A foreigner friend of mine was having serious stomach problems for over half a year, he went to different hospitals, had a lot of tests done, but nobody could figure out what was wrong with him. Then one day he went to a "chi gong" doctor, basically a doctor who puts his hands on you and uses his energy to redirect the flow of your body's "chi."
So he went to this doctor, and after ten minutes of the doctor touching him, he pronounced that my friend was allergic to gluten. After that my friend went home and discovered that he could eat almost nothing in Taiwan, but he cooked for himself and stuck with it, and he has had a very happy and illness free existence since then.
After hearing about this miracle doctor, I advised some other friends to go see the doctor. friends who also had problems which no hospitals or tests could figure out what is wrong. This is where the miracle doctor lost his allure, as he proclaimed that all of them are allergic to gluten, when in fact none of them are. It seems like gluten allergy was his go to diagnosis when he also didn't know what was wrong.
However this all brings up a lot a few points about Taiwan. First, only recently has one or two hospitals had a test to screen if people are allergic to gluten or not. For all the doctors that go to study abroad, the equipment, procedures, and facilities in Taiwan seem to be about a decade behind other advanced countries. Also there doesn't seem to be many doctors who keep up with the newest things, that basically the knowledge they leave med school with is the knowledge they have and they don't add to that. A lot of this has to do with the fact that Taiwanese companies don't pay their staff to take classes and keep up-to-date. But here I'm taking a big leap by guessing this applies to hospitals and doctors.
I do know that in Taiwanese culture you are pretty much not allowed to question doctors, which can cause friction for foreigners as we are taught to ask about other possible diagnosis, treatments, etc. and to always get a second opinion. Here in Taiwan you must just trust that the doctor knows best and they feel dishonored if you question them. There is a very high respect for people who are "educated" which rightfully or wrongfully extents to teachers as well. But I'm sure I'll write more on this in the future.
Another issue related to gluten is that almost no food has nutritional information or ingredient information. Only about five years ago does it seem like foods in supermarkets started getting nutrition information, but ingredient lists seem to still be lacking. But as I know, no restaurants, or other types of establishments provide nutritional, ingredients, or even health warnings. You won't see warnings for things that may contain nuts, or anything else people are allergic to, the most you will get is a little sign if something is spicy. In some ways Taiwan is the wild west of eating, in that you don't really know what is going in your stomach, especially when you add the prevalence of street food, and that to my knowledge street food, small restaurants, and a few other types of establishments are not health and safety regulated.
Or we can just say that Taiwanese are built tougher. It seems like a lot of people here don't have food allergies. Or if they do, they just fight through it. I can say from experience, most foreigners who come here, spend a few days to weeks in the bathroom, while their system adjusts to Taiwanese cuisine. I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and so Taiwanese stomachs are Hercules. So much so that there isn't even a word in Taiwanese for "gluten."
Special Note: Thanks to my parents who sent me a care package of all the unhealthy food I love and can't get in Taiwan. And thanks to the box for saying "gluten free" on the top. Because this is a much better picture and post, than a picture of me eating it. I realized that a picture of a middle aged man eating a children's cereal for dinner, is more depressing, than it is cute.
