Favorite: Book on Celiac Disease

Occasionally, I will share a favorite item from my gluten-free kitchen: a book, cookbook, gluten-free food or kitchen gadget or a roundup of favorite things from around the web. Hopefully you’ll find some new favorites to add to your gluten-free kitchen! While they may contain affiliate links, all favorites posts reflect my own opinion and are not sponsored by any individual or company.

Today I waned to share a favorite resource book about celiac disease and transitioning to gluten-free: Celiac Disease (Revised and Updated Edition): A Hidden Epidemic. I was so thankful that a friend recommended this book to me when I was first diagnosed. My gastroenterologist didn’t give me a single bit of information when he gave me my celiac diagnosis, so to say I was lost and confused would be an understatement.  The first few chapters cover common symptoms of celiac disease and gluten intolerance.  There is extensive information regarding testing, including why and how you should be tested if you haven’t been yet and are suspecting gluten is a problem for you.

Most helpful to me, as someone newly diagnosed, were the sections dealing with what types of follow-up testing you should have done after diagnosis.  I was able to take my bookmarked book in with me to my appointment with my family doctor and he happily followed the recommendations for testing.  Without this book’s recommendations, my doctor and I wouldn’t have thought to order a bone density scan for me since I was only in my early 30s.  Since the book recommended it, my doctor ordered one for me and we were able to find that I have Osteopenia already (the precursor to Osteoporosis) and immediately began supplementation to try to help with this.

This book also covers many of the symptoms of celiac disease that aren’t usually talked about: fatigue, brain fog, confusion, difficulty remembering things, migraines, depression, etc.  As someone that had many of these symptoms, it was very helpful to realize that they actually are common with undiagnosed celiac disease and would hopefully improve on a gluten-free diet.  (Side note: most of them have.  When I do get “glutened”, all of these symptoms return for 48 hours to 2 weeks.)

The latter chapters in this great book address reading labels, cooking without gluten, and what medicine and beauty products to be careful of.  There is a very helpful chapter on dealing with children and young adults who have celiac disease, with a breakdown by children’s ages with tips for helping them.

I definitely recommend you check to see if your library has a copy of this book or order one for yourself. If you have another favorite book on celiac disease or eating gluten-free to recommend, please leave it in the comments below.