Increase Celiac Disease Awareness every day, see our suggestions below.

May is over, therefore the official month of celiac disease awareness is also over. Celiac disease awareness does not have to be limited to a set number of days on the calendar. We can all strive to increase awareness about celiac disease and gluten sensitivity in our daily lives. Here are some ideas to help spread awareness and understanding:

- Eat out and order a gluten free meal. If the menu does not list items as gluten free, talk to your waiter about getting a safe, gluten free meal. Use this as an opportunity to teach your waiter about eating gluten free and what happens when a person with celiac disease eats gluten. If you do not have celiac disease, this is a good learning opportunity for you. How were you treated? Was your food as delicious as a gluten-containing dish?

-Host a gluten free party. If you are gluten intolerant, this is a win-win for you- you teach folks and get to eat a bunch of safe foods. If you are not, this is a great chance to teach your friends and family that gluten free doesn’t mean taste-free.

-Call a company and ask them if a product is gluten free. I recommend picking something that doesn’t outright contain wheat, rye or barley.

-Ask your child’s school how they handle children on a gluten free diet.

There are many more ways to get people thinking about the seriousness of celiac disease and how important the gluten free diet is for many people.

What else would you add to this list?

In honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, I asked our tour guide, Christie Coykendall to share with you how she discovered that she needed to be gluten free. Here is her story.

Christie (in red) gives daily tours of our manufacturing facility.

I thought I was suffering from menopause for TEN YEARS! I just couldn’t get my old energy back.  It seemed like the month I turned 50 I had gained 20 pounds and couldn’t get it off. My immune system was so low I’d catch every cold that blew into the neighborhood. I remember crying one day because I felt so awful, thinking there must be something really wrong with me because I was eating all those high powered vitamins and buying all those super energy tonics and I still felt sooo tired all the time.

I’m naturally an outgoing, friendly person but as soon as the door closed behind the outside world I’d collapse on the couch and sink into despair. Deep inside what I really feared was the inability to focus my thoughts.  I’d be talking to my son and point to the refrigerator but say, “Put it in the stove,” or something else equally disjointed.  I had to stop reading books because I just couldn’t remember what one page had said by the time I turned it over. I remember thinking frequently how nice it would be to die and be able to just rest.  Then one day a sympathetic clerk in a health food store suggested trying a wheat free diet.  I read up on the gluten-free lifestyle and thought about it for a few weeks.  I didn’t have the typical digestive symptoms but as she said, “Why not just try it.”  I faithfully read every label and didn’t cheat at all.  I remember so clearly that first week-end, I woke-up feeling alive.  It was amazing!

I’ve been on a fairly strict gluten-free diet for two and half years now.  I learned I’m a second-day processor so if I eat something with wheat I get a “gluten hangover’ the next day, feeling tired, groggy and depressed all over again. I lost 25 pounds the first year without even thinking about it.  Four months after I went GF I got a part-time job at Bob’s Red Mill giving the daily factory tours.  It’s a high energy job that I love and I’m proud to say I haven’t had one sick day since I started.  Now I get to share my story every day and encourage others to ‘just try it.’

My favorite BRM product? I love the versatility of the new GF Vanilla Cake Mix. Strawberry shortcake season is coming up and I’m tasting it already!

If you think you have celiac disease, talk to your doctor.

I have read that it takes an average of 10 years for someone to reach a diagnosis of celiac disease; 10 years of suffering with no clear cause. Ten years is far too long, in my opinion. Part of what contributes to the lengthy time to diagnosis is the wide array of symptoms. Some people have severe, debilitating digestion issues; others simply feel cranky and are not sure why. Doctors do seem to be catching celiac disease earlier in children whose parents or siblings have celiac disease… but for those of us who might be within our 10 year period, let’s take a look at the most common symptoms of celiac disease.

The Celiac Disease Foundation lists these as the most common symptoms of celiac disease:

• Recurring bloating, gas, or abdominal pain
• Chronic diarrhea or constipation or both
• Unexplained weight loss or weight gain
• Pale, foul-smelling stool
• Unexplained anemia
• Bone or joint pain
• Behavior changes/depression/irritability
• Vitamin K Deficiency
• Fatigue, weakness or lack of energy
• Delayed growth or onset of puberty
• Failure to thrive (in infants)
• Missed menstrual periods
• Infertility male & female
• Spontaneous miscarriages
• Canker sores inside the mouth
• Tooth discoloration or loss of enamel

Any one of these symptoms could be indicative of a problem, but combined they could indicate that you have celiac disease. If you think you may have celiac, the first step… THE VERY FIRST STEP… is to talk to your physician or naturopath. The reason your doctor and not the gluten-free aisle should be your first stop is that the tests that determine celiac disease rely on you continuing to ingest gluten. If you cut gluten out of your diet, the test results may be incorrect or inconclusive.

After you get the test results, even if they come back negative, you may still want to explore the gluten free diet. Even if you don’t have positive celiac disease, your symptoms might still benefit from a gluten free diet. Gluten intolerance and wheat allergies can still display many of the same outward symptoms. For more information about celiac disease diagnosis, please visit The Celiac Disease Foundation website.

Our Gluten Free All Purpose Flour has become a favorite among our gluten free customers.

Every year in May we strive to do our part to increase awareness about celiac disease in honor of National Celiac Disease Awareness Month. Over the last two years, I have personally noticed that people are already more aware than they were five years ago. When I explain what we produce at Bob’s Red Mill, there is less explaining about what gluten free means and why we make gluten free products. People are starting to get it. Either they have gluten issues themselves, or they have a family member, friend or coworker who are gluten-intolerant or have celiac disease. I take this as a sign that awareness programs are working.

Last year we had so much fun (and learned so much!) sharing info about celiac disease and gluten free living every day in May through Twitter and Facebook that we’re going to do it again this year.  Find tips, recipes and articles by following us on Twitter (@bobs_red_mill) and Facebook (Bob’s Red Mill). I’ll also be trying my hand at some recipes from our favorite gluten free cookbooks and share some personal stories from our employees who are living life gluten free.

We’re going to start simple today by defining Celiac Disease:

Celiac Disease is a genetic condition in which the consumption of foods containing gluten (a form of protein found in some grains e.g. wheat, barley, and rye) triggers an autoimmune response that damages the small intestine. The damage to the intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients from food, especially fat, calcium, iron, and folic acid, leading to malnutrition and a variety of other problems such as diarrhea, weight loss, and weakness.

In the United States, the exact number of people who have Celiac Disease is not known. Recent screening tests have shown that 1 in every 133 people may have the condition. Many of those people are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions that have similar symptoms. The only cure is to follow a gluten free diet.