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CELIAC SPOTLIGHT
Go Team! 10 Tips for Building Your Celiac Support Squad By Jenni Prokopy NFCA Volunteer and Founder of ChronicBabe It’s a lonely feeling when you’re the only person at a party who can’t dive into the buffet. But living gluten-free doesn’t have to be lonely, or a chore. You can eat well and have fun with food even with celiac disease—it just takes a little more planning and creativity. To guarantee success, start building your “celiac support squad,” friends and family who understand your needs. The first step, says Stephanie Torlakson of Pamela’s Products, is to embrace food as “food” instead of “gluten-free food.” She imagines a dinner party, full of laughter and the clinking of silverware on plates, where everyone is eating gluten-free…and loving it. It’s not impossible, she says: “There’s an explosion of gluten-free food available, and celiacs can be extremely choosy—like anyone else would be.” Working with Torlakson and five people living with celiac disease, we developed 10 tips to help you develop your support team. Try a few, and adapt them to your needs. Before long, friends will stop cringing at your “special cookies” and start requesting your tasty treats. 1. Do your homework. Buy cookbooks, find web sites (like the award-winning Gluten-Free Girl), and hunt down restaurants. Involve your friends and family in your quest, and turn it into something fun, instead of something to be endured. Hand out Triumph Dining Cards. People who care about you want to help, but they may not understand exactly how. Show then some of the cards, and explain how different cuisines offer different hazards. By offering details, you’ll ease the learning curve. You might be surprised at how many people jump to try a new restaurant with you! 2. Treat loved ones to a delicious home-cooked meal. Serve it up, and pretend to prep your own separate plate; watch while they ooh and aah over your fantastic cooking. Then surprise them with the announcement that the entire meal is gluten-free and dive in. 3. Host a baking party. Gather ingredients, baking mixes and recipes and invite friends over to experiment. By baking with you, they’ll appreciate the care you take to prepare healthy foods, while learning firsthand how you make delicious chocolate chip cookies. (If you’re not an accomplished baker, this is the time to include a friend who is, so you can learn new tricks!)  As a twist, Torlakson suggests baking a gorgeous birthday cake for a party, and once everyone’s started eating (and complimenting), cut yourself a slice and joke that you “love them enough to get sick.” Then reveal the cake is gluten-free and watch their amazement. 4. Remove the stigma of “gluten-free.” People without celiac disease often approach gluten-free food with trepidation, says Torlakson, so a good way to teach others about healthy options is to “inadvertently share great food with non-celiacs”—or even trick them into trying it. Getting rid of the stigma of “gluten-free” is essential, Torlakson explains. Laurie Edwards agrees; she recently changed her attitude when introducing food. “I used to say, ‘It’s gluten-free but I swear it tastes good,’ which sets up an expectation that it won’t taste good,” she explains. Now she just offers food and later explains why she can eat it, too. 5. Embrace the holidays with a sense of adventure. We have deep emotional connections with food, most strongly with holiday meals. So it makes sense that they’re the toughest to manage. Stephanie Williams knows from experience how hard it is to change a family’s “food culture.” “I’m trying to show them you can have dishes without bread that are hearty; they’re afraid they’re going to be hungry,” she says. Try hosting a holiday meal so you can show off yummy alternative dishes. Bring a gluten-free dish to contribute to a family meal. Offer to special-order ingredients (from places like The Gluten-Free Mall) to make cooking easier on everyone. 6. Get creative. When Victoria Groce planned her wedding, she knew she wanted wedding cake…but how to make it gluten-free? Her compromise: A traditional wedding cake for guests, and a flourless “groom’s cake” that she could enjoy. Yes, she was the bride, not the groom. Who cares? She got to eat cake on her wedding day! 7. Make vacations special…with research. Travel can be daunting, but do your homework and it won’t just be tolerable—it will be fun! For her honeymoon, Groce found a B&B that served gluten-free scones, and later spread the word by writing a travel article on the place. Angela Pearson recently vacationed with her family in Mesa, Ariz., and the group took a sidetrip to Picasso’s Pizza in Tempe, where she enjoyed favorites: gluten-free beer and pizza. “The excitement of having food that I can safely eat—to see how much enjoyment we had—really touched the family,” she says. 8. Have a pizza party. It’s one of the most-mourned foods among those with celiac disease, but it doesn’t have to be. Torlakson suggests hosting a pizza party for friends, giving everyone individual crusts to fill as they wish. (You can use Pamela’s Products’ Wheat-Free Bread Mix to make and freeze crusts in advance.) When everyone dives in to their pizzas, spill your secret: yours isn’t the only one that’s gluten-free. 9. Take a field trip. Clover Morell took her partner, Andy, with her to Wild Oats, a suburban Chicago grocery where shelves are labeled clearly with gluten-free selections. “He watched me shop and saw the kind of scrutiny I have to do,” she explains, and he was inspired to write a letter to another local store, asking that they improve their labeling—resulting in some improvements. 10. “Know what you CAN have—don’t let it limit what you do.” This advice from Pearson rings true. Celebrate the things you are able to enjoy, and invest time and energy to explore all your options, so mealtimes don’t feel like deprivation. Eating well (and being healthy) might take a little more work, but the process is fun if you include others. Says Williams: “It’s another way to have a full life.” Jenni Prokopy founded ChronicBabe two years ago to teach other young women how to live well in spite of chronic illness—to be more than sick chicks, to be Babes! Please visit www.ChronicBabe.com |
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