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Here is a handy quick tip post based upon many of the requests for recipes and veganism questions I have received over the past couple of years.
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Vegan Pancakes
- The batter is easy to make with just a bit of coconut milk, hemp milk, or soy milk instead of the dairy milk. Vegan Margarine can easily replace the butter, but olive oil can work in a pinch. I recommend EnerG Egg Replacer to add some fluffy texture in place of the eggs.
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Vegan Pudding
- There are lots of great ingredients that you can use for vegan pudding or rice pudding like soy milk and cornstarch, as well as real vanilla. Dairy products are really not necessary. Experiment with tapioca and rice for some tasty alternate vegan pudding recipes.
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Vegan Eating Out
- There are two parts of eating out if you are a vegan. If you have a food intolerance such as gluten intolerance or dairy intolerance, then you will want to be very wary of cross-contamination. If you are just living animal product free then finding dishes that cook can modify is easy. Fries, vegetarian pasta, and salads are often safe bets.
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Vegan Weight Loss
- Make sure you do not sacrifice your lean muscle mass and go on a low-calorie vegan diet plan. There are tons of high protein vegan option, like ancient grains such as quinoa, buckwheat, hemp, and teff. Also, check out vegan meal replacement supplements like Vega.
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Vegan Yogurt
- The usual pick is soy yogurt. Olympic is the one eat the most, since I think fruit-on-the-bottom is a prerequisite for good vegan yogurt.
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Vegan Calcium Supplements
- Not only are there tons of leafy green vegetables like broccoli and kale that are high in calcium, but so are onions. Also, there are lots of vegan supplements that use calcium carbonate-based minerals that are vegan-based. Check the website to be sure.
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Vegan Mashed Potatoes
- This one is easy. Use olive oil or vegan margarine and add some hemp milk, So Good soy milk, or almond milk for creaminess.
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Vegan Stuffing
- Half of a stuffing recipe is the spices. Add celery and diced bread to a mix of poultry seasoning like rosemary, sage, and thyme, and you are halfway there.
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Vegan Tomato Soup
- Tomato soup may or may not contain cream or milk, read the label carefully. Don’t assume that any recipe or product will be obvious or safe, even if the name suggests it ought to be.
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Vegan Frosting Recipe
- If you are making a ganache, make sure that you use a homemade vegan cocoa base, or a vegan chocolate like Enjoy Life Chips or Chunks. Chocolate doesn’t contain dairy in nature, we just usually add it. Also, make sure that the sugar you are using doesn’t contain “bone char”—look for sugar that is made from beets.
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Vegan Milk
- Try Rice Dream, Almond Dream, Hemp Dream, Soy Dream, or any other brand of these types of “milk,” I swear by coconut and hemp milk for easy digestion and good consistency and flavor.
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Vegan Honey
- Of course it isn’t. Yes, bees count…sorry. Try corn syrup, agave syrup, or maple syrup.
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Vegan Beer and Wine
- Beer is easy, but you should beware of the wines. Tons of wines are made with dairy or fish added in them to clarify them.
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Vegan Granola
- Vegan granola may be safe, but it may be made with honey. There are lots of other options such as sugar, or any of the syrups mentioned above.
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Vegan Ice Cream
- IF you are okay with soy or rice, then you will find lots of vegan ice cream brands on the market these days, as well as a few coconut ice cream options. Try refrigerating premium coconut milk and adding frozen blueberries and strawberries, with a bit of real vanilla. Mix it all in a blender and voila, you will have a thick vegan ice cream shake that is just about as quick and healthy as you can get.
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Extreme Acid Reflux and Heartburn Symptoms Unrelated to Gluten
Tons of foods are not the best thing for heartburn. Stopping acid reflux and heartburn is not always as easy as eliminating gluten from your diet. For some people spicy or fatty foods will cause heartburn symptoms. Other people may find a wine and acid reflux link. For some it may just be the wine bothering them, for others it could be one of the factors discussed below like gluten or dairy protein.
What is good for a gluten-free diet is not always automatically what is good for heartburn. You can treat heartburn by keeping a strict elimination or gastritis diet, or just a bland gluten-free diet, in general, but that sort of eating habit, even if you are getting all of your daily nutrition, is not very fulfilling. I do recommend doing whatever you can to treat your gluten intolerance symptoms as well as get rid of heartburn in the short term, but eventually we have to think about a holistic approach and general quality of life.
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Recurring Heartburn: Is the Gluten Really Gone?
If you are suffering from recurring heartburn only essential step you need to take is to determine if you have really eliminated all of the gluten from your diet and your life. I cannot stress this part enough
Most people who cut out gluten and think they are gluten-free have NOT succeeded and there is still hidden gluten in their diet.
Perhaps that chardonnay was aged in oak barrels with gluten in the cask glue. If you have heartburn symptoms or are trying to get rid of heartburn as a Celiac and you have a shared kitchen space, you certainly have your work cut out for you. Other people should look at the restaurants they visit as a way of stopping acid reflux and heartburn symptoms and finding hidden gluten. I could literally go on all day about traces of gluten from the factory or in lip gloss or other products, but you get the idea. There are other articles on here on Glutenfreevegan.org that detail many of the places that gluten can hide.
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Related Protein Sensitivity or Intolerance
Many people fail at eliminating all sorts of troubling symptoms like gas and bloating and acid reflux stomach pain because they actually have multiple food intolerances, and they thought it was only gluten.
It is extremely common for people to fail in attempts at healing GERD and eliminating heartburn symptoms because they fail to realize that they are lactose intolerant, as well as gluten intolerant. If you are Celiac, your digestive tract may be damaged to the point that you will need to be completely gluten-free for a year before you can properly digest lactose sugar again.
Other people find that they have other food sensitivities or protein intolerances like dairy protein intolerance or soy protein intolerance. These conditions may develop over time and present themselves as renewed gastro-intestinal distress, gas and bloating, as well as heartburn and eventually acid reflux complications. If you are dealing with symptoms again, you may find it worthwhile to undertake a new elimination diet or strict gastritis diet and then try to determine what part of your diet is giving you trouble. Also, don’t forget to visit your health care professional for testing and evaluations.
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Avoiding Heartburn and Gluten over the Long-Term
The only immediate relief of heartburn is an antacid, but that will not treat the cause of the heartburn symptoms at all. Even stomach acid reducers like Zantac are not instant, nor are they treating the root cause. Just as it is important to not slip over time and allow ‘gluten-free fatigue’ to creep into your habits and attitude, you need to approach managing acid reflux and heartburn symptoms with the long-term aim of feeling good.
Many of us would accept occasional heartburn as long as we know that it is from an isolated event of ‘over doing it’ and not chronic heart burn and GERD pain. If you needed to put in extra hours at work or school and experience some coffee acid reflux or heartburn issues, that might not be a big deal as long as your wellness overall is good and you do not have any chronic health deficiencies or trouble.
You should also be aware of what happens while you are sleeping that you might not otherwise take not of like throat pain swallowing when you wake up, or throat burn symptoms in general.
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Acid Indigestion Symptoms and Heartburn
If you need to relieve indigestion that is causing heartburn and gas as well as stomach pain and morning throat pain, one place to look is hard to digest foods. If you are gluten intolerant, you may need a different approach in considering what your body can and cannot deal well with. I find that the most difficult food to digest that I am not intolerant to is white gluten free bread or bread products like pizza crust. These would cause me daily heartburn and indigestion symptoms if I ate them regularly. I find that taking a complete digestive enzyme supplement before eating anything that I suspect might be hard on my body goes a long way as a heartburn remedy and acid reflux cure.
Stress and anxiety are intrinsically linked to digestive wellness. There is a reason that we feel fear and anxiety in our gut even though it comes from our mind. Our guts are the second largest nerve center in the body and it is part of a collective nervous system that has the central nervous system as its hub.
Effectively dealing with stress is one of the best ways of improving digestive health over the long-term. Even after you are completely gluten-free, stress management is an ongoing essential element in wellness and preventing heartburn symptoms and chronic acid reflux issues.
Even if you avoid wellness practices like meditation, aerobic and strength training, yoga, etc (which I do not recommend avoiding) it is essential that the gluten intolerance sufferer remains mindful. Recognize when you are in the middle of a stressful event, as well as when negative self-talk is increasing your stress and anxiety. Focus on clearing your thoughts and your deep breathing as often as you can remember. You will find this practice will be a secret wellness weapon over time.
It is important to be vigilant and mindful in our pursuit of gluten-free wellness while trying to prevent heartburn or chronic gastro-intestinal reflux disease, but we must also be careful to not rely on self-diagnosing all of our gastro-intestinal issues. There are serious medical conditions like viral ulcers, Barrett’s Esophagus, and stomach cancer, for example that include heartburn symptoms, gastritis issues, and acid reflux. Even though gluten is at the root of many of our health issues and symptoms, it may not be the main cause of all of them.
Brick and Mortar Vegan Stores
Finding a pair of vegan runners or any vegan shoes can be difficult. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has a vegan store in it, they will often have a vegan product section even if it is mostly a specialty food store. The staff will often know where other vegan resources in your area are. There are far more ways to find vegan shoes than just at an ‘animal product and cruelty-free’ venue. You just need to know what brands and which product lines or varieties are 100% okay. If you are in the Greater Vancouver area, you may want to check out Karmavore, which is a shop in New Westminster.
Vegan Blogs
Another resource for finding a more extensive selection of options like vegan sneakers and vegan winter boots is to do a web search for blogs that specialize in this lifestyle. You may find that as winter approaches there will be more articles focusing on vegan winter boots with leads on good sales or brands, and in the spring and summer you may find more articles and product pitches for vegan hiking boots and vegan running shoes.
These sites and articles can be extremely valuable since they can point you in the direction of vegan brands and products that might be available on a wider scale. You have to find the info first. Even if you have a local vegan shop that carries shoes you may not like the product selection if they only carry four styles of earth tone hemp sandals and plastic Crocs.
Rare, Casual or Designer Vegan Shoes on Online Superstores
One of the best ways to find vegan shoe deals is by searching online stores. Amazon will have lots of options for vegan dress shoes and vegan skate shoes, or whatever less common style you are looking for. If you are shopping for something less popular like vegan moccasins or boots, online might be your only easy bet. The upside is that the prices will often be much lower than what you would find in a small specialty store where you might never set eyes on vegan combat boots.
Facebook is easy and useful for searching for brand or city information. There will generally be groups that will have any info are looking for, as well as vegan and strict vegetarian marketing companies that will be only two happy to help.
Vegan Social Media
Twitter is also huge. If you are reading this down the road in the future, Twitter will be even more useful. If you have a question or are looking for some random deal like vegan friendly shoes or sales on Birkenstocks, you can ask a question, throw in some hash tags like #veganshoes, and chances are someone will give you some leads on vegan shoe brands or a current vegan shoes sale.
Ancient Whole Grains
Writing about gluten-free products and recipes has also given me a new perspective on vegan protein and vegan supplements. Even after cutting out all of the animal products, many people still fail to really expand their diet beyond the truncated menu that remains after they remove meat and dairy. So many people eat produce and wheat, with the occasional bowl or oats, at least here in North America.
If you shop for vegan meals, you will have to see the hundreds of other healthy diet choices that are available all of your local healthy supermarket or specialty shop. Try Quinoa, and Teff which are both extremely high quality proteins. There is also millet and buckwheat, which have flavours that many people will find familiar.
Textured Vegetable Protein and Tofu
Most people use tofu in their vegan meals unless they have a soy intolerance or sensitivity. It is a tremendously versatile food that can be used even in desserts. A similar high protein option is textured vegetable protein. It is very affordable and very high protein. It is almost flavourless and can be added to a huge list of strict vegetarian dishes and vegan meals, including pastas, soup and stews. The result will just be much higher protein without doing much to alter the consistency of the dish.
Soy Milk
Not much needs to be said about soy milk these days. There are brands available now that taste great and not made straight from the soybeans themselves but from soy protein and flour. Compare So Good, which tastes great, to some of the smaller traditional soy milk producers which taste too beany to use on cereal or in some baking.
Beans and Legumes
Beans are a huge source of both vegetable protein, as well as fibre. You can slowly add beans and legumes to your diet, in combination with the other choices that I have mentioned in this article and you’ll find that the fibre will be a health benefit for you without so much of the gas and bloating that some people experience while overdoing it. Anything high in fibre is better taken in increasing doses, starting slow, so your body and intestinal tract can get used to them.
In the beans and legumes family alone there are dozens of common varieties available at any supermarket. What’s more, beans can be extremely affordable and are usually still of high nutritional value canned.
In most cases one cup of cooked beans will have in somewhere around 12-14 grams of protein.
 
Unfortunately for people you suffer from gluten intolerance, other food intolerances can be looming around the corner. Some people continue to develop food sensitivities life falling dietary dominos. Many of these become food intolerances that may require a lifelong complete avoidance of the new food in question, in addition to gluten. Not all intolerances are permanent, though.
Link between Gluten and Lactose-Intolerance
Some may be functional and not genetic like gluten intolerant people who become lactose intolerant when the intestinal damage from the gluten consumption interferes with the gut’s ability to produce the lactase enzyme that breaks down the dairy sugar lactose.
When you finally go completely gluten-free for life, you may find that you regain the ability to digest lactose sugar slowly as the intestinal damage from the gluten intolerance or Celiacs heals. This process is very slow, however, and can take up to a year once you have completely eliminated gluten from your diet.
Dairy-free for life or a Cheater
One additional variable for lactose intolerance and gluten is that it is very common for people to simply lose the ability to digest lactose properly. This change may come as you age and may be complete intolerance or just a sensitivity that allows you to continue to eat low lactose foods such as hard cheese without all of the lactose intolerance symptoms like abdominal swelling, stomach pain, gas and bloating.
If all you suffer from is a sensitivity, you may take Lactaid or generic lactase enzymes to prevent milder dairy intolerance symptoms from milk sugar, while also taking things to sooth the digestion like peppermint, coconut and aloe vera, for example.
Lactose or Casein Intolerance
It is also common for people who are gluten intolerant to become dairy protein intolerant. This is usually casein intolerance. If this is the case, you will require a lifelong dairy free diet, even if you are also lactose intolerant. Taking an enzyme supplement will not eliminate the symptoms.
Dairy-free or OTC Meds
You may want to do a dairy challenge where you resume eating some dairy after a year of being gluten-free. See how the results are. Try lactase enzyme and visit your doctor for testing if you fail. There is a chance you will have to be dairy-free for life, though if it turns out to be a casein intolerance and not merely a dairy sugar issue.
Going Vegan or Strict Vegetarian is another option I will mention, since this is a vegan website. If you have to go dairy free since you are intolerant to both gluten and dairy protein, look to your vegan shop or community for support. They will already have hundreds of products that will be safe for you, which will make your transition to dairy-free life without any more lactose or dairy intolerance symptoms a piece of gluten and dairy-free cake!
Some people would say that if you experience just heartburn and no other symptoms then gluten is unlikely to be the cause. On the other hand, your symptoms may be gluten-related if you experience some of the signs and symptoms of heartburn or connected to acid reflux:
- Gas and bloating
- Abdominal swelling
- Burping/ belching a lot
- Breaking wind
- Bloated or extended stomach
- Bad Breath
- Stomach pain and cramping
- Bowel obstruction symptoms
There are others that I could list but I you should get the idea. This set of symptoms is often associated with gluten intolerance (and some of them may be associated with lactose intolerance). Heartburn and a feeling of too much acid in the stomach often occurs at the same time.
It seems like it would make sense that if your you experienced just heartburn and no other symptoms, then gluten would not be to blame, but the in fact that is not true. You may be experiencing continued colitis and heartburn symptoms and are now looking for a heartburn cure. Even if you remove all the gluten from your diet properly, which rarely happens, your body may be ravaged from years or decades of living with intolerance. Sometimes you don’t want to look for a new heartburn treatment, thinking that it is unrelated.
You may still experience acid reflux symptoms, chronic heartburn, or indigestion even though the stomach rumbling and cramping is gone. You think you are gluten-free. You may not be. IF you are exposed to traces of gluten you may not experience abdominal swelling or breaking wind, but you may still feel heartburn after eating. You will want to check with your doctor before beginning or changing your diet or treatment plans, but you should think about re-examining how to avoid cross-contamination before you really certify yourself gluten-free, even if you have just heartburn and no other symptoms.
- Include the standard sections about the gluten-related conditions, definitions and causes. Leaving these parts out will just be presenting yourself as less of an authority than your competitors.
- Read the books that are already out there: You don’t have to read every one, but by seeing what parts are in all the books, as well as what is missing from all the books, you will end up with a far better gluten-free cookbook.
- Don’t make it just about recipes unless they are awesome and not available elsewhere
- Create original recipes. The web is filled with gluten-free recipes and “experts.” You want to offer something special and new. My belief is that you can convert virtually any recipe to gluten-free, therefore, the sky is the limit.
- Test all your recipes: if you convert a bunch of recipes make sure that the directions you present actually work well (and are clear). Even if you know how each GF ingredient works in a cooked or baked dish generally, make sure you never skip this step. The last thing you want is bad publicity because your recipes are actually bad.
- Include a new “technology” to set your book apart
- Include nice photography: Think about including pictures of the actual dishes you have made. Try to steer clear of stock photography and things which might stifle the personal touch of your work,
- Even if you publish your book traditionally (physically), have an e-book too.
- Make sure the e-book format is compatible with anyone who might want to purchase it (or offer multiple formats)
- Don’t over price it. Instead offer freebies like a bonus insert/ whitepaper or whatever.
- Add testimonials and social proof such as celebrity endorsements. Even though they are just other people, their words carry a lot of weight and can really accelerate your book sales.
- Be passionate. Start strong, finish strong, market strong.
Bonus tip: Be careful to not plagiarize. It may seem obvious, but much of the science of gluten intolerance will begin to seem repetitive to you as you read what is out there. Make sure that you cite what is not your in own words and find your own words for the ideas you don’t.
Beginning and successfully completing an elimination diet is not as easy as it might initially appear. Elimination diet recipes do not have to be ultra low calorie. Starving yourself is not a necessary part of the game plan. The essential thing is to complete a careful step by step process that allows you to identify the foods or ingredients you are allergic, intolerant to, or to eliminate toxins in your body. As you can see, there a number of reasons people undertake an elimination diet.
Generally, an elimination diet will run between two weeks and two months in length button need be the results of a permanent lifestyle change due to the development of a particular food intolerance that requires complete exclusion of that food from your diet. To a common example of this is gluten intolerance. This article he’s not designed to recommend any particular elimination diet. Feel free to search the Internet or visit your local library or book store. You will find any number of systems claiming to be the best. The purpose of this article is to help you decide if an elimination diet is the best course of action for you.
What you need to begin an elimination diet
My general recommendation he is for you to keep records and a log whenever you are trying to identify what is wrong with your wellness. You can often get valuable information when you look at how you feel, and what you’re experiencing over several weeks, or an extended period of time. Without a log some people me begin an elimination diet or construct elimination diet menus based on trial and error alone. Any time you are beginning any new diet plan or wellness plan, my strong recommendation is that you seek assistance from your wellness professionals. For more information you have and the better your records are, the more quickly you’ll be able to identify all of the offending ingredients and eliminate difficult symptoms, improving your overall wellness and well-being.
Even if you only plan on continuing your elimination diet for a couple of weeks to a month, such as when undertaking a basic Candida elimination diet, I believe the skills that you gain can be part of a significant lifestyle change and improvement. Even where a food intolerance is not to blame, reading labels and researching elimination diet recipes is essential. People often find many more items containing the offending ingredients than they ever expected. If you don’t build the habit of reading the labels of everything you eat, you will never know for sure if your food is cross-contaminated or contains a dose of the ingredients you hope to eliminate.
The reasons to begin an elimination diet may relate to a food intolerance such as gluten intolerance, or it may stem from a more permanent lifestyle change such as becoming a vegan. Even if it is the short term detoxification many people can benefit from an elimination diet.
The really important thing that I tell people about whether they are on day one or day 1000 of gluten-free living is that being well and feeling good requires a long-term commitment. It took me 5 years to feel really well even though I read and study like a mad person. Granted, I am just about as intolerant as can be to both gluten and dairy, and my digestive tract was totally battered from close to 30 years on a “normal” diet, but remember it is a journey.
 
I read all the time now. I take advantage of little bits of stolen time and feel super lucky if I read one page and pick some fact or even a GFCF recipe idea that I hadn’t thought of before. If you are like me, you don’t want to read on your phone much, and really don’t want to pull out a laptop, even if you have it to read for five minutes on the train or on a coffee break. That is the big reason I love having a Kindle.
Something cool also happens when I am at the coffee shop. It seems more interactive or comfortable approaching someone reading on a Kindle, whether a colourful Fire or the basic model. Laptop users might be working, so they get less attention. And who wants to bother a book reader? That sounds like a pickup line anyways if some asks what you are reading. Not only are people more interested, but it is also very easy to brush people off, since you are clearly doing something. And just sitting there with your coffee? Now you are learning nothing and actually getting cheap looks. The Kindle is a perfect storm of the ‘best of both worlds,’ if you are open to meeting people or interacting on boring afternoons or coffee breaks.
 
I bought my Kindle Fire from Amazon.com and have since loaded it up with two dozen gluten-free living books and gluten-free meals recipe books. I probably get through at least two or three extra books just in my spare time each month that I never would have fit in. I call that a win. The moral of my post is that you don’t have to shell out for my larger Ipad or even an Android tablet. $79 bucks gets you in the door.
Kindle Fire High Points
- 19 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books
- Thousands of popular apps and games, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, and more
- Ultra-fast web browsing – Amazon Silk
- Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content
- Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle – same as an iPad
- Fast, powerful dual-core processor
- Favorite children’s books, graphic novels, and magazines in rich color
KIndle “with Offers”High Points
- 30% lighter, less than 6 ounces
- 18% smaller body, same 6″ screen size – Fits in your pocket
- Most advanced E Ink display, reads like paper
- Built in Wi-Fi – Get books in 60 seconds
- Massive book selection, over 800,000 titles are $9.99 or less
- Borrow Kindle books from your public library
In the first part of this two part article on all of the ins and outs of working with, or in spite of a food intolerance, I covered the social angles, including how it is similar of different to other social situations where you might feel compelled to “out” yourself regarding your food intolerance. You can find that article here. In this Second part, I will be covering the broader context of how to survive work with a food intolerance such as gluten intolerance or dairy intolerance. I will cover a the proactive step that you can take to make your work environment more workable or more bearable, and alternative options if ‘plan a’ fails. This article will look at both employment situations broadly, as well as handling some of the symptoms and realities of that comes with serious food intolerance.
The number one purpose of this article is to help you avoid unemployment that stems from difficulty adjusting to life with a food intolerance. More than that, though, this article is also about finding ways to make your career work better for you while minimizing the interruption and negative effects of the symptoms of your condition. There are a range of issues many of us face such as anxiety, shame, fear, as well as all of the physical symptoms. Sometimes the worst course of action is to simply act as though you can go about your daily work life with no changes or personal recognition of your condition. Doing that will often lead to fear and poor planning, then anxiety and shame, when you encounter serious symptoms and difficult work situations.
The first roadblocks for me are fear and anxiety. Much of these stressful emotions stem from feeling as though you are not fully in control of the outcome of your day, and the behaviour of your body. Obviously, one essential part of minimizing these emotions is to be vigilant in seeking to reclaim wellness and eliminate symptoms. I know that that is rarely a smooth and level upward march. Let me also note that anxiety here can really mean two separate conditions. Anxiety may relate to your concern over your ability to handle the day or work tasks, as well as embarrassing situations such as bloating, gas, and stomach gurgling in the presence of your co-workers. On the other hand, anxiety can also manifest as a symptom of food intolerances such as gluten intolerance as part of a range of cognitive symptoms that can make optimal functioning at work quite difficult. For the gluten intolerant individual, it may not always be easy to determine which of these two categories the anxiety stems from, particularly since they may overlap or feed into one another.
The fear and non-symptomatic anxiety stems a lot from feelings of helplessness or uncertainly over the outcome situations, for example. This may be worsened if your work environment is quite poorly suited to your needs and condition. If you suffer from severe bloating and gas every day, but work in a crowed office full of closely packed desks, this would naturally cause anxiety. It will also make the entire work experience far less fulfilling. Again, the ultimate aim is to mitigate or eliminate all of the serious symptoms, but I understand it is not so easy as that since it took me close to five years of concerted vigilant effort before my symptoms were alleviated to the point where I no longer experienced any serious anxiety or fear about work environments. Prior to that I was either afraid about my ability to work at all, or else convinced I needed a flexible job that allowed me to escape as needed if my symptoms became overwhelming.
In the previous part of this employment series (find it here) I covered whether or not you should fully disclose your condition to your co-workers, and how to get out of the endless cycle of explanations. One person (or group of people) that you may have to have a frank discussion with regarding your condition is your boss. This conversation needs to happen more urgently the more acute or severe your conditions are that create the fear and anxiety for you. Naturally, the thought of doing this will often create anxiety on its own, but that is part of life and this article is not about curing anxiety but dealing with the effects of food intolerance at work. Sorry to lay the tough love on you like that. The biggest obstacle after the anxiety is the shame. The shame can come from embarrassing situations at work, or from concerns over disclosing your condition to others and feeling that they will respect you less or see your differently as ‘diseased’ and less able or less worthy perhaps. This is a part of the reason why you really do not have to always disclose everything to your co-workers about your food intolerance. It does not affect them in the least. The bigger picture is that most of the people who find out will not know enough about what you are even talking about to make any negative judgement about you. Think about that for a moment.
The reason why the talk with your management may be necessary and unavoidable is because you want to do everything you can to protect your job. You do not want sick days to be mistaken for hangovers or being irresponsible. The same is true for days when you show up with stomach cramps. You want your boss to think you are a trooper, not a flake. The additional benefit of this conversation, which I see as the more important part is that this discussion frequently forces people to evaluate their work environment. I hate to cause a fuss and I think many others who suffer from food intolerance are the same. We desperately want to be seen as normal and able. How do you know that there are not accommodations that would not make your life easier. Something as simple as a different desk space or as major as switching your job (or part of it) to a telecommuting role. How do you know that you would not be twice as productive in the comfort of your own home? I know that I am!
Ultimately, planning and evaluating your work situation, including speaking with your boss about your food intolerance may mean that you have a new perspective on what is going to be most fulfilling for you. You may end up with a more flexible job role or a the ability to telecommute. Small changes may make big differences, too. You may find that you start re-evaluating what you what and where you are if your boss seems indifferent. You will rarely lose in any of the scenarios I covered in this article. You will usually end up with a more comfortable and fulfilling work situation, perhaps a clearer perspective, and less fear and anxiety about what should be painless day to day affairs.
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