What is Celiac?

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the small intestine when gluten is ingested, which means that continuing to eat gluten will cause damage to the intestines and throughout the body. Symptoms of Celiac can be different, and reactions to gluten can vary widely from person to person. Some symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, upset stomach, hair loss, weight loss, bloating, and more. Fortunately, these symptoms can be eliminated by eating a gluten free diet. This website will help you to live safely gluten free, while still being able to find delicious foods, use great products, and socialize with friends and family.

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What is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein found in certain grains. The most common sources of gluten are wheat, barley, and rye, which means that most breads and baked goods are made with gluten. However, gluten can also be present in places where it's not expected, which makes going gluten free very tricky at first. For example, gluten can be found in some candies, chips, salad dressings, processed meats, and other unexpected foods, as well as things like medicine, makeup, skin care products, and more. Luckily, there are a lot of gluten free options and replacements for pretty much anything made with gluten.  

 

According to celiac.org, the most common gluten containing grains and their derivatives include:  wheat; varieties and derivatives of wheat such as wheat berries, durum, emmer, semolina, spelt, farina, farro, graham, einkorn wheat; rye; barley; triticale; forms of malt including malted barley flour, malted milk, malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavoring, and malt vinegar; brewer's yeast; and wheat starch. There are other ingredients that may contain gluten, so it's important to always read labels and verify anything you're not sure about.  A comprehensive list is also available here: list. 

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Fear of Gluten

I was diagnosed with Celiac when I was very young, so my parents handled rearranging my diet. However, when I got to Kindergarten, I had to eat lunch at school every day without my parents there to confirm that my food was safe. I was terrified of coming into contact with any gluten, and spent most lunch periods crying at the beginning of that year. For a long time, it was difficult for me to eat out at restaurants or to eat at friends' houses. Being new to Celiac, I was afraid that I would come into contact with gluten in these situations, and I did not trust anyone outside of my family to prepare my food. As I got older and became more used to having Celiac, it became easier for me to manage these situations, and my anxiety began to lessen. In the process, I learned that one of the most difficult parts of having Celiac is trusting others with your food, and therefore your health. I have been able to get over most of the anxiety surrounding gluten, but there are still times when having Celiac can bed stressful, and that's normal.

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Unfortunately, my experience is not a unique one. Many people who are newly diagnosed with Celiac experience a similar feeling of fear and anxiety when it comes to eating outside their home. Everyone's body responds to Celiac differently. Most commonly, people develop upset stomaches when eating gluten, but that is not the only way that people react. This is what makes being newly diagnosed with Celiac so nerve-wracking: once you stop eating gluten, you don't know how your body will react if you're accidentally exposed. At some point, especially in the beginning, you probably will, accidentally eat gluten.  The longer you have Celiac, the more you will understand how your body reacts to gluten and how to make sure you avoid it. While it can still be difficult to trust a restaurant or a friend cooking for you, eventually the anxiety that you feel around eating gluten will begin to decrease. It is important to be as cautious as possible when it comes to Celiac, but you can't let it stop you from living your life.

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Eating Out Safely 

If you are new to Celiac, you may not know that one of the main sources of accidentally eating gluten is through cross-contamination. Cross-contamination can occur in restaurants, factories, or even your own house. For example, if you order a cheeseburger with a gluten free bun, it is possible that this burger could be cooked on the same surface on which the regular buns are being toasted, which would result in cross-contamination. Another significant risk of cross-contamination comes from ordering fried food like french fries. In most restaurants, the same fryer is used for cooking french fries and breaded foods like chicken fingers or mozzarella sticks. When a restaurant has a separate, gluten free fryer, or a fries-only fryer it is safe to eat these fries. Employees should be able to tell you if anything gluten goes in their fryer.  My favorite restaurants are the ones with gluten free fryers! Even if the risk of cross-contamination seems small and only a tiny amount of gluten is ingested, these small amounts of gluten can cause significant harm to your body.  

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The most important thing about eating at restaurants is to inform your waiter that you have Celiac Disease and cannot risk cross-contamination. They should be able to tell you more about the situation in the kitchen and whether they can prepare your food on a separate, clean surface and if they have a separate fryer. Even though it's annoying, sometimes you will be stuck only eating a burger without a bun or just a salad. It's important to research restaurants before going out to eat so that you can find places that have a lot of available gluten free options. I'm lucky to have some safe restaurants in my area, and I tend to stick to these places when we I out.

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Shopping for Gluten Free Food

The good news is that there are still so many foods you can eat when you go gluten free.  Fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and eggs are naturally gluten free, as are rice, nuts, and most dairy products.  

 

When it comes to packaged food, you have to learn to read the labels, but it's pretty easy once you get used to it. If something is identified as "certified gluten free," you can generally trust that it’s safe to eat without having to inspect the ingredients. If something simply says gluten free, it also likely is safe to eat, but you should inspect it further. There are many products that may or may not be labeled gluten free that are also safe to eat. As a general rule, if a product is not "certified gluten free," I start by checking the back and reading the ingredients. If I don’t see any wheat, barley, or rye (or their derivatives) in the ingredients, I look below the ingredients to the “contains” and “may contain” sections. These sections list out the most common allergens in the product. If "wheat" is listed, the product is not safe. There’s another section on most products that states whether the product was “made on shared equipment” or “made in the same facility” as products containing wheat (or other allergens). If the product was made on the same equipment as a product containing wheat, I generally avoid eating it. If I don’t see any gluten or oats in any of these areas on the product other sections (see Being Careful with Oats), I decide that the product is gluten free and eat it. This is my process of ruling that something is safe to eat, and it's kept me healthy through the years. 

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Avoiding Cross Contamination in your Home

Believe it or not, when you're new to being gluten free, you actually run a big risk of cross-contamination in your own home. Your pots, pans, blenders, toasters, counters, tables and more can all be sources of cross-contamination. In my house, we started fresh with new pots, pans, baking sheets, etc. when I was diagnosed. Because I was diagnosed with Celiac when I was so young, my whole family eats mostly gluten free. We usually have gluten-containing rolls and tortillas in the house, but our family dinners are always gluten free, and our cooking and baking are also almost always gluten free. We now have two separate toasters, one where only gluten free products go and one for foods with gluten. We have a small “gluten counter,” which is a specific counter that we use to prepare any foods containing gluten. We don't put any gluten in our blender to keep it safe, and we have separate pots for when my parents occasionally cook pasta with gluten or other non-gluten free meals. There is no one correct system for keeping your kitchen gluten free, but it's extremely important to keep your gluten free food separate from gluten and to keep surfaces clean and free of cross contamination.