A momma's tale: fighting the 'gluten-free is a fad' concept

Before I share my recipe with you (which I will do in a next blog), I'd like to share my thoughts on something with you first. A while back I was scanning my twitter timeline and my eye caught a tweet. Innocent Drinks, that company that makes juices and stuff with lots of healthy goodness retweeted a tweet. They were doing a fun Twitter session where people were asked to update old movie quotes to the present. and I couldn't find this retweet very funny. So I responded. Here's the Twitter conversation i had:

It makes me sad that so many people think this gluten-free diet, this diet that is cruel and hard sometimes is considered a fad by so many. If only they had to live the life of a person who needs to live gluten-free in order not to get sick. Will they ever realize that it's not a celebrity diet to be mocked? Will they realize it is not about the health freaks that live gluten-free because they think it is healthier for you? (Which it isn't by the way, if you eat gluten-free just for the hell of it and without the help of a dietician, you'll miss out on essential vitamins, fibers and minerals.) Will they ever realize that this diet is about getting healthy & strong again and often getting healthy for a celiac means gaining weight? That it is about getting control over your body and eventually your life again, but also saying goodbye to many things that used to be normal for you? That going gluten-free because you have no other choice is not to be taken lightly but a brave and necessary decision that will impact the rest of your life forever? That it takes determination to stick to this diet? That a celiac can not cheat? And that it also means you are never sure of what you eat unless someone you trust makes your food? Will they understand how my kid feels when at school they once again forget to get him a simple popsicle instead of a well meant Italian gelato in a paper cup where they scooped hundreds of ice-cream balls onto  'gluten' cones before he got his? And that this might mean his ice cream is possibly still contaminated? Even if i have explained the same thing to them year after year? Will they understand his fear of getting sick and feeling horrible tummy ache all over again? 

What makes me more sad is that even though the celiac community often voices their experiences more often and even louder than ever, it is all to deaf ears. It gets lost in the jokes, in the shrugs, in the 'I don't give two fucks'. It took me a while to write this blog, because I wondered if it would make a difference if I wrote this. Would it help? But if i don't react to tweets like the above, when I do not write this blog, things will definitely not change. This may be read by just a few. I may only reach three people, but at least i've educated three people. Three more people who know to take celiacs and the gluten-free diet seriously. To not mock it. To not make light of it. Who may not understand what it means to live gluten-free, but who will maybe realize that this diet is serious shit (literally) and deserves to be taken just as seriously. 

Do me a favor? If you read this... spread the word. Even if you think: "But i don't know any people who are gluten-free?" All the better. Spread.the.fucking.word. Help the celiac community in their quest to get this 'the gluten-free diet is just a fad-concept' out of this world. Educate people, for crying out loud. It will not stop people from going on this diet because they think it is better for them somehow, but it will help get the real story out. It might open peoples eyes. 

If you want to know more about what it is like to live a gluten-free life & what it means to be a celiac, read my sons story. Read Jennifer Esposito's story.  Read. Educate yourself. 

Thank you! 

Wendy (a glutenfreemomma trying to change the world, one gluten-free recipe at a time)