Continental Airlines Stops Serving "Special Meals"

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NOTE: This information is from the Celiac Disease Blog by Nancy Lapid, About.com Guide to Celiac Disease.

Continental Airlines to Stop Serving Gluten-Free Meals on International Flights

Sunday March 14, 2010

Continental is discontinuing gluten-free meals on international flights. We need to all write to the CEO about this problem - please join in writing and make your concerns heard!

I read this today on Erin S.'s Gluten-Free Fun blog. I know Erin personally but I still couldn't believe the news. I went to the Continental Airlines website and saw: "Continental Airlines will be reducing our special meals program effective March 15." Then I called Continental myself, and their reservations agent told me that not only are the gluten-free meals being discontinued, but the airline won't serve special meals for diabetics either.

Given how difficult it is to bring foods from home past airport security these days, this policy prevents people with celiac disease from flying internationally on Continental. I for one would be willing to pay extra for a gluten-free meal, but the new policy as it stands now is thoughtless and insulting. The celiac community needs to respond.

Erin has a great sample letter on her site. You can send email to:

Mr. Jeffery A. Smisek, CEO
jeff.smisek@coair.com

or write to:

Mr. Jeffery A. Smisek, CEO
Continental Airlines
P.O. Box 4607
Houston, Texas 77210-4607
United States

Note: This post has been updated to show the name of the current CEO.

Could a Virus Cause Gluten Sensitivity?

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This interesting tidbit is from a website called Top News You Can Use. It is fascinating and I think quite hopeful to think that gluten sensitivity could be caused by a virus. Next thing you know, they find a cure for that virus or at least something to limit its effects and life improves drastically for millions of us.

Virus Infections Linked with Gluten Intolerance

A new research has suggested that Virus infections may be a contributing factor in onset of gluten intolerance (coeliac disease).

The experts reveal that gluten intolerance may usually show no symptom, and people may not know that they are hit by the disease if their symptoms are mild or uncharacteristic.

Gluten intolerance is an autoimmune reaction in the small intestine. The gluten that occurs naturally in grains such as wheat, barley and rye hampers the intestinal villi, triggering problems with nutrient absorption and potentially other problems too.

Gluten intolerance, an inherited predisposition, plays a vital role in the onset of the condition. The only known effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.

Academy Research Fellow Päivi Saavalainen, who initiated the research into the hereditary risk factors for gluten intolerance, quoted: "Some of the genes we have identified are linked with human immune defense against viruses. This may indicate that virus infections may be connected in some way with the onset of gluten intolerance".


Here is another great article about a new drug that could even help repair intestines damaged by gluten.

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Hip Hip Hooray for Boars Head Deli Products!

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This company gets it. Let's all go out and buy oodles of their products to thank them for leaving gluten out of their deli products!

Gluten Free Stars at the Deli
Boar's Head Recognizes Growing Demand for Gluten Free Foods

SARASOTA, Fla., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Boar's Head, a leader in developing fine deli products that respond to consumers' health and wellness concerns, announces an initiative to reach the growing number of Americans now following a gluten free way of life. "Gluten Free with Boar's Head," is reaching out to gluten free followers with news that Boar's Head meats, cheeses and condiments are, and always have been, gluten free.

"Gluten Free with Boar's Head" provides kitchen-tested gluten free recipes featuring Boar's Head products. The guide also offers information regarding gluten in foods as well as tips for consumers to keep in mind when making gluten free food purchases, including deli products. "Gluten Free with Boar's Head," which is available at local supermarkets and delis where Boar's Head is sold, as well as on the Boar's Head website, is part of the company's broader wellness strategy focusing on health and nutrition.

"Even though Boar's Head meats, cheeses and condiments have always been gluten free, we are seeing an increase in the number of consumers who are asking us whether or not our products are gluten free," explains RuthAnn LaMore, Boar's Head Director of Communications. "Although gluten is found in many foods, anyone living a gluten free lifestyle does not have to avoid the deli counter where Boar's Head is sold." A recent survey by a food industry publication named gluten free as one of the top twenty important food topics of 2010.

This new brochure is part of the company's ongoing effort of responding to consumers' health, wellness, and nutrition concerns. Earlier in the year, Boar's Head launched a campaign, "Launch Your Own Assault on Salt," an initiative encouraging salt sensible food choices, which featured the Boar's Head line of Lower Sodium Deli Meats and Cheeses.

Boar's Head is a supporter of the Celiac Sprue Association, which is dedicated to helping individuals with celiac disease through research, education and support; and the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, an organization focused on raising understanding of celiac disease among the general public and the healthcare community, and aiding research into its causes and treatments.

Additionally, 30 Boar's Head deli meats proudly display the American Heart Association's distinctive red and white heart-check mark, which means that the product has been screened and certified by the American Heart Association to meet their criteria for saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.

Boar's Head also assists the American Diabetes Association in championing the cause of diabetes prevention by promoting healthy lifestyle options through good eating habits and physical fitness. The company has been an ongoing supporter with a number of other national organizations including, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and the Feingold Association.

For More Information, Contact:
RuthAnn LaMore
Director of Communications
Boar's Head Provisions Co., Inc.
RuthAnn.LaMore@boarshead.com
P: 941-955-0994

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8-Pound Weight Loss in ONE DAY

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I went to my knowledgeable Doctor of Osteopathic medicine (DO) this week to complain yet again about my weight gain issues. I wanted her to rule out possibilities such as any kind of ovarian tumor or parasites or please just give me any reason why I am STILL packing on the pounds after giving up sugar, corn and anything with gluten or caseins in it. She felt I didn't have tumors or parasites based on an exam and previous blood work.

The doctor felt that I am having an issue with my thyroid meds. I am currently taking Nature-throid and it is true that my hair had returned to a brittle state, which is indicative of not getting enough thyroid, even though my blood work shows I am getting too much thyroid. So I am switching back to Armour Thyroid, though the compounded version to avoid any fillers such as lactose. Plus I did not do well on the "new" version of Armour last summer, which is why I switched to Nature-throid in the first place. (See Are You Switching to Nature-throid? Here's 10 Good Things to Know.)

I told my DO that I keep reading on-line that some folks do gain weight when they remove all the toxins from their diet. There are different theories as to why but one is the idea that I am only now absorbing nutrients properly and that adds up in weight. That theory confuses me a bit since all my previous bloodwork shows I had very normal vitamin and nutrient levels, though I have always been anemic. Another theory is that when you go off gluten, you tend to stock up on gluten-free breads and other high calorie, gluten-free foods. I did do that; it is hard not to at first because you feel sorry for yourself and you load up on what you can safely eat.

My DO suggested I try a two-week cleanse. I agreed to do that and started yesterday. The brand name is Life Choice RX. She also said I should try the HCG diet, the one where you exist on 500 calories a day and you give yourself a shot daily that tricks your brain into thinking you are pregnant. That sounded like mutant science to me so I declined that option.

When I went to the doctor on Wednesday, I weighed 188 pounds. I am tall so while I don't look obese, I technically am obese at the weight. Today I weighed myself and I weigh 180. There could be a few pounds difference in the scales but we have a very good scale at home. How in the hell do you lose 8 pounds overnight?

Here is how I think I did it: I kept to a very minimal diet yesterday doing my dead level best to avoid anything that I might have an allergy to. I felt that most of my added weight was water weight that felt very bloaty, which to me means that I was still ingesting something my body cannot process. I did also start the cleanse yesterday and the doctor says some patients lose up to 10 pounds on it; that is over two week however, not in the first day. Here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast

• Orange and banana

Snack

• almonds

• applesauce

Lunch

• gluten free deli turkey

• almonds

Snack

• half an orange bell pepper

• black olives

Dinner

• large steak

• green beans

• applesauce

• I also did not have my nightly favorite treat -- wine.

I seriously doubt that eating what I did could cause me to drop 8 pounds in a day. I do feel that by NOT ingesting any of the food toxins, I lost a lot of that bloat. I intend to eat this way until I feel the bloat is under control.

Stay tuned . . . and here's hoping that another 8 pounds falls off by tomorrow!

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I love, love, LOVE Sprouts

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I do love Sprouts!! Not bean sprouts, silly, but the grocery store chain called Sprouts Farmers Market. This place REALLY understands food allergies of all sorts, not just gluten issues. I found yogurt that I can eat at Sprouts! YOGURT!!!! It is a soy yogurt and it is YUMO!

There are so few things to get really excited about when you have major food allergies and you seemingly can't eat like the rest of America does, so I am jumping for joy now that I found Sprouts! A big shout out to my Texas friend Linda (who is actually a Yankee but that's okay, we Texans like Yankees these days, especially smart, funny and good food lovin' Yankees like Linda!) who not only told me about Sprouts, she brought over their very informative gluten-free brochure. Thank you, Linda.

I found so many corn-free, casein-free and gluten-free things that my husband and I can eat that I dropped $450 at Sprouts today. I plan on spending that or more every week because I want to stay healthy and Sprouts is the place that will enable me to stay healthy.

Even though I have praised Whole Foods in the past and even though it began right here in Austin, Texas, it is behind the times when it comes to providing enough choice with reasonable prices for the multitudes with food allergies. I even find Whole Foods to be pretentious.

Yes, that's right, I called a grocery store pretentious. I actually find the produce at plain ole' HEB tastes better than the produce at Whole Foods. They also have too many gimmicky things that aren't healthy for anyone there. The aisles were not made for shopping carts at Whole Foods, as though you are expected to go in and drop a small fortune but please only shop with a dainty basket. Well it takes me an hour to get to Whole Foods and I am coming out with more than just a basket's worth when I visit.

No matter, Sprouts has nice large aisles and there is nothing pretentious about that store. Love, love, love Sprouts!!!

Hamburger, French Fries and Pizza Kind of Day

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My husband and I live in Central Texas in a small town NW of Austin. We have 4 restaurants in our town but no one in them has even heard of gluten or caseins so we never eat there. The weather has been very much like living in Seattle lately and since we can't just hop in the truck and go to town for a meal out, we were feeling gloomy. The weather wasn't helping.

So we treated ourselves here at home. I have to count my blessings that my husband is an excellent cook and that he likes to cook. Good thing, too, because if I were in charge of our meals, peanut butter would be on the menu every time. Sometimes if I were feeling adventurous, I would add some celery stalks.

So my husband made us hamburgers with some EXCELLENT gluten-free hamburger buns plus organic, no preservative french fries for lunch. The buns are the best bread we have eaten since going gluten free. The brand name is Kinnikinnick Tabioca Rice Hamburger Buns. They are small so you don't have to have a total pig out and eat a huge, normal American-sized hamburger.

For dinner we some excellent pizzas topped with gobs of veggies; we didn't even miss the cheese. I found some wonderful, thin pizza crusts at Whole Foods. The brand name is Udi's and they are gluten, dairy, soy and nut free and they are delicious! We are going to make the crusts and use them like pita chips for dipping in hummus.

So if you are new to the world of eating gluten or dairy or corn free, keep your chin up and know we do have options . . . we just have to be more mindful of what we are eating and ultimately a whole lot healthier than your average American eater.

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Corn Is Evil

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We stopped trying to eat gluten in our house 10 months ago. We made many mistakes since the gluten-loving food industry sneaks gluten into products you would never expect to find gluten in, such as soy sauce. Just last night I ate a delicious gluten-free meal at P.F. Chang's and they brought me out some gluten-free soy sauce and it tasted so much better than the "normal" gluten-rich soy sauce. Why oh why would someone even think to add gluten to soy sauce?
After I started gaining a small measure of my energy back sans gluten, my husband and I decided to remove all caseins (the protein source in dairy) from our diets. I have learned the hard way that if you have an issue with gluten, you are very likely to have an issue with caseins as well. We did. Good-bye dairy.

We both slowly started feeling healthier than we had in years but still we both felt bloaty and still tired, especially in the afternoons. I happened to gain a significant and life-changing chunk of wisdom from an Austin pharmacist whom I called when I became concerned that my adrenal medicine might have dairy in it.

The pharmacist listened to my concerns and then asked me about corn. Was I still eating corn, he asked? I wasn't just eating corn, I was shoving in it as fast as I got my hands on it since it was serving as the one source I used to replace bread. I was eating corn tortillas like they were going out of production the very next minute.

The kindly pharmacist told me that corn is mostly genetically modified these days and most people have trouble digesting it. He recommended that I stop ingesting corn immediately. We did, and that meant another clearing out of the pantry. My God, what doesn't have corn starch in it????

We removed all the corn and corn-like products from our house and from our menus.

And then something miraculous started happening. It happened to my husband first. He was downright jolly in the afternoons, when we would normally be sagging and tired. He was singing and dancing in the kitchen and he started going on long walks again with our dogs. I noticed his increase in energy and I was very happy for him, but I wasn't there yet.

Weeks went by before I sat up one day and realized that I am never tired in the afternoons anymore. I even started singing and dancing and while fun, I am tone deaf so my apologies to anyone who has to listen to me sing. Next thing I knew, I was working out with a DVD I months ago with a trainer deemed "the toughest trainer in America." I haven't had the physical strength to work out for a decade.

Your energy level fades away slowly and you don't really notice it leaving, especially if you do what I did, and that is to prop yourself up with caffeine and sugar in the afternoons. Just as my energy level sagged over the past 10 years, it is now slowly creeping back in. I would do anything to feel vibrantly healthy again and to reclaim my long ago status as that of an athlete. Adding corn to the "will never eat again" column was easy.

Good-bye corn. I do not even miss you.

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Here's What We Eat

Every day someone I know tells me they could never go without bread.

Or cheese.

Or corn.

You could, I always tell them, if you knew that it was slowly killing you. And it is slowly killing about 144 million of us.

I also get asked a lot: what the hell is there left to eat when you eliminate gluten, dairy and corn?

I thought I'd share a typical day of food we eat at our house. We do venture out to restaurants now and again but feel safest about the food we prepare at home. I am not going to include recipes since there are countless blogs, websites and gluten and dairy-free cookbooks to find great recipes in. If you see something you like, I am happy to send you a recipe.

Here is what we ate just yesterday:

Breakfast
Omelet with fresh green peppers and onions, hot sauce and bacon

Snack
apple
sweet potato chips

Lunch
Gluten free crackers and peanut butter (lot's of peanut butter!)
mini organges

Snack
pecans

Dinner
Gluten and dairy-free fried Cod
Mixed green salad with strawberries, sunflower seeds, tomatoes + gluten free dressing

After Dinner Snack
Giant Marshmallows (sometimes I put them on gluten free graham crackers)

Not a difficult day of eating at all. In fact the fried cod was better than any I had ever had.

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Breaking News: New Study Points to Gluten and Dairy as Causes of Autism

I just caught this information on the evening news. I will research and post what I learn.

If you have a child who is autistic -- or know someone who does -- please STOP feeding them gluten and dairy products.

You have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain.

More to come . . . . now back to my dinner prep. Gluten free stuffed baked sweet potatoes and fresh peas! I am boiling eggs as a back up in case I ruin the potatoes.

I can't really cook!!

PS: I believe I have found a link to the study referenced in the evening news tonight.

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Perfect Gluten-Free Treat!

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Thanks to Whole Foods, I have stumbled across a wonderful gluten-free treat that I wanted to share. Remember graham crackers? That is one of the things I pine for that I thought I would never get to eat again.

Thank heavens I found something called "S'Moreables" at Whole Foods. The brand is Kinnikinnick. These "graham crackers" are better than the gluten-filled kind!

I put a glob of Burleson's Honey Spread on the crackers and I am good to go.

My favorite thing about these graham crackers -- well my second favorite thing really, as my first favorite thing is that they are gluten free -- is that the box actually has a recipe on the back on how to make s'mores in the over!

This cracks me up as I have never heard of making s'mores in the oven. I also get a chuckle out of this recipe as I can't cook to save my own life but now at least I can make an oven s'more.

How to stay gluten-free during the holidays

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Here is how to stay gluten-free during the holidays:

Wrap yourself from head to toe in bubble wrap and get an IV for your water intake.

Simple as that!

Not practical?

How about staying in bed from November thru January 1 with the covers pulled over your head?

No, won't work either, you say?

Alrighty then, here are some phrases you might want to rehearse in front of the mirror so they become second nature to you and you don't glare at too many people when you repeat them for the 100th time:

"Why, no thank you, but that Christmas cake (pie, bread, brownie, cookie, dessert) looks delicious. Eating it will slowly kill me." Then add "ha ha ha" to put the person offering you something at ease.

"Thank you, but I have an allergy to wheat the way some people have an allergy to peanuts, so unless you are well schooled in healing my gut after I eat that thing, I better pass."

"Yum! Wish I could partake but gluten inflames my intestines, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid condition, liver disease, pancreatic problem, diabetes, skin rash, anemia . . . ."

"I am sorry but I can't have 'just a little gluten' the same way you shouldn't eat 'just a little arsenic.'"

And if these are just too feisty and not jolly enough for you, you could instead use these old stand-bys, though I find they are not very good at stopping people from getting you to "have just one!"

"Thank you, I would rather not."

"No thanks, I am full."

"Look! Football is on TV, let's go watch!"

"EEEEKKKK! Is that a spider, mouse, bear, cougar, yetti that I just saw pass by your front window?"

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