Using Your Noodle to Help One Another
by Gina Mohr-Callahan
When I was diagnosed with celiac disease nearly 10 years ago, I didn’t feel like a pea in a pod; I felt like a lone green marble pinging around inside a hostile universe.
Few understood my diagnosis and fewer wanted to. Ready-made gluten-free products were scarce as hen’s teeth (and the ones out there rivaled the taste of cardboard), restaurants were befuddled at the mention of “glooden,” and many medical providers still believed celiac disease was a rare occurrence or even an imaginary disorder.
Lighting A Fire Under One Another
What a difference a decade makes. In just 10 short years, we’ve come a long, long way, baby! Now you can buy three kinds of gluten-free pasta at most mainstream markets. The words “gluten-free” yield millions of hits on any Internet search engine. Many restaurants provide gluten-free menus to their patrons, and there are even gluten-free beers (Yes!).
Sometimes it only takes a tiny spark to start a conflagration, and we in the celiac community started this blaze by using our noodles:
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By continuing to ask for gluten-free menus even when we were met with confused glares
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By continuing to explain celiac disease to every friend, dentist, physician, and restaurant server even when we could see their eyes glazing over
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By being creative entrepreneurs in the face of a great void
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By supporting celiac research and volunteering for organizations dedicated to helping people with celiac disease
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By teaching what we needed to learn
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Becoming a Celiactivist©
Gerry and I call this kind of gumption celiactivism©. It’s a coalescence of words that rings true to us. This part of our website is dedicated to this coalescence. Here, you’ll find:
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Stories about people who have invented new/better gluten-free products
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Insights/reports from medical researchers who are looking for ways to make living with celiac disease/gluten intolerance a little easier
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Positive/creative ways to ask restaurateurs and merchants to carry gluten-free products and how companies responded to our queries
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Ways to help us support our local, independent companies
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Information from organizations dedicated to helping people with celiac disease
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Check back for the latest celiactivism tales. Have a great celiactivism story to share? Tell us.
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