Where'd You Hear That?

When you have to adhere to a gluten-free diet, it's imperative that you seek out information that is 100% accurate and reliable about what you can and can't eat. I've been really diligent about this and it has limited the number of times that I've gotten sick from accidentally ingesting gluten, but even so, I've made some mistakes that have left me very ill. It's definitely a learning process.

I had an interesting experience the other day that really highlighted for me the necessity for those of us who are gluten-free to take control of and responsibility for our food intake, and to be discerning and persistent in making sure we get accurate and reliable information about the ingredients in everything we eat.

I was at the pharmacy a couple of days ago picking up a new prescription for Dapsone, because I was recently diagnosed with DH. More on this another time because I really don't feel like talking about it, so I'll just say that DH is another autoimmune condition associated with celiac disease. It's a skin reaction, and it sucks. So far, the Dapsone is working amazingly well. But I digress.

So, I'm at the pharmacy, and Dapsone has a lot of crazy potential side effects, and I'm not even remotely excited about taking it, although I am pretty excited that it's working. But I digress again. Anyway, I was asking the pharmacist about what I needed to be aware of with the medication because some of the side effects are dangerous, and this other lady was totally eavesdropping. She interrupted our conversation to tell me I needed to take a multi-vitamin, and that Centrum would be best. I said, I don't think I can take Centrum, because I have found conflicting information about the content and cannot be 100% sure it's gluten free. She said, well, I'm a nutritionist, and a little bit of gluten won't hurt you. Ugh. A little bit of gluten will hurt me a LOT.

I was a little disturbed that this lady, claiming to be a nutritionist (which requires no specific education or credential process, as opposed to dieticians, who are credentialed--but it sounds so official), would tell me something so flagrantly incorrect. I know I can't ingest even a little bit of gluten, but other people may not know that. This is why we all need to take responsibility for educating ourselves about what we can and can't eat. And, if you don't know much about celiac disease or a gluten free diet, don't eavesdrop on people at the pharmacy and then lecture them on what they can and can't eat. I think that's just a pretty good rule of thumb.