When you're diagnosed with Celiac Disease, you are given a list of what food you cannot eat. Wheat, Barley, Rye, and Oats. However, you find that there is such a thing as gluten free oats. You wonder if it is safe for you to chance eating it. You think to yourself: "It's gluten free, so it cannot be too bad, right?" Depending on how sensitive your Celiac is, it may be bad.
While a majority of Celiacs may be able to stomach gluten free oats, and granola, there are a small percentage of us that cannot handle GF oats and granola. I fall into the sensitive category. I loved eating oatmeal, before I was diagnosed with Celiac. After I was diagnosed, I was lost. It was not until a month or two after my diagnosis, where I discovered gluten free oats. I picked some up, and started eating it every morning for breakfast. It was not until day 3 of eating GF oats, where I began to feel sick. My stomach was cramping, I was fatigued, I was nauseated. I thought I had been "glutened." I looked back in my food diary, that I was keeping at the time, and the only thing different, that I had been eating, was the GF oats. I immediately threw the GF oats out.
A few months ago, I tried seeing if I could eat GF granola. 12 hours after I had my first serving, I got sick. I experienced the same symptoms as I did when I ate the GF oatmeal. I gave the GF granola to my boyfriend, so I did not have to throw it out. I now know not to eat GF oatmeal and granola.
You may be wondering: "How do I know if I am unable to process GF oats?" The only answer I can give you is, the same way I discovered my answer: trial and error. When you have Celiac Disease, you live a risky lifestyle. The only way to measure whether or not you can handle GF oats, is to try it. The majority of Celiacs can handle it. However, if you begin to feel ill after eating them, do NOT eat them again. Throw it away, or give it to someone else. My recommendation is, try pure uncontaminated oats. If the oats have a protein called, "avenin," it may trigger an immune response, similar to the kind you have when you are "glutened."
One alternative to GF oats in the morning, that I LOVE is Rice and Shine hot cereal. I believe it's by a company called "Arrowhead Mills." It's hot rice cereal. It takes some getting used to, but, if you add brown sugar, or some fruit, it is pretty tasty.
(photo courtesy of: http://gracefullyglutenfreedotnet.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/oats.jpg?w=1024&h=768)
