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I have been reading this list for the past month or so, and finally
decided to respond to several items (in no particular order).

I have requested gluten-free meals on two airlines now, with mixed
results.  In both cases going one way was fine, but the return
flight meal was messed up.  In fact, on one flight (American) my
special gluten-free meal contained pasta, while everyone else's
looked fine, so I ended up being served the only gluten-containing
meal on the flight!  On the other mess-up (Northwest) the meal was
labelled gluten-free (or at least checked off) but contained a roll
and an oat-based cereal.  That time I sent it back with a
complaint.

I am a self-diagnosed celiac, male 43 years old.  I was diagnosed
as a celiac as a child (along with a sister), but that was back in
the 50's when they didn't really understand it (or at least
eliminated more than wheat and grains from the diet).  I seemed to
grow out of it when I was 8-10, but it reoccurred for me 2 years
ago.  For the intervening 30 years I ate a LOT of wheat based food
(bread was my favourite food), but it didn't appear to affect my
health until 2 years ago, when I started to get occasional very bad
gas and some diarrhea.  The gas was very uncomfortable when it
happened, so I tried eliminating various foods from my diet, and
when I came to wheat, the bad gas reaction went away and stayed
away.  I have seen a specialist in town who is very informed about
the disease, and he wanted to do a biopsy.  But I didn't want to go
back on gluten again (I knew what the reaction would be), and I
asked him what a biopsy would prove.  Even if it was negative, I
wasn't about to go back on a gluten diet.  He agreed with me that
from MY point of view there was nothing to gain from a biopsy - it
wouldn't change anything in my life, although it might make HIM
feel better.

I have since tested myself (a couple of months ago) to verify the
gluten reaction - one piece of homemade bread did nothing, so I
tried eating 3 slices, and got a typical reaction 48 hours later.
The reason I used homemade bread is that I seem to get diarrhea
(nothing else) from too much hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is
in store-bought breads.

I do not seem to be a typical celiac, although from this list I get
the feeling that there is no such thing.  I do not seem to get a
discernable reaction from small doses of gluten (based on what
happened before I went gluten-free), and often nothing happens for
48 hours.  Then I will have diarrhoea, but it disappears quickly,
with no lingering effects.  I am generally VERY healthy, healthier
than most people I know.  I don't often get sick, and when I do it
doesn't last long.  My sister, two years older than myself, has not
as of yet had any reoccurrence, although I have discussed my
condition with her.  I also have a nephew who was treated as a
celiac when he was young.

I want to put in a plug here for a Canadian maker of gluten-free
products.  Everything I have purchased from El Peto Products in
 Kitchener has been excellent - far surpassing most other products
that I have tried, both in Canada and the US.  The secret seems to
be in their flour mix, which I now use to make my own bread.  Most
other GF breads I have tried (or made from scratch, using GF
cookbook recipes) are dry and crumbly.  In fact after 3 days or so
they become so dry as to be inedible.  In contrast, I just had to
throw out part of a loaf of bread made using El Peto bread mix
because it was too moist, and had grown mouldy.  Their raisin bread
is fantastic, pancake mix is very good, pie dough is good, pizza
shells are good, and hamburg buns are ok.  I think that I wouldn't
bother with a lot of these things if not for El Peto, most of the
competition putting out virtually inedible products, in my opinion.

One final comment.  Someone mentioned the volume of mail from this
list.  There is no need to get a lot of individual items.  If you
tell the listserv to set your mail to digest format, you will
receive just one mail item a day, containing all the days mail
compiled into one item, to be read anytime at your leisure.  Just
send the following message to [log in to unmask] - set
celiac digests.