Every day, I have to fight to prove that my disease is real, legitimate and serious. Every day, I have to pay attention to everything that I put in my mouth. One slip up can leave me incapacitated for days and set me up for long-term health consequences like thyroid disease, osteoporosis and even cancer.
Like 3 million other Americans, I have celiac disease — a serious genetic autoimmune disease. There’s no pill to treat it. No magic cure. All we can do is try to avoid gluten 100 percent of the time. Let me tell you, this is no easy feat.
Celebrities, various companies and, now, presidential candidates are making it increasingly difficult for people who need a gluten-free diet to be taken seriously. This disregard for the health of the celiac disease community leads us to be exposed to gluten, which is poison for us. We become sick for days, even weeks, and we are vulnerable to more serious health risks if repeated exposure occurs.
Like 3 million other Americans, I have celiac disease — a serious genetic autoimmune disease. There’s no pill to treat it. No magic cure. All we can do is try to avoid gluten 100 percent of the time. Let me tell you, this is no easy feat.
Celebrities, various companies and, now, presidential candidates are making it increasingly difficult for people who need a gluten-free diet to be taken seriously. This disregard for the health of the celiac disease community leads us to be exposed to gluten, which is poison for us. We become sick for days, even weeks, and we are vulnerable to more serious health risks if repeated exposure occurs.
Joy Behar. NASCAR. Miley Cyrus. Gwyneth Paltrow. This is just a small list of the celebrities and public entities who have openly poked fun at celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, or who have helped spur the misconception that gluten-free is the way to be for all. Just last week, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz added himself to that list. His jab? In a speech about military strength, he equated the gluten-free diet with political correctness saying, “...the last thing any commander should need to worry about is the grades he is getting from some plush-bottomed Pentagon bureaucrat for political correctness or social experiments - or providing gluten-free MREs.”
The celiac disease community often lives in fear. We fear food we haven’t prepared ourselves. We question food labels that bear promises of being gluten-free. We excuse ourselves from parties and invitations where our life-saving prescription of a gluten-free diet could become the center of conversation or worse - completely ignored. In a survey of Beyond Celiac community members, we found that 49% of those surveyed have avoided a life experience because of their celiac disease diagnosis or their need to adhere to a gluten-free diet. That doesn’t just mean skipping the company potluck. Our community is passing on dream jobs, choosing colleges based on cafeteria menus and forgoing family vacations for fear of not being able to eat.
The celiac disease community often lives in fear. We fear food we haven’t prepared ourselves. We question food labels that bear promises of being gluten-free. We excuse ourselves from parties and invitations where our life-saving prescription of a gluten-free diet could become the center of conversation or worse - completely ignored. In a survey of Beyond Celiac community members, we found that 49% of those surveyed have avoided a life experience because of their celiac disease diagnosis or their need to adhere to a gluten-free diet. That doesn’t just mean skipping the company potluck. Our community is passing on dream jobs, choosing colleges based on cafeteria menus and forgoing family vacations for fear of not being able to eat.
Stop Making Light of the Gluten-Free Diet first appeared at http://www.huffingtonpost.com
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