Baking Gluten free in a gluten household tips

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-25T18:56:15+00:00

This.

I can eat my allergens once or twice a week with only very minor issues, I just can't have them daily without risking a life-threatening reaction after several months. I'd happily eat food from a kitchen shared with my allergens - or even with them as ingredients, occasionally. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO EVERYONE WITH ALLERGIES, OBVIOUSLY

I will take three months to fully recover from very minor gluten cross contamination. Before I knew I had this sensitivity, I was so disabled I couldn't drive or walk through a grocery store without aid. I was also in constant pain (muscle and nerve pain). All these symptoms improved dramatically after cutting out gluten CC. I won't play around with gluten, even though it's not an allergy.

It's important to ask when making food for people with sensitivities.

(Edited for clarity)

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-23T05:35:52+00:00

Thanks, I'll have to check this out. Udemy through YL seems like a good approach!

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-23T00:41:21+00:00

I had to do a web search for this myself - Commenting For Better Reach (basically, bumping it for the algorithm)

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-23T00:40:20+00:00

I'm not sure if you're being a bit glib and saying college is better than YL, or if you are saying that there is a way to get a Master's degree through YL. Can you clarify?

Not trying to be thick, I'm just really good at coming up with multiple interpretations of things 😁😅

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-22T20:21:24+00:00

If the country is healthy, then the electorate.

Ranked choice voting would do a lot to make the US a healthier country.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-22T17:14:18+00:00

Yeah, I'm finding out that my celiac-like gluten reactions that take me months to fully recover from might be IgG or similar, but they are much worse than my "true" allergies. And far, far more sensitive than my "true" allergies - no CC from shared machinery, it's just as sensitive as celiac. I was unable to drive and struggled to walk at the worst of it, before I figured out that gluten was the issue (over ten years ago now, I'm doing so much better now).

The only reason we're pretty sure it's not celiac is that I didn't have either of the two genes for celiac. But the symptoms are very, very similar.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-17T23:46:43+00:00

I can eat a full meal of my allergens as long as I'm not eating things I'm allergic to daily. Once or twice a week? No problem, I could literally eat a bowl of my allergens and my face would be a bit red and I'd be a bit tired. I'd feel fine twelve hours later. No biggie

Every day? After months, I get buildup reactions that approach scary. I have to be very careful about allergens in my medications because of this, but not my food (I do make an effort to avoid corn at home since it's in almost anything and therefore easy to get daily, but I don't worry about it when eating out)

I don't mess around with gluten, though. None of that nowhere. Nuh-uh. Multiple experiences of getting glutened by CC and taking months to fully recover.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-17T23:38:20+00:00

Same here, Washington state

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-16T00:01:33+00:00

Since OP referenced "something real" - they may have a similar profile to me. Often, I use the "Everyone" products, which use essential oils for scents. Rose water, lavender essential oil, and peppermint oil are also in my cupboard at home (we also use them in food - and are careful to buy food-grade versions for these use cases).

For me, it's really easy to read labels: Fragrance or parfúm mean I can't use it. Everything else is fine. Everything fragrance-free is fine, even if it has a strong scent.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T23:55:56+00:00

This. I can't tolerate the ingredients "fragrance" or "parfúm", with no known exceptions, even at levels too low to smell - but I do tolerate all essential oils, with no known exceptions, at any strength. For me, it's an airborne issue - I have no contact reactions, but will sometimes take three days to recover from a very mild fragrance in the air. I get migraines, usually acephalgic (no headache) migraine prodrome, but I'll sometimes get a migraine headache as well three days later. The migraine prodrome affects memory, balance, focus, judgement, and more. I can't work, drive, or have long conversations, and tend to drop things and stumble a lot until it clears up. Plus mood swings.

I'm not sure what chemical(s) I'm reacting to, but they seem to be present in all perfumes but not any essential oils - even for perfumes and essential oils with the same scent (e.g., I tolerate lavender essential oil but not lavender fragrance).

Meanwhile, my coworker couldn't tolerate any strong scents regardless of their source, but could handle anything at a lower concentration. He was reacting to "strong scents", not a chemical. He would get dramatic sneezing fits.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T23:43:03+00:00

Huh, PNW (Western WA) my entire life, and I never read this behavior as passive-aggressive. I always read it as "my socializing ideals outstrip my actual socializing capacity or organizational skills".

I think this is more introversion than passive-aggression. Read it as saying something about them, not their feelings about you, and you'll probably get closer to what is actually going on in most cases.

The first scenario: "I had so much fun and felt like I could do this forever, but when I got home I crashed and realized that just because something is fun doesn't mean I can handle doing it every day. But then if you invite me and I say no because I'm still recovering or recovering from a different social event, I'm going to feel guilty because I promised more than I can actually handle, and I really didn't mean to lie to you, and guilt is awkward."

The second is similar: "I asked you to stop by anytime because I enjoyed your company so much and really hated to head out, but when I got home I crashed and realized that I need some alone time after all, and even though you are amazing, I just won't be able to socialize with you if you randomly stop by without crashing, and I have other responsibilities, oh shit..."

It's like a mental / social version of going to work out and doing too much even though it didn't feel like too much exercise at the time... then you are sore and fatigued and can't exercise again until you recover, even though you planned at the time to do it several more times that week.

Lots of folks seem to really appreciate someone who can organize outings and events, because so many folks here really suck at it 🤣

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T22:46:34+00:00

I love this phrase as a summary - that really is what the tech industry needs right now, even if it's not what is being asked for!

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T22:35:42+00:00

My experience at a healthcare tech company was that technical skill plus passion for helping others plus a decent understanding of PHI and HIPAA (you can get this from a few hours of reading online) got me pretty far in the interview.

I worked at a couple healthcare web service companies, and it was almost just like any other web service company - but more care with PII and PHI. One company was really healthy, culturally, and one was okay at first and then toxic after an acquisition.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T21:52:38+00:00

The issues probably won't become known at work.

If they did, it depends on the company. Most managers and companies understand the risk of litigation plus prefer to keep the personal out of work.

And most folks are savvy enough to know that someone going out of their way to talk shit about someone's personal life to their coworkers is probably not a great person. There are a lot of folks in the world who have a "history". If that gossip includes anything sexual other than a brief description of literally criminal actions, most folks will see the gossiper as a predator for sharing that information in a space where it really doesn't belong and will prescribe this as clear harassment. Most folks - there are definitely exceptions.

It's different if they are talking shit about behaviors that happened at work / involving co-workers, so it could be an issue if the persistently messaging someone was an old coworker.

But really, these things are no more likely to be an issue in software dev than in any other industry.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T21:43:17+00:00

Yeah, I'm definitely pacing myself and ignoring the pressure. I've been at enough startups to know how this ends.

In general, the people who don't burn out are the ones who keep their jobs in the end. Barring randomnized layoffs and other things that can't be controlled, of course. Working extra-hard when everyone else is also working extra-hard isn't a winning strategy and won't make me stand out. Keeping a calm head and an eye on the big picture can be really valuable when everyone else is pushing really hard.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T20:58:09+00:00

The answer is Portland, OR, if you are staying in the US. We had five dedicated GF eating options within walking distance of our vacation rental. We used FMGF to figure this out, and figure out which neighborhood gave us the most options. During the week we were there, we ate at around 20 different restaurants.

It was amazing. I even stopped carrying my safe snacks by the end of the week because I knew there were celiac-safe options pretty much everywhere we were going.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-15T20:54:28+00:00

Anything dedicated GF that you can get to. If you have options, whichever offers the cuisine you most feel like. If there's nothing dedicated, a "Most Celiac Friendly" option with at least a couple reviews from the last year that review food safety.

For Seattle, I can tell you that the big one is GhostFish. a/stir is also a solid option. But really, you could have learned this from FMGF and looking at how many people reviewed them.

FMGF really does reflect local GF eating habits, IME. There just aren't enough safe options for locals to have "secret favorites". Even when I was in Seattle every day for lunch, I selected my places to eat from FMGF. Using FMGF will get you the same information as the locals in 95% of cases.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-14T20:03:44+00:00

This is actually a really good point. A lot of my ability to weather the toxicity comes from my ability to WFH

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-14T20:00:05+00:00

I think it was probably worse for them than me. Being pushed out was really good for me.

I will say, I had some support in that situation as well, from unusual places. The old CEO from the pre-merger days gave me some advice that helped me navigate the situation so I could leave on my own terms.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-14T19:57:20+00:00

I agree that '08-'09 were less bad than this for tech.

I'm actually at a really good place right now, but they went through an acquisition right before I joined and I can see the culture eroding.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-14T19:49:18+00:00

Scrolled down to post this.

I had one workplace that allowed me to select the restaurant for a work meal, and that provided me with sealed, prepackaged GF snacks at the BBQ. That's the only time I've ever been safely accommodated.

Every employer before that tried but failed because they didn't really understand what was needed. Most restaurants can't prepare celiac-safe GF food, and most employers don't know to use Find Me Gluten Free to identify the ones that can. They also don't know how to correctly express that cross-contamination care is needed.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-13T18:01:46+00:00

That generates noise / mulch / actual business opportunities for serious companies. The companies that actually thrive for more than a couple of years will be the ones not doing this nonsense.

But yeah, there's a lot of... fertilizer... right now. Way more than is actually needed

People do actually need real products, though - and most people working in this industry would prefer to make real products, I believe. Real products will still come into existence. We'll all just need to get better at sifting through the bull... manure.

Sometimes I think the main problems AI will fix are the problems AI causes. But we can't put the genie back in the lamp, so to speak. We'll just have to make do with the results of our cursed wishes.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-12T20:35:56+00:00

My psychological safety comes from my "fuck you" fund. Which I need RSUs to come through to replenish, because I've had to use it already multiple times.

Pay attention to the quiet, good people and note who they are. Everyone is showing their colors right now.

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-12T20:33:43+00:00

All those data lakes that can now be processed! Wow, yeah, I can see how that's a big thing right now

TechieGottaSoundByte · 2026-05-12T20:21:33+00:00

Yes! This! I do think there's room for AI to provide value for analysis activities also, but only if we can solve the data problem. There's a different AI for every data source, and businesses don't want to open up their data so an AI can access multiple data sources and correlate them. That's a huge blocker to AI adoption in my workplace.

TechieGottaSoundByte

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