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Tell the USDA We Want Gluten-Free Lunches

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 5 Comments

Unless you have a child with Celiac Disease, you probably aren’t aware of the difficulty involved with helping a child to stay gluten-free while in school. This is especially true when lunch rolls around and all the other kids are enjoying their hot lunches.

Vanessa of Beyond Rice Cakes has been a vocal leader of sorts when it comes to this area and is leading a campaign urging people to tell the USDA to provide gluten-free options. This is a no-brainer for people who have children with Celiac Disease, but others may not think of it, so I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to Vanessa’s post.

According to Vanessa:

Currently the National School Lunch Program does not include any provisions for gluten-free food. The good news is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is revising the Child Nutrition Act and wants to hear from you to help guide the revision process!

To give you a little background, the Child Nutrition Act includes legislation for the National School Lunch Program. This is the program that provides schools with federal assistance for school lunches. In 2009, the act will be reauthorized and, to help ensure the needs of all Americans are met, the USDA is accepting input on what needs to be changed to improve the program.

Please help improve the lives of children with celiac disease by sending your comments to the USDA. You can fax comments to 703-305-2879 or submit comments online.

The deadline for submission is October 15, 2008.

Vanessa goes on to provide some key points to remember as you submit your request to the USDA, so you’ll want to check out her post.

Remember, everyone with Celiac Disease needs to stick together and someone needs to speak up for the children who are going through school without gluten-free options.   Here is your chance!

Gluten-Free Hairspray from Paul Mitchell

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Even though it has long been proven that gluten can not be absorbed through the skin, do you make sure your hairspray is gluten-free? Crystal of gluten-free Hub recently wrote about her favorite gluten-free hairspray, where she pointed out that sometimes hairspray can easily be inhaled on accident.

As a precaution, she recommends using a gluten-free hairspray from Paul Mitchell just to be safe:

I had some difficulty finding gluten-free hairspray, although this is clearly important given that it’s nearly impossible to avoid inhaling at least a little, and it can sometimes get in your mouth. I have tried a few gluten-free hairsprays, but Paul Mitchell Soft Spray is definitely my favorite. You can find it in many salons, some drug stores, and online. It has a nice, flexible hold without being crunchy. It also has a light, pleasant scent.

Do you make sure your hairspray is gluten-free?

Diagnosis of Celiac Disease Continues to Evolve

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Only a few years ago the symptoms of Celiac Disease were commonly believed to be malnutrition, diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain. In the last few years diagnosis of the disease has continued to evolve and both studies have shown that many people with Celiac Disease do not have the classic symptoms that doctors are trained to look for.

Recently Against the Grain Nutrition published a great post about The New Picture of Celiac Disease, which goes into detail about a recent study to support this:

Research conducted a few years ago found that the majority of adults with newly diagnosed celiac disease do not have the once-considered classic symptoms of diarrhea and malabsorption. A growing percentage have silent or atypical celiac disease, with either no symptoms, or symptoms such as bone disease, anemia, acid-reflux-type conditions, constipation, or neurologic symptoms.

A 2008 study recently found that most children diagnosed with celiac disease don’t have so-called “classic” gastrointestinal symptoms either.

The new study evaluated the presentation of celiac disease in children in a pediatric gastroenterology practice in southeastern Wisconsin during a 17-year period. During that time, 143 patients were diagnosed with celiac disease. Gastrointestinal symptoms predominated in children younger than 3 years, whereas in children older than 3 years, the majority presented with nongastrointestinal conditions associated with a high risk of developing celiac disease, including type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, Down syndrome, iron-deficiency anemia, short stature, or mood disorders – or they were tested because they were a first-degree relative of a person with celiac disease.

The classic clinical view of pediatric celiac disease, which includes malnutrition, diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain, should be replaced with the more typical presentation of an asymptomatic school-aged child who belongs to a high-risk group. The authors of the study recommend screening people, and first-degree family members of people, with Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, type 1 diabetes, thyroiditis, Addison disease, short stature, iron-deficiency anemia, unexplained elevation of aminotransferase levels, and other autoimmune disorders.

Celiac Adults Face Higher Risk of Sepsis

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Ever heard of Sepsis before? Me either! However, it is something that some of our older readers with Celiac Disease should probably be aware of.

According to a recent study published in the August edition of Gut, it looks like adults who are a diagnosed later in life with Celiac Disease face a higher risk of Sepsis.

As usual, Celiac.com has published a post covering Sepsis, and the potentially higher risk that exists for Celiacs diagnosed later in life:

People diagnosed with celiac disease as adults developed sepsis at slightly higher levels than inpatient reference patients (HR = 1.5, p = 0.006). The elevated risk for sepsis was also seen when celiac disease patients were compared with reference subjects from the general population (HR = 2.6, p < 0.001). Celiac disease patients diagnosed in childhood showed a slightly elevated increased risk of sepsis when compared to the general population (HR = 1.8, p = 0.003).

You can read more about Sepsis and also learn a bit about a condition called Hyposplenism by reading Celiac.com’s featured post here.

Gluten-Free Tip: Buy Foods in Bulk Online!

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

One of the first things I hear from people when they are newly diagnosed with Celiac Disease is the shock at how expensive gluten-free foods can be. A big reason is that you have to go to specialty stores to get these foods, and these types of stores have a smaller market, so they have to charge higher prices to stay in business.

I think in time specialty stores will continue to become more popular and competition in the gluten-free foods market will continue to grow, which will ultimately force prices down to a more manageable level. In the meantime, I usually recommend people begin to plan ahead and do much of their gluten-free shopping online. Buying online, combined with buying in bulk, will go a long way toward keeping food expenses down!

Where Do I Buy Gluten-Free Foods Online?

In my experience, there are currently two great places to buy gluten-free foods online. The first is shopping at Amazon. Their prices are already the best online and you can get free shipping if you purchase $25.00 or more (easy to do if buying in bulk).

If you prefer having meals already made when they arrive at your door, then you’ll want to check out Gluten-Free Meals. Order online and when the food arrives, throw it in the freezer. It will be ready to eat whenever you don’t feel like cooking!

Where do you buy your gluten-free foods?  Online?  Health food store?  Let us know in the comments below!