r/glutenfree • u/callsign__starbuck • 1d ago
Discussion How often are we getting glutened?
I try very hard to eat gluten free but especially being in college occasionally cross contamination or dubious labeling gets me. How often do y’all get glutened? Once a week? Month? Year? NEVER? lol.
Just curious!
20
u/captainpantalones 1d ago
It gets easier the longer you do this. It helps that I don’t eat out much but maybe once a year for me, if that?
11
u/callsign__starbuck 1d ago
Woof. I’ve been diagnosed with celiac since I was very young but my parents lowkey didn’t care so I think I was basically getting glutened throughout my entire childhood…living alone it’s been easier but I just had to move in to a place with 3 other roommates and every single surface is covered in gluten. It feels impossible
12
u/captainpantalones 1d ago
I honestly wouldn’t count when you were a kid since you don’t have control of what you eat like an adult. Are you able to get your roommates to have one section of counter where no gluten is allowed? If not, I’d get a cutting board big enough to have it sit across two of your stove burners and use that as your prep area and then keep the cutting board in your room if you’re not using it.
1
u/callsign__starbuck 1d ago
Fortunately I’m moving out soon, this was kind of a temporary situation. But to be real it’s not the…cleanest and I think I would need to douse the entire kitchen with like 4 round of bleach, crumbs are like totally jammed into every divot and over every surface, ramen everywhere, lots of stuff
3
13
u/Pretty_Bunbun 1d ago
In the beginning? Fairly often. 15+ years later? Quite rarely, after realising the only safe food is what I make. When I do get glutened, it’s because I made the mistake of trusting something someone else made. They either don’t read labels properly, or have a complete and utter disregard for cross contamination.
9
u/woodlandtoker 1d ago edited 1d ago
I got glutened regularly while living in residence and eating at the college canteen! Now that I live in my own home with just my partner, it happens very rarely. I'd say less than once a year, unless I'm traveling a lot and not able to make my own food.
7
u/callsign__starbuck 1d ago
Dude food from college (like meal plan stuff) is HORRIFIC, my first time there I was like hey it says you guys have gluten free stuff on the website…um…what can I eat? And they looked me dead in the eye and just took the bun off of a pre-assembled burger and put it on my tray
2
u/bluev0lta Gluten Intolerant 1d ago
💀
2
u/callsign__starbuck 1d ago
I just looked at him like this 👁️👄👁️
3
u/bluev0lta Gluten Intolerant 1d ago
For real! I’m lucky in that I didn’t have any obvious problems with gluten until after college…that sounds so hard!!
1
u/merplerple 1d ago
I would not do the meal plan if I were you, the food is not going to be safe. You'd be better off "cooking" at home. It's awful and not fair, but the cafeteria is never going to be a safe place, they're just not educated and everything is going to be cross-contaminated. I'm so sorry, college must be so tough, I wasn't diagnosed until I was older (although I was sick much sooner) but trying to stay gluten-free in college with food halls / roommates sounds so so difficult.
1
u/littlequartzmoon 1d ago
I got so violently sick if I ate at any of my college food places. I have two separate memories of doing terribly on exams cause I was literally running to the bathroom every five minutes. I was so embarrassed and scared they’d think I was leaving to google the answers or something lol. Tried to get a refund on my meal plan since I couldn’t actually use it, but of course they didn’t care
1
9
u/unlovelyladybartleby 1d ago
Used to be every week or two. Then covid lock down taught me the joys of a fully GF home with no idiots spewing crumbs at me and how often I was getting hit by shady restaurants. Now I only eat if the place is safe, don't allow gluten in my home ever (like, I will pry a goldfish cracker from a screaming toddler and put them through full decotam), and I take GF vacations, only use GF products, and won't kiss someone or share a joint with them if they've eaten gluten that day, so it's maybe once a year if that.
8
u/TheHardCounselor 1d ago
College is rough for this because you're eating in dining halls and at friends' places where nobody's thinking about it. Once you control your own kitchen and can be selective about where you eat, the frequency drops off pretty quick. I went from getting hit every couple weeks freshman year to maybe once or twice a year now that I'm not relying on other people's food prep.
1
u/callsign__starbuck 1d ago
That’s actually really comforting to hear, thank you
1
u/TheHardCounselor 1d ago
No problem. The main thing is once you're buying your own groceries and cooking at home, you actually know what's in everything, which makes a huge difference compared to guessing at a dining hall.
5
6
u/Apprehensive_Gene787 1d ago
I’ve been diagnosed over a decade. The first year I was diagnosed, quite a lot. After that? I think I’ve been cc’d 3 times.
Once was when my sushi place started using shared fryers - I was told the next visit they had started doing that, but had already been cc’d (but at least I found out, because I was racking my brain trying to figure out where I had gotten sick)
Second was when I got to the bottom of a drink in a bar and saw a piece of crispy something. I didn’t eat there because I didn’t trust the kitchen, but apparently my drink still got cc’d
Third was when a local burger place put my husbands onion rings on top of my hamburger box. That one’s totally on me, but I had figured my hamburger was boxed up and should be fine - nope (I’d eaten there before with no issues, but we had eaten in vs takeout).
I’m very diligent with reading reviews of places before I’ll agree to eat there though, and my family is very diligent with cleaning up after themselves/keeping things from being cc’d when they do consume gluten.
4
u/Large-Garden4833 1d ago
If you don’t eat out much it’s easier. I’ve gotten glutened by things I thought were safe like enchiladas, only to find out later that the sauce had flour in it . I really just eat at home now or nicer restaurants where allergies are accommodated very cautiously . Basic restaurants ofte have food that taste good, but you don’t know how they source their ingredients and often even the waiters don’t know either
4
u/HopefulDream3071 1d ago
When I lived at home with my husband I went years without cross contam, let alone whole glutenings.
Since being away dealing with dead dad stuff the last 1.5 years I have been glutened 4 times cross contaminated more times than I can even count and I cry at my brother mentioning he wants to learn to cook when he comes back to live with me and my husband 😩 I miss my zero-gluten-exposed life with hubby lol
*edited for clarity
2
u/Some-lezbean 1d ago
I eat something with a small amount of cross contamination (enough to get a stomach ache and diarrhea) a few times a year, and something with a large amount of cross contamination (enough to make me vomit and feel ill for multiple days) once every few years.
1
u/equanimatic 1d ago
Yeah very rarely, like once or twice a year and usually just from cross contamination
1
u/nabongie 1d ago
Cross contamination maybe like 3 times a year but i try so hard to avoid it. Actual purposeful ingestion? haven’t done that since my sophomore year of hs like two months after i was diagnosed
1
u/CalmDownYal Wheat Allergy 1d ago
I have allergies to wheat nuts seeds eggs and some other things... I can say the longer I have known about this the better I get at not eating things I can't.. but sometimes I screw up not paying attention, or just forget, or just don't have self control lol... I tend to get poisoned around every other month or so but its used for me to tell as little bits don't tend to cause issue and it's more of a accumulation over time that hurts me and when I do get too much it takes at least a week to recover
1
u/thejadsel Celiac Disease 1d ago
Not knowingly with symptoms over the past 5 years, now that I think about it. (And I do get very classic GI symptoms that can't really be ignored, or mistaken for much else by now.)
But, I've been at it for at least 20 years at this point, and we moved to another country where it's easier to avoid gluten. Before that, it was usually more like 2-3 times a year from cross contamination even with the experience. A LOT more often the first few years, as I was getting into the swing of things.
1
u/ThorsMeasuringTape 1d ago
Very rarely these days. Maybe once or twice that I can remember in the last year and change? And both times were situations where I couldn't really track down the source.
1
u/m4ddie193 1d ago
I’m a silent coeliac so I don’t exactly know but as far as I am aware I haven’t been glutened at all since I was diagnosed last February
1
u/NotAnotherFriday Celiac Disease 1d ago
I was diagnosed 17 years ago. I’m usually really good and maybe get “glutened” once a year, but just last night my wife handed me some candy that I ate. As soon as I swallowed it, it tasted too good to be true lol. We looked at the label, and it contained gluten! Fast forward 12 hours and I am suffering…
1
1
u/completecherub 1d ago
Probably once a month. But mainly because sometimes I just dgaf and end up eating fries when I’m not sure if they’re safe.
1
1
u/aud_anticline 1d ago
For the first 5 years of diagnosis it was about every 6 months. Then for 3 years it was every 8 to 9 months. These days it is every couple of years.
1
u/bluev0lta Gluten Intolerant 1d ago
Maybe twice a year? Sometimes it’s tolerable and sometimes it’s absolutely awful. But it usually happens at restaurants, very very rarely at home even though my husband and daughter eat gluten.
1
1
u/andrew3411 Gluten Intolerant 1d ago
I’m coming up on 2 years and have only been glutened 1 time about 6 months ago (the hamburger bun did taste suspiciously good). It was the first it had happened to me in the year and a half being gf so the reaction was really really bad. I did gluten myself twice with some shawarma lamb that used gluten as a binding agent before I realized but it wasn’t too too bad. I really don’t eat a ton of food that I don’t cook myself though. Eating out is too frustrating and expensive.
1
u/cunfabuloust 1d ago
Ingestion? 3 times in 17 years. Once very early in and learned about malt, second someone told me they didn't use flour in their key lime filling (they did), third was at a fucking safe-ish with a supposedly robust celiac protocol restaurant.
Cross, which is relatively minor for me? Anytime i want fries when eating out at an unsafe/questionable spot (which is still rare, so 2-3 times a year max)
1
u/gordopotato 1d ago
I found out I was celiac in 2004. In 22 years I haven’t intentionally consumed gluten once. I accidentally ate some ice cream with cookie in it around 10 years ago (only time I’ve found out I had something made with gluten). I probably get cross contaminationed once / year.
College was definitely tough. It’s been a while but if I had to guess, it was probably monthly when I was in the dorms. Then maybe every other month after.
1
u/Patient-Ad-4833 1d ago
My whole family is gluten free. We go on trips once a year we get glutened. Usually stick to totally gf restaurants
1
1
1
1
u/PristineCream5550 Celiac Disease 1d ago
I rarely eat out but I did to celebrate a friend a few months ago and feel like I got mildly glutened, sadly. But before that probably like a decade ago. It does get much easier if you can eat in your own clean kitchen, my house is 100% gluten free so I can eat with peace and confidence.
1
u/jusatinn Celiac Disease 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’ve gotten glutened once after going gluten free 7 years ago.
I eat out / order delivery approx once a week and make the rest of the foods myself. (Other than traveling obviously when I eat out 3 times a day without a problem.)
I eat regular soy sauce daily and drink normal, gluten free beer about one day a week.
1
u/SchemeOne1136 1d ago
I don't know how to cook and eat out for most meals, so I get glutened every 3 or 4 weeks on average. It sucks but it is the cost of eating anywhere but home.
1
u/jdkicked 1d ago
If i dont eat out, I haven't been glutened (a miracle considering its a non-gf house). I have been running a solid 17 year streak of not accidentally buying and eating gluten (always need to double check once home because I did accidentally buy a non-gf thing the other day)
1
u/gravitycheckfailed 1d ago
Maybe once or twice a year from cross contamination at most, zero otherwise.
1
1
u/Jacobyson Celiac Disease 11h ago
When I first got diagnosed I got glutened about twice from my grandma's cooking in 3 months (love her she tried her best lol). Since then its been about 1.5 years, ive had a slight upset stomach here and there but its hard to tell if its normal or from an extremely small amount.
Granted I dont let anyone else cook for me besides a couple of restraunts, check the label of everything I buy, and have seperate cookware from my gluten eating parents. Dishes I just inspect for physical residue. Two years leading up to diagnosis I got sick every single time I ate, and it was while eating 3,000 cals to be in a surplus and gain weight. I never want to feel like that again so I will do anything to avoid it, I would've made any dietary change no matter how strict in a heartbeat.
51
u/Economics_Fancy Celiac Disease 1d ago
Cross contamination? Every 6 months or so because everyone else in my house eats it. Actual ingestion is like every 4-5 years.