The Struggles for Us Celiacs

Celiacs have it tough. From the day-to-day struggles of missing certain foods, to the sometimes terrifying feeling of realizing that your food was cross-contaminated, there are a lot of challenges that we deal with.

But one of the things that I wasn’t prepared for when I was figuring out that I had celiac disease (or coeliac disease) and a number of food intolerances was the crazy things people would say to me all the time. It seems like people generally have some misconceptions about celiacs. I am often baffled by the things that people will say to my face when they find out I have food sensitivities. I’ve gotten used to it a bit, but I didn’t realize how often I’d encounter some pretty shocking reactions to my dietary restrictions.

That’s not to say that every question or comment I get about this is always bad. When people ask me: “What do you eat?” I can recall feeling the same way towards people with basically any dietary restriction before I had to deal with them myself. I also get a lot of “I’m so sorry” or “That really sucks”—all of which I totally understand. But unfortunately I get some not-so-understandable comments.

*Disclaimer: I’m not trying to bash anyone who says these things. Rather, if you tend to say these things to celiacs this might help you understand things from our point of view. If you’re a fellow celiac, or have other dietary restrictions, then I’m sure you’ve heard some of these same things.

“But don’t you miss [insert name of food I miss here]?”

I get where people are coming from with this one, to be honest. It’s more when I get people listing as many foods as they can and asking me rapid-fire questions about foods that I can’t easily eat that I get frustrated. Sure, I can make these foods myself (Peter and I do a pretty great job), but people usually look past that and name specific restaurants or foods that are harder to make.

“You can’t eat CHOCOLATE!?”

When someone is going through the list of their favorite foods with me, or asking me what I cannot eat, they usually stop the world when they find out that I can’t have chocolate.

No matter how much I explain that it’s the easiest food intolerance for me to avoid because it’s almost never a hidden ingredient, but rather advertised on the front of a food item, it takes a lot of convincing on my part to show them that having a corn, soy, or gluten sensitivity is far more annoying. I have gotten some free fruit at restaurants out of it though, usually because the waiter or waitress feels really bad for me.

“So you wouldn’t eat this, even if I made it for you?”

This is something I mentioned in my last D.O.A.C., but I’ve had people try really, really hard to make me something to eat. While this sometimes has worked out well (shout out to Peter), sometimes people try to guilt trip me—even with foods that aren’t even close to meeting my dietary restrictions (like brownies or cupcakes, not gluten free at all). It’s not like celiacs are trying to offend people; it’s more that we can’t eat just anything, even if someone puts as much love as they want into baking it.

“But it’s gluten free.”

This one usually comes from something that’s cross-contaminated. I usually have to explain to the person multiple times that even though the food item itself is fine, if it touches something else I’m in serious trouble.

“I couldn’t do that.”

As you can imagine, when you have celiac disease or bad enough food sensitivities and have spent many years sick and in pain because of them, not eating the foods that cause these problems is kind of an easy choice.

“Do you have cheat days?”

Unfortunately not. I have celiac disease 100% of the time.

“You celiacs are so lucky! I wish I were celiac so I could get healthy!”

One of the more unfortunate ones is when people try to find a silver lining. I’m sure that some of this is because I look like what people probably picture when they think of a celiac.

Even though how I look has nothing to do with my food sensitivities, I get a lot of: “At least all those allergies will keep you skinny,”or “I wish I were celiac so I could lose a bunch of weight.” People usually back down on this when they realize that I can’t eat one of their favorite foods, but they still try to spin my dietary restrictions as a positive thing, even when I point out that there are so many more factors than my celiac disease.