If you look at influential public figures or successful business owners or accomplished artists, you’ll notice their backbone is their community. They’re well connected with a network, a mastermind or accountability group, or maybe they maintain involvement in online forums to help them refine their craft.

Switching to a gluten-free diet and maintaining an interesting, health-promoting way of eating is also a skill set that needs to be cultivated over time, so what better way to do that then with resources designed with these interests in mind?

As the world becomes more Celiac savvy (and more diagnosed with gluten intolerance), the easier it is to find people to connect with around gluten intolerance. And those connections might very well be the support net that holds you up at the beginning.

Even people just a step or two ahead in their process have already established a network of healthcare providers, safe restaurants, and supportive friends, so leaning on the amateur experts around you can be a help.

When I’m traveling to a new area, I like to check out meet-up groups (www.meetup.com), postings on bulletin boards of health food stores, gluten-free bakeries and restaurants, community centers, and even yoga studios and other places where the health-conscious congregate. There is no doubt they can point me in the direction of anything I’m looking for, and it’s always great to meet people who orient themselves in similar ways.

There are also loads of more formalized support groups and organizations for sufferers of Celiac Disease and other forms of gluten intolerance. Here are a few of my favorites in the United States:

The Celiac Sprue Association

www.csaceliacs.org

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

www.celiaccentral.org

The Gluten Intolerance Group

www.gluten.net

Celiac Disease & Gluten-Free Diet Support Center

www.celiac.com

Celiac Disease Foundation

www.celiac.org

Some of these groups also have local chapters and events, so consult their websites to see what might be offered in your area. Remember, it’s a lifelong road, but you don’t have to journey it alone.

Also check out the Blogroll for other helpful groups and businesses!

2 bunches curly green kale

1 large carrots

1 small red beet

¾ c. cashews

½ c. raisins

2-3 T. olive oil

1 T. apple cider vinegar

Sea salt

Fresh ground pepper

Rinse and destem the kale. Chop it into smaller, bite-sized leaves, place it in a bowl, and thoroughly knead with fine sea salt. Using a vegetable peel, create shavings from the carrots and beets and throw into the bowl. Chop cashews and add them in with the raisins. Toss altogether with oil and vinegar, and top with fresh ground pepper. For best results, chill in fridge for a couple hours before serving. For more protein, you can roll up this salad in some slices of organic turkey.

Years ago I went vegan for ethical reasons, and cut out all animal products from my diet. This was excruciatingly difficult, but I could have made it much easier on myself. I slipped in blocks of tofu where a slab of meat would have been, sautéed tempeh with my rice and vegetables, whipped up tofu-merengue pies, and put several packages of processed, fake-meat material between two slices of bread each week.

I was bored with the food I prepared myself, but panicked when I tried to eat meals in restaurants, feeling there was nothing I could have.

So what was the problem? I never sought out new foods in the place of animal-based proteins. Why I didn’t master split pea soup and cornbread or add toasted almonds and sunflower seeds to salads, I can only attribute to lack of imagination and culinary know-how. Reducing my palate by cutting out foods and not expanding it with new options left my belly full but my body void of satisfaction. Not to mention most meat substitutes are wheat derivatives, so before I discovered Celiac, I was harming my health further without realizing.

So I can stock you up with recipes for wheatless crepes and cornmeal pie crusts, but until you consider quinoa on its own or dare to try foods that don’t remind you of how you regularly ate in your gluten days, you might feel you’re seriously missing out!

Thankfully, an abundant variety of fresh foods is available and building in alternatives to the diet can be easy when you take the risk to experiment. So cook up some vegetables and quinoa or discover the art of tomato-basil polenta, and see if your pining for wheat doesn’t lose some of its fervor!

Available to Premium members Click here.

Listen here to find out:
The importance of how we eat.
The notion of being “good” or “bad” and how it influences our relationship with eating.
What does it mean to be naughty when it comes to food?

(Available to Premium members–and remember audios are super easy to download onto your MP3 player!)

Moving from Naughty to Nice… Be sure to check out episode “M” for Mind Your Manners.

Sharing meals with others outside your own home can be a challenge when on a GF diet, but as you will discover in this episode of the ABC’s of Gluten Free, it can be a blessing in disguise! In “Mind Your Manners” Tif and Megan share with you tips and guidelines to help you keep the fun in eating out at dinner parties and restaurants while being gluten free.

Access all the goodness!
Click here to try two weeks free Premium membership. For a limited time only.

Here is just one factoid that I love to share: only about 5 to 10% of the cells in and on your body are “self” cells… The rest are micro-organisms! Just click here to listen to this thrilling (if I don’t say so myself) episode, premium members only… But remember if you are not a Premium member yet, you can register for two weeks of free access and start getting in on the gluten-free goodness now.

J is for “just do it!” Ah, what a perfect tagline. Not one of ours, but we did spin off this in our recent episode “J” in the ABC’s of Gluten Free series. This audio is free to all members. Click here to listen to this short and inspirational audio. Perfect for anyone on a gluten free diet, or anyone with food intolerances in general.

Studies from various countries indicate that fertility problems are indeed more common in women with untreated Celiac Disease, compared to women who do not have it.

The risk of suffering other gynecological and obstetrical problems like miscarriage or preterm birth is also higher for those with Celiac Disease.
Joseph Mercola, “Why Haven’t Infertile Couples Been Told These Facts?”, 2/23/2010

Follow the link to read more about what Dr. Mercola has to say about Celiac Disease and its affects on fertility.

The Gluten Intolerance Group of North America, one of the foremost leaders in America supporting folks with gluten intolerance and Celiac and raising public awareness of these topics, unrolls their 2nd Annual Campaign. The Chef to Plate Campaign helps spread awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance to restaurants through dining. They estimate this simple campaign reached 1.6 million people last year! Ways you can participate:

1. Send the GIG restaurants with gluten-free menus you frequent and trust. They will send them an invitation to participate. Click HERE to sign up your restaurant. Or send complete information to rebecca.powell@gluten.net to recommend your favorite restaurants with gluten-free menus.
2. Help distribute the campaign materials to restaurants in your area. GIG will send you all the information and the participating restaurants. All you have to do it hand-deliver the materials to the restaurant before May 1st. Click HERE to sign up.
3. Spread the word about this campaign to the public.

Restaurants loved participating last year. Please help the GIG spread awareness about gluten intolerance.

This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the ones you’ll most commonly find. For a discussion of the pros and cons of various flour as well as ideas on how to use them, please visit my podcast series with Tiffany Pollard at: http://community.eatingforevolution.com/articles/?ac=dg4h6rib

If you’re having trouble with gluten, you can still enjoy:

• Almond flour
• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Baking soda (most)
• Baking powder (most)
• Bean flour
• Brown rice flour
• Buckwheat flour
• Chickpea flour
• Corn flour
• Corn starch
• Cornmeal
• Date flour
• Fava bean flour
• Flaxmeal
• Green pea flour
• Guar gum
• Hazelnut flour
• Harina
• Lecithin
• Mesquite
• Millet flour
• Polenta flour
• Potato flour
• Potato starch
• Quinoa flour
• Sorghum flour
• Sorghum gum
• Soy flour (can be irritating to a compromised bowel)
• Sweet rice flour
• Tapioca flour
• Teff (make sure it’s not blended with wheat flour)
• White rice flour
• Xantham gum

These are the flours you’ll want to avoid:

• All-purpose flour
• White flour
• Wheat flour
• Enriched flour
• Bleached flour
• Whole meal flour
• Barley flour
• Graham flour
• Oat flour
• High protein flour
• Durum flour
• Semolina flour
• Kamut flour
• Triticale flour
• Rye flour
• Soba flour
• Spelt flour
• Wheat gluten and “vital” wheat gluten
• Starch and “modified food starch
• Malt anything