Nutmeg Celiac Sprue Support Group

DANBURY — The disorder called Celiac Sprue or Celiac disease is an immunological attack on gluten, the protein found in wheat and other grains, and has been found to be far more common than recognized in the past.

The Nutmeg Celiac Support Group on Lake Avenue will address the subject on March 21 at the Center for Behavioral Health at 7 pm.

Questions and answers by members who have learned to live on a gluten-free diet for life will be part of the program. Nancy Salem, registered dietician at the Danbury Hospital, will offer suggestions for good nutrition when wheat, oaks, barley, and rye are removed from the diet and other foods must be substituted. A related health issue, called osteoporosis, the “silent disease,” may result due to malnutrition from absorption problems.

There is no cheating on a gluten-free diet but there are many packaged foods, mixes, cookbooks, restaurants with gluten-free choices on their menus and Internet information available in 2003 that were unknown or unheard of 14 years ago when the group was formed by four mothers with children newly diagnosed as having Celiac disease.

Recent studies at the University of Maryland Research Center concluded that the disease was present in one out of 22 people who had a close relative with Celiac and one out of 133 participants who were at risk because of symptoms or family history.

Newsletters from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut support groups and information about the Gluten Free Restaurant Awareness Program will be available.

A representative from Trader Joe’s Company that has 192 stores across the country and 57 in the east will discuss company policy and the many gluten-free products that are carried in Danbury and elsewhere. There will be samples from the store’s shelves that Celiacs will enjoy.

Members of the group are asked to bring baked goods from Ann Louise Breining’s cookbook, I Can’t Believe It’s Gluten Free.