<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> From original post: ><< I realize that any generalizations are sometimes dangerous, but why don't > we just accept the fact that there are no fast food chains that can provide > gluten free meals with any guarantee of no contamination, etc, etc...>> Reply: >I find posts like this particularly UNHELPFUL... On the contrary, I find posts like the original one *VERY* helpful. While some of us with lower levels on sensitivity and a limited range of sensitivities **may*1** be able to get away with eating fast food etc. for many of the rest of us the risks are simply too great. The constant risk of people with special needs like ours is getting tire of all the inconviences and gradually letting down our guard so that our health deteriorates so gradually that we don't notice it. (The "boiled frog" phenomenon: If you put a frog in a pan of hot water, he will jump out. If you put him in a pan of cold water and *gradually* heat it, you can boil him before he jumps. It's not *that* bad with people but it is possibly to get pretty sick without noticing if it happens gradually enough (untill you stop what was making you get sick and get well - *then* the change is obvious.) *****We need constant reminders of the risks and problems we face and I find that such posts are most helpful indeed****. The basic question is "who/what gets the benefit of the doubt"? The fast food or **US**? I say, give **yourself** (and your health!) the benefit of the doubt. Jim Barron Chapel Hill NC [log in to unmask] _________________ *1 whether or not any of us really "gets away" with eating fast food is an open question considering that 1) you can sustain a level of damage to the gut without showing observable symptoms that is still probably detrimental to your health by causing subclinical malabsorption and/or increasing the probability of certain cancers. 2) the tremdous variation between different branches of the same fast food chain, differences between the same branch depending on whose in charge at that time, changes in policies, changes in products, substitutions, new personel who don't follow proceedures (on one the highest turnovers of personell in any business) 3) the frequent switching of special orders (more than once I observed my baked potatoe *without margarine* being switched with someone else's - one on the many reasons I gave up on fast food **and enjoyed much better health as a result**)