Monthly Archives: March 2011

Image courtesy of mobihealthnews

A family member recently told me she did NOT have Celiac disease, according to her PillCam results. Interesting!

For one, what the heck is a PillCam?! Second, isn’t the “gold standard” of Celiac diagnosis an intestinal biopsy? I was intrigued and did a little digging.

In this Q&A, we cover all you need to know about the PillCam and Celiac diagnosis, with lots of help from Celiac guru Dr. Alessio Fasano, Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and head of the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research.

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Robert Burns Woodward did not conduct these studies. We just like this picture.

Since most of our readers live the states or Canada, we don’t often talk about gluten free products or news happening in other countries. When we do, it’s usually Western countries like Sweden or Italy. But the Triumph community is growing faster than ever, and I think it’s high time we started looking at what it’s like to be gluten free all over the world.

With perfect timing, a piece of news out of India just landed in my e-mail, so we’ll start there. A recent editorial in the Indian Journal of Medical Research calls gluten intolerance “an impending epidemic” and questions what, if anything, the country can do to prevent it from becoming a widespread problem.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Did you know that the tradition of eating green food on St. Pat’s day can be traced at least back to 1933 and the Chicago Tribune, according to Slashfood?

While it’s true that green beer is just as full of gluten as regular beer-colored beer, most other traditional St. Patrick’s treats are either naturally gluten-free or easily convertible. It’s easy to wear your green and be gluten-free, too – whether you’re Irish every day or only on March 17^th.

The Smithsonian Zoo's Mandara enjoys a gluten-free fruit kabob for St. Pat's

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Welcome to part 2 of our Best of Gluten-Free Award Winners announcements. Here we tackle my favorite things: restaurant dining, beer & more!

(In case you missed it, check out Product Award Winners from last week, including winners in categories like: best GF bread, best GF pasta, best GF cookies, and other yummy stuff.)

Thank you again to the 5,800+ people who voted. Your votes counted, and here they are.

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pretty much good on everything

“Quick and easy” is one of those phrases like “no strings attached” or “satisfaction guaranteed” – often said, infrequently meant. This is especially true when it comes to food blogs. I’ve run across countless recipes that claim to be “quick and easy,” only to find out that they really mean “quick and easy…if you have a food processor, a high-powered blender, four different kinds of knives, two ovens, and you’ve already done your grocery shopping for the week.” Smoothies are the classic example of this. Delicious? Yes. Quickly made? Yes. But easy? With all that chopping and blending and trying to avoid cutting my fingers while washing out the blender? Not so much. Add “gluten free” and you end up with a tough search for a truly quick and easy snack.

But because you readers are so awesome and involved and often quite funny and informative, I’ve done the tough search for you.

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I recently got three boxes in the mail that helped me get over my not-yet-spring doldrums. Each was full of baked goods, and I want to tell you about all of them.

The Triple Thrill

One of the boxes was from my mom, and the only review I can give there is: if my mom ever offers to bake you gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, you should take her up on it. They’re really tasty.

If my mom doesn’t offer you cookies, fear not. The other two boxes were sent to me, for review here, from bakers with slightly wider distribution nets: Katz Gluten-Free and Wheat Don’t Need You. Read on for the details.

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Given all the complications that come along with untreated celiac disease, it’s always nice when we find a medical issue that doesn’t seem to be linked to gluten intolerance.

One such issue? Male infertility.

It’s surprising, and maybe a bit “unfair” of Mother Nature – after all, women with untreated celiac disease are prone to an array of reproductive concerns. Some statistics indicate that they menstruate later and hit menopause earlier, and in between those two lifecycle events they seem to have higher rates of miscarriage.

Ah, men. According to a new study out of Sweden, you and your “distinguished” salt and pepper hair win again.

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Image via Quit Smoking Bulletin

As someone with chronic asthma, this one really caught my eye. A new Swedish study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has found that people with celiac are about 60% more likely to develop asthma. The authors of the study also found the flip side to be true – that people with asthma are more likely to be diagnosed with celiac.

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Drum roll, please…Here are the long-awaited Best of Gluten-Free Award Winners!

Thank you to the 5,800+ people who voted. Your votes counted, and here they are.

That said, we hardly feel that we could do your voices justice with a simple list. For example, artisanal bakers Mariposa, in Oakland, CA, came very close to winning our brownie category — despite the fact that it went head to head with ‘bigger,’ at least in size, competition. We think these are brands you should know about too! So, stay tuned to profiles of runners-up in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, here are some results from our big categories. (Wondering where are the other winners? Don’t worry, we’ll be listing restaurant and other winners very soon.)

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So, it was Mardis Gras yesterday. Sadly for me, I found this recipe for gluten-free King Cake from the Gluten Free Girl and the Washington Post a day too late.

Next year, gluten-free King Cake. Next year, you and I have a date. I’ve already got the tiny plastic baby (don’t ask).

Today is not Mardis Gras, however. It’s the first day of Lent, which means fish on Fridays for some of us.

tricky fishes

If you’re like me, you’ve been faced with a conundrum. Preparing gluten-free fish is fairly simple, since fish itself is of course gluten-free. Preparing good fish – gluten-free or not – is less simple. Has it cooked it too long, or not long enough, is it bland, is it overseasoned? What’s a celiac to do?

They say the best thing to do when faced with a big problem is to break it into smaller problems. So today, instead of dealing with the ocean, I just want to deal with one of it’s inhabitants: the salmon. Lent or not, this is one delicious fish – so how to make it gluten-free at home?

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