Re: contamination

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I am also celiac. I would certainly

go hungry before using a gluten-contaminated toaster, and I would NEVER dream

of using utensils that had touched gluten-y food. Either one of those things

would knock me on my backside for days if I’m lucky, weeks if I’m

not.

The implication of your email is

that your friend is being overly careful, or perhaps even hypochondriac. The truth

is that she is not being careful enough. Some celiacs even react to products

that are produced in the same facility as non-GF things.

If she is still playing fast and

loose with gluten, she is certainly still having stomach issues from that. Plus,

it takes most celiac at least a year of fanatical gluten-free to heal.

Not all celiacs need SCD. Some do

great on plain gluten-free. My father is one of them. He had decades of malabsorption,

D, and hospitalizations before he was finally biopsy-diagnosed with celiac. But

once he went strictly gluten-free, he totally healed. To this day, he eats

starch aplenty and thrives.

Me, I’m not so lucky. I was

fanatical GF for years, and while most of my problems cleared up, some

lingered. I don’t know why I need SCD and he doesn’t and I don’t

care. He’s healthy and happy on a GF diet, and that makes me happy.

Wow, this is long. So the thrust

is, SCD is a great diet, but if she is celiac, she should try being GF properly

to see if she needs it. Please support her in being as careful as possible with

that and not push our diet on her. I’m sure she will most likely come to

it if she needs it.

Honest confession time: It took me

a long time to try SCD because I was SO ANGRY at the proponents who *pushed* it

on my father. He’d ask questions at support group meetings and online,

and would be flooded with often aggressive responses telling him he was wasting

his time with GF, he was going to die, etc. It was really rather hateful, and

one of the reasons that SCD doesn’t have a good reputation in some

circles of the celiac community. I hope we are all in a place where we can be

grateful for the amazing things that this diet does while still realizing that

not all people require it. And sometimes, it is not our place to judge what another

person does and does not need. Sometimes the loving thing is to tell the person

about what is helping you and be open for support… without pushing.

As far as people with other

diagnoses, I should think that cross contamination would still be a concern,

but not as great for celiacs (or people with anaphylactic allergies, for

example). So, don’t share utensils and toasters. You’re still

getting small amounts of illegals there, even if you can’t see them (as

your friend proved with gluten!). But I don’t think you need to worry if

your almond flour is produced in the same facility as wheat – like I do.

This is why you can use the SCD legal Bob’s Red Mill almond flour, and I

can’t.

Does that make sense? And I’m

sorry for the length. Obviously this is a sore subject for me. J