I have very severe celiac disease which went misdiagnosed for far too long (due to a false negative blood test and negligent doctors). It got to the point where I had severe balance problems, vision loss, paresthesias, chronic pain, and was barely able to take care of myself during the worst of it. Eventually my doctors started thinking it was MS, but a normal MRI ruled that out. I finally decided to go on a strict gluten-free diet on a whim and I made a full recovery a month later, which led to a celiac diagnosis (finally).

Since then I've been preparing all my meals from scratch - I don't eat out much. Thankfully in Canada it isn't too hard to find GF ingredients, but I sometimes have to get creative. I generally try to discover new GF foods rather than eating GF "knock-offs" (eg. GF pasta, which is rarely good). Not all places in the world use wheat-based ingredients as much as in the west, so I try to look towards other cultures with different cuisines (for example, I learned to make onigiri which is really good as a snack).

I almost never eat food prepared by someone else because it's just too risky given how severe my celiac disease is. I'll often bring my own food or help cook if I'm eating at a friend's.