Happy Monday, October Fourth.  Aside from some fun and frightful festivities coming up this month, there’s a campaign kicking off of a more serious nature – National Celiac Awareness Month. Celiac is a genetic disorder that can cause premature osteoporosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune-related conditions/diseases. According to Celiac.com, Celiac Sprue is a condition causing damage to the small intestines resulting from gluten ingestion. The damage occurs when the immune system launches an attack against gluten (the forbidden protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats).

The condition can be reversed by omitting gluten in one’s diet. I don’t have the disorder, but I recently tried a few gluten-free foods simply because I was curious about how they might taste. With so many gluten free options on shelves today, you may even reach for these products inadvertently. Here are a few items I tried and liked:

• Raisin Tapioca Rice Bread from Kinnikinnick Foods.
• Tru Roots Organic Whole Grain Sprouted Quinoa
• Delhi Paneer Peas made by Asian Passage
• Snyder’s Eat Smart Naturals potato, tomato & spinach veggie crisps (great with spinach & artichoke hummus)
• Organicville‘s Olive & Balsamic Organic Vinaigrette salad dressing (1 carb per 2 Tbsp)
• LaraBar – key lime and cherry pie are my faves

I also stumbled upon a few sites with some very good info about Celiac and gluten-free recipes:

• Glutino
• gluten-freegoddess.com
• simplygluten-free.blogspot.com & recipe for, (photo above), gluten-free ricotta gnocchi & tomato sauce
• more @ celiac.com

With as many as 1 in 100 people in the USA with Celiac, feel free to let us know of resources or foods that can help others to live a healthy, gluten-free life…just drop a comment.

(food photo credit above:  simplygluten-free.blogspot.com)