Posted Jan 2, 2010
Sally Fulmer, marketing manager for the Common Market, knows a bit about healthy eating and organic food.
But working at Frederick’s co-op grocery store didn’t help the digestive issues that plagued her much of her life. That is, until a co-worker suggested she try eliminating certain foods from her diet. When she eliminated all things gluten, including wheat, she noticed a big difference.
Within two weeks, she was feeling better. “I had been misdiagnosed with different ailments,” she said. “It was never diagnosed as a food allergy. Every specialist told me it was something different.”
Fulmer has never been tested for celiac disease, an autoimmune disease that is triggered by gluten. She doesn’t want to get the test, because in order to do so, one must eat gluten.
Instead, she has what she determined to be a gluten intolerance. For years, she tried various treatments designed to settle her stomach and end heartburn. Nothing worked, however.
“I felt so bad all the time,” she said. ” I never felt good.” She attributed much of that to stress. In addition to her full-time job, she was working on her master’s of business administration degree. Fulmer hikes and mountain bikes, so her digestive troubles were not related to inactivity.
What sold her on the gluten-free diet was her reaction when she added a tiny bit of gluten back in. “When I do consume a little bit of gluten, I immediately get a stomachache,” she said.
Eating gluten free is more than eliminating wheat products. Barley and rye also contain gluten. Soy sauce and many commercial salad dressings contain gluten. Malt vinegar contains gluten. Even some brands of french fries and Pringles Potato Chips contain some wheat.
“I’m very careful about what I eat,” she said. “I have to ask a lot of questions.”
Fulmer said that has been made easier because of where she works. The Common Market carries a large number of gluten-free foods, and many staff members are aware of the challenges of a gluten-free diet. “I think working here has helped me transition more smoothly,” she said. Otherwise, she said, she may have felt overwhelmed.
Some local restaurants offer gluten-free items, including The Orchard, Acacia, Hinode and Bonefish Grill. Pizzeria Uno now has a gluten-free pizza. Pizza is one popular food that can be hard for the person on the gluten-free diet to substitute. Pizzeria Uno’s version does measure up, however. “It is good,” Fulmer said.
Fulmer said her friends have been flexible about eating at restaurants with gluten-free options when they go out.
The Common Market also offers frequent gluten-free cooking classes with Jerree Nicolee, a local personal chef who cooks gluten-free. “She has helped me as well,” Fulmer said.
Nicolee has the ability to make gluten-free foods taste anything but. Before Thanksgiving, she made sweet potato biscuits that tasted better than traditional biscuits, Fulmer said. Christmas cookies, cakes, macaroni and cheese, all taste as good or better than those from traditional recipes, she added.
“She does a lot of baking,” Fulmer said. Still, during this holiday season, Fulmer must watch what she eats when at parties. “Eating gluten-free has helped me maintain a healthy weight,” she said. “This time of year, I can’t eat cakes and pies. I can’t eat all those empty calories.”
Nicolee had already started a personal chef business before she discovered she was gluten intolerant. “It was a little daunting,” Nicolee said.
Nicolee loved Italian food, bread, beer, all foods with gluten. She adapted quickly, however. She experimented with various flours, rice flour, corn flour, potato flour and soy flour. “Rice flour tends to suck up all the moisture,” Nicolee said. It works best when combined with other flours.
Through experimentation, she has learned to bake cakes, cookies and muffins. For the holidays, she features gingerbread, toffee, brownies and raspberry cheesecake bars. “I even did a cookie swap,” she said. While she couldn’t eat all the cookies she received, she did get peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate.
Her business is not limited to those with gluten intolerance, but she has found more gluten-intolerant customers than she expected in the Frederick area. There are two local bakeries, Clustered Spires Pastry Shop in Frederick and A Better Choice Bakery in Brunswick, that feature gluten-free offerings.
Nicolee likes to make people forget they are eating gluten-free.
There are even a few gluten-free beers on the market that taste pretty good, Nicolee said. And wine is gluten-free.
Nicolee and Fulmer like to focus on what they can eat.
Fulmer said she has always been a food label reader, but that’s especially important when eating gluten-free. “It’s not always called wheat,” she said. Maltodextrin is another red flag, especially if it’s derived from wheat.
“It is a challenging diet to follow,” she said. “That was one of the things I struggled with. It’s almost like a loss. It’s a life-changing diet.”
Because she ate a healthy diet to begin with, the transition wasn’t as difficult for Fulmer as it might be for someone who eats a lot of processed foods. Fruits and vegetables, which do not have gluten, have always been a large part of her diet.
“One important thing to know is that white flour comes from wheat flour,” she said. People who have a gluten intolerance or allergy must learn to read and understand food labels.
Gluten can even be found in lipstick and lip balms, some medicines and vitamins where it’s used as a binding agent, and toothpaste.
> Dr. David Kossoff, a Frederick gastroenterologist, recommends people who think they have celiac disease get tested for it. Celiac disease is probably underdiagnosed. “We’re much more attuned to it today than we were 20 years ago,” he said. In the past, celiac disease was often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or other gastrointestinal disorder.
People with celiac disease can be anemic or suffer from other dietary disorders. Celiac disease affects the small intestine, preventing many nutrients from being properly absorbed into the diet.
The gluten-free diet almost always contains rice and potatoes. Buckwheat, corn, grits and a high-protein grain called quinoa are often part of the gluten-free diet as well. Rice pasta allows people on gluten-free diets to enjoy many of the same Italian dishes that use wheat-based pasta.
Since Fulmer gave up gluten 18 months ago, she said her outlook on life has brightened considerably. She has a lot more energy and people tell her she seems much happier.
“I feel like a completely different person,” she said. “It affected me mentally and emotionally because I felt so bad all the time.”
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Copyright © 2010, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
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