<<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