Diagnosis

In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease along with another GI condition. In hindsight, I’ve probably had celiac my whole life but never any symptoms that I recognized. On the positive side, I don’t spend days or weeks recovering from a glutening incident. I also never know if I am eating out safely.

Desire to Eat Out

I cook much more (and better) than I did before my diagnosis. However, for social and mental health reasons – as well as the need (and desire) to travel – I can’t always prepare my own meals. Because I never know if I’m being glutened, I tend to be very selective about where I eat and what I eat.

Strategy

Although finding restaurants that successfully serve people with allergies has been frustrating, I recently hit on an improved strategy: searching Yelp for reviews that mention “celiac.” Based on the quality of the reviews, I decide if I feel comfortable trying the restaurant. Using this strategy, I find many more establishments, too many to keep track of in my head.

Enter CSE

I created a Google sheet for each city I frequented. Because our family regularly watched Alton Brown’s Good Eats cooking show, I naturally gravitated to calling my lists Celiac Safe Eats. After a while, I began to think others must have the same frustrations, and possibly the same types of lists! Certainly, anyone who eats out has one or two safe places in their neighborhood. What if we could share these places? So, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Do you find the Celiac Safe Eats lists useful? not useful? I hope you will share in the comments.