I have coeliac disease (and have been diagnosed for many years now) so feel free to ask me anything you like. I have it all down now, though it was a horrible shock to receive the diagnosis, especially given that I had never heard of gluten, let alone celiac disease at the time, and I had none of the supposedly standard symptoms. But blood tests positive and endoscopy totally conclusive -- flattened villi and all that.
Initially, I was absolutely devastated. Some of my favourite foods were heavy duty gluten foods like granary bread, etc. In those days there were not many gluten-free options in supermarkets and the bread was dire, but happily that is no longer true. Fresh Genius bread (multigrain or brown) is the best imitation of the real thing I have found. I don't actually eat it at all often though.
It took me several months to finally remove every last trace of gluten from my diet -- gluten is in EVERYTHING, it seems -- but now it is second nature. I don't think about it at all. Sometimes I am even glad I have it, because it stops me eating a lot of junk I would have eaten pre-diagnosis (because I don't want to increase my risk of horrible cancers and all the other associated problems) so that alone makes it easy for me not to gain unwanted weight.
I tend not to eat that much carbohydrate from grains now anyway so I rarely if ever eat grain products labelled gluten-free. Instead I eat mainly meat, fish, eggs, some fruit and loads of vegetables, and occasional dairy products. Unprocessed stuff like that is completely fine, but you do have to watch out for hidden gluten. I can send you vast lists of such info if you tell me where to send it.
I would take a lot of what you read about "being glutened" with a pinch of salt. Whilst I DID get those symptoms when I ate a cheese spread containing gluten a few months after giving up gluten, I recently accidentally ate a non-gluten-free roll (be REALLY careful on flights -- they so often make a mistake in this regard!) and had absolutely no obvious symptoms. And I DEFINITELY have coeliac disease -- in fact it had done a lot of damage to me quietly in the years I had it before being diagnosed. So all the stuff you may read about "being glutened" or not having had a problem is all rubbish. The thing about coeliac disease is that it tends to be SILENTLY doing bad things to your body. It is an autoimmune condition, and you can't use whether or not you have bowel issues as a guide to whether or not you have consumed gluten.
Don't worry -- it is a piece of cake once you get the hang of it. I can now use any ordinary recipe and make substitutions without even thinking about it. It is easy. It did take some experimentation but I'd be happy to share my results with you!
Happy to talk more if you like. Feel free to message me.
Sarah
P.S. Re restaurants -- in general, really fab restaurants have no trouble creating amazing dishes that are gluten-free. My experience is places that have gluten-free menus is that they are often not good, or the menu NEVER CHANGES, as though anyone wants to eat the same stuff year in year out. So I tend to prefer to try places that are simply great restaurants, and go when they are not too busy, and call ahead the day before to talk to the chef. If I am going out to eat I want something interesting, creative and spectacularly delicious, not just any old rubbish. Good chefs tend to be really good at making something delicious.
Re weight, I think it is much easier not to gain weight if you're not eating junk. Junk food nearly always contains gluten. Once you have tried a range of gluten-free junk food you will probably not feel like continuing to eat it all. Or at least, that was my experience.
Before you decide to adopt the "a little bit of gluten occasionally" approach please do read all the literature about that. It is a very bad idea, medically. I think once you read up on it you will have no trouble being absolutely gluten-free (well -- of course there may be the odd accident like my recent roll, but that was totally not my intention and I have literally NEVER 'cheated' or thought just a little bit won't hurt. I am fully persuaded that it will. Or at least that it could. But I do have the evidence of the damage it had done to my bones etc before diagnosis despite the fact that I have done heavy duty weight training (and even body building!) my whole life. I have also taken vitamins and so on all my life).
