I recently found Phil on instagram. One evening as I was scrolling through IG before bed… his IGTV video popped up. Aimee and I instantly started watching his hilarious videos.

He has a great story. He cracks me up! I was in tears with the intro of this video…I’ll leave it there… watch the video now… come back later to read through!

1) Your story…tell us a little bit about yourself!

“I started my professional career as a scientist. I worked for the military. It was pretty cool for awhile. My main responsibility was to work on something we called the “gamma bomb” – a super powerful weapon.

In the midst of one of our tests, I noticed a teenage boy entered our test site and I knew I had to act quick so I sprinted towards the boy and pushed him into a trench, to safety. Unfortunately, that exposed me to the rays of the gamma bomb. One thing led to another… and now when I get angry I turn into a humongous green monster called the Hulk ooooooohhhh wait that’s not my story. That’s the Incredible Hulk’s story. I always get our stories mixed up.

MY story is that I’m an average 25-year-old guy from Boston who works in software sales. I enjoy my job, but since entering the “real world” I sort’ve lost my creative juices. I was looking for a way to express my left brain and figured making gluten free alcohol video reviews would be fun for me to do. Also, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for me to bring some fun to the gluten free community.”

2) Why do you eat gluten free food?

“I have Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) – a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the esophagus that causes symptoms like constant heartburn, difficulty swallowing, and food getting stuck in the middle of your esophagus. My symptoms stretch even further than those main ones, unfortunately.

Typically, EoE is caused by a food allergy. Gluten and dairy are two of the main triggers of EoE and since cutting them from my diet I can happily say I haven’t had anything get stuck in my esophagus. I still have other lingering symptoms but I’m gradually improving!”

3) What is your favorite gluten free snack? Where can we find it?

“Oh man, I’m a big snacker. Always have been, always will be.

My favorite snack definitely varies on the week, but lately I’ve been DEVOURING 88 Acres Pumpkin Seed Butter. DEVOURING it. That poor pumpkin seed butter doesn’t stand a chance! I slather it all over apples, bananas, rice cakes, and sometimes (a lot of times) I’ll just eat scoops of it by itself. 

But, I’ll tell you what, having to buy a new jar every 5 days is DEVOURING my savings account because it’s $13 a pop!

You should be able to find it at your local Stop and Shop or Whole Foods.”

4) What’s your favorite gluten free recipe?

“I’m a pretty lazy cook so I don’t really use recipes. Most of the time I’ll throw things together and it’ll taste good enough. 

I do follow recipes when I cook with my girlfriend though because she has much more patience than I do. We recently made Pesto Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes and they were BANGIN’! 

I’m 80% sure this is the recipe we used: https://www.paleorunningmomma.com/chicken-pesto-stuffed-sweet-potatoes-paleo-whole30/. 

FYI – we used store-bought pesto. Ain’t nobody got time to make pesto.

5) What’s one thing you wish you knew when first went gluten free?

“Cross-contamination is real. When I first cut gluten I was using shared toaster ovens, scooping from the office peanut butter jar, eating french fries cooked in non-dedicated fryers, you name it! I was a wild man! I didn’t realize that all of this was preventing me from being truly gluten free. So now I’m much more cautious.

Also – and perhaps more relevant to my instagram/youtube page – a lot of gluten free beers are actually brewed with gluten! Yeah, crazy! They brew the beer like any other beer, but they remove the gluten at the end so that it falls under the legal threshold for what can be considered gluten free. These are technically called “gluten-removed” beers but bars/restaurants will mistakenly label them as gluten free – and that realization was eye-opening. Some people react to gluten-removed beers, some don’t. Personally, I’m the former.

So that’s why I made a dedicated page to help people navigate the world of true gluten free drinking aaaaand here comes a shameless plug here it is here it comes FOLLOW @philhatesgluten FOR SOME GREAT GLUTEN FREE CONTENT!”

6) If you could only eat one gluten free meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

“This is a hard-hitting question. Wow. This is tough. Let me ponder for a moment.

*Phil ponders for much longer than a moment*

This is lame but whatever. If I’m taking this question seriously – and I could only eat this meal for the rest of my life – I’d go with charred chicken, seasoned brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts. Why? Because it tastes good, it’s super healthy, and I eat it every day anyways. 

Side note: I was today years old when I found out “brussel sprouts” is supposed to be written “brussels sprouts.” Like, the brussel is plural. It’s brussels. Brussels sprouts. Google it! Pull it up on the Google, you’ll see!

7) What advice would you give someone who is about to go gluten free?

“Don’t be bothered that people don’t understand what you’re going through. A lot of folks will think you are just following the “gluten free fad” for no reason. Whatever, don’t let it bother you. Gluten is this weird taboo – like, people know what it is but don’t actually know what it is. 

For example – it cracks me up when my mom will put out a fruit salad and say “I made some gluten free fruit salad, Philip!” Uhhh, yeah I KNOW – MOM! – it’s FRUIT! Unless you put croutons in here for some reason, there’s no wheat in a fruit salad OMG you’re embarrassing me!”

8) What’s your favorite thing about being gluten free?

“I’ve learned so much about nutrition. And health. And well-being.

Not that eating gluten free necessarily means eating healthy (it doesn’t), but constantly checking ingredients sent me down a path of understanding general health and well-being. Two years ago, I truly thought I was the pinnacle of health and that’s why I was so stunned by how I felt so crappy all the time. Now, I better understand where food comes from, what it does to your body, and what I should eat and avoid. I’ve also dabbled in things like yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques – all things I never thought I’d try.

When you’re sick, you’ll do anything to feel better. And once you feel better, you’ll do anything not to get sick again. I never want to be as sick as I was a year and a half ago, so I’ll do whatever it takes to improve my physical (and mental) health. That is why I had to breakup with my childhood sweetheart, Gluten. I’ll never forget the memories we shared <3″

9) What is one thing you dislike about being gluten free and what do you do to mitigate it?

“I dislike creating a mini-scene when asking the waiter/waitress if they have a gluten free menu, or if they can make a specific dish gluten free. It’s not that I’m embarrassed, but the interaction always turns the conversation at the table to “oh, why are you gluten free?” and then I have to tell them about my sad EoE story. 

How do I mitigate this? I don’t, haha. I’m that annoying guy who has them mark up the menu and double check with the chef. Sometimes I’ll try to call ahead and ask what they can make gluten free, but typically they tell me to work with the server anyway.”

10) How can other people find you?

Follow @philhatesgluten on Instagram and “Phil Hates Gluten” on Youtube!

Thank you!

Phil, thank you for the video and typed response! This is the first ever video response to the gluten free guys! hopefully it’s just the beginning. I really enjoy your humor and look forward to your future reviews! Keep up the great work!

For the reader/viewers, if you have not seen Phil yet, go now! Follow him on IG and check out his reviews on YouTube. Hilarious!