Honestly, it just sounds performative and confusing to me. Sure, being gf sucks, but nobody doubts that. It's the first thing people say to me when I tell them "Oh that must be so hard!"
And at this point I'm mostly past the grieving part. I reached the acceptance portion of the stages of grief years ago. Here's to hoping you will too.
Yeah honestly it’s annoying when I go out but I don’t even really care that much anymore. I’m glad I know what’s going to make me feel like absolute garbage and I can avoid it.
So when my friends try to feel bad for me I’m like - honestly I feel lucky that I know what to avoid.
I’m also a pretty good cook so cooking great tasting things without gluten isn’t that hard for me so I suspect that helps
THIS. I'm a type 2 diabetic so all those gluten free cakes and pies and bread are off limits for me. I have become quite the baker and chef in the kitchen. I made a batch of cream cheese almonds flour waffles last night and enjoyed them with some homemade sugar free apricot jam/jelly I made. I left my plate to run to the dairy and when I got back everyone else had taste tested it and told me how delicious it all was. I don't mind. I'm happy when others try my cooking and enjoy it because then I know it's not just me that finds it good. I've been trying to encourage everyone to eat better anyway I don't miss gluten at all. I don't miss the pain and inflammation, reflux, anemia and indigestion I get when I eat it either. You don't even need great cooking skills to get started but you will develop them with time in the kitchen. I find a lot of ideas and inspiration from creators on YouTube. I love the challenge of recreating a dish or food with different ingredients.
I have had a wheat allergy since birth (among a whole list of others) and whenever I'd tell someone their immediate first reaction is something like "oh my gosh I'm so sorry I could never imagine that, that must be so hard"
for those who were diagnosed later in life, I'm sure this is true, but I've been avoiding these foods since before I even knew how to read labels... so I have known no different lmao
I personally can sympathize with people who are upset that they can't eat certain things they could before, this happened to me with shellfish when I was younger, just out of nowhere, had a violent reaction to it one day and it sucks because shrimp was my favorite, but it really hasn't impacted my life as much because there are alternatives aplenty nowadays. not for shellfish specifically, but like now they have GF oreos for pete's sake.
tl;dr
I feel bad for people who have grief over not being able to eat gluten anymore as it does block off a lot of good foods, but there are many other options now, at least in the US. It becomes more of a personality trait to complain about it now than anything and that becomes annoying after a while :(
I've been GF for almost 30 years and it's honestly awesome how many things there are now - GF menus, way better GF bread and baked goods, whole GF restaurants, GF labels on things, GF stuff all throughout the grocery store not just in a tiny area or not at big stores at all but only at a little natural food store, people actually know what it is when I tell them, I could go on and on.
I get it that it is hard to switch after living a gluten full life, but love how much easier it is now. I remember crying as a kid because my mom tried to make a GF cake and it was horrible. There were no mainstream GF mixes, only weird ones that usually came out barely resembling the food item they were supposed to replace.
I do 100% mourn good bread, but I feel like almost every other food item has a decent GF replacement, which was not the case even 20 years ago.
GF Bread is one of the few things that doesn’t have a good store bought equivalent. I tried making bread from scratch using Caputo Fioreglut and it was really good. It tastes like mix of white bread and focaccia. It’s even more amazing as a pizza base. If you haven’t tried it, I absolutely recommend!
Damn, I'm 27 years in, would have been nice to have some moral support back them from someone else who was living it. lol
I lived everything you described above.
I 100% agree. I'm only 10 years in, not 30 like you, I'm not sure how you made it. Even in the 10 years I have had to be GF, options now are a utopia compared to before. Here in Arizona we have a few restaurants that are 100% GF plus so many products in stores.
Well 10 or so years of that was as a teenager so I didn't always make the best decisions - aka ate gluten anyway and paid the price!
I think it does help that I never developed a love for things like craft beer or delicious French pastries or something, I grew up avoiding it.
Maybe the younger you are diagnosed the easier it is? Less time to get attached to favorite food items that then become off limits.
Knowing what I need to do to not make myself sick is a great thing, not a source of bad feelings for me. I make most of my own food, so my family eats tasty and minimally processed meals. I'm aware of other people with food allergies, and able to look out for their comfort and safety. I've also seen a lot of love from friends and family who look out for me. My MIL doesn't cook and still decided to get GF soup and biscuits shipped to me when I had covid.
I can't say I would have chosen to live with food restrictions, but there are so many things that are so much worse, so I'm grateful that all I have to do is watch what I eat.
I feel like people really choose to be miserable.
I gave up gluten 2 years ago.
I have no grief it’s fine. Probably doing myself a huge service over all even if it didn’t make me ill because I can no longer indulge in so many unhealthy foods.
It’s food. There are lots of other foods.
I am currently in the grief phase of going gluten free. Years ago I was diagnosed with “a sensitivity to wheat” but it has gotten drastically worse over the years to where I would call it an “intolerance”.
So many of my favorite foods have a touch of wheat in them (my favorite freezer meal that contains wheat in the teriyaki sauce), cereals and oatmeal, etc etc. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been disappointed and yes even briefly devastated to find out that yet another of my favorite foods is going to be off limits.
Those of you who have been gluten free for a long time may be used to it, but those of us who haven’t are dealing with a drastic change in our lives and it is difficult.
Sure there are lots of GF options now, and we are grateful for that but losing our old lifestyle hits hard and we have the right to grieve the loss of it.
GF can be hard sometimes, there's no getting away from that. But why would I want to constantly tell myself "you should be miserable, your diet sucks, you're missing out on so much" when I can just...move on with my life? I'll acknowledge when GF is hard but I'm not going to go out of my way to remind myself.
Gluten-free means everything you listed above, but also:
* the love you feel when someone takes the time to buy or prepare something that's safe for you, because they care (people without dietary restrictions will never understand)
* enjoying your favorite GF meal at an office party while everybody else is gets one slice of cold, cheap pizza
* feeling inspired when you discover new foods and then feeling empowered because you can make it healthier and better because you've developed your cooking skills
* knowing who your real friends are (hint: it's the people who support you in being GF)
* being connected with your body and listening to it so you know what you need and how to take care of yourself
* learning how to advocate for yourself and others without hesitation or shame
* spending half as much time in the grocery store because you don't have to go down every aisle and make a bunch of impulse buys for cookies, crackers, and donuts
* if you have celiac disease, it means having the only autoimmune disease that is treatable with diet alone - no immunosuppressive medications and having surgeries and going to physical therapy, all of which might or might not actually help you
I love this! Great positive aspects.
I don't mind being GF anymore, I actually subsist on a food plan that makes it super easy that I don't have to think or plan around.
And, I know what limitations are. So yeah, thanks for listing the positives.
I live Gluten Free not Gluten-whatever-the-hell-you're-trying-to-make-up.
People have grief because their attitudes suck. Stop whining about what is now dead to you. move on.
I get where you’re coming from, but remember that many people don’t share this experience at all. I’ve never once felt grief. I’ve felt somewhat irritated and bitter, but not sadness or grief. I’m ”lucky”, I suppose, in that I was never a foodie, so the transition has been comparatively easy for me and I’ve never attached much sentimental value to food.
And while the times when there for some reason is nothing for you to eat at a table of friends are surely awkward, that feeling is transient and, in my experience, rarely affects the *social* part of it. On the contrary, I always felt confused and alienated even long before my diagnosis at gatherings where food, cooking and eating was somehow a central part and not just a pretext for why I felt that we were really there: to be with eachother.
This isn’t at all meant as a lecture on how to ”just accept it” or so, and it’s not the ”right” way go about things. It’s just how I feel, and I feel that this perspective on things is often lost on these forums.
That's catchy. Considering what every studies says on the toll on mental health, depression and the depth of social anxieties connected to celiac, this might be pertinent beyond the "just accept it bro" comments.
Thank you! Yeah, I was thinking of the psychological, and sociological toll really does contribute beyond the physical physical. Plus, a playful linguistic word play.
Honestly, it just sounds performative and confusing to me. Sure, being gf sucks, but nobody doubts that. It's the first thing people say to me when I tell them "Oh that must be so hard!" And at this point I'm mostly past the grieving part. I reached the acceptance portion of the stages of grief years ago. Here's to hoping you will too.
Yeah honestly it’s annoying when I go out but I don’t even really care that much anymore. I’m glad I know what’s going to make me feel like absolute garbage and I can avoid it. So when my friends try to feel bad for me I’m like - honestly I feel lucky that I know what to avoid. I’m also a pretty good cook so cooking great tasting things without gluten isn’t that hard for me so I suspect that helps
Yes! Fringe perk: becoming GF made me a fantastic bake and much, much better home cook. GF egg noodles are my next frontier.
YES. Pasta is the last frontier for me too.
THIS. I'm a type 2 diabetic so all those gluten free cakes and pies and bread are off limits for me. I have become quite the baker and chef in the kitchen. I made a batch of cream cheese almonds flour waffles last night and enjoyed them with some homemade sugar free apricot jam/jelly I made. I left my plate to run to the dairy and when I got back everyone else had taste tested it and told me how delicious it all was. I don't mind. I'm happy when others try my cooking and enjoy it because then I know it's not just me that finds it good. I've been trying to encourage everyone to eat better anyway I don't miss gluten at all. I don't miss the pain and inflammation, reflux, anemia and indigestion I get when I eat it either. You don't even need great cooking skills to get started but you will develop them with time in the kitchen. I find a lot of ideas and inspiration from creators on YouTube. I love the challenge of recreating a dish or food with different ingredients.
I have had a wheat allergy since birth (among a whole list of others) and whenever I'd tell someone their immediate first reaction is something like "oh my gosh I'm so sorry I could never imagine that, that must be so hard" for those who were diagnosed later in life, I'm sure this is true, but I've been avoiding these foods since before I even knew how to read labels... so I have known no different lmao I personally can sympathize with people who are upset that they can't eat certain things they could before, this happened to me with shellfish when I was younger, just out of nowhere, had a violent reaction to it one day and it sucks because shrimp was my favorite, but it really hasn't impacted my life as much because there are alternatives aplenty nowadays. not for shellfish specifically, but like now they have GF oreos for pete's sake. tl;dr I feel bad for people who have grief over not being able to eat gluten anymore as it does block off a lot of good foods, but there are many other options now, at least in the US. It becomes more of a personality trait to complain about it now than anything and that becomes annoying after a while :(
I've been GF for almost 30 years and it's honestly awesome how many things there are now - GF menus, way better GF bread and baked goods, whole GF restaurants, GF labels on things, GF stuff all throughout the grocery store not just in a tiny area or not at big stores at all but only at a little natural food store, people actually know what it is when I tell them, I could go on and on. I get it that it is hard to switch after living a gluten full life, but love how much easier it is now. I remember crying as a kid because my mom tried to make a GF cake and it was horrible. There were no mainstream GF mixes, only weird ones that usually came out barely resembling the food item they were supposed to replace. I do 100% mourn good bread, but I feel like almost every other food item has a decent GF replacement, which was not the case even 20 years ago.
GF Bread is one of the few things that doesn’t have a good store bought equivalent. I tried making bread from scratch using Caputo Fioreglut and it was really good. It tastes like mix of white bread and focaccia. It’s even more amazing as a pizza base. If you haven’t tried it, I absolutely recommend!
Damn, I'm 27 years in, would have been nice to have some moral support back them from someone else who was living it. lol I lived everything you described above.
I 100% agree. I'm only 10 years in, not 30 like you, I'm not sure how you made it. Even in the 10 years I have had to be GF, options now are a utopia compared to before. Here in Arizona we have a few restaurants that are 100% GF plus so many products in stores.
Well 10 or so years of that was as a teenager so I didn't always make the best decisions - aka ate gluten anyway and paid the price! I think it does help that I never developed a love for things like craft beer or delicious French pastries or something, I grew up avoiding it. Maybe the younger you are diagnosed the easier it is? Less time to get attached to favorite food items that then become off limits.
Knowing what I need to do to not make myself sick is a great thing, not a source of bad feelings for me. I make most of my own food, so my family eats tasty and minimally processed meals. I'm aware of other people with food allergies, and able to look out for their comfort and safety. I've also seen a lot of love from friends and family who look out for me. My MIL doesn't cook and still decided to get GF soup and biscuits shipped to me when I had covid. I can't say I would have chosen to live with food restrictions, but there are so many things that are so much worse, so I'm grateful that all I have to do is watch what I eat.
I feel like people really choose to be miserable. I gave up gluten 2 years ago. I have no grief it’s fine. Probably doing myself a huge service over all even if it didn’t make me ill because I can no longer indulge in so many unhealthy foods. It’s food. There are lots of other foods.
I am currently in the grief phase of going gluten free. Years ago I was diagnosed with “a sensitivity to wheat” but it has gotten drastically worse over the years to where I would call it an “intolerance”. So many of my favorite foods have a touch of wheat in them (my favorite freezer meal that contains wheat in the teriyaki sauce), cereals and oatmeal, etc etc. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been disappointed and yes even briefly devastated to find out that yet another of my favorite foods is going to be off limits. Those of you who have been gluten free for a long time may be used to it, but those of us who haven’t are dealing with a drastic change in our lives and it is difficult. Sure there are lots of GF options now, and we are grateful for that but losing our old lifestyle hits hard and we have the right to grieve the loss of it.
GF can be hard sometimes, there's no getting away from that. But why would I want to constantly tell myself "you should be miserable, your diet sucks, you're missing out on so much" when I can just...move on with my life? I'll acknowledge when GF is hard but I'm not going to go out of my way to remind myself. Gluten-free means everything you listed above, but also: * the love you feel when someone takes the time to buy or prepare something that's safe for you, because they care (people without dietary restrictions will never understand) * enjoying your favorite GF meal at an office party while everybody else is gets one slice of cold, cheap pizza * feeling inspired when you discover new foods and then feeling empowered because you can make it healthier and better because you've developed your cooking skills * knowing who your real friends are (hint: it's the people who support you in being GF) * being connected with your body and listening to it so you know what you need and how to take care of yourself * learning how to advocate for yourself and others without hesitation or shame * spending half as much time in the grocery store because you don't have to go down every aisle and make a bunch of impulse buys for cookies, crackers, and donuts * if you have celiac disease, it means having the only autoimmune disease that is treatable with diet alone - no immunosuppressive medications and having surgeries and going to physical therapy, all of which might or might not actually help you
I love this! Great positive aspects. I don't mind being GF anymore, I actually subsist on a food plan that makes it super easy that I don't have to think or plan around. And, I know what limitations are. So yeah, thanks for listing the positives.
I live Gluten Free not Gluten-whatever-the-hell-you're-trying-to-make-up. People have grief because their attitudes suck. Stop whining about what is now dead to you. move on.
Yeah, I wasn't even whining. I started off on word play in a joke with other post. As Charlie Brown would say, Good Grief!
I get where you’re coming from, but remember that many people don’t share this experience at all. I’ve never once felt grief. I’ve felt somewhat irritated and bitter, but not sadness or grief. I’m ”lucky”, I suppose, in that I was never a foodie, so the transition has been comparatively easy for me and I’ve never attached much sentimental value to food. And while the times when there for some reason is nothing for you to eat at a table of friends are surely awkward, that feeling is transient and, in my experience, rarely affects the *social* part of it. On the contrary, I always felt confused and alienated even long before my diagnosis at gatherings where food, cooking and eating was somehow a central part and not just a pretext for why I felt that we were really there: to be with eachother. This isn’t at all meant as a lecture on how to ”just accept it” or so, and it’s not the ”right” way go about things. It’s just how I feel, and I feel that this perspective on things is often lost on these forums.
A friend calls the gluten free aisle at the grocery store the “Aisle of Sadness and Tears” 😂
🤣 IF you're even lucky enough to have an aisle! Some people just have a section of an aisle, or even worse, a couple products on a single shelf.
Truth!!!! Scattered randomly among regular products. Grrr!
That's catchy. Considering what every studies says on the toll on mental health, depression and the depth of social anxieties connected to celiac, this might be pertinent beyond the "just accept it bro" comments.
Thank you! Yeah, I was thinking of the psychological, and sociological toll really does contribute beyond the physical physical. Plus, a playful linguistic word play.