Saturday, August 16, 2008

Starbuck's Vivanno drinks are gluten free but ...

the protein powder is processed on machines that also process wheat. The suggestion I got was to not have the protein powder added.

That's what I was told today at a Reno, Nevada Starbucks. The Vivanno protein shakes came out well over a month or so ago and I immediately sent an inquiry to Starbucks' website in order to find out about the gluten content after not finding anyone in store who knew. Weeks later, I never got a response.

Well, today I know and, at least, Starbucks has begun educating their in-store employees about "gluten" in their products.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Receive a free Triumph Dining Card to help raise money for Celiac Awareness!


Triumph Dining is giving away FREE American Dining Cards until the end of August. There’s absolutely no purchase necessary. Your readers can simply visit our site to participate and get a free dining card.

The purpose of this give-away is to raise money for Celiac Disease Awareness. If 15,000 people to sign up for free dining cards, Triumph Dining will make a $10,000 donation in support of a national celiac disease awareness campaign. When we hit our goal, we'll ask you and the gluten free community to help us decide which non-profit(s) receives the donation.

We’re trying to build awareness on two fronts: With 15,000 more dining cards on the street, we’ll be educating more restaurants about the gluten free diet faster. And, with $10,000 funding behind a national campaign, we can diagnose and educate more Celiacs.


The FREE dining card offer is available at the Triumph Dining's site and we’ll be posting regular progress reports on our Triumph Dining blog.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Gluten-free food shopping online

It has certainly been great to have a large new Whole Foods in Reno to shop. The store is gorgeous and the employees seem to like working there!

However, the gluten-free foods available are limited so I am in the process of placing an order with The Gluten Free Mall.

I've been looking for a pasta fagioli dinner mix that I bought at Wild Oats before it became Whole Foods that was quick and delicious from The Gluten-Free Pantry. I haven't been able to find it since at any store in Reno. I'm also looking at placing an order from GlutenFree.com.

I am always looking for quick ways to get meals fixed in the evening after I get home from work and, right now, I am cooking for one as I also recover from my total hip replacement surgery and easy works best right now!

If I can find some of the items I want at these two sites, I'm thinking of taking copies from the web up to Whole Foods to see if they would consider putting them in stock at their local store. Something tells me I may have some luck with that!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Your primary care physician

It was my primary care physician in Carson City who had the tenacity to keep testing to find out what was wrong with me when I first presented to her with an extreme case of anemia.

Jump over to the Heart Scan Blog to read a good commentary about the importance of your primary care doctor.

My celiac journey

It's been about 15 months ago now that I found out I have celiac disease and that followed 4 months of blood tests and finally a colonoscopy and endoscopy ordered by my very dedicated doctor, Andrea Weed, DO, in Carson City.

I first visited Dr. Weed to take care of a needed biopsy of one of my breast (negative) that I had left Elko knowing about. After running initial blood work on me, she sat me down and told me right off the bat that I had a genetic marker for stroke/heart attacks called lipoprotein-a but she told me we could work on that. At that time, she was more concerned about the sad shape of my red blood cells and what could be causing this.

I told her that I had suffered from anemia since I was in my teens and that I had been tested for leukemia and lymphoma because of it. The last time I had a doctor worry about it was about 4 years ago in Elko and she just put me on a daily iron pill and we forgot about it.

After my initial blood work, I was sent to a hemotologist who really didn't do anything but check my iron level every month until May. It never improved. They were discussing doing a transfusion but wanted to wait until I had the colonoscopy/endoscopy performed. Dr. Weed was worried that I had celiac disease or some other genetic blood disease, the name slips my mind.

After my tests result came back, I was told I probably had celiac disease because of the condition of my small intestines, the vili were flattened. The blood test I had taken to determine if I had celiac disease came back negative. I was handed a brochure for the Sierra Nevada Celiac Group and another one about what foods to stay away from and that was basically it. I left the GI Consultants office feeling overwhelmed. It was only gradually that I became grateful to have learned why I had been feeling like crap most of my life.

Over the past year, I've done alot of online reading and research on my own to learn about what I can and can't eat and why. It hasn't been easy. I have yet to make a Sierra Nevada Celiac Disease Group meeting and I hope to soon because I would love to learn more about where I can and can't eat in the Reno area. I also really want to meet someone with celiac disease face to face to talk about how they survive it.

As I have read and learned more about celiac disease, I realized that I had been dealing with years of stomach discomfort, migraines, allergies, anemia, skin rashes and other problems that were all related to the lack of vitamin and mineral absorption caused by this disease.


One of the biggest issues most likely connected in my case is the osteoarthritis I had developed in my right hip. The damage was so bad that I had a total hip replacement on Monday. I had needed it for about 10 years but somehow I felt that 40 was too young to have surgery like that. Today I am recovering and feeling pretty good so now I am wishing I had taken care of it sooner! My orthopedic surgeon is Dr. Shonnard. That's me four days after my hip surgery!

I will keep blogging as I learn more about where to shop to buy good food and where to eat out in the Reno area. I look forward to eventually meeting people here with celiac disease. I will keep learning!

"Study reveals piece in the celiac puzzle"

Maryland researchers have identified a key receptor in the intestine that can trigger celiac disease, and they hope their findings can be applied to other autoimmune disorders, such as Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. People with the condition cannot process a protein called gluten - most commonly found in grains such as wheat, rye and barley, but also found in medicines and vitamins.

Common in the general population, celiac disease affects an estimated 2 million Americans, or one out of 133 people, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

In this month's issue of Gastroenterology, University of Maryland scientists wrote that gliadin, the toxic component of gluten for celiac patients, binds to an intestinal receptor called CXCR3. The receptor then releases the protein zonulin, which makes the intestine more permeable.

"We know a lot about celiac disease, but we never understood the question of how the protein gains access in the intestine," said Dr. Alessio Fasano, a gastroenterologist who directs the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study.

"Further study is needed, but this could allow us to intervene so that less zonulin is released, which may prevent the immune response altogether." Baltimore Sun