Basically, using products with any amount of gluten (a substance present in grains) in the formula caused her crazy amounts of irritation.

“When I switched to a gluten-free shampoo, the pain stopped immediately,” says Jennifer, who’s overhauled her beauty routine since the diagnosis. That’s why partnering with Éclair Naturals, a new line of vegan, gluten-free, and soy-free beauty products available at Rite Aid, was a no-brainer for her. “I love the brown sugar body scrub because it smells like cookies,” she says.

Painful rashes weren’t the only thing Jennifer dealt with prior to learning she had celiac disease, though. She says her hair used to fall out in clumps. “My eyelashes were falling out, too,” she adds. (Because people with the condition don’t absorb key nutrients, hair loss often occurs.)

What’s more, Jennifer says her skin had a yellow tint to it, so finding a perfect foundation match on TV and movie sets was virtually impossible. “My liver was toxic, which was making my skin yellow,” she says.
While she’s doing a whole lot better now that she avoids gluten in her food and beauty regimen, Jennifer—who owns a gluten-free bakery called Jennifer’s Way in New York City—still has her ups and downs. “It’s an autoimmune disease, so you really have to stay on top of it,” she says. “When you feel a flare coming on, if you don’t take charge right then, it’ll cycle out of control. I feel great right now, but my killer is stress, and I’m still learning how to deal with that. Meditation helps a lot.”


— Women's Health, written by Christina Heiser

On a recent trip to Target, I discovered The Switch Witch — A toy and book set designed for kids who can't participate in eating all of the Halloween candy they collect while trick-or-treating. The concept is this: A great story about how The Switch Witch needs candy to be able to fly her broom, and so on Halloween night, kids leave out their candy for her, and she replaces the candy with a toy.

I absolutely love this concept for kids who have bad allergies and can't participate in Halloween. I myself was not a diagnosed Celiac when I was a kid, but I can't imagine the frustration parents must feel knowing their kids can't trick-or-treat and eat their candy like other kids can.

The beauty of this story is that because it is not part of traditional Halloween lore, families can spin the story into whatever your family needs are. It works for parents who are concerned about their kids diet or weight, or who just don't want a lot of sugar around the house. Whatever you use The Switch Witch for, it is a brilliant way to make sure a child still gets to participate in Halloween fun.

You can buy The Switch Witch here through Target.

Now, even better is that The Switch Witch and Target have teamed up to offer two $500 Target gift cards. Entering is easy: Purchase your Switch Witch from Target and take some photos of The Switch Witch in her new home. Next, submit your photos to The Switch Witch Facebook page. You can submit as many photos as you like. The two photos with the most votes, will each receive a $500 Target gift card.

Enjoy your new favorite Halloween tradition!

— The Healthy Celiac

In the news today was so very good news for parents of children with severe food allergies — The Teal Pumpkin Project, is a campaign to encourage people to offer allergy free and non-food treats to kids on Halloween who suffer from severe allergies. The idea is to get people to paint one of their pumpkins teal, to indicate to parents of trick-or-treaters that the house offers safe treats for kids.

According to FARE's website: Launched as a national campaign by Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) in 2014, the Teal Pumpkin Project™ raises awareness of food allergies and promotes inclusion of all trick-or-treaters throughout the Halloween season.

Last year, households from 50 states and 7 countries participated in the Teal Pumpkin Project™. This year, you can be part of an even bigger movement by joining 100,000 households pledging to participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project™!

FARE’s Teal Pumpkin Project™ promotes safety, inclusion and respect of individuals managing food allergies. This nationwide movement offers an alternative for kids with food allergies, as well as other children for whom candy is not an option, and keeps Halloween a fun, positive experience for all!

You can visit their website to get ideas for what kind of treats to have on hand, or download posters to put outside your home, in your neighborhood or at your children's school.

A little while back I was finding myself really frustrated. I was consistently not feeling well. Not in a 'I just got gluten by accident' kind of way, but in a general, all over 'I never actually feel great' kind of way. This general feeling of not being 100% is pretty common for someone with celiac disease. One of the most irritating things I hear from people is, "well you must be totally fine as long as you don't get gluten right?". NO! People with celiac disease are not fine all the time as long as they don't accidentally get gluten. Celiac disease is a CHRONIC disease — that means there is no cure, and it has potential to cause chronic problems.

While not eating gluten will stop the mass destruction of your body, there are a ton of other factors at play. For starters, the body is usually in a constant state of inflammation (even getting gluten by accident a few times per year can cause this). Every time someone with celiac disease accidentally ingests gluten, they are adding fuel to that inflammation fire in their body. Even though they may feel better after a few weeks, there is a systemic autoimmune reaction happening in the body. People with celiac disease are also prone to other autoimmune conditions like Thyroid Disease or Multiple Sclerosis. So no, being a celiac is not as simple as not eating gluten.

Back to my original point though — Lately I have not been feeling great, and it was really starting to frustrate me. I have spent the last ten years of my life not 'feeling great' and to be honest it is really starting to piss me off. So following a vacation I recently took, (on which I ate a ton of rice, corn and gluten free bread) I decided to give my body a break from all grains. For the last three weeks have stuck to a diet of organic lean protein, fruits, vegetables and nuts — and I feel about 90% better than I was. Even though all the grains in my diet were gluten free, they were clearly bothering me. Here is the interesting part, I found out WHY they were bothering me: Lectins.

Lectins are a type of protein that can bind to cell membranes. They are sugar-binding and become the “glyco” portion of glycoconjugates on the membranes. Lectins offer a way for molecules to stick together without getting the immune system involved, which can influence cell-cell interaction. Sounds familiar right? A protein that offers a sticky base for molecules to stay together? I spoke with my naturalpathic doctor about this, and he let me know this:

Lectins are specialized proteins commonly found in fruits, vegetables, sea food, grains beans and seeds. They are highly resistant to digestion and are able to attach to cells in the gut and blood cells. Certain food lectins may trigger inflammatory responses and contribute to food sensitivities, cravings, digestive disorders, weight gain and post meal fatigue. Different people have different sensitivities to various lectins (some people may react to corn, while others find rice makes them feel ill). Sometimes you can tell when a particular food has disagreed with you and avoid it, while other foods may have been slowly eroding your health without you noticing it because you have become used to the low-grade inflammation in the GI tracts.

This actually makes perfect sense for those of us with celiac disease. We are so used to the tidal wave reactions we get from eating gluten, that we may not notice the slow and much quieter reactions we get to eating other foods that bother us. Since I have cut out all grains (corn and rice were the two big ones I was eating on a regular basis), I have felt so much better. I have slowly reintroduced gluten free oats, and those seem to agree with me just fine. But each person is different — and if your lucky, then you may not have any lectin allergies at all.

For any celiac who is still not feeling great I suggest looking into this issue more, and seeing if grain elimination is a good fit for you. Again, each person is different, and this is a decision I made for me — you have to make your own dietary decisions. My hope is that this information helps some of you who may be experiencing the same issues I was having! I will admit I had a brief moment where I thought, 'are you f%^*$# kidding me? There is more I can't eat? But after three weeks of no grains, I feel so much better it doesn't even matter. The goal is to be healthy, and that is what makes me happy, not eating a piece of bread. Just some grain-free food for thought!

— The Healthy Celiac

I know for many people, it can be really frustrating to explain celiac disease to people who know nothing about it (or who refuse to listen). If you find yourself struggling to explain celiac, try sending them this celiac cheat sheet  — 14 images to explain the severity and seriousness of this disease.

— The Healthy Celiac

There is literally nothing worse for a person with celiac disease than realizing that they just accidentally ate gluten. Usually it takes a period of weeks to even start to feel better. This should help give people a better idea of how it REALLY feels ....

First you experience a mix of shock and fear over the fact that you just accidentally poisoned your body.

Then that feeling of shock is replaced by blind rage at whoever or whatever caused gluten to end up in your mouth

Around this time, you start to feel the first wave of physical effects of the gluten which can be anything from overwhelming nausea to gas to general digestive upset.

Once the general feeling of digestive death starts to subside, you go into a dark, dark place because you know how hard the next few weeks are going to be.

Those weeks can consist of brain fog, exhaustion, joint pain, skin rashes, hair loss and whatever other miserable symptoms this disease causes for you (each celiac tends to have their own set of symptoms).

Next you attempt to function in day-to-day life without complaining by pretending you feel healthy.

.... but eventually you probably have a break down because you are so sick of being sick.

A few weeks later you start to feel better, and it feels like a miracle

And then someone says something to you like "I heard gluten intolerance isn't a real thing"

Stay strong fellow celiacs!

— The Healthy Celiac

Good news for cereal lovers! General Mills has announced that starting Fall 2015, all Cheerios will be gluten free! What I particularly love about this is that a major food brand is not just making a 'gluten free version' of their product, but altering their original product. Meaning the price point will stay the same, and those with celiac disease won't be forced to pay more money to eat gluten free cereal.

Yellow Box Cheerios™, Honey Nut Cheerios™, MultiGrain Cheerios™, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios™ and Frosted Cheerios™ will all be going gluten-free by early September. Packages that are gluten-free will be labeled with a seal. MultiGrain Cheerios™ is the only Cheerios product that will have a change in ingredients. Instead of wheat and barley, Multi Grain Cheerios™ will now have sorghum and millet along with the corn, rice and oats it has always had. The great taste will remain the same!

Cheerios naturally don't contain gluten, except for the oats. According to General Mills, they have 'created a process that allows us to remove the wheat, rye and barley from the oats we purchase, making Cheerios gluten-free'. While I'm not 100% sure how they go about 'removing wheat, rye and barley' from their oats, I would hope they are doing their due diligence to ensure there are less than 20 ppm of gluten.

You can read more Q&A about General Mills' decision to make Cheerios gluten free here.

Happy eating!

— The Healthy Celiac

Weekend trips with friends are supposed to be fun little escapes, but unfortunately for those with celiac disease, these trips can be full of anxiety about how you are going to navigate eating gluten free with a group. I'm not going to pretend that there is some magic formula for surviving a weekend away with friends, but after having done many (some very stressful) weekends myself, I have learned some ways to make them survivable. Here are my best tips for navigating gluten free eating on trips where you may not have much control over the kitchen.

1. If at all possible, be the one to do the grocery shopping --Whether you are staying at a hotel, or somewhere that has a kitchen, if you can be the one to grocery shop for whatever food your group gets, do it. If you are the one shopping, then you can pick up things for yourself that you know will be safe for you to eat — Things that DO NOT require kitchen tools. Remember, things like the toaster, pots, pans, etc will most like be used for gluten, so pick up things that can be cooked in a microwave or oven. I suggest things like Amy's gluten free burritos, frozen pizza (be sure and cook the pizza on a lot of tin foil) and frozen gluten free entrees like lasagna. While these may not be the healthiest choices, at least you can cook them without a bunch of added stress.

2. Have the right kitchen tools — paper towel and tin foil will be your best friend. Again, if you are sharing a kitchen, you are going to want a lot of paper towel and tin foil on hand. Both of these kitchen staples will ensure that your food can stay un cross contaminated. Do not use the common kitchen dish towel — odds are it will be sure to wipe up all sorts of gluten.

3. Keep your things separate — I went on a bachelorette weekend recently with 15 other ladies and the kitchen was a gluten nightmare. When I got to the house, I found a kitchen cupboard and stashed all my gluten free things in there. It was very helpful to have my own little place in the kitchen with extra crackers, snacks, tin foil, etc.

4. Wash your hands ... a lot -- This is an important one — With all the gluten circulating around, you never know what surfaces are clean. Be sure and wash your hands a lot when you are sharing a common kitchen with gluten.

5. Label your food, and then hide it — While away recently, I did this with a container of cream cheese. I put a big 'gluten free only' label on it, and then I hid it in the depths of the fridge. I don't think anyone even saw it except for me that weekend. If you have refrigerated items like cream cheese or hummus, then label them clearly. Most people are not used to accommodating a celiac, and just don't know that they can't share your food. Labeling and hiding are your two best bets to reminding people that your food needs to stay separate.

6. Stash some emergency food in your room / suitcase -- Throw a Larabar or KIND bar in your room for good measure. Just in case you find yourself starving, and you have run out of options.

7. For any shared condiments, try to get squeeze bottles — Offer to be the one to buy the condiments, and then purchase everything in squeeze bottle form. This has made my life SO much easier on multiple occasions. Squeeze bottle ketchup, mayo, mustard, etc can be a lifesaver because they ensure no cross contamination.

8. Remember that people usually have good intentions, but understanding celiac disease is hard — It can get very frustrating traveling with a group when people don't understand how hard / stressful it is to be gluten free. Remember though that most people don't have to understand this disease, and usually have good intentions. Try to up your level of tolerance for those who don't know what you go through.


Good luck!

— The Healthy Celiac

I'm not going to go so far as to say I feel the need to celebrate the fact that I have celiac disease, but in honor of May being Celiac Disease Awareness Month, I think it is worth looking at the bright side of this disease. There are an infinite number of reasons that having celiac disease sucks — autoimmune issues, random symptoms, no cure, etc. BUT, there are some positive ways this disease has impacted me, and there is no better time than Celiac Disease Awareness Month to look at them.

1. Celiac disease taught me to carefully evaluate everything I eat, and to make healthier choices. I don't know about you, but once I got diagnosed with celiac disease and changed my diet I cut out an enormous amount of crap from my diet. Having celiac disease forced me to learn how to really evaluate the food I eat, and make healthier decisions about what I am putting in my body. Gluten free or not, I now evaluate and carefully consider everything I eat.

2. Celiac disease got me off a whole lot of pharmaceutical drugs. There is a definitely a place for antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, but for me getting a celiac diagnosis freed me from a lot of unnecessary prescription drugs. According to the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center, the average length of time it takes for a symptomatic person to be diagnosed with celiac disease in the US is four years. I spent three years undiagnosed, and those years were full of everything from antacids to antidepressants – all of which I did not need. Too many pharmaceutical drugs had left my body feeling more confused and ill than ever. Getting a celiac disease diagnosis was a welcome relief to me — I was no longer trying to fix a variety of symptoms with synthetic drugs.

3. Celiac disease gave me a much deeper compassion for those with chronic illness. I now know what it feels like to have absolutely zero control over my body. I understand what it feels like to feel trapped by an illness and unable to fix it, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not only has celiac disease made me very thankful I am not battling a more severe and fatal illness, but I also have a lot of empathy for those who are dealing with chronic health challenges. There are many days I walk down the street feeling like absolute garbage, and look perfectly healthy on the outside. There are a lot of other people out there battling their own health issues, and I now have a much deeper compassion for them.

4. Celiac disease has taught me to be responsible for my own health care. I would be shocked to meet someone with celiac disease who hasn't had a handful of disappointing exchanges with health care professionals. I have learned that my health is in my own hands, and if I go to a doctor it is on me to take responsibility for my own health. I remember once being in a clinic getting a prescription for antibiotics and told the doctor I needed to ensure my medication was gluten free because I have celiac disease, to which he responded: "that is where you can't eat wheat right?". This exchange was only about a year ago — my first thought was, who the hell let this man practice medicine?  The point is, I can't expect a doctor to have all the answers  — It is up to me to ask the right questions, and ensure I feel comfortable, regardless of what health issue I am addressing.

5. Celiac disease has taught me how to be patient ... very, very patient. Most people with celiac disease pretty much have a PHD in patience. They most likely struggled though a diagnosis, then struggled through learning how to properly eat gluten free, had to address all their symptoms and residual health problems from this disease, and learn how to educate those around them.  Then there is the added bonus of all the times that a Celiac accidentally ingests gluten and has to endure the 1-5 weeks it takes for the body to heal. All of this ends up making for one very patient person. I didn't notice myself growing especially patient, but when I think about all the time I have spent 'waiting to feel better' I realize that I have actually become a master in the art of patience for things I can't control.

6. Celiac disease has taught me how to take initiative to educate myself. This disease does not come with a handbook — far from it. There are hundreds of potential celiac disease related symptoms, and literally no two people with celiac disease will have the same symptoms and experience. This disease has required hundreds of hours of reading online, asking questions, evaluating information and drawing my own conclusions. I have learned to apply these research and analytical skills to other areas of my life as well. I am much more competent and confident person when it comes to seeking out information and answers to problems. 

Have other ways that celiac disease has actually been a good thing in your life? Please share in the comments!

— The Healthy Celiac

In honor of May being Celiac Disease Awareness Month, I thought it would be a good time to do a post about how to answer questions about celiac disease. Like every other celiac out there, I have been asked about thousand times 'what exactly is celiac disease?'or 'what happens when you eat gluten' — It took me a while to come up with short, succinct ways to answer these question without going into all the sorted details or blabbing on for a long time.

For a while it annoyed me to try and describe what celiac was like, but now I have short, rehearsed responses to these questions. I of course answer with what I am comfortable talking about, and discuss the symptoms that are specific to me. Every celiac is different, and may answer these questions differently!

When I get asked, 'what is celiac disease' I usually reply: It's an autoimmune disease, meaning when I eat gluten, my body doesn't know how to process it, and thinks it is a foreign antibody. Essentially, my body starts attacking itself in different ways — stomach pain, bloating, hair loss, nerve damage, etc.

When I get asked, 'what happens when you eat gluten' I usually reply: About 20 minutes after I eat gluten I notice the effects. It starts with stomach pain and upset, and then in the days and weeks following, I have a variety of issues like: brain fog, exhaustion, hair loss, joint pain, weigh gain, etc. Your body stops being able to absorb nutrients and that causes a whole host of problems in the body.

When I get asked, 'how do you get celiac disease?' I usually reply: It's a genetic condition, some people are born with it, while others carry the gene silently, until one day it 'kicks in'. A physically or emotionally dramatic event can set it off if you carry the gene, for me it was getting a parasite.

When I get asked, 'do you ever cheat and eat gluten?' I usually reply: No, definitely not. I was so sick for so long prior to my celiac diagnosis, I would never inflict that on myself voluntarily.

When I get asked, 'will a little bit of gluten really hurt you?' I usually reply: Yes, even a tiny bit sets my entire body off — it's like turning on a light switch, once it's on, it's on.

When I get asked 'you're cured as long as you don't eat gluten, right?' I usually reply: Eating a gluten free diet stops the symptoms, it doesn't cure the disease. Celiac disease is a chronic disease with no cure. There are a lot of residual health problems that are associated with celiac disease.

I hope these answers help some of you out there who find it frustrating to answer questions about celiac disease! The more people who know about and understand this disease, the better!

— The Healthy Celiac