Post Punk Kitchen Forum

You probably know I'm getting my MS in nutrition right now, so that's why I'm asking...

I learned yesterday that even a crumb of a gluten containing food can be really damaging to people with celiac, so I'm wondering, how do you guys feel about people making you gluten free stuff in a not exclusively gluten free kitchen. Do you tend to have digestive issues or other symptoms after that or are you generally ok? Are your homes totally gluten free? I know there are certain allowances for gluten free products, but my teacher mentioned that even baking with wheat flour and breathing it in could be damaging.

My roommate is has celiac. I do use wheat in our kitchen, but I only use certain wooden utensils/cutting boards, make sure to wipe things down well after I'm baking, and warn her if I'm doing something where flour might be in the air, like kneading bread. It seems to work out ok, and she's alright with it, though she's never had physical symptoms, so it's hard to tell. I also have separate hooks where I keep towels and potholders that I've used for wheat-y stuff.

thanks! you sound like an awesome roommate!

I have celiac and my husband doesn't. I do all the cooking, and I don't keep any gluten-containing flour in the house. He has a few things, like crackers and granola, that are easy to contain and don't crumble all over the countertops. When I pack his lunches I will touch his cookies and crackers and things, but then I wash my hands before I make my lunch. I won't bake with wheat anymore because I'm afraid of accidentally ingesting some; I don't know if that would make me sick or not, but why risk it? We have separate toasters for gluten and gluten-free breads. If he wants to spread peanut butter or something on wheat bread, I make him first spoon some into a dish and double-dip the knife into that, rather than into the jar. And I won't kiss him when he's drinking beer or eating bread.

I eat food made in restaurants that don't have gluten-free kitchens, and so far I've been fine. I have gotten sick from eating things fried in the same oil as breaded items, so no more french fries for me. I might be more careful than I need to be, but feeling healthy is wonderful, so it's worth the trouble.

Thanks for asking! I wish more people were aware of cross-contamination.

really interesting! thank you! the separate toasters thing makes a lot of sense. If I ever make food for someone with celiac I will make sure to be super careful. Seeing pictures of damaged villi I was really shocked how much damage gluten can do!

I have a gluten-free kitchen. The dogs food (vegan) had barley so if their bowls need cleaning, we use a separate sponge.

My husband doesn't eat wheat in the house. He's gotten to the points where it makes him not feel that great either. He does eat it out but not much.

When I'm at my parents, I have my own sponge, cutting board and used to have my own toaster (I don't toast much anymore). I have a dedicated counter space. Crumbs on the counter are a problem. It's hard when I'm at my father-in-laws since he has less counter space. I've had roommates who have been very careful with wheat but it tends to just make me nervous so I am very grateful my kitchen is GF.

Mine too! He's actually started to prefer my gluten-free baking and rice pasta. The less he eats gluten, the worse he feels when he does eat it. That stuff is tough on a lot of tummies, I think! Thank goodness for open-minded spouses and roommates :)

I find this interesting. I just read about how gluten can be transferred from touching other people's hands, or shopping carts. Scary! I am going to be baking cupcakes for a relative that doesn't have celiac but is gluten free. I read that non porous materials like wood shouldn't be used if they have been used with gluten before. What about other materials, like glass or aluminum pans? Is there a resource somewhere to read up on this?

Here's another one: hand mixer beaters. Should I not use mine since I have made gluten containing cupcakes with it before?

I'm guessing that if your relative doesn't have celiac it it probably ok to just wash everything really well before cooking for her. Unless it's a surprise you should just ask her what she's comfortable with!

I scrub pans really well if I have to use them at someone else's house. I am a dork and also rinse of my silverwear before I use it when I'm not at home (well, unless it's already set at the table).

I'd use paper liners for the cupcakes to be safe.

I am the type that eats from someone else's house or a restaurant once in awhile and I'm usually OK if they were careful. But if I do it daily, I can get kinda sick after awhile.

Can they be washed in the dishwasher, on hot water? I think they'd be fine. Same with pans--as long as they can be washed completely, with hot soapy water, they should be okay. I have celiac and I'm not as careful as you're talking about here--I still use baking dishes from before I was gluten-free, I just washed them really well. Cross-contamination becomes a problem with surfaces that can't be scrubbed completely clean, like the insides of toasters or porous conveyer belts at factories that process gluten ingredients. Wooden cookware might be iffy for some extremely sensitive people. But if someone was that sensitive, they probably couldn't eat at restaurants or other people's houses at all.

Thanks all, this is good to know. We usually wash the beaters and utensils and bowls in the dishwasher with hot water. I'm pretty sure that my aunt doesn't have celiac, I think gluten free is to help her fibromyalgia. I will email her to be sure. Husband and I are planning on going gluten free as well, so I'm glad to know I can keep my baking pans.

wow! i'm just blown away at how that affects people with celiac! i have a question too--how did you know you had the condition? what were the symptoms? my husband has an undiagnosable chronic pain condition. we've spent thousands of dollars getting tests run and no definitive diagnosis has been made. it started with lower back pain, then whole body pain. he has-(he'll kill me for discussing his digestive issues here) IBS type problems, and a history of asthma. now our 3 year old son has been having recurring lower back pain problems. we've taken him to the pediatrician, and he's said to do an ABC chart on it to see if we can track an onset. i personally think it's a food related issue for both, but i ain't a doctor. i just know both spouse and son are giant carbatarians.

Symptoms differ widely, and some people with celiac never even have symptoms. If you have celiac, when you eat gluten your immune system goes haywire and starts destroying the villi (little projections necessary for absorbing nutrients) in the small intestine. Over time, the small intestine becomes damaged and smooth (it is supposed to be like shag carpeting in there), and you can't effectively digest nutrients. So even though you're eating healthy, you may be malnourished. And all those undigested nutrients pass into the large intestine, which is really only supposed to absorb water, and you get all kinds of pooping issues.

My overwhelming symptom was migraines; I had a migraine every single day and it was miserable. My doctor tested me for celiac because my siblings have it, and voila, within two weeks of cutting out gluten I had no more migraines. Now I never get them. I was also barfing a couple of times a month--I thought I had really bad luck with food poisoning. I also had fatigue and body ache, which I didn't even realize until I went gluten-free and suddenly had lots of energy and did not hurt all the time.

The initial screening for celiac is just a blood test--they look for elevated antibodies. If it's positive, they'll want to take a look at your husband's intestines. It couldn't hurt to get the blood test--I've read between 1 in 100-250 people have celiac, though most are undiagnosed.

It's worth knowing, because people with celiac who continue to eat gluten are at greatly elevated risk for intestinal cancer. To me, that's worse than migraines or any of the other symptoms. No digestive cancer, please!

Thanks! Mr. J had a battery of blood tests run, and I believe celiac was on the list.

I live in a house with a non-dedicated kitchen. We're just really careful to wash everything in the dishwasher so we know the water is hot enough. I also can usually have items that are manufactured in the same plant as wheat without too much trouble. I do randomly get occasional days where I feel awful, so it could be from some of those things but I can't usually pinpoint it.

My symptoms were the more "classic" gastrointestinal ones. Need I describe them? IBS type stuff. I also had depression and moodiness. It took me quite awhile to feel better afterwards. I was diagnosed by a blood test, but I've read to get the biopsy done too so you can check to see if it's healed after awhile.

Now when I get exposed to wheat, I don't always get the full GI explosions but I do get awful headaches and fatigue. It's a feeling like no other, and it often happens after eating out.

This thread has given me a lot to think about in terms of effectively eliminating gluten. While I've been working towards going gf for a number of months now, it seems that reducing (rather than eliminating completely) results in progressively worse symptoms every time I do eat something gluten-ous. I'm not as sick as I was at the end of the summer since starting to minimize gluten, but my body seems to have magically developed the ability to produce splitting headaches and nausea/the feeling that I may have accidentally ingested a few large rocks when I say "fork it" and, say, eat a bagel with hummus at a coffeeshop. Because the pain/unpleasant symptoms aren't worth it, I'm on week two of doing my best to cut it out completely.

I hadn't thought about the toaster situation, nor had I considered the fact that my cookware/dishwashing might be an issue. I'm halfway tempted to start taking a few of my dishes to work a day to run them through the commercial dishwasher there (since I don't have a dishwasher in my apartment and can't afford to buy anything new, for my kitchen or anywhere else at this point). Would that be effective [enough so anyway]?