Beyond Rice Cakes features easy-to-make recipes including snacks, finger foods, soups, salads, main dishes, and desserts; cooking tips from Christina Pirello, Emmy Award-winning TV personality and best-selling author of Cooking the Whole Foods Way; and advice from experts for managing a gluten-free diet at home, in the workplace, at college, and on vacation.

Studies have shown an estimated 1 in 133 Americans have celiac disease, a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging the small intestine. 

According to Alice Bast, executive director of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, “Beyond Rice Cakes is a must-read for people with celiac, their friends and families. The Gluten-Free Girls’ tips and recipes are more than strategies for simply coping with celiac. They promote an approach to gluten-free living that is full of adventure, innovation, and joy.”

One of Vanessa’s biggest concerns after her diagnosis in August of 2004 was telling her friends that she could no longer eat the same foods that they could.  As a result, she decided to write Beyond Rice Cakes after she realized her friends would be supportive and that her diagnosis was a positive turning point in her life.

Beyond Rice Cakes began as a binder filled with a few gluten-free recipes from Vanessa’s mom, who also has celiac disease. With the help of her mom, her grandmother’s recipe box, her closest friends, and a wealth of guidance from Alice Bast at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, the pile of recipes have turned into a collection of easy-to-make recipes that any young person can master.

Describing her book in her own words, Vanessa says, “Beyond Rice Cakes is intended to help everyone with celiac learn to accept their disease as a blessing rather than a curse. Simply eliminating gluten products from your diet can completely change your whole life from one that is miserable to one that is healthy, fulfilling and delicious!” 

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