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Help allergic to milk and gluten..

I just found out I'm allergic to milk and gluten. I am lost on where to start and what I can/can't eat! Please help me
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Avatar universal
Thank you that is very helpful! I'm going food shopping Saturday an will look so soy, vegan(for processed stuff), and gluten free items. Your help really is awesome I am having a very hard time with this! Today I got bad chest pains just by inhaling the flour my friend was frying meat with. It seems that the more I stay on the diet the worse the allergy gets :( I don't mean to be whiny but it does scare me! I hospitalized before for it and didn't even know it was because of the food. Anyways I'm trying to find support groups so I can vent and get help but no luck yet. I am 22 and cooking and baking is a big part of my life! I have been a side cake decorator for a long time so I feel pretty depressed throu all of this. Anyways I'll stop my whining thanks for all your help you have no idea what it means to me!
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1809109 tn?1331803777
That's alright -I learned something new. I did find out that sometimes a non-dairy product uses a milk protein called casein. I don't know if this will effect you, but it's typically found in really processed foods so stay clear of them. For instance it can be put into a soy cheese and receive the "dairy" free mark. Although because it's an animal product if you find something marked vegan it should be fine.
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Avatar universal
Thank you so much for all your help! It has been Bice getting answers from a person rather then a generic website! Hope I don't bug ou with all my questions!
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1809109 tn?1331803777
No sorry, I've never heard of any problems like that. (I have heard excess soy can effect a thyroid, but that seems to be debatable.) My friend who is gluten free doesn't have celiac's disease he's just very intolerant. He is ok with soy though. One of my college friends who was very allergic to milk also had no problem with soy. However, peanut allergies and tree nuts can go hand in hand because of similarities.. I guess it depends on what you're allergic to in the milk. Definitely something to research though.
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Avatar universal
I read somewhere that soy protein sometimes mocks wheat and milk protiens and your body can mistake it as the wrong protien and still try to attack it in return almost making soy bad for cealics too. Do you know anything about this?
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Avatar universal
Thank you that is very helpful!
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Avatar universal
If you like to bake and cook I recommend
http://glutenfreegirl.com/
also some great sites that will help with shopping:
http://www.celiac.org/
http://www.celiac.com/
http://www.celiaccentral.org/

Also cookbooks by Carol Fenster are a good resource.

One thing if you do cook and use xanthum gum never (no matter what the recipe says) use more than 1/4 teaspoon as it will make whatever you are baking very gummy. I have found that an even better substitute is 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 2 tablespoons boiling water and then let it sit and cool (I usually put in the fridge or freezer to have it cool faster then it is only needs a couple of minutes to cool.)

I hope this helps,
achilles2
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1809109 tn?1331803777
No problem, I had to go through all of it, and it's such a pain! (I'm dairy, egg, nut, and red meat free). It can also be a bit demoralizing, but there are ways around it so don't give up hope. I also like to watch blogs like FoodAllergyMama.com (dairy, nut, and egg free) she puts up some fun ideas and has a few linked blogs that look to be gf, but I've never tested around with them. Sometimes the sites can be more useful than huge cookbooks.
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Avatar universal
Thank you so much!! That was the most helpful advice than I have seen reading books and searching the web! It seems difficult but I do have celiac so I don't want to do more damage than what is already done. Thank you so much for the tips I had no idea about coffee and the sour cream idea sounds good!! I love to cook and even more to eat so I'm going to miss regular food a lot but am looking forward to the challenge! I went to the library today and rented out a book and printed some lists of can't have items. Again thanks a ton!!
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1809109 tn?1331803777
Oh also - you can't just substitute gluten free flours for regular flours. It never works out well.  I had to learn that the hard way! GF baking is kind of hard, so to start out stick to the boxes.
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1809109 tn?1331803777
Gluten is found in many grains. Oats, rye, flours, noodles etc. Sometimes packaged foods add flour as a thickener so you need to check the labels on things like BBQ sauce, gravy, pasta sauce, marinades, ketchup, and any packaged dinners (including Uncle Ben's rices) because they may have gluten in it. As would anything that is breaded (chicken nuggets, fish sticks, even potato wedges can have gluten). In a health food store or the health food section you will be able to find gluten free noodles, pastry dough, cake mixes, breads, and sauces. My advice is to switch to rice instead of pasta (if it uses pasta, try rice and see how it turns out) and salads instead of breads. (In my experience, Gf breads are very very crumbly and never as nice.) If it uses a crust, try mashed potato instead. So instead of a pot pie, have a shephard's pie with mashed potato on top instead of a pastry crust. Corn and rice chips are more likely to be gluten free than the potato chips, and many corn tortillas are gf- but check the packaging! Also many beers are not gluten free. So if you drink, it's safer to switch to mixed cocktail drinks using hard alcohols. (My roommate switched to straight Jim Bean after he found he couldn't drink beer.) Many recipe sites have a gluten free tick so you can search for only gluten free things. Also you can go to your local library and get cook books. Search through the special ones to see if there are any recipes worth using. (I prefer to hire library books than buy the cookbooks straight out and never use more than a recipe from them.)

That being said if you have Celiac's disease any amount of "cheating" can permanently harm your intestinal track so you have to be very very careful.

As far as dairy allergy goes, obviously milk, butter, yogurt, cheese are off the menu. Any mayo-based sauces also have milk solids in them, as does chocolate (you can get dairy free from the health section or a health food, but watch the fat content because they tend to be pretty high). Toffee and caramels are also made with dairy. Most Cambell's soups seem to have some amount of milk in them, and many are not gluten free anyways. So check your soup labels and if they don't say gluten free, don't get them. There are substitutions you can use for dairy- soy, coconut, almond, and hemp milk. (there is also Oat milk, but that would have gluten in it I think.) Each have a distinctive flavor and texture, so it's up to you to find a personal favorite. Many stores will have canola/sunflower seed oil margarine, soy ice cream, dairy-free confection, df yogurt, soy evaporated milk, and cheese substitutes. (You still need to check the labels for the gluten free words, just in case.)

Some helpful things I've found -mixing 2 tbsp lemon juice/ 1 cup soy milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes can be used in place of sour cream in almost any recipe (works very well for creamy soups). Coconut milk, refrigerated over night and then drained of the milk- the fat can be used as whip cream. Also adding avocado will give you a nice creamy sauce for pasta.

I know it's frustrating, but there are many alternatives out there and eventually it becomes second nature. Good luck!
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