I wanted to start a thread about one of the least talked about and shared aspects of gluten intolerance, celiac's, or other food related intolerances or allergies for that matter.

That is, about the social implications of such a condition.

Below is part of an article I wrote about "Our Story". I end with a question, rather than an answer and I would love to hear some of others people's experiences with regard to how their food requirements have affected how they relate to other people, how it effects them socailly, etc, and some things which have helped them.

Educating The Family.

This was not something we had given much thought to at this stage but it was to prove one of the biggest challenges of our whole journey with gluten intolerance.

My family was understanding as celiac disease was in the family. I had experimented a little with gluten free cooking as when one of my uncles who was celiac came out from the UK, I liked to make him a gluten free dessert.
It was my husband’s side of the family where some would prove to be a bit of a challenge as well as some friends.

We visited these particular relatives of my husband’s who seemed to have no understanding of what it meant be gluten intolerant.

Early after my diagnosis, we were invited to a BBQ at a relative’s house and there were sausages and white bread, none of which were gluten free. I explained to them about my recent diagnosis but went ahead and ate the sausages and bread thinking that a little would not be a big deal.
I was also several months pregnant with our second son so I was felt a little off anyway sometimes during the pregnancy.

We finished lunch, which I did not particularly enjoy and left about an hour later. During the drive home I vomited in the car and felt quite ill and bloated for a few days.

I had been on the gluten free diet for a couple of months and I suppose my system had got use to not having gluten.

When we were invited to another family get together at this particular relative’s house, there was more people and therefore more food with greater variety.

Although there was food I could eat, such as fruit and vegetables, there was nothing specifically gluten free. I had not been expecting it though as I had not yet talked to my niece about my intolerance.

At a later stage though we did get a chance to talk to her and her husband about it and explained it was serious enough to cause stomach cancer if I kept on eating food containing gluten.

We left it at that thinking we had made some sort of an effort to explain and that next time there me be something that I could eat when we were next at their place.

Some months later, we went to their place for another get together and as they were putting out the food, my nephew looked at me and said, “ I don’t think there is anything you can eat here.”

This took me back a bit as I was kind of expecting something to eat. Like we had driven an hour and a half to get here now what could I do? What would I eat?

I managed to find some carrots and celery amongst the salads which would fill a hole, but that was it.

Now there were three elements to this experience.

Firstly, did I explain what the extent of my intolerance meant to my relatives? Did I explain that although I could not eat things containing gluten, I still needed to eat of course, so I needed to have food that did not contain gluten.

Secondly, was I expecting others to take responsibility for my food intolerance even though they may not understand what a food intolerance was and how harmful gluten can be to me?

Thirdly, were they thinking I was just being overly fussy or rude for not eating the food they served up for me? It was not a special occasion for me as such, but they did invite me and they did know that I had a food intolerance.

I would love to hear of your experiences and thoughts.

Regards,
Rosco.