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CHAPTER ONE

My Introduction to

the World of Gluten

Until 2001, I had never heard the term “gluten.” I had no idea that Celiac Disease was an auto-immune disorder. I did not know that gluten was a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. “Cross-contamination” in regards to farming, harvesting, and food-preparation practices was completely unknown to me.

The Gluten-Free Way was a whole new concept to me when I first Googled “wheat free recipes” in June of 2001 because my mother-in-law was coming for a visit, had a wheat allergy, and I wanted to make sure that the food I fixed for her was food she could eat without getting sick. My on-line search popped up a long list of wheat-free recipes along with supplementary hits for “Celiac Sprue,” “Celiac Disease,” and “Gluten Intolerance.” I read with interest how Carol Fenster (a Gluten-Free cookbook author) discovered that she had Celiac Disease and was gluten-intolerant.

Carol explained her life before going Gluten-Free. I read her story and saw many things identical to my husband Jonathan’s health, behavior, and complaints about how he always felt. Suddenly, I was anxious for Jonathan to get home from work to let him know that I’d possibly found the long sought-after answer as to why he always felt so crummy.

When he came home, he was, as usual, as General Manager of our local pizzeria, covered in wheat-flour dust. I told him I wanted to read him something and asked him to keep an open mind. He agreed, and I proceeded to read him Carol’s story. During which, Jonathan kept interrupting with comments like, “That’s me, as well as Carol, when growing up.”—“That’s how I feel even now!”—“That’s definitely me.”

After I was done reading, Jonathan read Carol’s story, yet again, just so he could more fully take it in and ponder its implications.

From that day forward, Jonathan and I have done our level best to keep him 100% Gluten-Free. Admittedly, he does still get “glutened” on occasion—not by choice but usually by cross-contamination, or via unclear labels on foods, but when asked if he’d ever go back to gluten, his response is always the same, “You couldn’t pay me enough to go back!”

My family went Gluten-Free in 2001, before we really understood the full health benefits that would result from our doing so, and before Jonathan was officially tested to verify that, yes, he did have Celiac Disease. We’re still Gluten-Free and tremendously happy to be so.

This book, then, is a glimpse into our family and life since stepping onto the Gluten-Free Way. There have been obstacles along the way, to be sure, but nothing so challenging that we haven’t been able to maneuver around them.

Neither my husband nor I will admit to it being an easy way to go, over these past years, but we’re convinced it has improved not only the quality of our lives, but the lives of our two children.

My early, and admittedly difficult, days of wondering what and how to buy or fix Gluten-Free meals for my family are pretty much over and done. Those of you now starting out on the Gluten-Free Way have a far easier time of it, with far larger selections of GF-Way food stuffs, than I did. More and more companies have started to provide yummy non-gluten entrees and deserts as it becomes more and more apparent that Celiac Disease is more wide spread than anyone originally thought.

Just a couple weeks ago, I saw an ad in a local store’s health newsletter that Glutenfreeda™ is now even making GF instant-oatmeal packets and GF burritos—both unavailable when my family began our non-gluten journey.