The Gluten Free Neighborhood

Where folks meet at the corner of good health and appetizing cuisine.

WELCOME

If you have found your way here you probably have some interest in Celiac Disease (CD), gluten intolerance, celiac sprue, and perhaps living a gluten free life. Or maybe it was an “accident.” Whatever the reason for showing up here, there are lots of resources, recipes and probably more questions than answers.

I believe that building a neighborhood takes a broad base of people. As more and more people are diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and as more research focuses on Celiac Disease, there will be as many, if not more, who will fall through the cracks as “just being gluten intolerant,” There is no “just” in being gluten intolerant. It will take all of us to build a strong community.

In the early ‘80s, I heard a presenter talk about AIDS. She said that AIDS would touch everyone in the room somehow. All of us, she predicted, would know someone who was either HIV+ or who had died of AIDS. For me and the people attending that presentation, her prediction came true. I expect that, in the next decade all of us will know someone who tests positive for Celiac Disease and many more will struggle with being gluten intolerant as all the resources are focused on Celiac Disease. Many of us will be touched by gluten intolerance, celiac disease, celiac sprue, cancer, diabetes, obesity, anemia, and other autoimmune disorders, as we strive to connect the dots in this major public health epidemic.

So, after several years of research in the current state of all things gluten free, I am becoming more and more convinced that there is more to the issue than just eating gluten free.

I have come to believe we do not know what is really in our food. Manufacturers are not required to put all “ingredients” on labels. Although some of that will change in 2009, I don’t think it will give us a total picture.
In addition to gluten (which is pretty much in everything), do we know what preservatives are in our food? This is the “if you can’t spell it, don’t eat it” idea.

• Do we know what “enrichers” are used in our food?
• Do we even know what an enricher is?
• Do we know how our food (gluten free or not) is kept on the shelf for so long?
• Do we understand what “processed food” means?
• And most importantly, do we know how these preservatives and other chemicals affect our intestinal well being?
• As a matter of fact, do we know what constitutes a healthy “gut”?
• And as long as we are asking, what is a pro-biotic anyway?

In educating myself, I find that there are many more questions right now than answers and they go way beyond being gluten free.

So, I look forward to sharing what I am learning, and hearing about what you think in the “Great Beyond” of the GFNeighborhood.

PLEASE NOTE:  The information at the GF Neighborhood is not intended to replace or as a substitution for medical treatment or advice.