Apr 10, 2009

10 Positive Things About Having Celiac Disease

Yesterday, I happened to walk by many delicious looking gluten baked goods at Trader Joe’s. I said to my daughter, “I am glad they are not gluten free”. She was shocked and asked why. I said, “if they were gluten free, I would be tempted to buy them and eat too many sweets”. I think that this is the first time I ever said I was glad something was not gluten free. It really got me thinking and here is the result - a list about the positive things about having celiac disease. Please share your comments and share this list!

1. Your health is better!
2. You helped improve the health of other people by telling family members, friends, coworkers, and doctors about the importance of testing for celiac disease.
3. You don’t need medicine or surgery to treat your disease.
4. You don’t have to share your food. This is from the video of Dominick Cura’s fourth grade presentation.
5. You save money by not impulsively buying sweets, by not impulsively eating out, and by not buying your lunch daily.
6. Since you read labels, you have a better idea of the nutritional facts and ingredients of the foods you eat and can make more informed choices.
7. You appreciate the small things in life and find joy in them like new good gluten free foods, the mention of gluten free or celiac on a television show, gluten free lists of foods and medicines, and an informative blog post or review. (Yes, these are big things to celiacs, but they are still small things in the big picture of life.)
8. You eat healthier at home when you don’t feel like driving far to eat out or buy gluten free convenience foods.
9. You have something to blog about.
10. You participate in amazing internet networking with other celiacs and have an instant bond with them.

12 comments:

Samaber said...

This helped pick me up out of a particularly pessimistic GF mood. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Your daughter finds out she has celiac too so now you have another bond

seamaiden said...

Mine:
You learn how to make delicious and sometimes international foods that you never would have bothered with before and thus become a much better and more adventurous cook!

You can enjoy sharing delicious gluten-free food with gluten-free and glutenoid friends alike.

You learn more about fresh produce and other naturally gluten-free ingredients than you might have otherwise.

-Sea

erin rogers pickering said...

You realize that you CAN bake bread... good bread!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that.. :))) I appreciate the opportunity to re-focus.

one other one...our bodies will heal itself (to a large degree) from the damage done

Linda said...

Great list! Thanks for the reminder that there is a lot to be thankful for. I agree with Sea. I've learned to make so many new foods.

Anonymous said...

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Dana aka Gluten Free In Cleveland said...

I love love love this list.

Because of celiac disease and how 16 years of being undxed lead to many health complications on my end, I've chosen to devote my career path to creating health media for children focusing on disease prevention (like good oral hygeine, nutrition, etc).

Even though it takes away easy dining for us, being a diagnoised celiac gives so much more! Thanks for the wonderful reminder!!

Kim said...

Just found your site through Twitter. Reminds me that I should start posting some gluten-free recipes. Thanks for the reminder! Feel free to browse through my recipes.

jgoodfellow said...

This list is great and encouraging. It's nice to see this positive side of celiacs. Thanks for sharing it with us, and I'm glad I could share it with others :)

Thanks also for checking out my site and for the compliments. I look forward to reading more on your blog!

Allie said...

love the name of your blog! it's exactly how I feel - well, 98% of the time ;) i actually just saw you on twitter pretty recently too!

Annie Kate said...

You have a perfect excuse not to eat food at parties when you are trying to lose the weight that you can now finally gain. I suppose that is both good and bad, in a sense. LOL