A few weeks ago I bought a bag of banana chips at Aldi’s, one of my favorite shopping places. I never got around to them until the other day, home recovering from a twenty four hour stomach bug.  The thing is, if you have celiac, you tend to take a bit longer to get over that which used to be 24 hours.  One’s tummy just doesn’t rebound like it used to.  More time, lighter fair and less stress are called for.  So banana chips seemed like a suitable snack.  I ate a lot of them.  And within an hour I was fairly ill with that familiar burning pain of being glutened.  It isn’t the same as a tummy ache.  Just to be clear, not the same area nor the same feeling.  Not fun.

After several days for my digestive system to recover from the setback I am mostly better this week, finally back to exercising, and almost able to eat as before although it will be a few more days before I attempt anything too spicy!  Learned my lesson…the packaging didn’t say gluten free.  It didn’t list wheat or any type of gluten on the package.  Nor did it say processed on equipment that processed wheat.  But somehow it had been cross contaminated and that was a real shame for my health and my peace of mind.  I had been feeling so comfortable with Aldi’s foods.  Now I need to re think them and make more careful choices.  I won’t stop shopping there but no more banana chips and I suggest you avoid them if you have celiac disease. If you suffer from it as I do, you know how easily we can become ill from a tiny amount of gluten.  It is no exaggeration but hard reality. So be cautious when you are snacking and look for that gf label folks. There are lots of safe snacks available from fresh produce to homemade snacks and store bought processed items.  Just read the packages and be safe.