7/14/07 My bi-weekly gluten free update is a few days early.  This weekend. I’ll be at a family gathering in the Seattle-Tacoma area. I have some notes on local gluten free restaurants, so hopefully I’ll have great ideas for articles when I get home. Anyway, here is the update:

  I started a weight-loss diet on June 5. I’m pleased to report that I have lost seven pounds. I’m not bragging, but I know that being accountable to someone is extremely helpful so I vowed to announce my weight in each of my update articles. “Portion control” seems to be the key for me. When I was first diagnosed, I jumped to the conclusion that all gluten free food was good for me in any quantity. I’ve learned a few portion control tricks that I will share with you in future articles.

  I also reported that one of my favorite gluten free restaurants had gone out of business. The restaurant is in the Portland, Oregon, area so I put details on that page, but I also wrote an article because this situation has implications for all of us. As a matter of fact, I think it’s important enough to repeat here: I learned about this restaurant through word-of-mouth publicity and heard about its demise in the same way. I double checked before I reported this fact in this blog — I found that no one had bothered to take down the restaurants web site. All the telephone numbers were disconnected so I took this as evidence that I had heard correctly. The search engine also listed several other sites (including mine) that had made positive comments about the place. It will take several months for these comments to disappear from the internet.

The morale of this tale is that we celiacs need to talk to one another. The internet is a great source of clues, but they are only clues. Exchanging e-mails is almost equally good. I’m glad that I am in a position to share your comments with the 3000+ visitors who come to this site each month. Please e-mail me at gfceliac@gmail.com. Or if you prefer, leave a comment in the space at the bottom of this (or any) of my articles.

 I recently wrote articles on gluten free restaurants in each of the six New England states. This is “homework” for my vacation this fall. If you’re interested, have a look at my article “Gluten Free Restaurants in New England”.