List of Symptoms of Gluten Contamination OR How to Tell If a Soylent Recipe Works for a Celiac

While Celiacs have very obvious reactions to gluten, other ingredients may be questionable too.

Lactose? Probably bad. 

Other grains? For me amaranth is death. 

Other ingredients? Surely, yes. 

So, next time you try a new food and aren't sure if it works for you, run down this checklist. 

F ever. Mine spikes within 5 min of eating a bad food. 

A bdonimal pain. Kicked in the gut.

C ongestion. Clogged sinuses, excess snot production, maybe even trouble breathing. 

T ingling in weird places, especially the mouth.

S ore throat. Feels like Strep. 

I tching inside mouth. Gross. 

N umb tongue. Yup, it goes numb. 

S welling of lips, throat, etc. 

I wanna die. Pain in every joint. Even eyelashes hurt.

D izziness. Lightheadedness. Fainting.

E motional spike. Gluten sure messes with hormones. Other ingredients can too. 

G as. Yes, I said it. Flatulence.

R apid pulse. Sometimes just a little; sometimes feels like a panic attack. 

I nstant (almost) drop in ability to function. 

E xhausted.

F reezing feet and hands. 

If you feel any of those after drinking Soylent and there's no other potential cause for them, maybe check out that ingredients list again and adjust to make sure you're not stabbing yourself in the gut while trying to feed yourself. 

Note: The first few batches for me were bad. I forget which recipes / ingredients, but we had to adjust. The recipe we found that worked best can be found here. 

Best reason to do Soylent for Celiacs

Celiacs, of all people, know what it feels like when the tummy hurts: aching, twisting, icky pain.

Soylent, especially if you do a bland mix with certified GF ingredients, is extremely comforting. Sure, you don't get the mouth-feel of crunching through something yummy and you don't get flavor, but if you've ever had a Celiac-level tummy pain, then you know those things are bleeping irrelevant.

All that matters is being able to find food that you can keep down, plus it helps if the food doesn't try to kill you.

See that pic? Wonder why I have my laptop covering my tummy?

That's me sleeping on the floor of an airport. I travel for work and I've found a super cool trick for relieving tummy pain. Use an older laptop that overheats, not a lot because then it can fry itself and take your data along with it, but warm enough that it can act as a heating pad.

No one at the airport has ever noticed my trick. It's pretty common to sleep on the floor in nearly all of the international airports I've passed through. I see suits, skirts, all sorts of people resting on the floor. The weird part is not the sleeping on the floor. The weird part is trying to calm your tummy in a Macgiver way when you're in pain and have no respite for the next 14 hrs.

Best reason to do Soylent? Because it's calming, safe, and doesn't kill you. 

And for any Celiacs who are now thinking of taking a bag of your mix on your next airplane flight, think it through. TSA / Customs / anybody looking at your luggage is likely to pause when they see a bag of white powder. Especially a big bag. Oops.

Instead, buy a pre-made mix (does anybody make Soylent in an official looking container yet?) or put it in a baby drink mix container. I haven't tried taking Soylent with me on a flight or ship yet, but sooner or later I'll have to.

Viva la Soylent for Celiacs who want to declare a ceasefire in their guts!

Why this Celiac is trying Soylent -- Reason #4 Weird appetite issues

I'm not sure how or why, but I have nearly 0 appetite. (Is that normal for Celiacs?) I can't remember the last time I was hungry.

At least I haven't been hungry in a way that my brain would identify as "Hey chick, you're hungry."

http://imgbuddy.com/rebel-girl-tumblr.asp

My version of hunger sounds like this:

My brain sends out the signal, "Do something or you're gonna crash."

But it doesn't send out the tummy growl or anything that even resembles hunger.

The last time my stomach growled, my husband asked, "Are you hungry?"

I was baffled. "Uh, no?"

I'm not trying to be a rebel, not trying to be difficult. It's just a weird thing that I don't experience hunger. It also makes it particularly difficult to remember to eat.

Thus, Soylent. It's a lot easier to consume something so incredibly un-food-like when un-hungry.

Why this Celiac is trying Soylant -- Reason #3 "Sugar, sugar... candy girl..."

The only type of Sugar I should be enjoying is the Maroon 5 type.

Yet, all day, every day I crave the chocolate-y sugar, the gummy sugar, the ooey gooey yummy sugar. I'm full out addicted.

It consumes my willpower.

It distracts me from the stuff I really want to be doing.

Despite the fact that it:

* fuzzes my brain out so badly that I use phrases like "fuzzes my brain out" (split infinitive)

* makes me unpleasantly emotional (poor hubby)

* saps all my creativity, all my goodness, all my energy (except for the 10 min high)

Soylent is so mellow, so deeply satisfying (from the dozen or so times I've tried it) that it might, just might be able to distract me long enough to go fully off sugar. Time will tell.

http://hiit-blog.dailyhiit.com/

Why this Celiac is trying Soylent - Reason #2 SICK of being sick

From: classroomchoreography

I'm trying Soylent because:

wait for it

What I have been doing hasn't been working. 

I need a better solution.

I need something that's so easy that I can grab it during tough times (tax season, deadlines at work, sick kid at home needing extra care, the odd obligation, times when I just want to go do something other than cook).

I need something that's guaranteed to be GF. My husband is the one who buys all the Soylent ingredients and he makes sure they are all certified GF. Since he's the one who has to deal with me when I'm in hell for a gluten attack, he's highly motivated to have GF only Soylent ingredients.

What I have been doing hasn't been working. 

I'm on a 100% gluten free diet and I'm still getting whacked.

I'm cooking all meals from scratch as much as possible and still feeling sick most of the time.

I'm exercising daily, drinking plenty of water, and breathing deeply, yet still feel crummy too often.

Who is to blame? Possibly toxins in the environment or some other undiagnosed problem? Possibly

Every time I go to a doc, they pull out their RX pad and try to load me up on more meds. I'm thinking my cure is going to be in what I take into my body every day, not at the bottom of a pill bottle.

http://dishondesigngal.com/inspiration-let-food-thy-medicine/ 

Why this Celiac Is Trying Soylent - Reason #1 TIME

Being Celiac is freakin' annoying.

It can take a massive amount of time to verify ingredients.

Some people (including me) have even resorted to calling the manufacturer for details. Often the answer is, "Does not contain gluten ingredients but we can't verify everything from our source suppliers, so don't sue us if you get sick."

I try to buy foods that are specifically labeled Gluten Free because it supports (financially) the companies that are willing to put their necks on the line to help us Celiacs.

In the past, my food needs have consumed 4-6 hours a day, just preparing fresh food and doing the cleanup afterwards. That doesn't count the hour-long grocery store trips where I stand in the aisles googling "Is ___ (food) gluten free?" to see what other Celiacs have found out when they call the company to ask.

Don't misunderstand. I love food. I lived in France for a year and learned to truly enjoy the flavor of foods and the tempo of meals. But it isn't always realistic.

I also love preparing my own foods and my favorite foods are the ones that take the most time to prepare -- vegetables. When my husband and children go on trips I almost always go straight to the healthiest grocery store around and buy loads of greens: the brighter the vegetable, the better.

But I don't have that kind of time. I have several jobs I love. I have four kids. I have a best friend, er husband, that I enjoy spending time with. I love writing. I have a life.

When I don't have those 4-6 hours a day to prepare food, my body suffers. I forget to eat. I eat sugar, way too much sugar, for a quick fix. I eat something that has been cross contaminated. Worst is when I get to 5pm and one of the kids ask what's for dinner. At that point, more often than not, I remember that I haven't had lunch yet. Grr.

I want to be healthy.

I recognize my limits. I have limited time. Soylent can help guarantee me safe meals that will feed my needs and open up time for many of the things I love to do.

Case in point:

--> Yesterday morning, I had Soylent for breakfast and was able to go on a long walk around the lake with my daughter. Pure joy!

Soylent Green for Celiacs

We watched Soylent Green this morning:

It was fascinating! 

1. The over-acting was hilarious. How far we have come in the field of entertainment! 

2. One main theme was rich-getting-richer and poor-getting-poorer, always an intriguing theme. 

3. The other main theme was hunger: what people do when they are too hungry. 

I have enjoyed all sides of the food wars: Slow food, Fast food, Easy food, Hard food. 

For me: 

Slow food -- greens and more greens. If it requires any cooking, temps are kept low to not alter the nutritional content.

http://www.amys.com/

Fast food -- not what you think it means... Making dishes such as vegetable soup that can be made in large batches then divided into 20 servings so I can have veggie soup every Monday and Thursday dinners for 10 weeks, or whatever. It's food that can be prepped in under 5 min on the day of consumption. 

Easy food -- either simple meals such as a salad with lettuce and dressing only or something else equally easy such as premade meals like my beloved Amy's meals. 

Hard food -- so many Celiacs are familiar with this: the long, hard recipes to make the basics such as bread or dinner rolls. I've found a few easy recipes, but in general, they are tough, tough, tough. 

http://pinchmysalt.com

We Celiacs attempt the harder recipes only because a good loaf of GF bread is $7-$9 and a single cupcake can be upwards of $5. (Yes, I paid $5 for a single cupcake in LA once, but it was a red velvet cupcake and oh-so worth it.) 

Soylent is in both the Fast & Easy categories.

But back to the Soylent Green movie. It'll make your stomach turn, so make sure it's not too soon before or after a meal. It's one of the most disgusting films I've ever seen. 

The bottomline message is KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR FOOD.

I'm liking Soylent so far because it cuts down on prep time and allows me the luxury of researching the origin of each ingredient. 

Note that my beloved and I make our own mixes. We haven't found one on the market that we like yet, so we're still messing with our own recipes, getting ingredients from a dozen cool sources. 

It deserves saying again: KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR FOOD