Celiacs Helping Celiacs

DANBURY — A meeting of the Nutmeg Celiac Support Group will be held on April 23 at the Community Center for Behavioral and Mental Health on Lake Avenue and Oil Mill Road, at 7:30 pm.

Solutions, preferences, and new food sources for gluten-free products will be the spring meeting topic.

Dedicated to helping others with the celiac disease, members from the 14-year-old support group and Nancy Salem, nutrition specialist from the Danbury Hospital, will take questions and offer answers to the “What Can I Eat” problem when wheat, oats, barley, and rye have to be eliminated from the diet.

Celiac disease is a common disease although often not recognized by doctors. With a prevalence of one person in 133 in the United States, one person in 122 in Northern Ireland, one person in 100 in the United Kingdom, according to a recent study, there are many who live with a condition that requires a gluten-free diet for life.

It is a genetically based disease, one of a number of autoimmune disorders and one that goes undiagnosed for many until later in life or never discovered with ultimate nutritional hazards.

The support group meetings are open to all who wish to learn about the disease, who want to talk to others who have found ways to manage food choices in their homes and when eating out, who welcome suggestions about restaurants, shopping, ingredients, and useful websites.

Questions may be phoned to Edith Meffley of Ridgefield at 203-438-6108.