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Celiac made the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper's Food Section!  Here it is:
   
  Hopeful steps for celiac sufferers
  By Dianna Marder  http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/food/14162692.htm
  Inquirer Staff Writer  Like other people with food allergies, Ross Cohen came to believe he was safe only when eating from his own kitchen.
  But never going out made Ross a dull boy - and gave his fiancee culinary cabin fever. She longed to eat out, but he feared that most restaurant kitchens would not be attentive to his need for a strict gluten-free diet.
  Cohen has celiac disease, which is not technically an allergy but an intolerance to wheat and myriad other sources of gluten.
  The problem affects millions of Americans and has serious health consequences, according to the National Institutes of Health.
  And it can be controlled only with diet.
  That's why Cohen would rather stay home. Even if he orders a wheat-free dish, his serving could easily be contaminated by spoons or bowls used in the restaurant kitchen.
  The Philadelphian realized that if he ever hoped to enjoy a good meal in a fine restaurant, he'd have to find a way to work with chefs.
                          • 
  Awareness of celiac disease is still in its infancy, says Alice Bast, who lives in Ambler and heads the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. For decades, it simply wasn't on the radar for U.S. doctors.
  The disease attacks the small intestine, blocking absorption of nutrients, compromising the immune system, says Peter Green, the physician in charge of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in New York. Untreated, he says, it can lead to osteoporosis, anemia, infertility, neurological problems and intestinal cancer.
  But avoiding gluten is easier said than done, because it is present in a range of food, medicines and even cosmetics: pasta and breads, of course, as well as soy sauce, salad dressings, gravy, beer - even lipstick.
  Just this year, the Food and Drug Administration started requiring that product labels disclose the presence of wheat, specifically, as well as eight other common allergens. It will take until 2008 for those labels to specify the presence of any gluten.
  Increasingly, Bast says, restaurants, caterers and prepared-food markets across the country are getting the message and becoming accommodating. Web-based businesses such as Pam's Celiac Kitchen, in Bedminster, N.J., deliver celiac-free ingredients and fully prepared dishes to your door (or the bedside of an ailing friend).
  Still, eating out remains another matter - and a necessary one if we are to remain a sociable society.
  • 
  Initially, Ross Cohen and his fiancee, Kay Inamine, printed out a page from a Web site with information and warnings about foods that contain gluten and handed it out at restaurants they visited.
  "But the wording was harsh and scary," Inamine said. "Some restaurants turned us away because they were afraid of making him sick. They didn't want to be sued."
  Inamine concluded she needed friendlier cards, and the couple settled on a do-it-yourself solution.
  Together they researched and published The Essential Gluten-Free Restaurant Guide, listing large and small restaurants across the country that are accommodating to sufferers.
  And they created a set of six wallet-size cards a celiac sufferer can give to a waiter or chef, explaining which foods he or she can eat safely, and which are off limits.
  Both came out in 2005 and are available at the couple's Web site, www.triumphdining.com.
  Written in English and Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Hindi, each dining card focuses on ingredients particular to that country's cuisine (panko and ramen are prohibited foods on the Japanese cards, for example, and flour tortillas on the Mexican). So they're useful when traveling abroad, or in local ethnic restaurants. And they're laminated to resist food spills and inexpensive enough ($9.95 for the set) to distribute around town.
  (These are not the only celiac dining cards available. The Gluten-Free Bible, by Philadelphia writer Jax Lowell, contains a set of foreign-language cards, and Columbia's Celiac Disease Center offers an English-language dining card.)
  Cohen and Inamine took their Triumph Dining Cards everywhere they ate - and found a particularly warm welcome at My Thai restaurant, 22d and South Streets.
  There chef-owner Tanasit Siriluck happens to be allergic to cherries, and is also a court-certified Thai translator. He verified the language on the Thai Triumph card, and posted it in the restaurant kitchen for future reference.
  So on a recent visit to My Thai, Cohen found a willing waitstaff that consulted the Triumph card, compared it to the day's menu, and advised Cohen.
  He ordered pork and shrimp dip with glutinous rice (sounds as if it would contain gluten, but it doesn't), which came with napa cabbage, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots. And all was well until the dessert tray arrived, displaying chocolate cake, Oreo mousse, tiramisu, pumpkin custard. No, no, no, no.
  Cohen settled for the safe option: a pudding of sweet rice in coconut milk with corn, which was tasty but not what he really wanted.
  "Sometimes I still have cravings for things I can't eat," he says, his eyes glazing over.
  "Like greasy cheap pizza."

		
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