We are now mid-way through National Celiac Awareness Month so I cannot think of a better time to start my own blog to add another story to the thousands already out there.
I first learned about Celiac Sprue when I was in middle school. I remember sitting outside on a bench of my junior high busy being irritated with my mother for being late again. After two hours of waiting, my mother pulls up and I climb into the car in somewhat of a huff. It didn't last long though cause my mom soon broke the news that she had just been diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. Her pancrease was no longer making insulin on its own so she would now have to manually regulate her blood sugar by giving herself insulin doses at each meal. This requires close tracking of blood surage and sugar intake so blood sugar count does not dip too low or raise too high. The mysterious part of all this though is: How did a woman in her mid-forties all of a sudden get a disease that is reserved for children and young teens?
For a while, no one could figured out what had caused her diabetes. Until one day, my mom's best friend and pediatric doctor that specializes in nutrition mailed her a journal clipping on Celiac Sprue. Celiac is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. In the plain English, this means that my mom was not absorbing the nutrients she needed because her body was fighting against itself. In fact, it had gotten so bad that her pancreas had been eaten away at so much that it could no longer produce insulin, enter Type I diabetes! Her diagnosis of Celiac finally explained her intense abdominal pains, bloating, anemia, and weight loss. That was why she was on the floor in pain so many times! What a relief it was to finally have an explanation to all her health problems!
mom and sister
The "cure" for Celiac disease is a life long gluten free diet. That means no wheat, barley, or rye - or really oats either since all oats are processed in facilities that contains wheat too (though this is changing!). Going from being able to eat anything whenever she liked, my mom had to make a huge life shift. She first had to consider the gluten contents of everything she ate then figure out how much sugar was in her food so she could stick herself with a needle several times per day to give herself insulin shots. Needless to say, it was an emotional roller coaster!
That was close to fifteen years ago now, the road has been long and rough. Two factors that I have found are key in being diligent and keeping to a gluten free diet is:
1. Learn to cook. Most processed foods contain gluten so your easy frozen meals and even the pre-grated cheese you get from the store are no longer options. If you are going to enjoy your life with a gluten free diet, it is important to learn to enjoy cooking! Love going to the store and farmers markets to pick out fresh produce, relish in chopping and seeing the combination of colors that go into the sizzling pot and learn what flavors you prefer most so you can in the end delight in the food you have made!
2. Have a great support group. It is challenging to do it on for a person to do it on his/her own! It is surprising how isolating it is to have separate and different meals that the people you live with. Get your whole family involved at dinner time! Have them help plan meals so they feel like they are a part of the new culinary adventure! Cooking can be great bonging time even before sitting down to dinner.
If there is any sort of silver lining, it is that my family has now learned to eat SO WELL! Cooking brings us together. We chat while we chop. Share our lives as well as our cooking tips with each other. I have found great love of being in the kitchen and have become very aware of my own food preferences and tolerances. My days are filled with fresh produce at every meal, very few packaged foods, and the love of just reading and sharing recipes!
Thus I have started this blog....
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