Hope y’all had a wonderful, relaxing, healthy Labor Day Weekend! Guess that officially means that the summer is over… Looking at the bright side of things – which we at Custom Choice Cereal always prefer – football season is back on. And that’s always a great thing But back to the “really” important things in life…
Today is once again the first Wednesday of of the month aka Dr. Wangen Wednesday! This means that our friend and advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers any question you might have about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and living gluten-free!
Suffering from celiac disease himself, Stephen understands the challenges of a gluten-free diet from both a personal and professional experience. Most importantly, he is very passionate about helping others like you. This passion was a call that he answered by co-founding The IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA, blogging as The Gluten Free Doctor, and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. We invite you to read more about Stephen and his books in our introduction to our advisors.
Dr. Wangen is going out of his way to provide this wonderful service, and we appreciate your understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions on a first-come, first-served basis. Please join us at Custom Choice Cereal in thanking Stephen for taking the time off his busy schedule to address your questions.
Asking what YOU want to know is easy and can be done in just 4 simple steps:
Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
Dr. Wangen answers and we publish what he says in reply to your comments
Don’t be shy – there are no “dumb questions” except for those you don’t ask Besides, we learn a whole lot from what you want to know every month and are curious to see your questions!
We hope all of you enjoyed the long 4th of July weekend with the four “F”: family, friends, fun and some great gluten-free food!
Having entered the second half of 2011, we at Custom Choice Cereal continue the good tradition of making the first Wednesday of each month known as Dr. Wangen Wednesday. On this special day, our good friend and outstanding advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers any question you might have about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and happily living gluten-free!
Stephen has an amazing understanding of the challenges that a gluten-free diet brings with it from personal experience since he suffers from celiac himself. More importantly, he is very passionate about helping others. This passion was a call that he answered by making it his professional career, co-founding The IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA, blogging as The Gluten Free Doctor, and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. We invite you to read more about Stephen and his books in our introduction to our advisors.
Dr. Wangen is going out of his way to provide this wonderful service, and we appreciate your understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions on a first-come, first-served basis. We therefore kindly ask you to check how many comments have already been posted before adding yours. For now, please join us at Custom Choice Cereal in thanking Stephen for taking the time off his busy schedule to address your questions!
Asking what YOU want to know is easy and can be done in just 4 simple steps:
Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
Dr. Wangen answers and we publish what he says in reply to your comments
We are looking forward to another informative and insightful gluten-free Q&A session and can’t wait to read your questions. There is so much we learn from you, so we are extremely excited about this rare but wonderful occasion where everybody wins!
Today is not only the first day of a new month (can you believe it’s JUNE already??) but also the first Wednesday of of the month! As some of you already know – and more of you hopefully find out – we at Custom Choice Cereal do our best to make this day also known as Dr. Wangen Wednesday because our friend and advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers any question you might have about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and living gluten-free!
Suffering from celiac disease himself, Stephen understands the challenges of a gluten-free diet from both a personal and professional experience. Most importantly, he is very passionate about helping others like you. This passion was a call that he answered by co-founding The IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA, blogging as The Gluten Free Doctor, and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. We invite you to read more about Stephen and his books in our introduction to our advisors.
Dr. Wangen is going out of his way to provide this wonderful service, and we appreciate your understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions on a first-come, first-served basis. Please join us at Custom Choice Cereal in thanking Stephen for taking the time off his busy schedule to address your questions.
Asking what YOU want to know is easy and can be done in just 4 simple steps:
Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
Dr. Wangen answers and we publish what he says in reply to your comments
Don’t be shy – there are no “dumb questions” except for those you don’t ask Besides, we learn a whole lot from what you want to know every month and are curious to see your questions!
If you’ve come to our blog you most likely know that we want to make living gluten-free a fun and enjoyable experience. Besides offering you the largest variety of custom gluten-free cereal (over 2.5 billion combination possibilities anyone?!), we at Custom Choice Cereal also see it as part of our mission to raise awareness for celiac disease and gluten intolerance. And since it’s Celiac Awareness Month, we figured we highlight one of the great resources for the gluten-free community (this and more can be found in the left sidebar).
Suffering for many years and unsuccessfully consulting 22 physicians until number 23 (!) finally diagnosed her with a rare autoimmune disease called celiac disease, Alice Bast founded the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) in 2003 out of “the desire to spare other families from needless heartache and suffering” that she went through. As a national 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, it is the organization’s goal to raise awareness for celiac disease among the general public and the healthcare community. In addition, the NFCA aims to facilitates research to better understand the causes, mechanisms, and treatment of celiac disease. After all she has accomplished with her organization, Hajo was understandably thrilled to personally meet Alice at the Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC, last week.
Not only is everyone on the the NFCA’s team a great advocate for increased gluten-free food safety, the organization and its website are also outstanding resources for the newly diagnosed as well as support group leaders and celiac “veterans”. What we consider some of the most useful features are the printable guides, including a celiac disease symptoms checklist, celiac disease and women’s health, several great documents on restoring health after diagnosis and helpful advice to manage everyday gluten-free living. We frequently check their website for updates on the gluten-free industry and new research and highly recommend you join the NFCA’s mailing list.
Have you visited the NFCA’s website before? Maybe you let us know what you found most helpful or interesting? We can’t mention everything on this awesome website but we certainly are always eager to learn!
Puuuh. Now this was a week of intense travel for me representing Custom Choice Cereal! It all started with the Charlotte Gluten-Free Expo last Saturday, which was truly awesome and great fun.
This week then continued with the long anticipated Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC, where the world’s largest gluten-free cake was assembled to raise awareness for the lack of clear standards in gluten-free product labeling. The FDA was also there, and I think the mission to make them aware how important food safety is for people who suffer from celiac disease or gluten intolerance was accomplished. We at Custom Choice Cereal are so proud to have donated to this much needed and wonderful event!
It was awesome to see friends from the community such as Jules Shepard, Nancy Ginter from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA), and Tinsley Meloy from Celiebo again. On top of that, I finally also had the chance to meet 1in133.org co-initiator John Forberger, Jill Brack from Glow Gluten Free, Dr. Alessio Fasano from the Maryland University’s Center for Celiac Research, the NFCA’s founder Alice Bast, and many more. Everyone was excited to be there, and watching the cake grow to 11 feet and 2 inches (!!) throughout the day was great fun!
You can watch a video of the cake being built on the Custom Choice Cereal facebook page. And I am just wondering: when was the last time you needed ladders to build a cake?!?
Yesterday, I finished my travel-intense week with a sweet “little” 586 mile trip from DC to Wilmington, NC, to speak to a local celiac disease support group. I always love meeting people in those groups! This one was a particular joy though because it was local for us in North Carolina. Not so local was the 9.5 hour drive DC-Wilmington-Chapel Hill… But at least it was a gorgeous day, and meeting others in the celiac community is what I love most about my job. Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s a big day for the gluten-free community: the gluten-free labeling summit will take place in DC today AND it’s the first Wednesday of Celiac Awareness Month! For this reason we are particularly thrilled let you know that first monthly Wednesdays are (at least here) also known as Dr. Wangen Wednesdays because Custom Choice Cereal’s friend and advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers your questions about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and living gluten-free.
Suffering from celiac disease himself, Stephen understands the challenges of a gluten-free diet from both a personal and professional experience. Most importantly, he is very passionate about helping others like you. This passion was a call that he answered by co-founding The IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA, blogging as The Gluten Free Doctor, and serving on the Board of Trustees for the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. We invite you to read more about Stephen and his books in our introduction to our advisors.
Dr. Wangen is going out of his way to provide this wonderful service, and we appreciate your understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions on a first-come, first-served basis. Please join us at Custom Choice Cereal in thanking Stephen for taking the time off his busy schedule to address your questions.
Asking what YOU want to know is easy and can be done in just 4 simple steps:
Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
Dr. Wangen answers and we publish what he says in reply to your comments
Don’t be shy – there are no “dumb questions” except for those you don’t ask Besides, we learn a whole lot from what you want to know every month and are curious to see your questions!
The summer edition of Living Without came out. This magazine for people with allergies and food sensitivities is a truly outstanding resource for anyone following an allergen-friendly diet. Especially now with celiac disease awareness month in full swing they offer a lot a delicious gluten-free and wheat-free recipes. The reason we at Custom Choice Cereal are super excited about this particular issue is that it includes our custom gluten-free cereal in the “Try It” section as one of Living Without’s Favorites! They write:
“It doesn’t have to be the same old thing for breakfast. Thanks to Custom Choice Cereals, you can design a nutritious dry cereal blend precisely to your taste and your special dietary needs. Log onto the easy-to-use website and choose your ingredients… Your cereal mix with customized nutrition label shows up at your door a few days later. It’s that simple—and simply delicious.”
Have your created your personal gluten-free cereal yet? Or do you have an ingredient suggestion for us? We are learning every single day and greatly appreciate your input! Thank you for helping us bringing taste and unrivaled variety to the gluten-free cereal bowl!
We at Custom Choice Cereal had a pretty turbulent week. Lots of new things have been going on in-house that will be revealed in due time. At the same time we had to deal with severe weather warnings for several days after last week’s devastating tornadoes in North Carolina. On top of all that, the gluten-free community has been busy creating a buzz around the 2011 Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC. We wrote about this great effort to push for a national gluten-free labeling standard in the US before. Just five days short of the event on May 4th, we’re super excited to bring you an interview with our good friend Jules Shepard, gluten-free supertstar, baker of delicious gluten-free goods and co-initiator of this “Big Deal”.
Question: What does 1in133.org stand for? How can people get involved? Answer:1in133 stands for the number of people we know to have celiac disease. We suspect that this number is actually now higher, but that statistic is the one everyone recognizes as representing the number of people with celiac disease. We are also representing the 18 million people in the US with gluten sensitivity, and anyone else eating gluten-free for health reasons.
Anyone can get involved by going to the website and signing the petition. The more people who sign, the louder our collective voice, so tell everyone you know to sign too! There is also an opportunity to contribute financially to the cause at that same link. We have also set up a Facebook Causes page, which allows you to give some time, and the American Celiac Disease Alliance (our chosen 501-c) receives donations from your time.
Question: Who are the faces behind 1in133.org? How did this “alliance” form? Answer:We are but two people: Jules Shepard and John Forberger. We both have celiac disease and have suffered from gluten-contaminated, mislabeled foods. We wanted to do something to get the FDA’s and Congress’ attention and force them to act to protect us all with uniform federal gluten-free labeling regulations.
Question: What prompted you to launch 1in133.org? Was there a specific incident? Answer:John was sickened by gluten again in the Fall of 2010, and was hospitalized for 14 days. We were talking over the incident and were moved to stop waiting for FDA to “get around” to completing the labeling regulations Congress ordered it to have done by 2008.
Question: What exactly is it that you want to achieve with 1in133.org and specifically the event on May 4th? Answer:We want to draw attention to our cause, our need, and our numbers. The World’s Tallest Gluten-Free Cake is certainly an attention-getter, and it’s raised enough eyebrows already that we’ve gotten nearly 6,000 on-line petition signatures in only a few short weeks! We want to force the FDA to establish a federal gluten-free labeling standard, and we’d like to push Congress for more protections as well.
Question: Where exactly will the “show-down” on May 4th take place? Answer:At the Embassy Suites Convention Center in Washington, DC.
Question: Who will be invited to the event? Can you already mention specific names? Answer:All listed Advocates, Cake Builders and Sponsors, as well as many members of Congress and the FDA. In addition, gluten-free community and manufacturing industry leaders will be in attendance, but the event is open to the public as well.
Question: How did you come up with the idea to create the world’s largest gluten-free cake? Answer:John challenged me to build the World’s Largest GF Cookie, but I said that was too silly, because it would only be as large as the largest oven we could find. So I suggested cake!
Question: How big will the cake actually be? How much ingredients will you use for it? Answer:The cake itself will be around 13 feet tall, and then set on 24 inch risers, so approximately 15 feet tall! It will weigh around 1900 pounds! Something on the order of 180 pounds of gluten-free flour were used and we’ll be using 700 pounds of frosting!
Question: What are the logistics of the actual baking like? Will the cake be actually baked on site or will you assemble the pieces? Answer:The cakes (as you now know first-hand!) were baked at the Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse in NC by my good friend Lee Tobin and his awesome GF team there. They have been frozen and shipped by Whole Foods to their warehouse in Maryland and will be delivered to the site prior to the event for us to start building!
Question: Is there anything else you’d like us our readers to know? Answer:Please tell everyone you know to sign our petition. It only takes a moment, but it will and is making a difference! Speaking with one collective, very loud voice, we will be heard and we will have federal gluten-free food labeling regulations! The more attention we can draw to this cause, the more the FDA and Congress will have to listen and to answer.
Thank you so much for all the info, Jules. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Charlotte Gluten-Free Expo and on Wednesday in DC!
The awful case of Paul Seelig, the man who bought regular baked goods, re-labeled them and sold them as “gluten-free” specialty products, has come to a final end in court today. Even though it quite honestly infuriates me that this undeniably “bad guy” gets such extensive press coverage while the many hard-working good people in the gluten-free community don’t – this trial and the precedent it sets are too important to ignore. As a result, I join in on the news coverage.
I have followed this case closely since it happened right here in Custom Choice Cereal’s front yard in Durham, NC. For those of you who don’t know the background, here is a (quick) recap:
In fall 2009, Paul Seelig sells supposedly gluten-free bread at the State Fair and online. After several people suffering from celiac disease consume his products develop rashes, have stomach cramps, diarrhea, and in once case even give birth to the local gluten-free community tests his bread for gluten. Result: the gluten content was literally off the cart (>5,000ppm)!
Several Raleigh CSA Support Group including our friend Zach Becker from Gluten Free Raleigh alert the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (NCDA&CS). When the NCDA&CS wants to inspect Mr. Seelig’s bakery (aka his house), a shirtless man claiming to be an employee named Jeff Gleason answers the door and says that Mr. Seelig “had had a heart attack, had cancer and the flu and was in a hospital in California”. As it later turned out, the representatives of the NCDA&CS faced Mr. Seelig, who invented the character of Jeff Gleason…
The criminal trial against Paul Seelig begins on March 28, 2011. The State of North Carolina has charged Mr. Seelig on at least 25 (!) felony counts of Obtaining Property via False Pretenses arising from his fraudulent sales of fake gluten-free baked
On April 8, 2011, Paul Seelig takes the stand and acknowledges that he had lied about his identity to investigators. However, he sticks to his story that he “had been buying gluten-free bread from a mysterious Amish bakery in Ohio that – being Amish – had no telephone, email or address. There were no payment records because he paid in cash”. The video below shows Paul Seelig testifying in court:
On Monday, April 11, 2011, a jury finds Paul Evan Seelig, 48, owner of Great Specialty Bread Co., guilty of 21 counts of fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 17 years in prison.
Today, justice is served and Paul Seelig is sentenced to 110-132 months in prison without probation!!
The bottom line is that Paul Seelig lied to his customers and to prosecutors. I can only try to explain such awful behavior, and the single somewhat “plausible” answer to me is greed. Mr. Seelig has been convicted of wire fraud and grand theft before, serving 2 years in prison in the 1990s. This case sets a precedent on gluten-free claims manufacturers can make. It also shows how important it is to finally pass gluten-free labeling standards!
Which area of your life has changed most since you/your child went gluten-free?
Before going into the details we’d like to thank the 83 of you who took our 3-second-poll. You helped us achieve the best participation rate so far, and as you know the accuracy of the survey increases with the sample size. It’d be great if we could reach even more people with our latest poll (see left sidebar), so please help us spread the word by tweeting and posting this blog on facebook!
The graph below sums up the results better than our words ever could. The high level result is going out remains the toughest part of living gluten-free as indicated by over 43% of you. On the bright side, family life at home (selected by 14.5% of all participants) seems manageable thanks to a constantly improving market for gluten-free foods.
Cerealize your Gluten Freedom! Our blog serves to share all things gluten-free and give you the occasional update on what's happening at Custom Choice Cereal.
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But back to the “really” important things in life…
Today is once again the first Wednesday of of the month aka Dr. Wangen Wednesday! This means that our friend and advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen answers any question you might have about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and living gluten-free!
Besides, we learn a whole lot from what you want to know every month and are curious to see your questions!
