NFCA – Blogger Of The Day

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) is an amazing organization dedicated to the awareness and education of Celiac Disease. Seeing as May is National Celiac Awareness Month the awesome people over at NFCA decided to do a month-long event called “Blogger A Day – The Gluten Free Way” where each day they feature a different gluten-free blogger (check out all the great bloggers on their blog).  I’m very excited because today I am their featured blogger!

When the e-mail was sent out a few months ago I was very excited for this opportunity.  NFCA is my go to resource for Celiac Disease – especially when I was first diagnosed almost three years ago.  It was this website (not my doctor) that informed me of what Celiac Disease was, that it was hereditary, and most of all that I was not alone in this new lifestyle.  They cover all of the bases when it comes to Celiac Disease – resources (including printable guides!!), “what is Celiac Disease“, recipes, gluten-free “hot products”, a list of some gluten-free bloggers, and more recently they created a program called GREAT – which as a future gluten-free chef/dietitian I am very excited about this.  Below is a little excerpt from their website:

1. Gluten-Free Resource Education and Awareness Training (GREAT) is a gluten-free initiative of the NFCA that aims to raise awareness about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet.
2. GREAT programs provide comprehensive information for foodservice and healthcare professionals, including a PowerPoint presentation and printable materials for ongoing reference. Many of the programs offer continuing education (CE) credits through professional accrediting organizations.

If you are reading this I’m assuming you are already familiar with Celiac Disease but if you are reading my blog for the first time below is a little bit of information from NFCA’s website:

Celiac and Gluten-Free Fast Facts:

• Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food.
• One in 133 Americans have celiac disease.
• An estimated 3 million Americans across all races, ages and genders suffer from celiac.
• 95% of celiacs are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions. (Source: Fasano A, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:286-292.)
• 6-10 years is the average time a person waits to be correctly diagnosed. (Source: Daniel Leffler, MD, MS, The Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center)
• 5-22% of celiac patients have an immediate family member (1st degree relative) who also has celiac.
• Celiac disease can lead to a number of other disorders including infertility, reduced bone density, neurological disorders, some cancers, and other autoimmune disease.
• $5,000-$12,000 is the average cost of misdiagnosis per person/per year of celiac, not including lost work time.
• There are NO pharmaceutical cures for celiac disease.
• A 100% gluten-free diet is the only existing treatment for celiac today.
• A positive attitude, 100% of the time, helps celiacs create a gluten-free lifestyle for themselves and their affected family members.
• The celiac disease diagnosis rate may reach 50-60% by 2019, thanks to efforts to raise public awareness of celiac disease. (Source: Datamonitor Group, 2009)
• The gluten-free sales are expected to reach $2.8 billion by the end of 2010 thanks to new vendors manufacturing better tasting and more affordable products. (Source: SPINSscan, 2010)

If you haven’t yet checked out NFCA and all of the great information that they have available to you, please visit their website and take a look around.  This is not only a great resource if you yourself have Celiac Disease but if a family member, friend, or co-worker has it.  If you or someone close to you has recently been diagnosed I suggest printing out their pocket guides and taking them with you – I did this and they saved me.

Please don’t forget to check out all of the wonderful gluten-free bloggers that have been featured during the month of May.  You can view them all on NFCA’s Blog – Celiac Central: Bits and Bites.

Thank you for stopping by my page and checking it out.  To learn about me and my journey please visit my about page.  You can also check out my recipes, cheese and wine list, restaurants (various locations around the U.S. not just Rhode Island or New England), giveaways, product reviews and a list of some of my favorite gluten-free bloggers.

Follow NFCA on Facebook and Twitter!