About Celiac Disease.Tips

Our choices in foods that we eat each day has a great deal of effect on our day to day health and how we feel, even for someone without Celiac disease.   So being a Celiac can make it even more challenging.  We wouldn’t think that omitting something from your diet would be so hard and challenging.  But try to do it, when your eating out, dining with groups of people, attending events revolving around eating and drinking etc.   Of course today it’s much easier than it used to be.

When I was Diagnosed with Celiac disease in the mid 90’s, there wasn’t much known about it.  It was believed to be a pediatric diagnosis only , that was considered hereditary.   Also, The market wasn’t flooded like it is today  with all the gluten free choices we find  in  stores, and many restaurants.  At the time, I was very limited, and felt isolated from eating out with friends, and I  had to sit apart at events for fear of cross contamination of foods making me sick.   I often had to resort to eating before I went to an event.   I was so grateful when the market and restaurants started catering to people like me.  I wasn’t alone and isolated anymore.    I was grateful I knew why I was so sick.  I had Celiac Disease!  I didn’t always understand the strictness and severity of it,   But I was so grateful I had wisdom to prevent feeling so awful every time I ate.  It took years to realize how strict I had to be.  I now had to be mindful of everything that went into my mouth.  everything from medications, to vitamins, lip stick, etc.  The more strict I was the more healing that took place.  Unfortunately, with Celiac Disease comes other autoimmune diseases.  The longer it goes undiagnosed, the more damage to the gut and your immune system.  I ended up with two other autoimmune diseases , Sjogren’s disease(Rheumatoid disease causing dry eyes and mouth), and Hashimotos disease (Thyroid disease).  Once I realized the seriousness of the disease, it was incentive enough to strive for gluten free living!

And So,   As time went on,  I was beginning to find more public awareness of the disease and Gluten sensitivities in others.  Later restaurants caught on, and many became aware and were willing to oblige with the cross contamination effect on Celiac disease. They were willing to go that extra mile to ensure the safety of the customer. As I mentioned before,   grocery stores were stocked with so much Gluten free food,  I no longer felt deprived  as an outsider.   In the midst of me adjusting to all this,  A really neat thing was happening.   I was learning to be a master chef at cooking gluten free everything.   I got to the point,  where anything  I wanted in a main dish, desert, etc.  I could take and turn it into a gluten free dish, without compromising taste and even looks.  I began trying my recipes on family and friends, and the comments were always the same,  I would hear,  “I couldn’t tell that they were gluten free and your an incredible cook”.  Hey  I was inspired!  So  I began collecting family recipes that I got from my mother.  What a treasure I found in them!   Authentic, family recipes originating  from Europe where much of my family was from.  Some from Italy, and some from Russia.  You see  Both my grandmothers spent time with me  cooking in their kitchens, starting when I was very young.   I learned from the best, and I loved it.  Because I loved them.  They were my role models, and I was so blessed to have them.  I loved preparing food with them.  Some of it was the art of it, and the other was being with them.    The dishes they prepared were not only incredible, but they were also healthy as well.    Ok,   Maybe More on the Russian side now that I think of it.    My other Grandmother, on my fathers side cooked a lot of Italian food that was amazing.  Why her  best friend from Italy opened up a restaurant in downtown Boston using some of her recipes.  Many of those recipes,  while incredible in taste and looks , tended to be high in calorie and fat.  Italians love taste, But seldom worried about carbohydrates and fat content back then.  Probably explains all my grandmothers ailments and her early death from Diabetes, and much more.  Oh Well,  We can learn from others mistakes can’t we?

So  now,  when I cook with those special recipes, and enjoy the loving memories, I tone it down on the fat as well.  So how do you cook using lower fat, the right types of sugars, and gluten free?  This is what this Blog( later to be a book) is all about!  Stay with me, as I share little by little family recipes and photos ,and stories  of the old days bringing it into a place where we can enjoy and even have fun cooking (Senza Glutine)!  Italian for cooking( without gluten)!   I loved spending time cooking with my grandmothers, not to mention my mother too,  and I will love sharing those wonderful recipes with you too.  It can be so much fun and rewarding converting delicious recipes into gluten free, without sacrificing flavor.  So Salute! (To Health)  let’s begin!  Thanks for sharing in this with me.  Iris