review blog. But after months of not even looking at my site, I was shocked, when today, I took a look and saw that in those months several people have been looking at the site without me even writing anything which made me think that it must be a helpful site to some and inspired me to do an update.


One of the main reasons I have not been keeping up on the site is because I got really sick this summer and throughout the fall, and I started to worry that all my eating out was maybe exposing me to hidden gluten which intern was making me ill. I had realized that although many restaurants are thoughtful enough to try to accommodate for food allergies, I was finding that many still didn't understand quite all that entailed and were still doing things that contaminated foods with gluten. More often than not, I found that a restaurant's understanding of gluten and my own could be very different. A perfect example would be Spunky Monkey Coffee Roasters where I ordered a sandwich gluten-free and then the person making my sandwich proceeded to use the same surface and utensils to make my sandwich she had just used to make a gluten filled sandwich right in front of me. When I pointed this out, the lady making my sandwich got irritated while the other one working was very concerned and tried to make the best of it by starting my sandwich over. 


This is the common problem with restaurants becoming allergy friendly. You begin to wonder are they doing it a) so they will attract more customers or b) because they really want to help those with allergies have a comfortable dining experience and are concerned for their general health. My guess is it is a mixture of both. Places like Deschute's Brewery who have a gluten-free menu have in small print on that same menu "Items prepared in oil used to cook products containing gluten" and I have to ask myself how the hell can they call that gluten-free and get away with it? It's only when you start to read the fine print and really ask these restaurants questions that you start to realize gluten to them may be glucose, wheat-free and gluten-free might be meat-free, etc. I am sure most of these restaurants mean well, but they are severely misunderstanding what celiac disease and gluten intolerance are. Most of them don't seem to grasp the concept that a small bit of gluten can cause a reaction that has long standing effects wether the individual feels them at that moment or not. 


Even for people who have allergies, where effects are often more immediate and visual, are underplayed. My cousin is allergic to peanuts and her teacher thought she was just being picky when she asked if there were nuts in the birthday dessert one child brought into school so replied that there were no nuts giving my cousin the go-ahead to eat the dessert. She ended up going into anaphylactic shock because of this teacher's assumptions. Similarly, often when I go to a restaurant people look at my request for a gluten-free menu as a preference not something I must do to avoid getting sick. The more gluten-free restaurants pop up, the less I feel they are actually paying attention to what gluten is. For many restaurants, buying gluten-free bread makes everything gluten-free in their mind which is not true. 


This summer, I was so sick and my iron, B12, and vitamin D labs were all very low despite taking supplements that had previously worked for me which is common in those with celiac disease, especially when it is unmanaged. I have revamped my diet since then because being as sick as I was really scared me and reminded me of what it was like before I got diagnosed, which is a place I don't want to be again. So eating out for me is a once a month thing now at most, and I have been really focusing on making things from scratch so I know where they come from. I am doing much better health-wise and my labs are back where they should be. I attribute this improvement in my health to my dietary changes, acupuncture, and supplements for my vitamin deficiencies.


So my suggestion to all reading my blog would be to make sure the places you eat are really gluten-free. Make sure they are dedicated gluten-free facilities and that they can define clearly what gluten is and how to keep it from contaminating your food. You will be shocked when you start to ask these questions how much the general public and food industry still needs to learn about gluten and celiac disease. It's uncomfortable to ask these questions but necessary. We need to do what is best for our health.


As if my above update isn't enough to digest, I have chosen on top of all this to go primarily grain-free. Why you may ask? Well that is a complex answer which involved several months of research on my part which I hope others will stay tuned to read. For now though, I think I have given people enough to chew on.


P.S. Thank you all restaurants who are attempting to be gluten-free. The above restaurants I mentioned are not the only bad experiences I have had, so I didn't mean to single you out. But please, if you are going to be gluten-free, really make an effort to do so. That means educating all your staff about celiac disease and what it really means for those people to consume gluten. Make an effort to really make a difference by caring about your customers and putting yourself in their shoes. Eating is such a social experience, and with that, comes pressures to even eat foods that will make you sick just so you can fit in. Imagine if food, which you have to eat to survive, was your enemy; imagine the anxiety caused by trying to find a food that was safe. To be honest, food scares me. I know I have to eat it, but I also know that if I eat the wrong thing it can harm me. It makes eating, which is normally an enjoyable event, highly stressful. If you could only feel that fear, you would know what it is like to be a customer at a restaurant where you have to put your trust in someone you don't even know to prepare your food, and you would want to to do what is best for that customer.