Support Group Offers Gluten-Free Solutions

When Lynne Turner switched to a gluten-free diet six years ago, she did not yet know she had Celiac Disease (CD). She made the nutrition-conscious decision to cut wheat from her diet after a nutritionist recommended she do so to ease the pain caused by her rheumatoid arthritis.

Shortly after she embraced her new diet, Turner began to notice a significant difference in the way she felt – her arthritis improved and she stopped getting sinus infections.

But living wheat-free was, at first, not that easy for Turner – it was hard for her to find wheat-free products and equally unsettling that she had to give up some of her treasured foods – including Twizzlers, her favorite candy.

So Turner turned to the San Gabriel Valley Support Group, a CD support group that serves Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale and the San Gabriel Valley. While attending the meetings, Turner was encouraged to take a CD test, and, to her surprise, she tested positive for the lifelong, autoimmune, digestive disorder.

Gluten, or specific proteins in grains, creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that damages the small intestine and prevents the proper absorption of food in individuals with CD, the Celiac Disease Foundation reports. Gluten is found in all types of wheat, so people with CD must eliminate all types of wheat from their diet.

According to the National Institute of Health’s Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign (CDAC), 1 in every 133 people in the United States is affected by CD, also known as a gluten sensitive enteropathy (GSE), but more than 95 percent of sufferers go undiagnosed. Until recently considered uncommon in the United States, CD presents itself through a range of symptoms, which makes it hard to diagnose and easy to misdiagnose, the CDAC reports.

“So many people out there are not being diagnosed correctly. Some doctors still don’t know anything about it. Europe is so far ahead of us – in Italy the children are being tested for CD when they enter school. That doesn’t happen here,” Turner said.

By attending the support group meetings, Turner learned more about CD, tried new dishes and learned new recipes for gluten-free foods she could make at home. She now does all of her own cooking and baking using gluten-free recipes and no longer feels so “deprived”.

“When you first start you don’t realize you have to be so religious about reading your labels,” she said. “New people are bewildered – they think you have to give everything up, but you really don’t have to.”

Turner still misses her Twizzlers – and pizza – but is thrilled that so many restaurants offer a gluten-free menu and even more stores now sell gluten-free products.

At the next Celiac Support Group meeting, which will be held this Saturday, July 18, local storeowners will come bearing gluten-free products they whip up, Turner said. Debbie Sipos, owner of Simply Gluten Free, a Thousand Oaks store that carries only gluten-free food, will discuss the products they have available, including pasta and donut holes.

After Sipos, a representative from Tia’s Bakery will offer tasty treats they sell, all of which are sugar and grain-free delicacies. The event’s third guest is a representative from Yummy Bites, a gluten-free food producer, who will introduce a new pizza.

The Celiac Support Group Meeting will be held at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, located at 585 E Colorado Blvd, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It is open to the public, and guests are invited to bring a gluten-free dish and 25 copies of the recipe it was made from to share.