What’s your main reason for being gluten-free?

We are pretty thrilled about this best participation rate in any of our 3-second-polls so far because it helps all of us get more representative results. So please help us promote our newest poll (How long after going gluten-free did you feel/see first results?) to get even more answers. Here are the detailed results of what you said:

• 52.9% (36 out of 69) responded that they have celiac disease
• 27.9% (19 people) of you said that you are intolerant to gluten
• 10.3% (7 out of 69) of you just feel better on a gluten-free diet
• 7.4% (5 of you) are gluten-free because of a family member
• 1.5% (one person) replied that they have a wheat allergy and want to be on the safe side
• No participant was an athlete following a gluten-free diet

The results make sense, but the Custom Choice Cereal team was still impressed that more than 3/4 of all respondents had either celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity. This show that eating gluten-free might after all not be the fad diet that many make it out to be. Or our readers are the people who understand why they should be gluten-free.

Since Hajo insists on a graphical depiction of our 3-second-poll results you can find an easy-to-read chart below:

What would you like our next 3-second-poll to be? Let us know in the comment section!

This passion for entrepreneurship was the main reason for me to launch Custom Choice Cereal in the Triangle instead of one of the bigger cities. At the same time, there are many great ideas coming to life here, and the entrepreneurial community is really well interconnected. Once you’re fellow entrepreneurs even the rivalries between Duke, UNC, and NC State fade to the background

Here is proof: Jon Reifschneider, founder of 31Projects, went to Duke, while I graduated from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. His idea is to let companies and students get to know each other risk-free through short-term projects and competitions. Students get real-life experience while the companies can crowdsource the best talent – a classic “win-win” situation.

Jon’s venture was covered on ere.net with Custom Choice Cereal mentioned as an example of how it will work. I am pretty excited to have Custom Choice Cereal be a part of the launch next week with a competition for a viral marketing plan.

Nutritionist and soon-to-be-dietitian Amanda (does it get more qualified than that??) reviewed the cereal she created on her blog The Nutritionist Reviews, and for her it is “pretty much a dream come true”. She goes on by saying

“Oh, you want to know how it tastes? Well, it tastes great. The flakes have a pretty mild flavor but the fruit and nuts make it loaded with flavor. I like the contrast between the crunch of the flakes and the chew of the fruit. I would HIGHLY recommend this cereal to anyone, even people without a gluten sensitivity. Thanks Custom Choice Cereal for the awesome breakfast treat!”

Isn’t that cool? If you decide to create your perfect healthy cereal with your favorite ingredients, please don’t forget to let me know your feedback!

You are encouraged to ask this renown expert who has celiac disease himself anything you always wanted to know about following a gluten- or wheat-free diet. Feel free to have a look at the Gluten Free Doctor’s impressive resume and expertise on our Custom Choice Cereal people page.

But now to the important things, here is how it works:

1. Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
2. We’ll send all questions to Dr. Wangen
3. Dr. Wangen’s answers will be published in reply to your comments
4. Key: First come – first serve. And we have to keep it to 5 questions

We at Custom Choice Cereal are excited that Dr. Stephen Wangen agrees to provide this great service to you. Please understand that he has a busy schedule that we therefore have to limit each session to 5 questions. Thank you very much!

Dr. Mike at MyFox News in Philadelphia educates about celiac but also shares his thoughts on the gluten-free diet as a weight-loss diet: “You need to eat less and exercise more.” Makes sense, doesn’t it? He continues to say “It’s a matter of caloric accounting!” Watch the entire highly entertaining video below, you will learn (and laugh) quite a bit!

Despite author Melinda Beck’s thorough research, the article incorrectly listed envelope adhesives, distilled alcoholic beverages and vinegars, ketchup, ice creams, and lipsticks as products that celiacs should avoid. It speaks for the integrity of the Journal that they printed the following statement of corrections in Saturday’s paper:

“Envelope adhesives do not contain gluten, and the distillation process removes the gluten from alcoholic beverages and distilled vinegars that are made from gluten-containing grains, according to registered dietitian Shelley Case, member of the Celiac Disease Foundation Medical Advisory Board. Ketchup and most ice creams are also gluten-free, and the amount of gluten in some lipsticks is too small to pose health problems. A Tuesday Health Journal incorrectly included all these products among those that people with celiac disease should avoid.”

We at Custom Choice Cereal are time and again amazed how the gluten-free community spots these tiny little mistakes and almost instantaneously corrects them. We were told by MarylandCeliac that envelope adhesives are gluten-free and corrected this in our blog entry.

Thanks for helping us learn every single day!

Two events in particular stand out for us: the very well-researched article in the Wall Street Journal on the gluten-free diet and the fact that the Gluten Intolerance Group wrote about how to customize your own gluten-free cereal (of course Hajo’s mugshot in this article was another highlight).

Enough said, on to what’s become a good tradition here at Custom Choice Cereal: recognizing a few of the most creative names you gave your gluten-free cereal creations this week!

5. Wendy Chia Granola (Using your name. Another classic.)
4. Gluten-free Cereal for Diabetics (Type1Rider approves!)
3. Bakery Boost (The breakfast boost for the day!)
2. All Mixed Up (That’s exactly what it was.)
1. And this week’s winner is Diva’s Delight (Clearly Diva-worthy, mix ID d0a67e)

Be encouraged. Customize your own gluten-free cereal. Give it a great name. Enjoy. But for now just have a great weekend!

The GIG and their website is extremely helpful and informative, so we include it in on our page of useful links for anyone new to the gluten-free diet. Besides the fact that our young company is featured in such a highly regarded publication, I am particularly happy that they mentioned the various measures we take to ensure the safety of your customized cereal: we source only naturally gluten-free ingredients, test each ingredient for potential gluten contamination, and hand-mix each cerealization in a dedicated gluten-free facility.

It’s great to see my mugshot in the magazine… What I really hope for though is that this article will help more people realize that they can enjoy a tasty gluten-free cereal by simply creating their own. Having to follow a gluten-free diet is tough enough, let’s try to make it an enjoyable experience!

The Wall Street Journal’s Health Journal columnist Melinda Beck wrote a great article on who has to stick to a gluten-free diet (celiacs, people with a wheat allergy, and those with a sensitivity to gluten). I was pretty impressed by the thoroughness of the research that was done and wanted to share it with you as part of our customer service. It particularly struck me that

• gluten can be found in lip gloss (but not in envelope adhesives)
• Melinda described many of the most common symptoms that ‘glutened’ celiacs experience
• it is not well understood how gluten can cause psychiatric and behavioral changes (keyword: leaky-gut)
• 7% of the population has anti-gliadin antibodies (‘AGA’), as do 18% of people with autism, and 20% of those with schizophrenia

The article also points out that much more research is needed to understand why the various conditions that benefit from a gluten-free diet are so much more prevalent today than several decades ago. While celiac disease was initially believed to begin only during childhood, it is now know that it can start at any time during the life of a person with the genetic predisposition.

In a little video, Melinda Beck also explains that the gluten-free diet is not a weight-loss diet, and that one should not embark lightly on a gluten-free diet.

It’s not that we at Custom Choice Cereal disagree. Trying to look at the bright side of life however, we think that there are pretty good reasons why everyone should be happy about this trend. Even if some of the information provided through mass media turns out not to be very accurate, here are our top 3 reasons to appreciate the buzz on eating gluten-free:

• More consumers realize that they might benefit from a gluten-free diet. As one reader of the Toronto Star – who by the way stresses that it is not a fad diet – writes: “For years I suffered with debilitating eczema and spent thousands of dollars seeking treatment. It wasn’t until I tried going gluten-free that I got relief from the eczema, along with several other health issues I never considered being related to gluten. And I am not a celiac. One doesn’t need to be a celiac to notice positive health changes when gluten is eliminated from the diet.”
• As more people hear about eating gluten-free, it will very likely increase the rate of diagnosis of celiac disease and gluten sensitivities. Considering that 97% of celiacs remain undiagnosed, that’s a great thing, at the very least for the folks who suffer (often for years) without knowing the reason
• As you can already tell, increased awareness for gluten-free foods results in positive reactions from the food industry, bringing everyone more choices and making living gluten-free much easier

We fully sympathize with those of you who are infuriated by inaccurate reporting on celiac disease and know that it can be tough to see the positive in some of the media coverage. Give seeing the positive a try though, it’s just not worth your energy being mad!

Did you find another reason why everyone benefits from the buzz about the gluten-free diet? Don’t be shy about it, let us at Custom Choice Cereal and everyone else know about it and leave us a comment!