Celiac's disease

[goatboy]

Hey folks,

 

Anyone have any experience managing celiac's disease as a climber and/or alpinist? How did it impact your backcountry eating (and more importantly, beer consumption)?

 

Thanks,

 

Goatboy, coping with the news

[NWbrandon]

So, my dad has been hit by this disease (4 years now) and in the beginning it was no beer, YIKES!, only Mikes Hard Lemonade but AB is brewing a Redbridge beer that is pretty damn good . Sometimes difficult to find, surprisingly many Walmart stores carry it, and we just found some at a gas station in Naches on Sunday so it is getting out there.

 

As for the eating habits of a climber/alpinist....not sure what you eat, but I can say that most of the things he carries out hiking and/or hunting haven't changed all that much. There are some great bars out there, LARA, Bumble Bars, and ThinkThin (protein). He doesn't use any GU so I'm not sure of the label on that one. Bread is the tough one, you can buy the stuff that is rigid like styrofoam or the shit that crumbles in the pack, either way they are total crap! The best bread, yes I eat it too when I'm around, is the good stuff that mom bakes up. Trail mixes, cheese, jerky don't seem to be issue for him.

 

Hope that helps some, I'm sure the lead on the beer will!

[NWbrandon]

goatboy

Another thing, not sure how far into this you are but Fred Meyer has a great GF section to shop from. The u-bake double chocolate and chocolate chunk cookies are great. You can find some oatmeals out there the are pretty good as well. PM with an email address if you would like some more specific info.

[goatboy]

Hey Brandon,

 

Thanks so much for the info and I will definitely check out the Fred Meyer suggestion.

 

I'm already all over the Red Bridge and am surprised to say, it ain't that bad!

 

Steve

[musky333]

 

Hi Goatboy. I am a professional baker and have been doing a lot of gluten free baking lately, mostly from mixes that should be available at your major supermarkets.There are some gluten free brownies that smell and taste as good as any and would be yummy to tuck away in the pack. I am using rice flour to make scratch pie crusts and they are working out well too. Just add your favorite fruit. I'm sure that if you check these out, you will find there are lots of cakes, cookies, and bars available.Unfortunatly, the breads do suck.

[mountainmatt]

Hi Goatboy,

I sent you some of this in a PM, but after seeing others have the same questions I put together a more comprehensive list to get you started. Sorry to hear about the diagnosis.

 

 

Unsafe foods:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/182/1/Unsafe-Gluten-Free-Food-List-Unsafe-Ingredients/Page1.html

 

 

Gluten free candy:

http://www.celiaccentral.org/SiteData/docs/Gluten-Free-Candy-List/370e802df5a4b099ad419d940cf8fe22/Gluten-Free-Candy-List.pdf

 

 

Packaged food for backpack trips:

http://www.wildernessdining.com/gl.html

http://www.aa-foods.com/instant.cfm?insName=3

 

 

Beer:

Redbridge is about the only good gluten free beer, after that you are better off drinking hard A or wine

 

 

Bars:

Highly limited here. Childrens "EnviroKidz" bars found in the gluten free section of Freddies, Gu/Blocks, lara, bumble, etc.

 

 

Seattle restaurants:

http://www.glutenfreeceliacweb.com/2007/07/27/wheatless-and-gluten-free-restaurants-in-seattle/

 

 

Good blogs:

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/

 

 

Highly recommended brands: (Amy's stuff stinks!!)

http://consumer.kinnikinnick.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/consumer.home.html

http://www.bobsredmill.com/

http://authenticfoods.com/

http://www.bellandevans.com/index.cfm?act=gluten_free

http://www.glutino.com/

 

 

Bread:

Gluten Free Pantry Favorite Sandwich Bread Mix - a decent sandwich bread mix. It is better made in a bread machine.

 

EnerG hamburger and hotdog buns are decent (fred meyer organic section)

PCC is a great place to get anything gluten free

 

[mountainmatt]

only Mikes Hard Lemonade

 

Actually, Mikes hard lemonade contains gluten as well (made from Barley)

 

Gluten is the protein part of wheat, rye, barley, and other related grains so it really eliminates a lot of drinks for you.

 

.

[fern]

Mike's Hard in Canada is made with Vodka rather than Malt Liquor

[NWbrandon]

I doubt my father pick up some of the Canadian stuff so it must just be that the levels are low enough that it didn't cause him any issues. He tells the story about picking up some coffee at the rest stop early one morning and the lady offered him some red licorice, figured what the hell no biggie, turned out that 2 little strips of red vines kept on the shitter all day. Enjoy finding out what your threshold is!

[mountainmatt]

Mike's Hard in Canada is made with Vodka rather than Malt Liquor

 

Most vodkas have it too. Like Brandon said, its all about finding your threshold.

 

 

Base grains for common vodkas:

 

Wheat: Stolichnaya (made from a blend of wheat and rye), Grey Goose, Ketel One, Snow Queen, Van Gogh (made from a blend of wheat, corn, and barley), La Chance, Vox, Polar Ice, Absolut

 

Rye: Belvedere

 

Barley: Finlandia, Koskenkorva

 

Corn: Smirnoff

 

Potato: Chopin, Teton Glacier, Monopolowa, Vikingfjord, Luksosowa, Spudka

 

Grape: Cîroc, Bombora

 

.

[rob]

tigers milk bars are gluten free, and delicious, if you don't mind carob.

 

If I had to live without tasty, malty belgian beer, I think I'd plotz. so, good luck with that!

 

At least sex is gluten-free.

[Off_White]

The Flying Apron bakery in Fremont is an awesome GF bakery, a destination for all the GF people I know (which includes my wife & daugther). There are some other sorghum based beers out there that are better than Redbridge (which has an aftertaste I'm not fond of). Ethiopian beer is sorghum based.

 

Lots of rice pasta to choose from, though its not as forgiving as a lot of wheat pasta. Find the right brand and follow the directions.

 

GF is not that big a deal, my wife has to also avoid dairy, eggs, & soy, and that becomes a complex thing. So much these days has soybean oil & soy lecithin in it.

[goatboy]

Wow, this has been a great resource for me - thanks everyone.

 

I am investigating what kind of SCOTCH I can safely drink. Sounds like many are okay, but some might have hidden risks from the coloring agents? Anyone know anything definitive about gluten and SCOTCH? Giving up IPA is hard enough, but Scotch? Please.

[G-spotter]

http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/2009/10/27/621.htm

 

At Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, 10 volunteers with celiac disease were infected with live human hookworms. As the article reports, "The parasites burrowed into participants' skin and entered the bloodstream after being applied to the forearm. They then traveled via the lungs to the gut where they happily colonized."

 

Then, every day for the next 21 weeks, the volunteers ate a few slices of white bread. Another 10 patients with celiac disease, who were not treated with the hookworms, also ate white bread every day, for purposes of comparison. And in fact, the patients with the parasites had less inflammation and less damage in their intestines.

 

The Australian Broadcasting Company reports that at the end of the trial, the volunteers were offered worm medication to get rid of the parasites, "but all chose to keep their worms."

 

Get a little wiggler and drink all da beer you want...

[G-spotter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

[Applemaggot]

my brother is celiac and he just spent the whole summer in yellowstone backpacking.

my dad, aunt and 4 cousins are all celiac, my mom is also a dietician.

 

pm me for more info if you need any.

[goatboy]

Hey folks,

 

Update: So I'm now working on brewing my own gluten-free beer using sorghum instead of barley. Planning to make an IPA.

 

Any feedback or advice is welcome. Also, if anyone is a brewmaster and wants to help, let me know!

 

I am also hunting around for a large (30 quart) stainless steel pot to brew in, but the ones I'm finding are like $80 and up. If anyone knows of cheaper ones - or has one to loan me for the first batch - let me know!

 

Thanks again,

 

Goatboy

 

PS - thanks for the offer for more info, Applemaggot

[RJRiha]

Try using some other grains in there in addition to sorghum. Maybe some oats would help out. Sorghum beer seems to have a very strange flavor. My co-worker brewed this due to a gluten problem, but it tasted very watered down and thin. Some oats would guarantee a little more body and probably consolidate the flavor (but this is just speculation). You could also consider using buckwheat, millet, or quinoa (sp?) as part of the grain bill, or as a steeping grain if you go partial mash.

 

So I assume you're making this from extract? I understand it is quite difficult to find malted sorghum and even to brew with it. You should definitely use steeping grains in the recipe.

[goatboy]

Thanks, Malcolm! I am a total brewing rookie so I will have to do research to even understand your advice, but I appreciate it.