Gluten Free Denmark

At the moment I am in Copenhagen, Denmark. Every time I travel I get nervous about what I am going to eat and the possibility of getting sick in front of strangers. This happened once on the streets of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and I will never forget the humiliation. But as I write this drinking my Somersby Pear Cider, I am very content and have no fears about my month stay in Copenhagen. 

My first reassuring moment was the plane ride over. I flew Scandinavian Air and they were wonderful with accommodating for my diet. When we made the plane reservation we requested a gluten free meal. I didn't have high hopes. The last time I flew to Denmark we flew Icelandic Air, for the flight there we had forgotten to request a gluten free meal, so I brought some extra snacks and went without the meal. For the flight back to the states I did have a gluten free meal, but the dinner consisted of a plain piece of chicken and a small salad. The breakfast was a rice cake with my coffee and juice. But on Scandinavian Air the chicken had a delicious sauce to accompany it with asparagus and a salad, pudding for dessert, and they even gave me a gluten free roll! For breakfast I received a rice cake again but this time with butter and jam and a yogurt. I was very impressed.

Living in Copenhagen is pretty easy too. The grocery store right down the street carries a lot of gluten free options. The main gluten free brands in Denmark are Schar and Barkat. Schar makes delicious breads and they have a lot of mixes for baking. Right now we have a loaf of bread and baking flour from Schar and muffin mix and pretzels from Barkat. 

While brainstorming about meal options for me my sister in law found the website for Schar products which also has a lot of extra information, it gives a few ideas about how to use their products - making croissants with the bread mix or cake using their "lady fingers". It also has a link to an "adult summer camp" for celiacs in Europe. What I have gathered is it is a little like a summer vacation, but with gluten free food galore, and you are surrounded by other celiacs! I wish I was going to be in Europe for a little longer because I would definitely take a side trip to check it out. Hopefully next year! 

I just gave the Schar website another look and I absolutely love it, it is chock full of information! So please check it out! http://www.schaer.com/en/ 

It is really reassuring how aware most people have become of celiac disease, traveling a couple years ago it was much more difficult to find gluten free options, so much so that I hated to go anywhere. Now, my options are almost limitless!

Gluten-free for me!

A few years ago, just a year after I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, one of my friends decided "to become Anna" for a week. It was part of an English assignment, he had to go on a "quest" and write about his experiences, his quest was to eat gluten-free for an entire week. 

I wish I could get ahold of that paper now, but I have lost touch with him over the years. I remember that it was very difficult for him to find something to eat day to day, and he came to me a lot for help. By the end of the week he had lost a few pounds and was so thankful to be able to go back to delicious gluten-full food!

I told this story to two of my friends at school. They immediately jumped on the idea, it was a Sunday night so for the school week, Monday through Friday, they were going to eat gluten-free. I explained to them what they could eat at each meal in the dining halls, as well as what food was available to them at our house. It didn't take them long to second guess their decision, but they were determined.

I checked in with them the next day. They said it went well, listed the things they ate, and were so excited for the next day. But after we had been sitting there for awhile confessions started to leak out, they hadn't done as well as they said. I just laughed, without the incentive of keeping yourself from getting sick, it was very difficult to stick to it. The next day they forgot all about their plan for the week and went back to eating as normal. 

So I just have to say "good for you!" to everyone who has no choice but to stick to this diet day after day, year after year, with no hope that we might "grow out of it." It's tough, we have to forgo the birthday cake at a friend's party, the donuts someone picked up on the way to class, the bagels when the study group meets up at a coffee shop, the cookies a roommate received in a care package, the pizza and beer when everyone's just hanging out. We have no choice, but it's not easy. So good for you! You are stronger than most people realize!

Oh college...

The tricky part about writing a blog about food and attending college is sometimes I just forget to eat. Or I just eat chips and hummus, maybe throw a few veggies in my mouth or grab an apple as I'm running out the door. And I cannot tell you (actually, I'm rather embarrassed, so I choose not to tell you) how many times I got chinese and mexican takeout. So with that exciting diet, I found it hard to find something to write about, or the time...

But a couple of weekends ago I went to visit a friend at the University of New Hampshire. At first UNH appeared Celiac-friendly. They had a "gluten free" area where there was a toaster and some condiments and a refrigerator to store gluten free breads, waffles, and bagels. However, it had been awhile since I last ate in a dining hall, and I guess because it has been so long since I've had what I call an "episode," I let my guard down. Big mistake. I had a burger (without the bun) a salad and cooked zucchini for lunch on Saturday and ended up getting extremely ill. My poor friend had to deal with me running to the bathroom the entire day and we had to cancel our evening plans. Of course I felt horrible for ruining her weekend, and so stupid for letting something like this happen, I'm usually so careful! I hounded my school's dietician for weeks for goodness sake, why would I eat at a dining hall without asking the manager a million questions? But who wants to be that difficult? Well, we do if we want to stay healthy! I need to constantly remind myself of that!

After I did a little research on the UNH dining halls, I found that the burger contained wheat. It was one of those times someone just decided to throw in flour "for good measure" (I find this a lot, and get quite annoyed). But the good thing about UNH, and I would have seen this if I had been paying more attention to what I eat instead of the endless chitchat, is they list all the ingredients on a little card next to the food, making the dining hall very allergy-friendly for all.

So leave it to me to get sick at one of the easiest dining halls to eat at...