Scottie -
Don't worry, there's gluten-free beer!!!
Celiac seems to run in my family, but I haven't had any problems... yet. However, my wife went gluten-free when she learned that a lot of people taking Parkinsons meds had absorption wackiness due to the gluten proteins, and she stayed off it for a few years (the gluten, not the meds
). She's on such high doses now, it almost doesn't matter anymore, but
she still chooses to eat mostly gluten-free at home - if that gives you any ideas about how terrible being GF is!
I do know that there are varying degrees of celiac - the hardest hit really cannot ingest any gluten without serious digestive hassles. These people often have their own toasters so they don't have to share with people toasting "real" bread and risk eating the crumbs. But I've never come across that extreme.
I'm here to tell you that going GF is not hard, and it's no big deal, especially preparing meals and eating at home. Once you get over the initial learning speed bump, and change a few eating and shopping habits, you'll hardly even notice. Eating out can be more of a challenge, but as was said, more and more restaurants are wise to the problem. It was harder 8 years ago than it was now. The hardest part may be visiting friends or family for meals when they aren't used to making GF food.
Scottie, if it turns out you do have celiac, you will likely find that diet change makes you feel so much better so quickly that you'll happily make the pretty basic and easy changes you need to make. The only real drawback is in
directly substituting GF foods for non - it can get expensive (in the UK, the high cost of GF foods is eased by national health care subsidies for those who medically require it).
Good luck, and hang in there!
ps: we've tried just about every GF pasta there is, and we've stettled on one which is almost indistinguishable from the real deal - in both taste, texture and price! When I get home, I'll check the brand and let you know...