by April Peveteaux
Tighten your seatbelt and prepare for a wild ride as you learn how to manage celiac disease (CD) in this informative and "crudely" entertaining book by April Peveteaux. The preface sums it up: “For mom (sorry for all the cursing)”.
People suffering from celiac disease require plenty of education and emotional support to start healing from this debilitating disease, it is refreshing to get factual information in a fun, light and often hilarious context. Peveteaux takes a wonderfully humorous and irreverent approach to a very difficult and often painful disease. For example, in chapter one What to do When Crapping Your Pants, actually discusses how to determine if you are gluten intolerant and what tests are necessary for a diagnosis. Peveteaux also includes other symptoms of CD that are non-gastro related.
The book includes 40 recipes providing a welcome transition for those making the change to gluten-free eating. Preveteaux offers helpful tips and modifications to convert family-favorite recipes into gluten-free and an “I deserve it” occasional treat. Recipes for the Downtrodden chapter offers up a variety of recipes to help you “stuff the victim feeling” with cheese, fried and sugar goodies, aka “Comfort Food”. Not necessarily the healthiest choices when in a disease state, but it does help with the process of changing your eating habits gently.
Holy Crap, My Kid's a Celiac, is a bit tongue in cheek, but offers helpful information and strategies for how to be gluten-free and how to help your kids deal with the challenge.
Travelling While Sprueing gives an abundance of hints for airplane travel such as packing snacks, how to request special gluten-free meals, and a list of gluten-free airlines at the time of publication.
Take a load off, get some laughs on and enjoy yourself while learning some great info about making the change to a gluten-free lifestyle. Besides serving up a huge platter of hilarity, Gluten is my Bitch intersperses a lot of good information, research and resources for people with CD or gluten sensitivity.
Jan Phillips, M.Ed.