A World Without Wheat: Beware the Shrimp Salad!

Living gluten free can be like existing in an alternate universe while remaining fully connected to this wheat filled reality.  Wheat is everywhere but most people remain oblivious to the level that our food and other products contain wheat substances.  It can be hard to explain to friends what serving a GF meal can consist of. 

I went to a gathering at some friends house a couple of weeks ago and got fairly ill.  They had tried to make the meal safe but a few things intervened.  Mainly that I forgot to tell them no imitation fish products and the shrimp salad they served – well just as I swallowed a bite I realized there was more than shrimp in there. One bite was all it took.  I was sick the rest of the evening and all the following day.  Imitation seafood is tricky; you would never think it had wheat in it but somehow it has quite a lot of the dreaded gluten!

I felt ill and I felt frustrated as I thought I had explained my needs but in reality there were holes in my “what I can’t eat” verbal and then email statement to my friend Elaine. So I have decided the right solution is compiling a note that covers such things as imitation seafood, seasoned salt, gravy, bread crumbs in crab cakes and a host of other questionable food for celiacs.  That way I can just provide it when I am invited to a gathering and I will know I gave the best information possible, nothing forgotten.

Beware, caterers will lie and say their food is GF; my friends got much of their meal from a caterer.  They thought the shrimp salad they bought was 100% all shrimp.  They didn’t know that crab cakes have bread crumbs in them even when they were told the cake is 100% crab.  That just meant that there was no other seafood in the cake.  When you buy food from caterers you don’t get a label listing all ingredients.  Like the bbq sauce on the ribs, we had no idea what was in it.  I am betting it was a secondary source of my food poisoning.  Yes, eating wheat if you have celiac disease means you have been poisoned.  It is a step or so below the peanut allergy but some people with celiac get dreadfully sick from even one bite of contaminated food.  All it takes is some flour on a bread board or counter to ruin what is otherwise GF. 

So be aware, if you plan to feed someone with celiac…how easy it is for them to get deathly ill even when you are very careful.  Ask them for a list of no - no’s to help you avoid menu choice mistakes.  I will prepare a decent list and post it in the coming week.  I need it for the next time I eat at friends! Better safe than sorry.

Oh and I don’t blame my friends at all.  They tried hard to make it safe.  They just didn’t have enough information from me and I feel they were lied to by a caterer.  Remember, don’t believe everything businesses say about the food they are selling: ask to see a complete list of ingredients and print out my “No” list (when I put it up next week) so you can safely feed your celiac friends/family.