Maintain Your Gluten Free Diet With This Top Celiac Travel Advice

Most people (yes, even Celiacs!) find ordering food in a country where they do not speak the language a challenge, and this is compounded when you have to ensure you get gluten free food. Even when you speak the language, your requests for gluten free food can be mis-understood or forgotten!

To bring some control back into these situations, we have compiled the following tips and tools. Some of these tips are common sense and some are based from personal experience, particularly the flying tips.

If you have recently been diagnosed with Celiac disease or need gluten free food for any reason, this may seem like a lot to take in at once. As with most things, what feels uncomfortable and awkward at first becomes second nature over time. We have to eat at least 3 meals a day, so you will soon become very proficient and confident at making your Celiac needs known and maintaining a gluten free diet!

Flying

When arranging your flight, remember to book a Celiac meal. Most airlines that offer a meal will provide a specially prepared Celiac meal.

Make yourself known to the airline staff when taking your seat to increase your chances of the meal being served to you and not to someone else.

If the promised meal does not turn up, explain your situation very clearly to the airline staff. This actually happened on a 10-hour flight from San Francisco to London, and a very apologetic air steward arranged for the first class passenger's chef to prepare a special meal. This was much to the envy of the other passengers!

Always carry some tasty snacks with you. Good snacks to take are in the General Celiac Travel Tips, later. Remember that you may be asked to dispose of any un-eaten food when you enter your destination country, due to custom's regulations.

If you cannot book a special meal, eat before you get on the plane. Hunger can often overcome good sense and a full stomach will reduce the temptation to eat the regular meal.

NEVER trust that the regular meal will be okay, even if you pick out choice pieces or scrape off sauce. You are kidding yourself.

Hotels

When arranging your accommodation, send a copy of the simple gluten free food list. I have had mixed success with this approach, however have not stayed in enough hotels to really comment on the effectiveness. I would love to hear from seasoned business travellers on their approach.

For breakfast, take in your own bread and toast it yourself. Use your own judgement regarding the cleanliness of the toasting machine, and if in doubt DO NOT DO IT!

Carry small boxes of your favourite breakfast cereal, and fill up from the fresh fruit plate.

Consider ordering from an online gluten free retailer and arranging a delivery to your hotel.

Restaurants and Cafes

Be vigilant. Restaurant staff are a varied bunch, and even with the best explanations and use of the card, mistakes can be made. On one occasion a request for a plain side salad with no dressing appeared from the kitchen with a lovely topping of crispy croutons. An apologetic waiter took the salad away to be replaced, however the same salad re-appeared, with the croutons picked off the top, (given away by bread-crumbs on the lettuce leaves). A highly embarrassed waiter took the salad away and prepared a fresh one himself.

Tip generously when you are given good service, as this will encourage similar behaviour in the future. Your requests for gluten free food give restaurant staff the opportunity to give their customers that extra special attention and tips are usually where their wages come from.

If it is a special occasion, consider calling the restaurant before hand and discussing the menu options with the chef. A favourite restaurant in Scotland always ensures there are gluten free choices for each course. Imagine my delight when offered the desert choice of chocolate roulade, fresh berry pavlova, or lemon parfait!

Backpacking

Consider taking a small cool box or bag with you. From experience, the inconvenience of the extra luggage is far out-weighed by having a safe food to eat, when you want it. Most back-packer or hostel type accommodation have freezers so you can re-freeze the ice-pack overnight.

DO NOT rely on ingredient lists on the food item, as each country has different rules and regulations about what has to be listed. Learned this the hard way after being very sick from an apparently safe pate. Phoned the Customer Care Line and found it was 3% wheat-flour, which they did not have to list!

Behave like a squirrel! (Not the bit about climbing up high trees!) Stock up on dry goods (pasta, biscuits, crackers, stock cubes) when you find a good supply. Some countries are better than others regarding availability and price of gluten free food, so sometimes it pays to carry a few extra pounds of safe food.

Make use of each country's Celiac Society as they can usually provide you with a list of specialist suppliers and sometimes restaurants. Some country's Celiac Society produce lists of the gluten free food found in regular supermarkets.

Find the Celiac Society for your destination country

General Travel Tips

ALWAYS carry some snacks with you. We always have a supply of "mood" bars to stave off the hunger pangs between meals. Nut/seed bars are a favourite, as they don't melt and stand up to rough handling in a coat pocket, purse or briefcase. Other than chocolate, gluten free snacks are generally not readily available in gas stations, road-side cafes or transport stations. Low energy + no snack = bad mood.

Global food brands do not mean global ingredient lists! Some food formulations vary from country to country, so just because you can eat it at home, doesn't mean it's OK when you are away.

If you are going to take your own gluten free food supplies, you will get through most customs OK as long as the food is still sealed in its original manufacturer's packaging.

Remember your vitamins and supplements. However careful you are, it's still more likely you'll have a 'gluten incident' whilst you're away.

In a busy home or shared flat where you may be the only Celiac, make sure that the "danger" food is labelled as such. Design some skull and crossbone stickers or suchlike!

If you are hospitalised, MAKE SURE you TELL the hospital staff you need gluten-free food. Check that any medicines or vitamin supplements are gluten free.

Snacks

There are some easily available snack foods that are good for Celiacs and these include;· "Mood" bars, dried fruit, mixed nuts and raisins, chocolate (calories no object!). Fresh fruit is good but does not always travel well.Some snack foods may take a little bit more planning;

Anything that can be re-hydrated, as hot water is ALWAYS available (and often free!). It seems like there are coffee stands everywhere! Make up some pots of dried potato pieces with vegetables, or some rice noodles and stock powder, or miso (Japanese soup base often available in gluten free varieties). Some countries sell gluten free dried soups and snacks like this, but check before you buy!

Tube of gluten free pate or spread and crackers. Keep a plate, knife and napkins handy in the car.

When we're at home, we always have sausage rolls, pastries and other delights in our freezer. (There are several good Internet shopping malls or companies that will deliver gluten free food to your door). When travelling, pop the snacks in a cool box or bag and they will keep fresh for several days.