<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I think that summary was getting very long, so will make a part two.  I
want to thank all who responded.  And I pass along some of the quotes to
you in the same spirit.  We are all in this together, and who else can
"share the pain?."  So, my motto is DD.  (Dine Defensively!)

...am so accustomed to being a Celiac, it brings back memories to read
from all you newcomers.  It gets easier and especially now, when there
are so many good things out there.  Used to be everything had to be made
from scratch or you didn't eat.

We have a "gourmet" dinner group of 8 who meet 4 x a year.  We plan all
kinds of interesting ethnic meals--with everyone preparing and bringing
food to contribute.  These friends have been wonderful and always call
me when a menu is agreed upon and distributed as to how to adapt their
assigned dish, to what is GF.  While I certainly don't have to eat
everything on the menu, they do try to make most dishes safe for me to
eat.  I am endlessly appreciative of their thoughtfulness and I know
that I am lucky to know such caring people.  My point is, if friends are
aware of the seriousness of the diet and are supportive, it can be done.
I suspect it scares off a lot of people as being just too difficult.
But in fact, with some minor "fine tuning" many (maybe not all) recipes
can be easily adapted for you to eat safely...e.g.  where there is a
gravy or sauce required, I suggest that friends use corn starch to
thicken instead of flour, etc.  etc.  Keeping well is the priority and
it is all worth it!

Yes we know the problem with the gourmet friends.  My wife
is the coeliac in our house and we love good food and good
company.  We frequently ask friends round to savour our
cooking (we have a reputation to keep up!).  The poor
performance we then have to put up with if we go to friends
(our very good friends just borrow our "Food List" and work
from there - no problem but some others seem to believe
everything has to be as bland as possible - yuk!).
Keep working at it - shame people by asking them round and
feeding them exciting food, and kep in contact with the
foodies on this lis

I understand how you feel, but what happens is if there is a little bit
of gluten in this and a little bit of gluten in something else, it can
add up to be damaging.

You will get used to shopping gf after a while - learn to be assertive
with your health food stores and ask them to stock more gf foods.  I
also was diagnosed 2 mos.  ago and am experiencing the same frustration
over additives, thickeners, stabilizers etc.  etc.  I've been trying to
identify "safe" spices and am having alot of trouble since I have to
believe that a little gluten is not as bad as a lot and I'm sure that I
could not "detect" small amounts.  It's these sub-clinical effects
(without symptoms) that make this so hard since you could be ingesting
gluten in small amounts and not having clear symptoms.  My mother has
told me that my grandmother, who al had celiac disease stabilized after
approx.  2 years of gluten free diet to the point where she could eat
wheat bread again, and a close friend with CD has told me that on
occasion while suffering through a long wait for food in a restaurant he
will eat a roll or two...  He has been symptom free for many years
(diagnosed as a child)...  but it is likely that the roll will be
actually doing him harm but not giving him symptoms.

   I could have written parts of you message.  Like you I am a good cook
and a great deal of my social activities were food related.  It was so
depressing to realize that my "friends" didn't know (or want to try) how
to feed me.  I noticed we started being invited for "drinks" rather than
dinner.  I've invited friends to my house for a GF gourmet meal with the
hopes they would see that it really isn't that difficult.  In some cases
(where they weren't that creative) I told them to just throw a simple
steak on the grill with a baked potato.
   I must tell you, that my own family has been the worst.  They don't
seem to want to go out of their way to accommodate my diet, but prepare
food that I can't eat for everyone else, and leave it up to me to bring
my own.  On the positive side, my husbands family (all excellent cooks),
our first Thanksgiving together, prepared an entire GF gourmet feast
that just about made me cry.  Even all the deserts were GF.
   So cheer up.  I try to focus on what I can eat and not on what I
can't eat.  Who needed all those sauces and breading anyway?

I guess we are all in this Celiac thing together and support is
essential.  I have met some wonderful people on this site and in my
area.

I just read your  letter an I could have sworn I wrote it. The only
diference is i dont cook and I am a 72 year old male. It is hard
keeping up with all the E mai but it is worth it. Let me know how you
make out.

That's all, folks....Anne in San Antonio