Tag Archives: celiac disease

Gluten-Free Astrology: Libra (September 23 – October 22)

Well, hello there, Gluten-Free Libras. So glad you could make it. No, but really. GF Libras are such easygoing, sociable people—an asset to every gathering. When you join the conversation, everyone (even sullen GF Cancers and hyperactive GF Geminis like me) feels a bit more at ease.

The GF Libra is decidedly not a loner; you seek out and thrive on companionship. For you, a solitary safe dinner at home is terribly depressing; you prefer to seek out new experiences, preferably with a partner or BFF as well as some new friends-to-be. A humble GF Gemini like myself might feel awkward about whipping out my mason jar of rice and black-bean salad and gluten-free roll at a restaurant (as I wound up doing last week), but you never would. And, given your level-headedness and communication skills, you’re almost always able to successfully convey your needs to the waiter and chef and manage to wrangle a safe meal for yourself anyway.

scales (symbol of Libra)

Though the gluten-free diet, despite popular misconception, doesn’t have much at all to do with weight, the GF Libra is all about the scales.
Photo © Joie De Cleve | Flickr

In fact, I would love to carry one of you around in my back pocket to pull out whenever I need to calmly explain something about celiac disease or gluten-free living to someone who’s just not getting it. You’d acknowledge both sides of the discussion, calmly bring us to an understanding, and smooth out any tensions or hurt feelings as you went. In short, you’d do a much better job than I ever do.

If spokespeople were selected by community vote, GF Libras—the ultimate people people—would be nominated, seconded, and appointed without a word of dissent from anyone. (Well, except for the Leos, who would feel the crown really belonged to them.) And, indeed, GF Libras are excellent advocates: they care intensely about fairness and are able to raise awareness for their community without forgetting the priorities of others. Put your advocacy skills to the test this month. Though National Celiac Awareness Day is behind us and our month is a ways away, there’s plenty of work for you to do in the meantime.

The GF Libra is ruled by Venus, and therefore loves loveliness. No misshapen gluten-free cookies make their way onto your buffet table—everything must be perfect. Oh, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you make them yourself; many Libras are so laid-back as to be underachievers. If your baking skills don’t hold up, rather than try, try again, you’d probably walk, walk to the door of that local GF bakery that makes the most beautiful cupcakes, with piped-on frosting blossoms. So they cost $6 each? Ah, well, what’s a little extravagance in the pursuit of happiness?

According to my astrology bible, Libras love to spruce up their homes with tasteful luxury. Now, I happen live with a GF Libra, and while she doesn’t precisely display this characteristic, she was the one who had the idea to buy glass canisters and fill them with certified gluten-free grains and beans as a display piece.

shelf with canisters of gluten-free grains and cookbooks displayed

Totally the work of a GF Libra.

And, although we’ve lived in our apartment for nearly three months now without putting up our art, she is rather more bothered than I am by it. For the slight discrepancy, we might blame her lazy Libran nature, or perhaps her nurture: our Taurean father’s practical housekeeping and Scorpio mother’s conservative fiscal habits probably tamped down her inherent frivolousness.

Perhaps, internally, she does waffle between frivolity and sensibility. If so, she wouldn’t be alone, for many GF Libras struggle with trying to be all things to all people and therefore feel as though they’re never quite themselves, never wholly real. Often, they sense that something vitally important is missing from their lives. It’s probably gluten.

The GF Libra is associated with the kidneys, and several studies have indicated a connection between celiac and renal disease. Although these studies have failed to disclose the astrological signs of the surveyed subjects, I think we can safely surmise that many of them were born between September 23rd and October 22nd.

You know who was definitely born in that range? These GF Libra celebrities. Oh, and there are plenty. Check them out:

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow, born September 27th, 1972, typifies her sign’s natural loveliness: she was named People‘s “Most Beautiful Woman” in April, and she’s in the public eye for several different philanthropic and awareness-raising campaigns. However, she’s unnaturally polarizing to the GF community. Though she’s certainly out there talking about her gluten-free diet, nobody’s sure she’s talking about it quite right. But her nonchalant book title, personal motto, and retort to our accusations that she distorts the diet’s purpose couldn’t be much more Libran: “It’s all good.” Sure, Gwyneth. Sure it is.
Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian, born October 21, 1980, is another GF Libra who goes 100 percent against my earlier statement about Libras being the most welcome gluten-free advocates (but don’t worry, everything else I said is true). As of this tweet in 2012, she was all about the gluten-free diet, and went on record about the great weight loss she achieved from it. The community, judging from such comments as those at Gluten Dude’s site, was not thrilled. Our wonderful journalists over at the Examiner later kept us up to date when she cheated with some ramen. Goodness. It really is tough to keep up with her.

Are you a GF Libra who really does present gluten-free life in a balanced, truthful way, or do you know of another one? Let me know in the comments if so!

As always, the “information,” such as it is, in this post has been largely ripped off from The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need, by Joanna Martine Woolfolk, which is in fact the only astrology book you’ll ever need (need here being a relative term).

See also: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo

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Bloated

Do you get “the celiac bloat”?

Spend enough time in the gluten-free blogosphere, and you’re sure to find posts about bloating. Many consider it the first sure sign that they’ve consumed gluten. Some even share photos, as though to prove they aren’t imagining things (which, no doubt, many of them have been told).

Though I won’t be posting a photo, I wanted to share a bloating story of my own. This one’s from the archives: an email I sent to my dad back in 2010.

The only context you need is this: my junior year of college, I lost a third of my body weight. (On purpose, although I kept it going a bit longer than I should have.) Just weeks after hitting my “target” weight, I became very ill.

By the time I wrote this email, I’d started to experiment with what I now see as Band-Aid management strategies. They were helping, but not entirely—and not at all with what seemed to me the worst part.


. . . the thing that’s most upsetting is that my belly is constantly swollen and bloated, and gets progressively worse throughout the day. After I worked so hard to get in shape, now I can’t wear my new clothes because they’re too tight. I haven’t had any days for a while where the pain got as bad as it did those few days, so I’m really only dealing with mild discomfort most of the time (although sometimes pretty bad discomfort by the end of the day). But I just feel depressed and embarrassed all the time about the way I look.

I guess you’ll probably think that I’m noticing it more than other people are, and that’s probably true, but if I wore my fitted shirts people definitely would notice. By the end of the day my stomach is often so distended that I literally look several months pregnant. . . .

I’m afraid this will never go away no matter what I try and I’ll never be happy with the way I look or feel ever again. And I’m trying to gain some perspective because I know I could have far worse troubles, but it just seems so devastatingly unfair that at the time in my life when I should be my most healthy and look my best, instead I get this.

Note: This was originally all one very long paragraph. I’ve made cuts and added paragraph breaks because it was utterly unreadable. Sorry, Dad.


When I wrote this, I was strength training several days a week, “doing abs,” and running almost daily. To have this uncontrollable bloat “ruin” those efforts was frustrating, especially since I was more image-obsessed then than I’ve been before or since.

Back then, I felt I would rather deal with mild and increasingly worse discomfort every day possibly forever than be bloated. It was more important to me to look good than to feel good. Sad, right?

Since then, some of my other symptoms have improved. My weight has gone slightly up and down; I’ve worked out more or less consistently; and I’ve eaten more or less cleanly, on a few different diet plans (omnivorous, vegetarian, low-FODMAP, and now gluten-free). But the bloating has continued. I both feel bloated—that awesome “please just pop me now” balloonlike feeling—and look bloated—just a little, usually, but sometimes a lot.

sad mime holding onto balloons

See? Balloons make him sad, too.
Photo © Jorn Idzerda | Flickr

I’m in a healthier place now than I was then, body-image-wise. But you know what? I still find the bloating unfair (if not devastatingly), and I still find it depressing. Some days, I still want to just stay in bed.

Bloating is one of the symptoms that consistently pops up in descriptions of celiac disease, perhaps because it’s less graphic than the alternatives. But it also affects 10 to 30 percent of the general population, often for unclear causes.

Some people don’t think of bloating as a big deal. “Oh, everyone has that from time to time,” they might say (as a friend did to me back when I first got sick). Protesting that it’s different when it’s every day may or may not penetrate, but it’s true: it is different. Sure, in comparison to other symptoms—including my own!—bloating is mostly just a nuisance. But when it happens every day, it gets to you.

These days, I think of bloating as just one more frustrating aspect of a frustrating illness. One more daily bit of proof from my body that I’m not the boss of it.

One day, maybe, I’ll prove it wrong.

What’s your least favorite symptom of celiac disease or gluten sensitivity? Any good “bloat begone” tips to share?

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Drumroll, please…

Well, the GFAF Expo is behind us, and so too—finally—is my giveaway. I did the drawing last night, old school, by printing out all of your comments and tweets and combining them together into what seemed like an appropriate receptacle:

Gluten-Free and Allergy-Free Expo giveaway drawing tote bag

Check out my book collection in the background. Yep, that’s Living Gluten-Free for Dummies on the left. No shame.

I tried to take a picture of my sister as she drew the winner, but she was not having it. We’ll have to content ourselves with an image of the lucky winning ticket, instead:

Congrats, Barbara!

Congrats, Barbara! And how perfect that someone new to the game would get a bag full of goodies to try. I think we can ALL feel like winners here.

Thanks to everyone who took my personality quiz and participated in the giveaway. I had fun dreaming up the personality types and hope you enjoyed the quiz. You can still take it, if you haven’t yet (just for fun). If you do, I hope you’ll let me know what you score!

Since a few people asked, I thought I’d share all the possible personality types and their descriptions. If you want to take the quiz, maybe don’t read these first. Though I’ve heard that spoilers actually increase enjoyment, so maybe you should. I’ll leave it up to you.

We wound up with a preponderance of Celiactivists…not so surprising, considering the milieu, but there were a smattering of the other types. Here they are:

Celiactivist


Celiactivist - celiac activist spreading awareness

Photo © CALI | Flickr

You are a Celiactivist. You know everything there is to know about gluten, and you’re happy to inform anyone who doesn’t. You’re active in the celiac community on- and offline, and I’m flattered and flabbergasted that you found the time to take my humble little quiz. Thank you. Now get out of here and get back to making the world a gluten-freer place. (After commenting, of course.)

Spr00b


Spr00b - new to celiac disease, newly diagnosed - welcome to Newbie, please drive carefully street sign

Photo © Anne | Flickr

You are a Spr00b. You were recently diagnosed and, to put it “bluntly,” you still don’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’. But you sure are eager to learn, and you’ll get there! Try the quiz again in a month. It’s amazing how much time you have to Google your condition once you stop going out to eat.

Silent Celiac


You are a Silent Celiac. You don’t get what the big deal is about awareness and you just want to live your life. You didn’t ask to have celiac and you aren’t going to let it define you. You follow a gluten-free diet, and you may indulge in a blog or two (like mine—good choice!), but for the most part you do your best to forget that you’re sick, and you hope others don’t focus on it, either.

Villian


You are a villian. You have biopsy-confirmed celiac disease, but your callous attitude toward gluten consumption makes you an enemy at best to yourself and at worst to the community at large. You regularly spout mistruths about the disease or give in to the temptation to “cheat” on the diet. It’s not so much that I hate your guts, it’s more that your guts hate you.

My Mom


You are probably my mom. You don’t have celiac disease, so I don’t know why you’d be reading my blog or taking my quiz unless you loved me very very much.[Edit: Actually, even my mom didn’t take the quiz. Go figure.]

It’s also possible, of course, that I got some of you completely wrong because you actually have non-celiac gluten sensitivity. But honestly, if the top researchers in the world can’t agree on a standard for diagnosing this, I’m not going to claim to, either.


In the comments, tell me about the VILLIANS you love to hate, your favorite CELIACTIVIST bloggers, or fond memories of your own SPR00B days. Are there any types you’ve come across that I didn’t include?

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No one knows anything about celiac disease. Do you care?

It’s September 13th, so let’s talk celiac awareness.

On second thought, I’ve already talked enough about celiac awareness. So let’s skip the talking and just draw it.

Currently, celiac awareness looks something like this:

true things about celiac vs things the public thinks are true - venn diagram

Lots of people think they know a lot about celiac disease. When you say you have it, they nod knowingly, and you feel warm and understood and accepted and then—BAM—they hit you with, “It’s like lactose intolerance, right?”

The hopeless among us feel we haven’t made much progress in this regard. To them, ’tis the best of times and the worst of times: the age of gluten-free product development, but the age of celiac disease ignorance. As proof, they point to a Google Trends graph (below) illustrating the difference between growing interest in “gluten free” and static interest in “celiac disease.”

Google Trends: searches for gluten free and celiac disease

It’s…not a pretty picture. But, if I may remind you, Google has not existed forever (I know, it shocks me, too). The graph captures data only from 2006ish on. And all the anecdotal evidence I’ve heard tells me that, before then, celiac awareness was even worse.

Twenty or thirty years ago, for example, the original diagram may have looked more like this:

celiac disease awareness venn diagram - past public perception


Or even, maybe, like this:

 

celiac disease awareness venn diagram - ignorance

I mean, we’re talking the banana diet, and the widespread belief—by doctors!—that one can “grow out of” celiac disease. People used to know NOTHING! Now, at least they know celiac disease is a gluten allergy. (Wait…hang on…is that…?)

Sure, you still hear stupid things said about celiac disease. And, if you’re anything like me, it makes your blood boil. In the interest of our collective blood pressure, though, I suggest that we calm down. We can’t get worked up over every instance of ignorance, or we’d never have time for anything else.

Let’s ask ourselves: In the end, does the general public’s knowledge really matter, as long as the folks involved know what they need to know? Maybe not.

Still…those folks have some awareness issues, too.

On good days I think we’re here:

current understanding of celiac disease by doctors, patients, researchers


…but on bad days I think it’s more like:

celiac disease awareness not shared by everyone equally

…with chefs and waiters off in their own little galaxy far, far away, where high temperatures cook off all the gluten and just a little can’t possibly hurt.

I don’t mean to diss doctors, or researchers, or other people with celiac disease (though we all have our brain-fog moments). I don’t even really mean to diss restaurateurs. I just know that it’s hard to keep up with everything there is to know about this disease. It’s only just beginning to be well researched, and misinformation gets picked up and passed on in endless games of telephone with no winners.

Plus, it’s hard—for all of us—to understand precisely where others are coming from. Our personal experience walls us away. Even other people with celiac disease don’t necessarily get me, and vice versa. There’s so much variation in this disease; there are so many unknowns.

On really bad days, I feel completely alone.

feeling lonely with celiac disease or on gluten-free diet

Feelings aside, though, I’m not in fact alone. I have my family, friends, and colleagues who have worked to raise their own celiac awareness; my whip-smart, fellow celiac sister; my doctor at the Columbia University Celiac Disease Center; and, of course, all of you in the celiac/gluten-free online community.

I’m not alone, and you’re not alone, either—at the very least because you have me. And if you and I keep on standing up for ourselves, speaking the truth, and supporting each other, then one day—I’m confident—we’ll end up with this:

a celiac-aware world

I’ll see you there.

Happy National Celiac Awareness Day, y’all. I hope everyone you meet today knows the difference between “gluten-free” and “vegan,” and that you don’t feel alone for a moment. If you’re non-celiac gluten-sensitive or have allergies, other food restrictions, or other invisible illnesses, know that my support extends to you, too. 

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