Celiac Disease: What Your Family Needs to Know
If you’ve been diagnosed with Celiac Disease you will be on a new diet of no gluten. That alone is tough enough but for your family they may not understand what it means for you. Your children may not be happy with the changes but easily explain the changes will help for a smoother transition. You may also want to have your children be tested for the disease. To start out you could explain that it’s a good idea to look at the ingredients in products. Taking your family to a health food store to show them the symbols and the titles such as “Gluten Free, No Gluten” can help your family when shopping for you. Checking the ingredients could also make your family become healthy conscious.
At home you may want to have a cabinet for your gluten free products. You may also want to limit how you share your gluten free items because they can become costly to buy. Cooking in stainless steel is a better option than other cookware that can actually leave the residue of gluten if someone else used gluten and cooked in it previously. Certain items like can openers should be separated. Drinking out of the same glass or eating foods next to gluten containing items could lead to cross contamination and should be avoided. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the same foods with your family. There are gluten free pastas, cookies, pizza crusts and more.
When you’re out it’s tempting to go out for fast food with your family but hold back for a second. You may be thinking that ordering a burger without the buns will be okay. But your food could be made with gluten ingredients all around it. For some even the smallest amount of gluten can cause a reaction. Ordering a steak out may seem like a good choice but they could have cooked the steak in the same pan as the pork chops with breading. Bring your own snacks and meals is an easy way to be able to eat with your family at picnics and other events.
Be careful of friends and family trying to cook for you. They may not realize about cross contamination. If you feel uncomfortable eating your gluten free products or other items you bring from home, eat before you leave if possible. It’s best to be straight forward with others that you’d rather prepare food yourself to be on the safe side. Celiac Disease can become serious if you don’t be careful, it could lead to intestinal cancer. Informing others is your best bet. You could continue to come up with excuses as to why you can’t eat when you visits others but this could lead to them feeling that you don’t like their cooking.
It’s going to take a while to get used to no gluten in your diet. Especially when you’re out and want a hot juicy burger from the local fast food restaurant. But with time you’ll gradually become use to it. Currently there is no cure for Celiac Disease. There are places online where you can purchase gluten free products. Don’t be surprised if many haven’t heard of Celiac Disease .
http://www.glutenfreemall.com and http://www.glutenfree.com are two places where you can order products. But there are many others out there.
