Ellen
03-08-2007, 10:32 AM
An email from a friend - shared here with permission:
The View certainly IS NOT one of my favorite shows, but Alice Bast IS one of my favorite people, so I'll set the VCR and watch the tape later just to see Alice get her points across when she & Dr Peter Green are guests on the March 14th show. If you didn't know, one of the hosts, Elizabeth Hasselbeck (one of the original "Survivor" contestants) has recently "gone public" about having celiac.
As I told a cyber friend: "When I first met Alice about 3 yrs ago, shortly after ***'s dx,I told my husband that Alice Bast is a veritable FORCE to be reckoned with!!! By the time she's done, not only will every American know all about celiac, but she'll have them all able to spell tissue transglutaminase too!! You can read more about this remarkable NFCA founder at http://www.celiaccentral.org/Do_I_Have_Celiac_/Personal_Stories/Alice/32/ (http://www.celiaccentral.org/Do_I_Have_Celiac_/Personal_Stories/Alice/32/)
And you can read 2 postings about the recent NFCA Gluten Free Cookling Spree event in NYC as described by blogger Catherine at http://www.glutenguide.blogspot.com/ (http://www.glutenguide.blogspot.com/)
And for those who didn't see NFCA's spokeswoman, CNN anchorwoman Heidi Collins, do her on-air piece Monday morning, here's the transcript, thanks to blogger David in NYC http://glutenfreenyc.blogspot.com/ (http://glutenfreenyc.blogspot.com/)
COLLINS: Coming up next now, when food hurts. Living with Celiac Disease, why some foods make so many so sick. And they may not even know about it. A common ailment, but even more commonly misdiagnosed -- Celiac Disease. An estimated three million Americans have it. I'm one of them. But most who have Celiac Disease don't know what's causing their suffering.
The problem? It's what we eat. CNN Medical Correspondent Judy Fortin explains now why certain foods can make so many so sick.
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Gluten-free pancakes may not sound very appetizing, but 8-year-old Smith Brookhart (ph) loves them. Good thing, because Smith (ph) and his mother have Celiac Disease. They can't tolerate anything with a gluten protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
VIRGINIA BROOKHART, CELIAC PATIENT: At first it was overwhelming and almost paralyzing in the kitchen.
FORTIN: Only eating habits changed quickly for Virginia when she learned from her doctor that Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestines and interferes with absorption of nutrients.
DR. CYNTHIA RUDERT, CELIAC DISEASE FOUNDATION: Celiac is not an allergy. It's not a food intolerance. It's an autoimmune disease.
FORTIN: Gastroenterologist Cynthia Rudert says Celiac patients often go undiagnosed for years.
RUDERT: They languish under other misdiagnoses -- commonly irritable bowel syndrome, spastic colon.
FORTIN: Celia runs in families and is initially detected through a blood test. There is no cure, and the only treatment is to avoid gluten.
RUDERT: Gluten is in breads, cereals, soups, sauces, pizza, and even medication.
FORTIN: For Virginia, that means a lifetime of scrutinizing labels.
BROOKHART: The blessing is that it's a diet change.
COLLINS: Judy Fortin is joining us now in the NEWSROOM this morning.Great piece. And what's interesting about this, when I was diagnosed, I was diagnosed first, and I was able to follow my son really closely and I knew what to look for. And then he was diagnosed. But that's not really what happened with this family.
FORTIN: Not at all. In fact, the mom, Virginia, told me that she was diagnosed after her son was diagnosed. She had rashes on both of her arms that she suspected something was wrong for a couple of years. But her son had problems for about three months. He had chronic upset stomach which was leading to malnutrition.
Once he was diagnosed and they went on this gluten-free diet, everything turned out to be OK for them. In fact, he's thriving and doing very well now thanks to this new diet.
COLLINS: Very good to hear, although, I've got to tell you, even when I go to restaurants and sometimes the supermarkets and I say, you know, I have this disease, gluten, they look at me like I have three heads. Remind us once again what gluten is, because sometimes we're eating things we don't even know that it's in there.
FORTIN: And it can be a real challenge for people to find the right diet. Essentially, gluten is in wheat, rye, and barley. So common things like pizza, bread. Also you'd find it in pasta as well. But things you wouldn't think of, like soy sauce, beer, licorice and hard candies, things like nutritional supplements. The doctor mentioned some medications, even communion wafers. So you really have to reeducate yourself, Heidi. Find out where to find gluten, what it's in. It's in binders, in cold cuts and things like that. And make sure you stay away from it.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about it. It can lead to some pretty serious complications if you don't follow that diet very, very strictly. Judy, thank you so very much for doing that.
Also want to let everybody know we had a terrific event up in New York this weekend with the organization that I am involved with, the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. We had the gluten-free cooking spree. We had seven celebrity chefs that got together, squared off to make the greatest gluten-free creation that they could. So they were given all the ingredients. Then they had to choose the main meat ingredient, either chicken or talapia, I believe.
COLLINS: And they came together and they were judged. There were three judges. We had "Food & Wine" magazine. We had one of the physicians who started the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, Dr. Peter Green. He's been on our show before. And then we had this great 5-year-old kid that I know -- Riley (ph), I think his name is.
HOLMES: Oh, you know him, huh?
COLLINS: Yes, he's my son. But, you know, it's interesting because so many kids have it, like in Judy's piece, it's hard. You know, you've got to find foods that they will eat because there are all of these protein issues when the body can't absorb nutrition. It becomes a real problem, obviously.
HOLMES: But when you say gluten-free meal, it doesn't sound that delicious at first. But still, it's just...
COLLINS: Oh, no. You should have seen the stuff they made. Gorgeous. Also want to let everyone know about this, the Web site for the National foundation for Celiac Awareness. Here you can get more information -- www.celiaccentral.org (http://www.celiaccentral.org/)
The View certainly IS NOT one of my favorite shows, but Alice Bast IS one of my favorite people, so I'll set the VCR and watch the tape later just to see Alice get her points across when she & Dr Peter Green are guests on the March 14th show. If you didn't know, one of the hosts, Elizabeth Hasselbeck (one of the original "Survivor" contestants) has recently "gone public" about having celiac.
As I told a cyber friend: "When I first met Alice about 3 yrs ago, shortly after ***'s dx,I told my husband that Alice Bast is a veritable FORCE to be reckoned with!!! By the time she's done, not only will every American know all about celiac, but she'll have them all able to spell tissue transglutaminase too!! You can read more about this remarkable NFCA founder at http://www.celiaccentral.org/Do_I_Have_Celiac_/Personal_Stories/Alice/32/ (http://www.celiaccentral.org/Do_I_Have_Celiac_/Personal_Stories/Alice/32/)
And you can read 2 postings about the recent NFCA Gluten Free Cookling Spree event in NYC as described by blogger Catherine at http://www.glutenguide.blogspot.com/ (http://www.glutenguide.blogspot.com/)
And for those who didn't see NFCA's spokeswoman, CNN anchorwoman Heidi Collins, do her on-air piece Monday morning, here's the transcript, thanks to blogger David in NYC http://glutenfreenyc.blogspot.com/ (http://glutenfreenyc.blogspot.com/)
COLLINS: Coming up next now, when food hurts. Living with Celiac Disease, why some foods make so many so sick. And they may not even know about it. A common ailment, but even more commonly misdiagnosed -- Celiac Disease. An estimated three million Americans have it. I'm one of them. But most who have Celiac Disease don't know what's causing their suffering.
The problem? It's what we eat. CNN Medical Correspondent Judy Fortin explains now why certain foods can make so many so sick.
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Gluten-free pancakes may not sound very appetizing, but 8-year-old Smith Brookhart (ph) loves them. Good thing, because Smith (ph) and his mother have Celiac Disease. They can't tolerate anything with a gluten protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
VIRGINIA BROOKHART, CELIAC PATIENT: At first it was overwhelming and almost paralyzing in the kitchen.
FORTIN: Only eating habits changed quickly for Virginia when she learned from her doctor that Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestines and interferes with absorption of nutrients.
DR. CYNTHIA RUDERT, CELIAC DISEASE FOUNDATION: Celiac is not an allergy. It's not a food intolerance. It's an autoimmune disease.
FORTIN: Gastroenterologist Cynthia Rudert says Celiac patients often go undiagnosed for years.
RUDERT: They languish under other misdiagnoses -- commonly irritable bowel syndrome, spastic colon.
FORTIN: Celia runs in families and is initially detected through a blood test. There is no cure, and the only treatment is to avoid gluten.
RUDERT: Gluten is in breads, cereals, soups, sauces, pizza, and even medication.
FORTIN: For Virginia, that means a lifetime of scrutinizing labels.
BROOKHART: The blessing is that it's a diet change.
COLLINS: Judy Fortin is joining us now in the NEWSROOM this morning.Great piece. And what's interesting about this, when I was diagnosed, I was diagnosed first, and I was able to follow my son really closely and I knew what to look for. And then he was diagnosed. But that's not really what happened with this family.
FORTIN: Not at all. In fact, the mom, Virginia, told me that she was diagnosed after her son was diagnosed. She had rashes on both of her arms that she suspected something was wrong for a couple of years. But her son had problems for about three months. He had chronic upset stomach which was leading to malnutrition.
Once he was diagnosed and they went on this gluten-free diet, everything turned out to be OK for them. In fact, he's thriving and doing very well now thanks to this new diet.
COLLINS: Very good to hear, although, I've got to tell you, even when I go to restaurants and sometimes the supermarkets and I say, you know, I have this disease, gluten, they look at me like I have three heads. Remind us once again what gluten is, because sometimes we're eating things we don't even know that it's in there.
FORTIN: And it can be a real challenge for people to find the right diet. Essentially, gluten is in wheat, rye, and barley. So common things like pizza, bread. Also you'd find it in pasta as well. But things you wouldn't think of, like soy sauce, beer, licorice and hard candies, things like nutritional supplements. The doctor mentioned some medications, even communion wafers. So you really have to reeducate yourself, Heidi. Find out where to find gluten, what it's in. It's in binders, in cold cuts and things like that. And make sure you stay away from it.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about it. It can lead to some pretty serious complications if you don't follow that diet very, very strictly. Judy, thank you so very much for doing that.
Also want to let everybody know we had a terrific event up in New York this weekend with the organization that I am involved with, the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. We had the gluten-free cooking spree. We had seven celebrity chefs that got together, squared off to make the greatest gluten-free creation that they could. So they were given all the ingredients. Then they had to choose the main meat ingredient, either chicken or talapia, I believe.
COLLINS: And they came together and they were judged. There were three judges. We had "Food & Wine" magazine. We had one of the physicians who started the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, Dr. Peter Green. He's been on our show before. And then we had this great 5-year-old kid that I know -- Riley (ph), I think his name is.
HOLMES: Oh, you know him, huh?
COLLINS: Yes, he's my son. But, you know, it's interesting because so many kids have it, like in Judy's piece, it's hard. You know, you've got to find foods that they will eat because there are all of these protein issues when the body can't absorb nutrition. It becomes a real problem, obviously.
HOLMES: But when you say gluten-free meal, it doesn't sound that delicious at first. But still, it's just...
COLLINS: Oh, no. You should have seen the stuff they made. Gorgeous. Also want to let everyone know about this, the Web site for the National foundation for Celiac Awareness. Here you can get more information -- www.celiaccentral.org (http://www.celiaccentral.org/)