8/26/2010

Celiac Disease: What's New? - Gluten Free Expertise Part 2

The second video we offer you this week is the extremely informative presentation by Dr. Ivor Hill. Dr. Hill is the Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Wake Forest Medical University and has written over 70 peer reviewed journal entries on celiac disease in children and was on the Board which made the Guidelines for Diagnosing Celiac Children.

We found many key points in the presentation helpful to understand diagnostics and genetics among other new information being researched in celiac disease in this video and hope you will too.

The entire video is only an hour long and well worth it - So please turn up your volume and enjoy.
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8/25/2010

Key Nutrients To A Healthy Gluten Free Diet - Gluten Free Expertise

The long awaited video of Pat Fogarty, MS,RD,LDN at the Charlotte Gluten Free Expo 2010 giving a presentation on Key Nutrients to a Healthy Gluten Free Diet is NOW available!!!
Pat is a specialist in gluten free living and her daughter who is 14 lives gluten free after being diagnosed with celiac disease.
 Her expertise was generously donated to give us a better understanding of nutrition and its key roles and common pitfalls in celiac disease.
Watch the video in its entirety for a highly informative look at nutrition on a gluten free diet

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8/24/2010

Gluten Free Economically

As fast as celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitivity are hitting the mass media channels - gluten free foods are coming onto the consumer market of food manufacturers and restaurants offering new choices with a blinding rate to match it. But just as fast as it hits the mainstream media channels, the risk of misinformation or the interpretation of sound bytes as lacking in substance cause alarm for those who have violent reactions when exposed. Or worse yet, an anaphylactic reaction can happen ending in a hospital trip or asthma attack.


And as fast as those disorders are coming to the light, celebrities are making the tabloids with gluten free party cakes and goodies to enhance their gluten free diets.Chelsea Clinton had a gluten free flourless wedding cake. Madonna and her son Rocco had a gluten free birthday soiree. Multitudes of stars are claiming they lose weight on the diet while the experts correctly say you have to be careful not to gain weight on highly processed gluten free baked goods. Celebrity allergen free sweet shops like Babycakes, NYC are becoming extremely successful. However, all this paparazzi isn't helping to make our grocery bills any lighter.

 The average gluten free shopper is still spending an average of 3 times the normal rate on foods! If they are buying all the new allergen friendly foods that line the gluten free aisle and the fresh veggies they may be paying even more. But there ARE ways to cut your bill although you may have to add some more planning on to your schedule...
This summer our family:
  • Grew a garden,
  • Took vegetables offered by friends who had gardens,
  • Froze veggies for future use,
  • Checked internet deals by restaurants directly,
  • And bought from local farmers directly. 
  • We stopped baking as many goodies and bought our meat and veggies on sale when at all possible and shopped the few specials we could find at local grocery stores - Lowe's Foods and Bloom offers them often. 
The results were that we did save a whole lot - It works!

 Here are some places you can buy direct from local farmers in the Charlotte area:
Barbee Farms - Concord, N.C. & local markets
Wild Turkey Farms - China Grove, N.C. & local markets
Big Oak Farm - Denver, N.C. & local markets
Gilchrist Natural Farms - Iron Station, N.C. & local markets
Grateful Growers - Lincoln County, N.C. & local markets
Poplar Ridge Farms - Union County, N.C. & local markets/ CSA

And the best resource for grass fed meat is here: Eat Wild N.C.

In some of the coming posts we will explore ways to be gluten free which won't break your pocket, nor add undue amounts of sugar and processed foods into your dietary changes. That way when you splurge on the GF treat you are craving, you won't break the scale.

8/15/2010

Gluten Free Websites Worth Looking For

There are some new websites that have grabbed our attention and have good things to provide for your gluten free lifestyle. We subscribe to all of them and suggest you do too if you aren't already.

Gluten Free Checklist - is a free subscription website full of invaluable gluten free lists of products and other useful of gluten free advice. One of the reasons Amazon and other reviewed websites are so popular is because it simplifies our lives without making guesswork for ourselves. Oh and we all look for coupons while paying the gluten free prices and they offer this as a major plus.

Gluten Free Society - This website is authored and run by Dr. Peter Osborne, who is both a doctor of chiropractic as well as a Board Certified doctor of clinical nutrition and is named a functional medicine doctor. His large following is growing stronger with loads of gluten free advice and live interviews to listen to with top experts in the gluten free fields of medicine, nutrition, and support. The main focus of this website is complete gluten and grain free living as an answer for multitudes of issues. Compelling and food for thought everytime we check in, the website also offers free email subscription.

Celiac Facts - Every day we look forward to opening our inbox to this free email subscription site. It is chock full each and every day full of the latest news, trends, research, and products that are of interest in relation to celiac disease. If you ever have wondered how we stay abreast of breaking news, this is just one of the sites we rely on for interesting and factual reporting.

Gluten Freeville -
For everything gluten free: Tips, advice, recipes, books, interviews, reviews, products, etc. Great blog with lots to offer!

We will be adding these to our R.O.C.K. Links found on the sidebar to aid you in your quest for help and gluten free information.

8/11/2010

Highlights of The Charlotte Gluten Free Expo

I missed you!
A month long hiatus from writing on the blog was needed though. The Charlotte Gluten Free Expo was a whirlwind of activity that required every ounce of my attention. We have dubbed the experience as being "Extreme Event Planning 101" which happened all in a matter of 90 days time! I don't recommend such a feat for the faint hearted, but what a wonderful learning curve it was:-)

The Charlotte Gluten Free Expo 2010

You can find more pictures on the Charlotte Gluten Free Expo website:
and on the "Charlotte Glutenfree Expo" FB page

Jennifer Harris with the Atlanta Metro Celiac group has posted a small review of her favorite products she tried at the Expo which can be found here:
We will be posting some more reviews here in the coming weeks...
My favorite part of the Expo(and it is very hard to pick one!) had to be the Flash Mob dance that the R.O.C.K. Stars did with me before introducing Dr. Ivor Hill for his presentation on Celiac Disease. They were very brave to dance in front of almost 200 people in the auditorium and seemed to love doing it. There wasn't a dry eye in the front rows as far as I could see while the children happily danced to R. Kelly's song "The World's Greatest". If you haven't heard it, take a listen and reap the benefits of the uplifting words:-)

Thank you to everyone who attended, donated Gluten Free foods, sponsored and volunteered to make this Expo a success!
There will be more posted soon, including some videos taken of the three presentations, Chef Peter Reinhart, Pat Fogarty, and Dr. Ivor Hill.
Stay tuned...
*Information on our site and shared by members of our support forums is not intended to be medical advice or to replace the relationship between a patient and his/her physician*