communion, celiac disease, and you.

Recently, I came up against yet another hurdle in my life with Celiac Disease...what does the Celiac do when it's time to take Communion?

(Let me preface this blog post by saying I don't care what religion you are, or if you're no religion at all; that's not the point. If you have Celiac Disease, you're more than welcome here. These are just my thoughts and my feelings; feel free to skip this post if you want.)

I was told I have Celiac Disease on July 14, 2011. Shortly after, we had Communion at church. I belong to one of the largest mainstream Protestant denominations in the world, and it's basically up to each local church how often they celebrate Communion. Some do it every couple of weeks, once a month, a few times a year, it just depends on each local church and their pastor.We have communion about six to eight times a year. I was fortunate enough to find out beforehand the last time, and came prepared with my own rice cracker. This was early in my diagnosis, so I didn't even think about possible cross-contamination of the little cups of juice.

Since then, however, I have learned a lot more about cross-contamination, and when I showed up at church on Sunday morning (my daughter and I have to be there at 8:30 due to music practice being at that time) and learned we were having Communion, I kind of panicked. I wasn't prepared!

don't take anything for granted...gluten hides everywhere.

I've had a bad couple of days.  Please, allow me to indulge in a little pity party for a while.  Catharsis is good for the soul.

I had some leftover ham and a hambone.  Growing up in the Midwest (with parents from Kentucky), it's practically a law that when this happens, you make soup beans.  I was in the bean aisle, thinking about what I wanted to make, when I spotted 15 Bean Soup.  Yay!  I haven't had this in darn near forever.  I read the ingredients, saw that they had no wheat or gluten, and so I tossed them in the cart.  After all, it's beans.  Come on.  Beans!  Perfect, right?

The next day, I thought...oh no, I can't have ham and bean soup without cornbread!  Come on.  You gotta have cornbread with beans.  But, I've been doing this for a couple of months now, and I realize that just because it's cornmeal doesn't mean it's gluten free.  Lots of manufacturers process corn on the same machines that process wheat. So, off I trotted to the store to find me some gluten-free cornmeal.

a thought about cross-contamination.

It occurred to me early on in my journey with Celiac Disease that there might be a risk for cross-contamination in the foods I might be eating.  It hit me one day when I was getting ready to make a peanut butter sandwich...I was using gluten-free bread, yes, but when I got ready to dip my knife in the peanut butter I suddenly remembered my husband also making a peanut butter sandwich earlier that day.  I thought...well, if he spread the peanut butter on regular bread, and then if I spread the same peanut butter on my bread, aren't I contaminating my bread?  Great.  No PB&J for me that day.

I solved my problem by going out and buying my own jars or bottles or tubs of peanut butter, jelly, margarine, mayonnaise, and whatever else might become cross-contaminated through regular daily use.  These items are clearly marked as mine and everyone else in the house has strict instructions not to touch or eat out of them.  It isn't selfishness, it's survival.  (I later read in The Complete Idiot's Guide For Gluten-Free Eating that this is a good idea...hey, GMTA.)

So, I've become pretty sensitive to cross-contamination, such as touching a "contaminated" food and then touching a "safe" food.  Therefore, it upsets me when I go to a store and see something like this:

Various flours side by side at a store.

Now, if you look at the box of wheat gluten, you'll see that it says it is in a "sealed bag".  Okay, so if it is sealed, it might be safe...but then again, it might not, since the box itself could be harboring contaminants from the packaging process.  Have you ever used flour in your kitchen?  It gets everywhere, no matter how neat you try to be. But, look at the white flour bag and the soy flour bag.  They are not sealed inside, other than the sealing used on the bag itself, which is made of paper.  Pick up a paper bag of flour and plop it down on the counter.  See that cloud?

Once I got home, I looked at that photo and noticed something I hadn't noticed at the store (in my defense, I was in a hurry, and I didn't want to get in trouble for taking photos in this particular huge big-box world-wide retailer).  I went back today, and took a new photo.  Look at the bottom of the paper bag of soy flour:

See the white powder?

That is some sort of white powder on the paper bag of soy flour.  Is it soy flour that has leaked out of its bag?  Or is it some of the white flour from the bag next to it?  It doesn't look like the bag of white flour has leaked, but how do you know?  Maybe it leaked from the back or the bottom.  And, as someone with Celiac Disease, who knows that you absolutely cannot have any sort of wheat, rye, barley, or anything contaminated with those grains, do you really want to take that chance?

We must educate retailers as to the proper handling, storage, and display of gluten-free products and products for those of us with Celiac Disease.  If we are kind, concerned, knowledgeable, and persistent, maybe we can help bring this to the attention of employers who don't even know that this could be extremely dangerous to a certain segment of people.