Celiac Princess

Gluten-Free Bridal Shower Bliss

Your wedding experience is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life, hopefully as something that brings a smile to your face every time you think about it. For me, that’s exactly what happens. I feel so blessed to have had what I can only imagine was one of the most incredible wedding-planning years ever, and I have so many people to thank for that—my handsome husband, my family and, of course, my amazing friends that made up the bridal party.

Having a totally gluten-free wedding experience was really important to me so thankfully, my bridal party totally embraced my dreams for a Lilly Pulitzer-inspired gluten-free bridal shower!  So how did they (Stefanie, Ellen, Julie, Aline, Stacey, Ilana, Jennifer, Alli, & Theresa) do it totally gluten-free?

Start Planning Early

The girls hosting my bridal shower started planning about six months in advance to ensure that they had plenty of time to book a location that could prevent cross contamination in the food as well as offer a gluten-free cake and treats. The gals looked at restaurants, country clubs and hotels, but ultimately decided on the home of one of the girls with a catered lunch and cake from a local gluten-free bakery.

The Venue

Whether it’s a bridal shower or other social event you’re hosting there are some very important questions to ask a venue to ensure that you’ll have a safe gluten-free experience.  If you visit a location and the chef is too busy to come out of the kitchen and talk to you, leave immediately. That is unless there is a really, really good reason for the chef not meeting with you. Do not listen to the catering manager as they tell you how great the chef is. If the chef won’t meet with you to talk about a menu, walk away and find a location where the chef can’t wait to jump into the world of gluten-free cooking. You’ll also want to make sure the location is aware of preventing cross-contamination and has allergen-handling practices in place.

My bridesmaids decided to use a local restaurant that prepares Mediterranean food that’s 100% naturally gluten-free. Plus I’m not really the tea sandwich type of girl, so this style fit my personality perfectly. For lunch, we enjoyed lamb, chicken and beef kabobs, falafel, fresh and crisp salads and rice pilaf.

Bridal Shower Games & Activities

No bridal shower is complete without some cheesy girly games! If you don’t want your shower to involve wrapping you up with toilet paper, that’s totally understandable (I didn’t), so here are some of the games my bridesmaids came up with:

• Recipes from the Heart: Prior to the shower ask all of the guests to pick their favorite recipe. Email out a template for them to type/write the recipe on. Then at the shower, create a scrapbook where each person decorates the page with their recipe on it. You’ll want to bring glitter, stickers, markers, etc.  This book of recipes will become a keepsake for the bride forever. I have mine on my cookbook shelf and it’s one of my favorites to use because not only are there great recipes, but they come from people I love.

• Words of Wisdom: In each shower invitation include a notecard for guests to write advice on for the bride. Present these to the bride at the shower while she opens gifts.

• Missing Ingredients Game: Pick 10 super simple recipes (brownies, cake, cookies, etc) and type them out on cards, but leave out one important ingredient per recipe. At the shower, give each guest the recipes and have them guess which ingredient is missing in each recipe. Consider giving a prize to the winning guest such as a whisk, cooking spoon, apron or potholders!

The Cake/Cupcakes

There are so many options when it comes to gluten-free cakes and cupcakes for showers! There are hundreds of gluten-free bakeries now offering gluten-free options all across the world. To find a bakery near you, visit www.glutenfreeregistry.com. This site offers state-by-state listings as well as a global map with bakeries and restaurants.

If your friends are bakers, they may want to consider baking a gluten-free cake or cupcakes for you. This can be a really fun way for your gal pals to show some of their own creativity in the kitchen! Consider using gluten-free mixes from Betty Crocker, Pamela’s Products or 123 Gluten-Free. All are available on www.glutenfreely.com.

20 Minutes to Help with Celiac Disease Research

Interested in helping with celiac research? We truly hope you are and now there's a great opportunity to get involved! Your participation in this study will help researchers better understand a new test for celiac disease that can be administered from the comfort of your own home! And, you get results in just 10 minutes!

The Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center  (BIDMC) is looking for adults who have relatives with celiac disease but have not been diagnosed with celiac disease and are not on a gluten free diet. We are interested in testing the usefulness of a new investigational self-administered fingerstick blood test for celiac disease.

People who participate will be sent a packet with a fingerstick celiac test and a short survey. The survey and the test will be sent back to the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the provided envelope. Participation is expected to take less than 20 minutes. Please note that the fingerstick test is investigational (not FDA approved) and should not be used for celiac disease diagnosis.

BIDMC has a limited number of test kits available. They will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis with a limit of 2 kits per person. This study is completely anonymous and BIDMC will not have any way to tell who was tested with these kits. The study is being conducted by Dr. Daniel Leffler at BIDMC and is being sponsored by 2G Pharma.

Participants must meet all of the following criteria:

• Over the age of 18
• A first or second degree relative with celiac disease
• Not previously diagnosed with celiac disease
• Not on a gluten-free diet or low-gluten diet within the past 3 months
• Able and willing to self administer the test, complete a short survey form and return both in the provided envelope
• Willingness to have follow up medical evaluation in the event of a positive test

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Toufic Kabbani
The Celiac Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Phone: 617.667.0528
celiac@bidmc.harvard.edu

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Wall Street Journal's Market Watch Profiles Gluten-Related Disorders

Thanks to reporter Melinda Beck from the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch for a fantastic feature on the spectrum of gluten-related disorders. In her coverage, Melinda spoke about the new international paper that called for a new classification system for gluten-related disorders including celiac disease, wheat allergy, gluten sensitivity, dermatitis herpetiformis and gluten ataxia. 

Check out the video here!

Gluten-Free Diet on Today Show

Yay for the Today Show! They once again talked about the gluten-free diet this morning! It's so great that such wonderful tv personalities like the Today Show crew are talking about the importance of a gluten-free lifestyle and some of the best products on the market. Watch the clip now!

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

30 Days of Gluten-Free Giveaways

Gluten-free awarness is everywhere and now, thanks to Rudi's Gluten-Free Bakery, joining in with raising awareness could land you some tasty gluten-free goodies!

Through a 30 day Gluten Freebies Giveaway on Facebook,  Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery is on a
mission to help everyone with celiac disease, a gluten sensitivity or wheat allergy taste the good things in life! The campaign goes back to the company's core mission of teaching individuals on a
special diet that they don’t have to give anything up to go gluten-free. And, thankfully Rudi's has a great team of bakers because their breads taste, look and feel like the real deal (yes, I fully believe that and no one is paying me to say it).

So, beginning right now, log onto the Rudi’s Gluten-Free Facebook page, “Like” the brand and receive a $2 off coupon. Additionally, by visiting the Giveaway tab on the Facebook page, consumers can enter weekly to win prizes given away each day, like Rudi’s Gluten-Free breads and baked goods, a Cuisinart toaster, Crofter’s Organic jams, a subscription to Delight Gluten-Free Magazine, a Kodak digital camera, and gluten-free cookbooks.

To show how much spirit I have for raising awareness for celiac disease, I'm going to give away one more great item! A one-year subscription to Delight Gluten-Free Magazine! Simply send me an email to vanessa@delightglutenfree.com with your favorite gluten-free recipe and you'll be entered to win a one-year subscription to the best gluten-free food magazine ever!

And...it keeps getting better. Because Rudi's is really that awesome, they are going to give one lucky reader of my blog a prize pack that includes 2 free product coupons, a Rudi's branded toaster and a reuseable shopping bag! I'll pick this winner from the same pool of folks who email me their favorite recipe!!

Happy Cooking!

New Classification System for Gluten-Related Disorders

Even though it seems like there are so many unanswered question out there about celiac disease, there's hope on the horizon that someday in the not too distant future we'll understand the root causes behind this autoimmune disease, or should I say "spectrum of a disease."

Just this morning I woke up to more good news in the field of celiac research as the Wall Street Journal covered the release of a new consensus paper published in the journal BMC Medicine that seeks to offer a new classification system for gluten-related disorders.

The paper was authored by 15 celiac disease experts from around the world (including Dr. Alessio Fasano from the Center for Celiac Research and Dr. Peter Green from the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University) and explains the clinical differences between celiac disease, gluten sensitivity and wheat allergies.

The researchers broke the findings down as follows:

• Celiac Disease patients experience an autoimmune response to gluten where the body mistakenly attacks itself. When eating gluten, patients in this group will develop antibodies that can be measured by a blood test and/or damage to the villi of the small intestine, which can be confirmed by a biopsy. There are more than 300 symptoms linked to celiac disease that can affect any system of the body.

• Wheat Allergy patients will experience a classic allergy response that may affect the skin, gastrointestinal tract or respiratory tract when they ingest gluten. Skin prick tests are considered the first line of testing for a wheat allergy. In these patients, a reaction will occur minutes to hours after ingestion of gluten.

• Gluten Sensitivity patients are sort of in a league of their own. This group of patients experiences symptoms similar to those of celiac disease patients when they eat gluten, yet there is no measureable reaction. This group of patients does not develop antibodies to gluten, nor do they exhibit signs of intestinal damage. The only method to diagnose a gluten sensitivity is for a patient to use an elimination diet to determine if his or her symptoms subside when gluten is not being consumed.

You can view the abstract and full study here:
Abstract: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/13/abstract

Full PDF: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-10-13.pdf

A huge thank you to the team of researchers who worked on this consensus paper. It's wonderful to know that we're getting closer to understanding how gluten affects our bodies and how we can prevent long-term complications.

Tips for Gluten-Free Families

As more and more kids are being diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, families are looking for high-quality resources to help make the transition to a gluten-free lifestyle. This month I’ve pulled together a list of the best information on the World Wide Web to help families learn the ins and outs of managing a gluten-free home and beyond. 

CNDHF & NASPGHAN Gluten-Free Diet Guide for Families: Available free of charge online, this guide from the Children’s Nutrition and Digestive Health Foundation and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition guides families through the initial diagnosis of celiac disease and how to transition their lifestyle into being gluten-free. The guide includes useful and easy to read tables of ingredient information, safe and unsafe foods, and food prep tips, as well as a guide for daily meal planning. 

Download this free resource at: http://www.naspghan.org/user-assets/Documents/pdf/diseaseInfo/GlutenFreeDietGuide-E.pdf

GlutenFreely.com Setting Up a Gluten-Free Kitchen: Preventing cross contamination, cleaning out pantries and cooking with new ingredients can be a challenge for any family, especially when gluten can hide in unthought-of nooks and crannies. To help families better understand how to set up a gluten-free kitchen, check out this great resource from GlutenFreely.com that features tips on everything from cooking, frying, baking and boiling to safe ways to store food in the pantry! Be sure to watch the video as well! 

Check out the GlutenFreely.com Setting Up a Gluten-Free Kitchen resource now at http://www.glutenfreely.com/liveglutenfreely/%20gluten-free-kitchen 

Delight Gluten-Free Magazine Going to School Gluten-Free Guide: For students with celiac disease, getting a safe, healthy source is extremely important, but the process also can be extremely challenging. Fortunately, as celiac disease becomes more prevalent, schools are taking notice and beginning to more readily offer accommodations, gluten-free food choices, and—in some states—even entirely gluten-free school lunch menus. Getting your child’s school to take these steps can be tricky. While the details and considerations can vary by state, school, and even grade, the key steps to successful, safe, and healthy gluten-free eating for students remain the same regardless of age.

Download Delight Gluten-Free Magazine’s comprehensive back to school guide for gluten-free students of all ages here: http://delightglutenfree.com/guide-for-a-safe-and-healthy-gluten-free-school-year

Children’s Hospital Boston’s “Amy Goes Gluten-Free" Comic Book: The Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Children’s Hospital Boston recently released a comic book geared towards kids called “Amy Goes Gluten-Free: A Young Person’s Guide to Celiac Disease.”  The book is designed to help kids navigate their way through a gluten-free diet and living with an autoimmune condition.  The book contains fun and colorful pictures, nutrition tips and great stories for helping kids cope with celiac disease. 

Purchase the comic book for $4 through Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00383DA3A

Traveling the Gluten-Free Way: Family vacations are extremely important. They are a time for the whole family to relax, experience new cultures and most importantly, HAVE FUN! But when someone in the family has to maintain a gluten-free diet, vacations can often become a stressful time as you’ve got to plan way ahead to find suitable family-and-gluten-free-friendly dining options. Thankfully, GlutenFreeTravelSite.com has pulled together an incredible bundle of user-generated reviews and suggestions for traveling the world on a gluten-free diet.  The site features restaurant menus, hotels, resorts, theme parks, and so much more! Search by state, country, county or zip code to find the best gluten-free dining options wherever your vacation may bring you. 

Check out Gluten-Free Travel Site now at: http://glutenfreetravelsite.com/

Avocados: A Nutrient Packed Ingredient

Avocados are one of those foods that easily get looked over as it’s piled into salads and on sandwiches, but never really the star ingredient.

But, did you know that according to the United States Department of Agriculture, avocados are actually quite good for you! Studies are currently underway to prove that avocados actually serve as antioxidants, can enhance your immune system response and help you metabolize vitamin A.  And, according to The Amazing Avocado, every avocado contains nearly 20 vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. These are nutrients that keep your teeth and bones strong and healthy, help your heart function normally, and help fight off infection and illness.

So head on down to your local grocery store and pick up some avocados to test out these tasty and colorful avocado treats.

Avocado, Turkey, Bacon Panini
2 slices gluten-free bread (see recipe below for gluten-free Panini bread)
3 slices oven roasted turkey breast
½ avocado, sliced thinly
2 strips crispy bacon
Salt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Optional additions: sliced tomato and Gruyere cheese

1. Spread the mustard thinly on both slices of bread.
2. Layer the turkey, bacon, and avocado – lightly salt the avocado. 
3. Spray inside of Panini press with oil, place the sandwich in the center and press until golden.

Gluten-Free Panini Bread
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup warm water
¼ cup plain yogurt
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
3½ cups All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour

1. In a stainless steel bowl, mix together yeast, sugar and water and allow the mixture to bloom.
2. After the mixture has bloomed, add in the yogurt, egg, butter and salt.
3. Add all-purpose gluten-free flour to a large bowl and create a well. Pour wet ingredients into the well and slowly incorporate the flour.
4. Once a dough has formed, move to a counter top workspace and knead about 4 minutes. Cover and allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size.
5. Cut dough into tennis ball size balls and roll out into thin ovals.
6. Cook the bread on a pizza stone or grill pan until lightly browned and crispy, about 5 minutes per side.

Cucumber Avocado Soup

1 cucumber, peeled and diced (1/4 cup reserved for garnish)
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced (1/4 cup reserved for garnish)
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 scallion, white and pale-green parts only, coarsely chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 cup cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Puree ingredients in a blender. Divide soup and reserved cucumber and avocado among 4 bowls.
2. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Hot Shots! Culinary Celebrities Tackle Gluten-Free Dining

The Food Network still hasn’t added a gluten-free cooking show to its prime time line-up, or well at all, but that doesn’t mean that our nation’s top chefs haven’t started taking the gluten-free diet seriously. Whether launching dedicated gluten-free product lines or implementing gluten-free menus in their restaurants, these culinary geniuses have started catering to the growing gluten-free community in big ways.

So who’s doing what?

Chef Guy Fieri
The bleached blond, spikey-haired culinary mastermind Chef Guy Fieri is a national icon for down-home American comfort food. And even though he appears on multiple top-rated shows on Food Network (Guy’s Big Bite and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives), a prime time game show (NBC’s Minute to Win it), and has written two best-selling books, this high-energy chef still had time last year to create a new line of gluten-free barbeque sauces and salsas. And, his two restaurants—Johnny Garlic’s (www.johnnygarlics.com) and Tex Wasabi’s (www.texwasabis.com) —easily accommodate any gluten-free request that comes their way. Both restaurants received gluten-free protocol training from experts associated with the North Bay Celiac Support Group (www.northbayceliacs.org).

Fieri says that his quest into the gluten-free world began simply because people kept asking for it. At every stop he made while filming his hit shows and in his restaurants, fans would ask about gluten-free options, so he said, “I just had to do it.”

Chef Ming Tsai
Chef Ming Tsai is no stranger to the spotlight of culinary television. Ming received an Emmy award in 1998 for his Food Network show East Meets West with Ming Tsai. And today, he’s the host and executive producer of the public television show SIMPLY MING where in 2009 he received two Emmy nominations for his “Outstanding Culinary Program.” Chef Ming is truly a master chef with a culinary point of view that combines the best flavors of the East and West. His Boston-based restaurant Blue Ginger (http://ming.com/blueginger.htm) has impressed diners for more than a decade with its innovative menu and bold flavors. Not only is he a great chef, but he is also a tremendous advocate for the food allergy community.

As the national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), Chef Ming has worked tirelessly to further education on food allergies and raise awareness amongst chefs on the need to properly accommodate diners with special dietary needs. He was a key advocate on recent legislation that was signed into law by the Massachusetts Legislature that requires restaurants to comply with certain food allergy awareness guidelines. Of course, this work started in his restaurant where diners can enjoy the most lavish of gluten-free meals with no worries of ever getting sick. The gluten-free menu at Blue Ginger can be viewed here: http://ming.com/blueginger/dinner/gluten-free-dinner-menu.htm

For more on Chef Ming Tsai’s gluten-free efforts, be sure to check out the summer 2012 issue of Delight Gluten-Free Magazine (www.DelightGlutenFree.com) which will feature an in-depth interview with the chef as well as some of his mouthwatering recipes!

Chef Thomas Keller
He may not appear regularly on national television, but the lights are constantly shining on Chef Tomas Keller. His accolades are extremely impressive. In 2001, he was named "America's Best Chef" by Time magazine. In 2003, Johnson & Wales University conferred upon him the honorary Degree of Doctor of Culinary Arts for his contributions to the culinary industry. Additionally, Chef Keller is the only American-born chef to hold multiple three star ratings by the Michelin Guide. Yeah, he’s a foodie rockstar and now he’s doing gluten-free too!

Last fall, Chef Keller—owner of eight restaurants and two bakeries including Per Se (http://perseny.com/) and Bouchon Bakery (http://www.bouchonbakery.com)—launched a gluten-free all-purpose flour called Cup4Cup (http://cup4cup.com/). The flour came as a result of a partnership between Chef Keller and his research & development chef at French Laundry, Chef Lena Kwak. With a passion for cooking for others and an interest in nutritional science, Lena began developing a gluten-free flour that offered a successful alternative to the traditional flour that was used in the French Laundry quick breads, desserts and brioche. I’ve tried out the flour numerous times and its’ truly amazing.

The Cup4Cup flour is now used in all of Chef Keller’s restaurants to accommodate gluten-free patrons. Whether it’s bread at the table, a cookie from the bakery, or Chef Keller’s famous Cornet of Marinated Atlantic Salmon with Sweet Red Onion Crème Fraiche, every bite of gluten-free goodness will leave you eternally grateful that this incredible chef decided to tackle gluten-free baking!

I’d like to end this post by offering a HUGE thank you to these three inspirational chefs for taking the time out of the busy schedules to make dining out a truly remarkable experience for those living a gluten-free lifestyle.

Oats: Nutritional Benefits and Safety in Manufacturing

Whole grains are really good for you. In fact, the most recent studies from the Whole Grains Council suggest that eating whole grains can reduce the risk of stroke by approximately 30%, reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease by 25%, and help maintain a healthy body weight.

For people on a gluten-free diet, whole grains are a touchy subject, especially when it comes to oats. Oats are perhaps the most controversial food amongst the gluten-free community. Are they safe or unsafe? Are they cross-contaminated in the fields or during production? The truth is that they are all of these things.

Oats in their natural form do not contain the gluten protein; however, many mainstream manufacturers grow their oats in close proximity to wheat fields, and others manufacture their oats in the same facilities as other gluten-containing grains, making them unsafe for people with celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and wheat allergies.

So how do you know they’re safe? To answer our questions about the gluten-free oat production process, I sat down with Francesca Berrini of Bob’s Red Mill (BRM) to find out how the company makes sure they are doing gluten-free oats right.

Q & A with Bob’s Red Mill

Vanessa Maltin Weisbrod: Why did BRM decide to start manufacturing gluten-free oat varieties?

Francesca: We wanted to offer gluten-free oat products because oats are naturally delicious and one of the most healthy foods available. Oatmeal for breakfast is an easy way to get the health benefits of the wonderful heart-healthy fiber and protein that oats are famous for. One of our major goals as a company is to provide the widest variety of gluten-free products available for cooking and baking. We want our customers to have a world of healthy gluten-free ingredients to choose from.

VMW: How do you ensure that the oats you produce are safe?

Francesca: Our commitment to top quality gluten-free oats begins even before the crops are planted. Bob’s Red Mill works closely with over 200 farmers to eliminate any possibility of cross-contact with gluten from the moment the seeds are sown. The very fields in which our oats are grown must be certified to have been free from other gluten-containing crops for at least three years. At hundreds of points along the journey from farm to plate, the oats are sampled and tested using our own state-of-the-art laboratory to ensure the absence of gluten.

VMW: What safety measures do you take and whom can consumers reach out to for more information?

Francesca: Not only do we grow our products in certified gluten-free fields and make sure the products get to our facility with no chance of cross-contact, we test each truckload of product before it is allowed to enter our separate gluten-free milling facility. We also test during and after production to eliminate any chance of contact with gluten.

Of course, we always caution that there is the chance that some people with the most severe cases of gluten intolerance might be unable to tolerate eating oats. We always recommend that you check with your doctor if you have questions about your own food allergies.

Anyone can call our wonderful customer service staff during business hours Monday through Friday at (800) 349-2173 to ask any questions about our products. Our experts can answer all kinds of questions about everything on subjects ranging from when a batch of oats was milled to popular ingredient substitutions and cooking tips.

VMW: Why are oats good for you?

Francesca: All of our oat products are made from whole grain oats, meaning that none of the nutritious parts of the grain like the bran or germ have been removed, unlike the case for most processed grains. This means that they are naturally high in protein and fiber. The Whole Grains Council has an excellent library of research studies that you can reference on the benefits of whole grains at http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org