Living With Celiac Disease Takes Forethought

By Nancy K. Crevier

More than 30 years of living with Celiac disease, as well as having her son and a sister diagnosed with it, have made Beth Hillson of Glastonbury an expert on the autoimmune disorder.

“When I was diagnosed in the 1970s, I didn’t know another soul with Celiac disease,” said Ms Hillson, who is the president of the American Celiac Disease Alliance and food editor for Living Without Magazine, a publication geared toward those with special dietary needs. She teaches gluten-free cooking classes periodically through the Connecticut Culinary Institute in Farmington and teaches in other venues across the state and nationwide.

Like many others with the genetically influenced disease, she had dealt with intermittent symptoms for her whole life before the intestinal disorder was diagnosed.

Celiac disease causes damage to the surface of the small intestine due to an immunologically toxic reaction to gluten, which is the protein of certain cereal grains, and interferes with nutrient absorption, according to celiac.org. Often confused with irritable bowel syndrome, Celiac disease can result in iron deficiency anemia, diverticulitis, intestinal infections, and may contribute to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Untreated, Celiac disease will wear away the celia in the small intestine that help absorb nutrients, explained Ms Hillson, resulting in malabsorption. Primary symptoms of Celiac disease include gas, bloating, anemia, diarrhea, and constipation, and as the untreated disease progresses, the risk of long-term secondary illnesses is also possible. “Those are things like osteoporosis, neurological and emotional problems, and infertility,” said Ms Hillson.

The disease is diagnosed through blood tests that detect higher than normal levels of antiautobodies particular to the disease. Intestinal biopsy is also used to diagnose Celiac disease.

The only treatment for it is to completely avoid those foods with even the slightest bit of gluten in them.

“The education process is so important,” said Ms Hillson. “The diet is very hard when you get started and such an abrupt lifestyle change,” she said. “You cannot have the gluten that is in wheat, rye, and barley. Oats must be avoided, although if they are grown in a noncontaminated field, oats can sometimes be tolerated,” she said.

The offensive proteins crop up in many common foods. Enriched flour, graham flour, farina, semolina, anything containing spelt or kamut, wheat bran or germ, barley, rye, and triticale are among the foods that must be avoided. The proteins are also found in many processed foods, such as bouillon cubes, brown rice syrup, french fries, cold cuts, gravy, self-basting turkey, seasoned chips, soups, grated cheeses, licorice, soy sauce, and canned foods. Reading labels and knowing what to look for is essential, said Ms Hillson.

She took it upon herself to find out everything that she could about Celiac disease and to pass that knowledge on to others through her teaching and writing. She also founded the Gluten Free Pantry line of baking products, croutons, and cookie dough in 1993 to address the need for good tasting baked goods that could be made at home.

“One of the reasons I started the company is the problem of cross-contamination in mainstream products,” said Ms Hillson. Very sensitive sufferers can react to just 20 parts per million in a product — the American Celiac Disease Alliance’s recommended limit to the Federal Drug Administration. “You have to become good at reading labels. Luckily, a lot of products sold now do list if they are gluten-free. “Stonyfield, Classico, Hormel, and General Mills all provide gluten-free information on their labels,” said Ms Hillson.

Another reason she was inspired to start Gluten Free Pantry, said Ms Hillson, was that in the early 1990s there were no decent gluten-free products in the market. “There were a lot of tasteless baked products, and I thought, ‘People need better than this.’ I had been baking for myself and testing baked goods. Doing mixes meant that people could make their own fresh goods, that tasted good,” she said.

Gluten Free Pantry was wildly successful, moving from the basement of her home to an industrial situation after just three years. By the time she sold it in 2005, Gluten Free Pantry was doing a big business, she said. The company continues to make and develop new gluten-free products, she said, available at glutenfree.com and in some stores.

By 1993, 20 years after her own diagnosis, the diagnosis of celiac disease was one in 1,000. Today, said Ms Hillson, new screenings and an increased awareness within the medical community of the insidiousness of this sensitivity, means that one in 100 are diagnosed. According to the National Institute of Health, National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, one in 133 people in the United States have Celiac disease.

“Early diagnosis is important,” stressed Ms Hillson. “If your symptoms are not constant, you can go for years without the right diagnosis.”

And once that diagnosis is made, sticking to the special diet can mean a huge improvement in the quality of a person’s life. “If you adhere to the diet for life, you will start to heal and feel better. Health issues will return to that of the normal population,” she added.

Local Line of Foods

Locally, Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies, owned by Liz Gilbert of Sandy Hook, walked away from the 2008 Connecticut Specialty Food Product Awards in October with both first and third prize for her snickerdoodle cookies and chocolate chip paradise cookies. This was the second year in a row that Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies received a products award. In 2007, the snickerdoodles and apple and pumpkin pies produced by Ms Gilbert’s company were honored. The pies were not submitted to this year’s Specialty Food Product Awards for consideration, but she does make the popular gluten-free pies during the holiday season.

Gilbert’s Gourmet Goodies is a line of allergen-free baked items that Ms Gilbert developed in 2005 after being diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2003. They are made with all-organic white or brown rice flour, tapioca flour, or potato starch flour and leavened with xanthan gum, rather that baking powder or soda, and contain no peanuts, nuts, soy, milk, or corn. The products contain no butter or margarines, but only an organic nonhydrogenated palm oil or canola oil. Eggs are used in some of the products.

Ms Gilbert, who has attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park for classes on gluten-free baking, developed all of the recipes.

“I find that my customers span many areas,” said Ms Gilbert recently. “They include people with Celiac disease and allergies to wheat. I also have customers with autistic children who have taken their children off wheat and gluten because of the improvement in their children’s conditions when these and other foods are removed from their diets,” said Ms Gilbert.

Other customers are simply people who love a tasty, healthier cookie, she said.

After a year and a half of turning out chocolate chip, old-fashioned sugar and snickerdoodle cookies, pumpkin and banana bread, coffee cake, apple and pumpkin pie, and apple tarts from the commercial kitchen at St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, the business has grown to the point that she relocated to a commercial bakery in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where she and a small staff produce 600 to 800 giant cookies or pouches of cookies at a time.

The giant cookies are available locally at Mocha Coffeehouse, or the Wishing Well, both on Glen Road in Sandy Hook Center; and at Stew Leonard’s in Norwalk. The cookies and dough to bake gluten-free treats at home are also sold at Chamomile Natural Foods on Route 6 in Danbury; New Morning Natural Foods in Woodbury; Nature’s Temptations in Ridgefield; and at Whole Foods stores in Connecticut and New York.

“The stores are happy, because the cookies appeal to such a wide range of people, with and without food restrictions,” said Ms Gilbert.

The good news is that finding gluten-free foods is becoming easier. Both the Big Y and Caraluzzi’s in Newtown feature gluten-free sections of food, and several area restaurants, including The Inn at Newtown, Katherine’s Kitchen, and Sal e Pepe in Newtown can accommodate special dietary needs, including gluten-free diets, with advance notice. In Bethel, Sesame Seed also accommodates those on a gluten-free diet.

 From Living Without Magazine comes this salad recipe utilizing one of winter’s popular vegetables.

Gluten Free

Sweet Potato Salad

This is a crowd-pleasing alternative to traditional potato salad. Sweet potatoes are high in beneficial antioxidants and low on the glycemic index.

4 large sweet potatoes (peel if desired), cut into 1/2-inch slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

8 ounces (about 8 slices) turkey bacon

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup minced cilantro

Additional salt and pepper, to taste

 

Dressing

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place sweet potatoes on a lightly oiled, large rimmed baking pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Potatoes should be in a single layer.

Roast potatoes for approximately 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender and slightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

While potatoes are cooking, sauté turkey bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan. Chop and reserve. Sauté onion and bell pepper. Add additional oil if necessary. Cook only until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

To prepare dressing, whisk balsamic vinegar, honey or agave, and spices in a large bowl. Slowly add olive oil, whisking to create an emulsion.

Toss potatoes, bacon, onion, bell pepper and cilantro with dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate. Serve chilled or room temperature