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

Dear all,

I'm hoping that some of you will be able to confirm my experience, so I
can have more faith in my understanding of it:

My gluten symptoms are quite distinctive and so I can really tell when I'm
reacting. The thing is, sometimes (and I think this happens to a lot of
us) if I ingest gluten in trace amounts, I won't react right away, but it
will build up, until after I eat enough of a certain product, and then
when I eat that product, I'll react as if it were a definitely gluten-
containing product.

This happened to me in August when I started eating these certain rice
bran crackers... I wish I could remember the brand... I'd have to look
again in the store to be sure. They were sooooo good, and it was a pity to
give
 them up. But after eating them for a while, I knew I was reacting.
And since they were obviously being made in the same place as the
companies other crackers (they weren't even making the claim of "gluten-
free," it was just that they didn't have any gluten ingredients) I figured
it was a trace issue that over time I was reacting to.

Last night, I went to dinner at a friend's house. Always a gamble, but I
checked labels, asked questions, and was shocked when I found myself
reacting. I was really puzzled. The only thing I hadn't double-checked was
the salad dressing, which I still believe was homemade from the usual
suspects, all gf, just your basic oil and vinegar thing.

So, I was annoyed, but was beginning to put it behind me when tonight,
after a dinner of gf pasta and some nice peppers I cooked in oil and
vinegar I started reacting bigtime, the way I used to when I ate normal
pa
sta before I went gf. And a thought occured to me: could it be that this
gf pasta is not really gf enough? Since I'd been working on the box of it
all week. And even stranger, I really LIKED this pasta. Even I think I
would be crazy to propose that I have an almost addictive response to
gluten, as if my body can feel or taste it in those foods, even in trace
amounts, and thus like them more than other foods, but it is really quite
uncanny.... I mean, before I went gf, I felt out of control with food, as
if I was pasta-addicted and I couldn't stop, even if I knew it was bad for
me. It was a mental thing, since I've never had a weight problem. But it
was really hard nonetheless. Going gf was a way to really break that
cycle, since I had to totally change everything. I eat a much more
balanced diet now. It is intriguing to me that the foods that seem to
trigger gluten reactions in me are those same foods that
bring back that
old crazy carbo-craving feeling....

By the way, the brand of pasta is called San Gallio, Spaghetti style Brown
Rice Pasta (product of China). I'm very upset at the idea that even with
the label "gluten-free" things are still a crap shoot... but what else can
I do? I can't ignore what my body tells me.

Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks,
Jessica

* Please carefully compose your subject lines in all posts *