Food as an Accessibility Issue.....

Food. The ways we think about it, consume it, celebrate it and secretly enjoy it are infinite. For some it is a mere basic necessity, there are people who eat because their bodies require food and the alternatives are undesirable. I do not understand these people and was shocked to hear of their existence. Folks who love food, work with food, write about food, breathe food....those are my soul mates. For instance, there are actual food stylists who get paid to arrange food in an aesthetically pleasing way so that you and I will want to eat it. San Francisco based, Food Stylist Randy Mon has a beautiful website that made me view the packaging of my daughter's Annie's gluten-free bunny crackers in a totally different way.


Likewise the wonderful blog of the amazing Shauna James Ahern began to shift how I perceived the ingredient gluten. Shauna's gifts for capturing the beauty of food with the lens, coupled with her love of good food, and her ability to express all that in written form made me return to her blog, Gluten-Free Girl time and time again, long before I began to grow a boy in my belly who would turn out to have a gluten intolerance.

Shauna skillfully introduces us to the painful and difficult sufferings of a person who has Celiac disease which is different from the gluten intolerance that runs on my side of the family as well as the spouse's, causing both of our children to have issues with gluten as well. Although gluten intolerance can make life uncomfortable, it can not compromise your health the way Celiac can and will if left undetected. Shauna's blog tells the story of her long bouts of illness and discomfort before finally finding health and rediscovering the pleasure and wonder of food in a gluten-free way.


I have told the story in my own blog of how I diligently fed my son whole grain products the first two years of his life. My concerns that he might be on the autism spectrum coupled with my education from Shauna's blog and her sources, led me to remove the gluten from his diet in an effort to have a more present and happy child. Sure enough, 24 hours later my son came downstairs and wished my a good morning for the first time in his life. I didn't even know he knew how to say it, or when to use it. Our boy was no longer in pain from the food we were serving him and as a result, opportunities became more accessible to him.


Food, for many individuals both children and adults, becomes an accessibility issue when allergies/intolerance prevent or make difficult the participation in activities that others take for granted. This year, for the first time, I am hoping to take myself and my children to our annual church retreat. Each Labor Day, St. Paul's United Church of Christ, partners with other UCC churches for a weekend lovely Pilgrim Firs, I know that my kids would enjoy it and it would give them and our community a unique opportunity to grow closer. So what's the problem? As a busy mom I forget until August that I need to begin to prepare for the retreat. It's that simple...and its not. Without the proper food, what ideally would be a fun relaxing weekend can turn into a difficult and uncomfortable time for the whole family. Thankfully, our church community is open and supportive and arrangements can be made. But this mama needs to be proactive and start thinking about that now, not in August.


Gluten intolerance won't kill my children, thankfully. But without the proper planning, advocacy, and education, it can limit their activities, make those activities unpleasant, and make them feel on some level disenfranchised.

For this reason, I was a bit surprised to find that our locally based insurance agency Pemco, had chosen to spoof gluten intolerance in its most recent series of humorous advertisements using Northwest "profiles". Apparently they received enough feedback and responded quickly, by removing the spoof, with an apology. I appreciate that. It has gotten me thinking though that this area of food intolerance is experiencing some intolerance! As one of the people reacting to the Pemco ad said "Can you imagine if they had spoofed a child with a peanut allergy?" Naturally, they would never do that because now we know children with peanut allergies can die instantly if they are exposed to the slightest trace of nut, even coming into indirect contact.


Peanut allergy is so serious schools no longer allow nut products in children's lunches. But I remember a time before we understood, I remember reading a mother's lament in a magazine article of how she was ridiculed by her own family and friends for being "overprotective" when she monitored her child's exposure to nut products. Perhaps even mothers of diabetic children once experienced such judgement before we understood that diabetes could kill if not properly treated. In our own family, I saw the light bulb go off as my sister-in-law and mother-in-law both discovered their own gluten intolerance, two years after we had been providing a gluten-free diet for Owen.


Celiac disease, left untreated, attacks the immune system in insidious and covert ways. Left undiagnosed, it can severely impair the quality of life for an individual, perhaps lead to issues that could be fatal. Gluten intolerance manifests itself in a variety of ways. For my daughter and I, gluten exacerbates a treatable condition that we both have, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). Complications with IBS remain the number one reason in this country that people call in sick for work. For my son, it is also a gastrointestinal issue complicated by the neurological breakdown associated with Asperger's which my son has. I have met people with children who were in the hospital the first two years of their lives, in part, due to gluten intolerance.


I am writing this both as a catharsis, still feeling a bit stung by the Pemco ad, but also as a response to the ad and to the understanding that those of us who are struggling with these life-altering concerns need to be more outspoken, patient, and willing educators to those who do not understand. Our personal stories can shed light on this "gray" area that needs to be illuminated.


More will be revealed....