subject: Why Gluten Free Restaurants: Overcoming Risks Outside The Home [print this page] For celiac patients who need to stick to a gluten-free lifestyle, the challenge lies in staying safe outside the home. One can easily control the home environment by adhering to safe practices when shopping for food and cooking them at home. This control is beyond the power of celiac disease (CD) sufferers when eating out in the school, workplace or restaurants. While meticulously choosing the food helps, knowledge and discipline can improve safety. Yet, despite best efforts, untoward incidents can still happen because the ingredients can still contain gluten. Indeed, one can breathe a sigh of relief with the increasing number of gluten-free restaurants these days that cater to the needs of people with gluten intolerance. For those who suspect or have been newly diagnosed with CD, this is why gluten free restaurants are useful for you.
The Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is a hereditary genetic disorder that is defined as an auto-immune disease. An exposure to gluten found in grains wheat, barley, rye (and usually oats due to contamination) triggers a set of symptoms resulting from the damages in the intestinal villi. These are the fingerlike structures that function in the absorption of essential nutrients from the diet. Aside from the damaged intestines, the ensuing signs and symptoms as well complications may also be due to nutrient deficiency such as anemia and osteoporosis. The symptoms may include diarrhea, irritable bowel movement, weight loss, loss of appetite, and fatigue among many others. This is a hard to diagnose disease because the symptoms are nonspecific. Continued exposure to gluten can lead to severe complications that can even be life threatening.
The Gluten-free Lifestyle
Being hereditary, the celiac disease cant be treated. The only known treatment that can significantly stop even reverse the damage in the intestinal villi is total avoidance of gluten. This is why a gluten-free lifestyle is medically important. This means changing the usual practices in food shopping and cooking. While much of these activities can be modified, eating outside the home poses risks. Must this curtail the freedom and pleasure of dining out with friends and family? One must realize, however, that it is too hard to know which food is safe or not. Despite discipline and wisdom, choosing foods that are gluten free does not warrant that it is absolutely gluten-free. Today, more and more gluten-free restaurants are catering to the needs of celiac victims to better and safely enjoy dining outside the home.
The Gluten-free Restaurants
A person with Celiac disease is very sensitive to gluten. This means that it is not enough that the food is gluten free; it also needs to be uncontaminated with gluten. Even the smallest of crumbs or a shared grill can make one sick. Restaurants that are not exclusive to celiac-sensitive people always run the risk of getting food all mixed up so that contamination is always a possibility. Despite best efforts, it is hard to be a hundred percent sure that what a CD patient eats in a restaurant is safe.
It is bliss that the awareness about celiac disease has grown in the recent years. The response of the National Restaurant Association triggered rising awareness among restaurant operators. Its effort to develop training guides and instructions led to the education of restaurateurs on matters of food allergens, sensitivities, food preparation and safety. This is the reason for the rise in number of gluten-free restaurants in the recent times that provide celiac customers the pleasure of eating to the last bite.
Going The Extra Mile
Efforts are coming from the Health and Safety Regulatory Affairs for the National Restaurant Association to ensure that gluten-free restaurants provide what their celiac customers need. It encourages people with celiac disease to communicate to the restaurant crew what their food intolerances are. The organization further emphasizes the need to read the labels in the food packages to ensure food safety for their customers.
The enactment of The Food Allergen and Consumer Protection Act in January 2006 also works for people with CD. Manufacturers are mandated to indicate in the food labels the ingredients particularly if there are any of these top eight allergens: peanut, tree nuts, shell fish, milk, egg fish, soybean, and wheat. This is not observed in restaurants and fast foods but the cooks and chefs can check these out before using the ingredients.
People with celiac disease know exactly the answer to the question: Why gluten free restaurants? It is the only place where these folks can have the pleasure of eating out with family and friends without the apprehension. Are you craving for cordon bleu, fricassee, marinade, soy sauce, encrusted, roux, gnocchi, bchamel, pan gravy, farfel, tempura, fritter, and scaloppini? Maybe you need to double check on these before making an order just to be safe.
