I must admit that I had no idea that watching a video about celiac disease could be so entertaining and educating at the same time! It starts great and only gets better
Dr. Mike at MyFox News in Philadelphia educates about celiac but also shares his thoughts on the gluten-free diet as a weight-loss diet:“You need to eat less and exercise more.” Makes sense, doesn’t it? He continues to say “It’s a matter of caloric accounting!” Watch the entire highly entertaining video below, you will learn (and laugh) quite a bit!
Despite author Melinda Beck’s thorough research, the article incorrectly listed envelope adhesives, distilled alcoholic beverages and vinegars, ketchup, ice creams, and lipsticks as products that celiacs should avoid. It speaks for the integrity of the Journal that they printed the following statement of corrections in Saturday’s paper:
“Envelope adhesives do not contain gluten, and the distillation process removes the gluten from alcoholic beverages and distilled vinegars that are made from gluten-containing grains, according to registered dietitian Shelley Case, member of the Celiac Disease Foundation Medical Advisory Board. Ketchup and most ice creams are also gluten-free, and the amount of gluten in some lipsticks is too small to pose health problems. A Tuesday Health Journal incorrectly included all these products among those that people with celiac disease should avoid.”
The GIG and their website is extremely helpful and informative, so we include it in on our page of useful links for anyone new to the gluten-free diet. Besides the fact that our young company is featured in such a highly regarded publication, I am particularly happy that they mentioned the various measures we take to ensure the safety of your customized cereal: we source only naturally gluten-free ingredients, test each ingredient for potential gluten contamination, and hand-mix each cerealization in a dedicated gluten-free facility.
It’s great to see my mugshot in the magazine… What I really hope for though is that this article will help more people realize that they can enjoy a tasty gluten-free cereal by simply creating their own. Having to follow a gluten-free diet is tough enough, let’s try to make it an enjoyable experience!
The Wall Street Journal’s Health Journal columnist Melinda Beck wrote a great article on who has to stick to a gluten-free diet (celiacs, people with a wheat allergy, and those with a sensitivity to gluten). I was pretty impressed by the thoroughness of the research that was done and wanted to share it with you as part of our customer service. It particularly struck me that
Melinda described many of the most common symptoms that ‘glutened’ celiacs experience
it is not well understood how gluten can cause psychiatric and behavioral changes (keyword: leaky-gut)
7% of the population has anti-gliadin antibodies (‘AGA’), as do 18% of people with autism, and 20% of those with schizophrenia
The article also points out that much more research is needed to understand why the various conditions that benefit from a gluten-free diet are so much more prevalent today than several decades ago. While celiac disease was initially believed to begin only during childhood, it is now know that it can start at any time during the life of a person with the genetic predisposition.
In a little video, Melinda Beck also explains that the gluten-free diet is not a weight-loss diet, and that one should not embark lightly on a gluten-free diet.
It’s not that we at Custom Choice Cereal disagree. Trying to look at the bright side of life however, we think that there are pretty good reasons why everyone should be happy about this trend. Even if some of the information provided through mass media turns out not to be very accurate, here are our top 3 reasons to appreciate the buzz on eating gluten-free:
More consumers realize that they might benefit from a gluten-free diet. As one reader of the Toronto Star – who by the way stresses that it is not a fad diet – writes: “For years I suffered with debilitating eczema and spent thousands of dollars seeking treatment. It wasn’t until I tried going gluten-free that I got relief from the eczema, along with several other health issues I never considered being related to gluten. And I am not a celiac. One doesn’t need to be a celiac to notice positive health changes when gluten is eliminated from the diet.”
As more people hear about eating gluten-free, it will very likely increase the rate of diagnosis of celiac disease and gluten sensitivities. Considering that 97% of celiacs remain undiagnosed, that’s a great thing, at the very least for the folks who suffer (often for years) without knowing the reason
As you can already tell, increased awareness for gluten-free foods results in positive reactions from the food industry, bringing everyone more choices and making living gluten-free much easier
We fully sympathize with those of you who are infuriated by inaccurate reporting on celiac disease and know that it can be tough to see the positive in some of the media coverage. Give seeing the positive a try though, it’s just not worth your energy being mad!
Did you find another reason why everyone benefits from the buzz about the gluten-free diet? Don’t be shy about it, let us at Custom Choice Cereal and everyone else know about it and leave us a comment!
Finding gluten-free food that tastes good is still a challenge in many areas. That’s part of the reason why we came up with Custom Choice Cereal – providing a fun gluten-free experience! If you are interested in finding out more about how our custom gluten-free cereal came to life you are invited to read our story.
Now that the summer break is coming to an end, there are a few gluten-free food shows and and vendor fairs coming up over the next two months. These are great events to find out about anything gluten-free. While I like food events of any kinds (every rule has an exception, mine is fish), these fairs are super helpful if you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity.
I am sure we have overlooked one or the other event, so please feel free to add to the list in the comment section. We at Custom Choice Cereal (and I am sure everyone else) appreciate your help!
Our fellow gluten-free foodie Tiffany Janes can be regarded as one of the most active gluten-free advocates out there. In addition to consulting gluten-free food companies and restaurants, she writes her own blog Gluten-free Atlanta and is a constant presence on celiac-disease.com.
You should definitely check out Tiffany’s list because it will help you tremendously, both in the transition to a gluten-free lifestyle or by pointing out a few items you might not have heard about before.
The gluten-free diet has many challenges – constant studying of ingredients labels and searching for words such as “barley malt” or “brewer’s yeast” that make you put the item in question right back on the shelf is just one of them. In order to make things a little bit easier for you, we at Custom Choice Cereal have therefore collected a few tips & tricks on how to master your gluten-free life.
Your safety is our highest priority! That’s why it has been our policy to test all of our naturally gluten-free ingredients for potential cross-contamination with gluten before they enter our facility. Our test is accurate to 10 parts per million (ppm) and thus twice as strict as the FDA’s proposed contamination threshold of 20ppm.
Almost a third (seven) products would have failed the FDA test
One product (soy flour) contained >3,000 ppm of gluten
Tricia Thompson, nutrition consultant and lead author of the study, admits that the sample was too small to make people with celiac disease especially wary. However, it shows that it is unfortunately not safe to assume that an item can be consumed safely just because no gluten-containing ingredient can be found on the label.
This is an extremely important distinction that needs to be understood because not understanding it can result in serious (and very unpleasant) responses from the autoimmune system if a person suffers from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. In order to avoid this misunderstanding, education about and raising awareness for celiac disease are essentials components of the Custom Choice Cereal mission.
“Wheat free and gluten free is not the same thing. While all wheat free food is gluten free, a gluten free diet also requires the celiac to refrain from eating rye, barley, and contaminated oats. This needs to be clearly understood by the individual with celiac disease, or gluten intolerance, so that adequate questions can be placed to company representatives regarding their definition of gluten free foods and cross contamination practices.”
Thank you, Vickie! We would only like to add that everyone also needs to be aware that these different ‘in-house interpretations’ for the terms ‘gluten-free’ and ‘wheat-free’ exist. Or has Hajo’s Dad would say: “Every gluten-free food is wheat-free but not every wheat-free food is gluten-free”.
The entrepreneurial spirit in the Triangle is very alive, and rarely does a week pass since having started Custom Choice Cereal where I don’t meet at least one other local entrepreneur. Being located in the Research Triangle Park, many of these entrepreneurs operate in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or IT.
That’s why I am very excited to have met the people behind Local Yogurt, “Durham’s first independently owned frozen yogurt shop!” They offer delicious frozen yogurt in four flavors and plenty of toppings. The best part: the yogurt is gluten-free! How awesome is that??
With the heat hitting North Carolina and the 4th of July weekend ahead, this is the perfect treat for anyone, but especially for those with celiac disease and everyone on a gluten-free or wheat-free diet. Go ahead and visit LoYo this weekend at one of their three locations in Durham, Raleigh or Greenville!
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