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Shop for a Cause!
Macy's has
partnered with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness to raise
funds for awareness and research projects. And, it all involves
shopping!
Here's how it works:
Donate
$5 to NFCA and in exchange you'll receive a 20% off card from Macys
that is valid on purchases on Saturday October 13. You'll be
entered to win amazing prizes such as: a $500 gift card for
Macys, home appliances, clothing and other incredible items.
Oh my goodness, I have a cooking show!!
Alternative Appetites is a new series that focuses on helping you cook meals for special dietary needs. I will show you how to make gluten-free meals for people with celiac disease, dairy-free meals for people who are lactose intolerant, etc. More episodes to come. Enjoy!
Washington, D.C. Gluten-Free Cooking Spree participant, Rahman "Rock" Harper of B. Smith's, has won FOX's Hell's Kitchen!!
Chef Rock is a professional chef from Spotsylvania, Va. In the season finale, which aired on Monday August 13, Rock beat out the show's other finalist, Bonnie Muirhead, a nanny and personal chef.
At the Washington, D.C. Gluten-Free Cooking Spree, Rock was a member of the Revolution Health team. With the help of Sous Chefs GastroGirl (Jacqueline Gaulin) and Val Jones (Senior Medical Director of RevolutionHelath.com). Rock cooked a stunning meal consisting of Shrimp with Marscapone and Parmesean Cheese Grits.
Here's a photo of the team with NFCA Executive Director Alice Bast and Revolution Health Director of Non-Profit Partnerships Dominick Kennerson.
Throughout the competition, Rock emerged as the leader of the blue, boys cooking team. His leadership and consistency in the kitchen earned him the Hell's Kitchen top prize of a $250,000 salary and the executive chef position at the Green Valley Ranch Restaurant in Las Vegas.
Beyond Rice Cakes is generally an upbeat lifestyle column,
dedicated to making you laugh at the hilarious things that often happen
to people with celiac disease. I strive every month to make you feel
good about being on a gluten-free diet and find new and creative ways
to impress your non-celiac friends with delicious recipes. However,
this month, I'm going to be a little more serious and examine how
celiac disease can drastically impact the reproductive health of both
men and women. I hope that you'll read this article carefully and then
talk to your family and friends about it, so that together, we can help
all people in the United States with celiac disease who also suffer
from reproductive health issues.
I am only 24 years old, but I am blessed to have already found three
exceptional role models who I admire and respect more than I ever could
have imagined. All three of them are women who experienced devastating
pregnancy complications because they spent so many years with
undiagnosed celiac disease. Alice Bast As Alice was explaining the basics of the disease to me, she
mentioned that migraine headaches are a symptom of celiac. When she
said this, I think I dropped my notebook and pen on the floor. I was in
shock. I had suffered debilitating migraines my entire life and had
tried every headache medication available, all to no avail. I
immediately got tested and sure enough, I had celiac. The week after I received my positive blood test, I called Alice to
thank her and learn more about the disease. Alice told me her personal
story of being diagnosed with celiac, a story that to this day still
brings tears to my eyes to think about. Alice first experienced symptoms of celiac disease after returning
from a trip to Mexico and deciding with her husband to have a second
child. The first six months of the pregnancy were uneventful. She felt
healthy and her unborn baby was quite a little kicker! But suddenly, at
the end of the second trimester, Alice was struck with severely
debilitating diarrhea. Several times she visited her obstetrician,
complaining that she had not had a formed stool in over a month. He
told her not to worry. Two weeks before her due date, the diarrhea had gotten out of
control and Alice continued to say that the baby was not moving
correctly. Again, the doctor said that the baby was in a small space
without much room to maneuver and that Alice shouldn't worry so much. Two days later, Alice told her husband that the baby was dead, that
all movement had ceased. He put his head on her tummy and as Alice
says, "the panic in his eyes confirmed my fears." They drove to the
hospital where Alice delivered a full-term stillbirth child. Alice and
Will named the baby Emily. It took Alice several more years and a near second stillbirth baby before she was diagnosed with celiac disease. CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins Heidi's passion for helping people with celiac disease comes from
more than a decade of suffering debilitating symptoms and, like Alice,
losing a child. Heidi's constant health issues grew nearly intolerable when she
moved to CNN's New York office. She continued visiting doctors until
finally after 15 years of one health problem after another, her general
practitioner diagnosed her with celiac disease. With one simple blood
test, Heidi had found a diagnosis that would allow her to work toward a
cure for her chronic medical conditions and an answer as to why her
pregnancy had failed. Connie Maltin, my mom Because of my mom's celiac, it took nine years to successfully have
a child, ME, and it was still a close call. I was born two months early
and weighed only about three pounds. To help other families prevent the devastation that Alice, Heidi and
my mom experienced, here is some basic information on infertility and
reproductive health that explains the link to celiac disease. Celiac Disease and Infertility Link: What is infertility? Although it is commonly believed that infertility is heavily related
to female factors, only about one-third of cases of infertility
actually stem from the woman. About one-third of cases originate with
the male partner and the remaining cases are a combination of unknown
factors or a mix of male and female complications. Infertility in Women: Factors that increase a woman's risk of infertility: Infertility in Men: Factors that increase a man's risk of infertility: Tests for Infertility: Treating Infertility: References:
I met NFCA Executive Director Alice Bast
in July 2004 during the National Institutes of Health Celiac Disease
Consensus Conference. I was working as a news reporter for the Palm Beach Post
newspaper and writing an article on celiac. In my editor's mind, this
was a very slow news day. Little did I know, that it would turn out to
be one of the most important news days of my entire life.
Heidi
Collins and I first met in person in November 2006 at the International
Celiac Disease Symposium in New York City. We immediately bonded over
gluten-free food and the desire to help all Americans with celiac
disease get accurately diagnosed. And…of course, the need to improve
gluten-free food options!
My mom and dad
are the two most amazing people in the world. They are the most
supportive, kind and generous people I know, making them the perfect
candidates for parenthood. My parents were married in February of 1973
after my mom convinced my dad that she made the best cookies in
America….little did my mom know that those delicious cookies would
cause her and my dad some of the greatest devastation
imaginable….miscarriage.
Over the last 10 years, several studies have examined the link between
celiac disease and infertility and found that women suffering from
unexplained infertility may have clinically silent celiac disease.
Infertility is defined as the biological inability of a woman or man to
contribute to conception. Many experts define infertility as not being
able to get pregnant after at least one year of trying. Women who are
able to get pregnant but then have repeat miscarriages are also said to
be infertile. According to the National Center for Health Statistics,
roughly 12% of women in the United States—up to 7.3 million—had
difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term in 2002.
Most women who suffer from infertility have a problem with ovulation,
meaning there is a complication with the eggs being released to be
fertilized. Other causes of infertility include:
Infertility in men is generally caused by producing too few or no
sperm. The problem may also be the sperm's ability to travel to the
female's egg and fertilize it. This is typically caused by abnormal
sperm shape that prevents it from traveling in the correct form.
There are several ways to treat infertility including:
Thanks to great strides in technology, millions of Americans now
walk down the street with their hand-held palms completely engrossed in
the latest stock quotes or trying to respond to frantic emails about
what needs to be done that very second. There is always someone on a
cell phone and during office hours there is rarely a time when we are
not all connected to the big WWW (world wide web). Although for many of us, the Internet has made our lives a hustle
and bustle at all hours of the day, for the celiac community, the
Internet has provided a new and exciting platform to spread awareness,
share gluten-free recipes, educate medical professionals and connect
celiacs to other celiacs across the country. There are YouTube videos, public service announcements, online
newsletters, Facebook & MySpace groups, message boards, online
vendors and countless other resources on the WWW for celiacs. Here are
a few of them: RevolutionHealth.com The most recent development is AOL Founder Steve Case using his more
than 20-years of experience with the Internet to help educate Americans
about celiac disease. Earlier this year, Mr. Case launched RevolutionHealth.com,
which was founded to transform how people approach their overall health
and wellness. By putting individuals at the center of their own
healthcare, Revolution Health will help patients make informed choices
and offer more convenience and control over their individual healthcare
decisions. The Revolution Health board of directors is chaired by Mr. Case, and
its members include former Secretary of State Colin Powell; former
Fortune 500 CEOs Jim Barksdale, Frank Raines, Carly Fiorina and Steve
Wiggins; leading venture capitalists/financiers Miles Gilburne, Jeff
Zients, John Delaney and David Golden. Revolution Health currently is focused on: On June 19th, NFCA Spokeswoman and CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins
interviewed Mr. Case about RevolutionHealth.com. Mr. Case spoke about
celiac disease and the joint efforts of NFCA and Revolution Health to
educate people about celiac disease and the gluten-free diet through
the Internet and how to galvanize millions of people to get tested. As a result of the interview, more than 102,000 people visited
NFCA's website to learn about celiac disease and thousands filled out
the NFCA symptom checklist to show their doctor. (www.doihaveceliac.org). Bloggers Celiac Chicks: The celiac chicks try to keep all of the items they review to be
gluten-, corn- and dairy-free because Kelly is sensitive to all three.
They provide information on everything including: events, conferences,
food and restaurants. Kim and Kelly have been amazing supporters of the
NFCA and have helped us keep our website in tip-top shape! Gluten-Free Goddess: Gastrogirl: Gluten Free Girl: Other Gluten-Free/Celiac Blogs: And don't forget the NFCA Website!! NFCA has pulled together a variety of resources to help you get diagnosed and then manage the gluten-free diet. For Patients and Healthcare Providers: So make sure to visit www.CeliacCentral.org for more information and to find more ways to become an active member of the celiac community!
Do
you remember just a few short years ago when having a blackberry was
considered "high tech" and only seen amongst the staff of Microsoft or
Google. Do you remember when people made plans a week in advance and
stuck to them because there were no cell phones to cancel last minute
or change the plan??
Kim
and Kelly (the Celiac Chicks) both have 9-5 office jobs in New York
City and somehow manage to maintain one of the most incredible celiac
websites out there. Because these girls have two of the most dynamic
personalities, they decided to drastically change the "boring" nature
of online celiac resources and start a WWW site with enthusiasm! So
they started www.celiacchicks.com, as a way to "share our finds and save you the trouble of trial and error."
www.celiacchicks.com
Karina Allrich is by all definitions, a Gluten-Free Goddess! Not only
does she post incredible gluten-free vegetarian recipes on her blog,
but she also contributed the most delicious recipes to the first
edition of Beyond Rice Cakes! Karina is also an amazing designer! She
has a whole line of clothing and aprons available online. My personal
favorite says "Gluten-Free Cupcake." I have the apron and t-shirt and
wear them any chance I get!
glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
Jacqueline Gaulin of RevolutionHealth is GastroGirl. Now, I know this
sounds like a horrible title for a totally cool girl, but Jacqueline
owns her title! She keeps people updated on all gastrointestinal
diseases and cures for them and has become an active member of the
celiac community. She puts a quirky spin on things to help people be
less embarrassed to talk about gross things like diarrhea and gas…..On
May 4, 2007, she participated on a cooking team at the NFCA Washington,
D.C. Gluten-Free Cooking Spree and cooked up a fabulous gluten-free
meal! She had so much fun at the event, that she now calls herself a
gluten-free wanna-be! So make sure to read her blog to learn about
someone who is gluten-free simply because it is the "cool thing to
do!!"
http://gastrogirl.blogspot.com/2007/05/confessions-of-gluten-free-diva-wanna.html
Shauna James is the GlutenFreeGirl. She started her blog in April 2005
about being diagnosed with celiac in order to share her experiences and
stories. Today her blog records her love of food—fresh ingredients,
unexpected flavor combinations and seasonal fruits and vegetables.
And…for those romantics out there, the blog has turned into a love
story. About a year after she started her blog, Shauna fell in love
with a chef, who has turned his restaurant gluten-free! So to get some
amazing recipes and read a true love story, check out Shauna's blog.
glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
Gluten-Free Fun: http://glutenfreefun.blogspot.com
Gluten Free Journey: http://www.glutenfree-journey.blogspot.com/
Allergic Girl: http://allergicgirl.blogspot.com/
Digestive Diva: http://www.digestivediva.blogspot.com/
Gluten A Go Go: http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free Babe: http://www.glutenfreebabe.com/
Don't Need No Stinkin' Wheat: http://www.collegeceliac.blogspot.com/
Gluten-Free Gastro-Gnome: http://gf-gastrognome.blogspot.com/
Sorry, I Can't Eat That: http://glutenfreegabfest.blogspot.com/
I Am Gluten Free: http://www.iamglutenfree.blogspot.com/
The Vegetarian Celiac: http://www.vegetarianceliac.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free MappyB: http://www.glutenfreeindc.com/
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness:
One
of the most proud moments of Edgar Steele’s life was the day he was
promoted to Executive Assistant Weenie at Hot Dog Heaven in the small
town of Amherst, Ohio. To Edgar, this promotion was a huge step in his
career and represented a crucial element in his quest to prove to his
high school English teacher that he was not destined to be a ferryboat
captain as his professional aptitude test had suggested. 
Armed
with a wealth of experience in hot dog handling and a newfound passion
for food, Edgar boarded a plane for New York and enrolled in the
Culinary Institute of America (CIA). During his two years at the CIA,
Edgar took courses in pastry making, breakfast and lunch cookery,
baking ingredients and equipment technology, cuisines of the Americas,
Europe and Asia, food culture, specialty breads, table service, seafood
and meat identification and fabrication, psychology of human behavior,
restaurant law, restaurant operations, wine and food pairing, and most
importantly nutrition.
Shortly after graduation, Edgar began
working for Café Atlantico, a trendy restaurant in Washington, D.C.
that serves “contemporary signature cuisine inspired by the Nuevo
Latino style.” The kitchen is based upon cooking traditions from Latin
America and the menu displays “playfulness and innovation.”
www.CafeAtlantico.com
Prior to my first visit to Café
Atlantico, I had already secured Edgar as one of the chef participants
in the Washington, D.C. Gluten-Free Cooking Spree and I was going in to
the restaurant to make sure he was legitimate and could actually cook a
decent gluten-free meal…definitely wouldn’t want any bad apples at the
event!! During my visit to Café Atlantico, Edgar created a 14-course
meal that was by far the most delicious and enjoyable meal I have ever
eaten.
Some of the items on the menu were:
Guacamole—the best ever
Jicama and arugula salad with Cabrales cheese, corn & raspberry
Shrimp with corn puree, Mexican Cotija cheese, corn nuts and lime air
Crispy Beet Tumbleweed
Liquid Olives
Tomato Coconut Bisque with Greek Yogurt
Tuna Coconut Ceviche with Avocado
Scallop with Coconut Rice and Homemade Rice Crispies (my favorite)
Seared Salmon with cauliflower-quinoa, buttery papaya, avocado mash and papaya
After
this meal, I was completely sold on Edgar participating in the event,
but even more than that, I was excited and almost overwhelmed by the
passion that Edgar showed for helping me find food items on his
restaurant’s menu that I could eat safely. With each course that came
out of the kitchen, Edgar sat down at my table and in detail explained
the process for creating the dish and any changes to make it
gluten-free. Not only did he share his cooking techniques to prevent
contamination, but he also spent time helping me understand the
chemical make-up of the food and how the sky is the limit when creating
gluten-free meal options.
Although I’ve been cooking for myself
for quite some time now and wrote an entire cookbook on simple,
easy-to-make gluten-free recipes (Beyond Rice Cakes), this meal with
Edgar was truly the first time I appreciated the delicacy of a gourmet
gluten-free meal. In the past, I was always worried about having my
meal contaminated or not having the time to be more innovative about my
cooking, so I always ended up making basic meals that relied on the
daily diet staples (meat, vegetables and a starch). Being a true
culinary expert and a person with a passion for helping people eat
delicious meals, Edgar quickly helped me see the light….GLUTEN-FREE
FOOD CAN BE INCREDIBLE!
Following this meal, Edgar took an
immediate interest in the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
(NFCA) and created a fantastic recipe for the cooking spree. He came up
with a variety of brilliant ideas for educating chefs and spreading
celiac awareness, and yes, one page into this article I am officially
announcing it….Edgar Steele is the new Chef Spokesman for NFCA!!
As
the NFCA Chef Spokesman, Edgar will help develop and test recipes for
the next book in the Beyond Rice Cakes series, as well as help us use
our vendors’ products to their highest potential. We will work together
to create delicious recipes that everyone can enjoy at home. Edgar will
also be featured in NFCA’s culinary video Podcast series. Most
importantly, Edgar will be working directly with all of you. He will
write a monthly column for the NFCA newsletter and website
(www.celiaccentral.org) and maintain the “Ask-A-Chef” section of our
website. This is where you come in! Anytime you have culinary
questions, you can simply visit the NFCA website and write to Edgar
directly. He will provide you with answers and help you with all of
your gluten-free cooking needs!
For those of you who attended
the Washington, D.C. Gluten-Free Cooking Spree, you’ve had a chance to
taste some of the amazing food that Edgar cooks and Café Atlantico
serves. For appetizers at the event, Café Atlantico sent fried beets,
tomato/mozzarella injections, jicama-wrapped guacamole, and
tomato/watermelon skewers. What most of you don’t know is that I had
the pleasure of spending the whole day before the cooking spree helping
and watching Edgar make some of this food! To prove to everyone that
you too can make this stuff, we cooked in my tiny apartment kitchen and
enlisted the help of my dad (who does NOT cook).
Here is a brief Q&A with NFCA’ new Chef Spokesperson:
Q: Why did you decide to become a chef?
A: I love to cook!
Q: What was your first reaction when I asked you about the Gluten-Free Cooking Spree?
A:
My first thought was no starch including rice, bread and potatoes. But
I ran downstairs and looked it up on the computer and realized that I
had heard of it before. In my nutrition class, we learned what gluten
is, but not about how to help people with celiac eat at a restaurant.
Although the 10am wine tasting class was definitely my favorite
culinary class, the most important was nutrition because it should have
taught me to cook for all body types. I didn’t learn about celiac and I
should have. It is so important for chefs to understand eating with
celiac disease, as well as other food allergies—so important that there
should be a whole class on this.
Q: There are hundreds of food allergies. Why were you so interested in gluten and celiac disease?
A:
The people. Over the last month, I’ve met so many people with celiac
disease and it has been incredible to see their passion and desire for
food. I can’t imagine spending my life worrying that the food I eat
will make me sick. I love knowing that I can make people food that is
safe for their body and will keep them healthy.
Q: Is gluten-free cooking difficult or can any chef do it?
A:
EVERY chef can cook gluten-free. They just have to realize that they
can. I think the Gluten-Free Cooking Sprees have been an amazing way to
educate the culinary community and help chefs figure out that
gluten-free cooking is easy. As the awareness continues to grow, chefs
will also realize more that they need to be more proactive about
accommodating people with celiac.
To ask Edgar your questions, please visit www.CeliacCentral.org
And…make sure to go eat at Café Atlantico!!
Café Atlantico
405 8th Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
tel: (202) 393-0812
Upon
first diagnosis, many people with celiac disease think that eliminating
wheat, barley and rye from their diets is a curse and the worst
possible thing that could ever happen. They think they will never again
consume greasy New York-style pizza or indulge in luscious desserts.
WRONG!
Ok, so I’m a total hypocrite. I definitely was that
drama queen who called my mom crying because I couldn’t eat delivery
pizza at 3am with all of my friends and I certainly couldn’t drink beer
at the bars. So there I sat…sober and hungry, all because I had celiac
disease.
It took about six months and a big shove from the
amazing NFCA Executive Director Alice Bast to whip me into shape. She
plotted with my mom to convince me to start exploring my grandmother’s
recipe box and constantly reminded me that, for the first time in my
life, I was healthy. It didn’t take long to figure out that having a
positive attitude, along with adding a little bit of creativity to the
recipes to eliminate gluten, resulted in delicious gluten-free meals
and a much happier outlook on life.
Fast forward nearly two
years…I pooled together 150 of my favorite recipes and came up with my
favorite tips for living a happy and healthy gluten-free lifestyle, and
in September 2006, published Beyond Rice Cakes: A Young Person’s Guide
to Cooking, Eating & Living Gluten-Free. Did you know that 100% of
the proceeds from the book are donated to the NFCA?
On
November 21, 2006, CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins and CNN Medical
Correspondent Christy Feig aired a cooking segment featuring several
recipes from Beyond Rice Cakes. This was by far one of the most
exciting days of my entire life! The lights, cameras and excitement of
being filmed for television were incredible! Click here to watch the
segment.
The response to the segment was positively
overwhelming and after receiving more than 200 emails requesting more
in-depth segments, NFCA and its Board of Directors decided to expand on
the two-minute cooking segment and produce an entire series of
gluten-free cooking PodCasts. The video
segments will first be aired individually and, eventually, edited together into a full-length DVD cooking package.
Now,
hold on…Many you are probably wondering what on earth is a PodCast??
According to the definition on Wikipedia, a PodCast is:
A
media file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication
feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers.
Similar to radio, it can mean both the content and the method of
syndication. The host or author of a podcast is often called a
podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's
portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a pod refers to a
container of some sort and the idea of broadcasting to a container or
pod correctly describes the process of
podcasting.
Basically
what this means is that by simply visiting www.CeliacCentral.org,
iTunes, YouTube or Google Video, you’ll be able to download
full-feature video podcasts that will teach you to cook scrumptious
gluten-free meals from the comfort of your own home!
Over the
next year, there will be a series of podcasts, featuring yours truly
and several guest celebrity chefs…Carrie Levin of Good Enough to Eat
and Jehangir Mehta of Partistry, just to name a few. CNN Newsroom
Anchor Heidi Collins and her son will also put on their cooking aprons
to share some of their favorite gluten-free recipes!
Here’s a sample of the cuisines you’ll learn to cook: American Classics Mexican Cuisine Snack Time Dinner in No Time
Italian Cuisine Decadent Desserts Party Time Goal = Leftovers
Spanish Tapas Chocolate Heaven Bar Tab Cakes
Chinese Cuisine Fruit Sensations Kids Corner Pies
Japanese Cuisine Carb-o-licious Guide to Gluten-Free Flours Cookies
Thai Cuisine Baked Goods Spices Toppers
Calling All Cooks!
Do
you have a favorite recipe that fits into one of these categories? If
so, submit your recipe to PodCast@celiaccentral.org. You’ll hear back
promptly if your recipe is selected to be featured in a podcast!
Calling all sponsors and food vendors:
Each
podcast will feature a variety of gluten-free products. If you would
like to become a podcast sponsor and see your products aired in the
series, please contact me at Vanessa@celiaccentral.org or by phone at 215-692-2639.
Celiac
Disease….If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of it, but 97%
of the people who have it still don’t know what it is. To help raise
awareness and get the 3 million Americans with celiac disease
accurately diagnosed, CNN has graciously helped the National Foundation
for Celiac Awareness write, film, edit and produce a 30-second public
service announcement (PSA) featuring CNN Newsroom Anchor Heidi Collins.
To view the PSA click on this link: http://www.celiaccentral.org/Other/PSA/358/
Getting
this PSA made was one of the most fun weekends of my life. Alice and I
traveled down to CNN Studios is Atlanta and spent the day with Heidi
and a fantastic production crew filming the clip. We spent time talking
with make-up artists, camera men and producers, all of whom were
genuinely interested in celiac disease and showed more support than we
ever could have hoped for.
I’d like to extend a special thank you to everyone from CNN for all of their help. We couldn’t have done it without you!!
Now…we
need your help to get the PSA aired nationwide on as many stations as
possible. By getting the PSA aired in more communities, we can
instantly educate millions of people about celiac disease and help them
get on the path to restoring their health and reclaiming their
lives.
Join the 50 Station Challenge!!
If you’re ready to join our 50 Station Challenge, here’s what you need to do:
1.
Contact the stations you’d like to air the PSA. You can find their
contact information in your local telephone book or online at their
website. Ask to speak to the person in charge of handling public
service announcements.
2. Ask this person if the station is
airing PSAs and if they might be interested in celiac disease. If you
have celiac disease, tell them your personal story. Telling your
personal story will show why it is so important for the station to air
the PSA.
3. Ask them to view the PSA at
http://www.celiaccentral.org/Other/PSA/358/ or to contact Vanessa
Maltin 215-692-2639 or Vanessa@celiaccentral.org. Some stations may
request a DVD or BETA copy. In this case, please ask for the address of
the station and the name of the person whose attention the package
should be sent to. Send this information to Vanessa Maltin and she will
send the DVD or BETA version to the station.
4. About one week
after you’ve emailed them the link or NFCA has sent them the DVD or
BETA copy, it is very important for you to follow up to see that the
person received your email or our package and to find out whether
they’d like to air it.
5. If they say yes, FANTASTIC!! If they say no, don’t be discouraged. Pick another station and try again!! .
As
a 24-year-old celiac, it was a glorious day in my life when
Anheuser-Busch released Redbridge, a gluten-free, sorghum-based beer
created specifically for adults who maintain gluten-free or wheat-free
diets.
Throughout the years of college that I could drink
legally, it was a constant struggle to go out on the town with my
friends and repeatedly explain why I couldn’t drink beer. People
accused me of being a snob and having taste buds that were too classy
to drink beer. I hated going to happy hours because there was rarely a
time when there were drink specials other than beer.
As time
went on, several gluten-free beers became available, all of which I
loved and drank on many occasions. My only complaints were that they
were too expensive and not available at local bars, liquor stores or
supermarkets.
With Redbridge, Anheuser-Busch has changed it all. Redbridge
is the first nationally available sorghum beer. Sorghum is considered a
safe grain for people with celiac disease and those allergic to wheat.
It is primarily grown in the United States, but is also found in
Africa, Southern Europe, Central America and Southern Asia. Sorghum
beers have been brewed and sold internationally for years and are quite
popular among African nations. 
According to Anheuser-Busch,
Redbridge is a “hearty, full-bodied lager” that is brewed using
imported Hallertau and domestic Cascade hops. It is made with sorghum
and has a moderately hopped taste.
“We set out to create a
fine, hand-crafted specialty beer made without wheat or barley,” said
Angie Minges, product manager, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “We’ve made
Redbridge nationally available to make sure adults who experience wheat
allergies or who choose a gluten-free or wheat-free diet can enjoy the
kind of beer that fits their lifestyle.”
Redbridge is brewed at
the Anheuser-Busch Merrimack, N.H., brewery. Redbridge contains 4.8
percent alcohol per 12-ounce serving. It will be available in
12-ounce, six-pack bottles.
“Brewing a beer made with sorghum
was an exciting process,” said Kristin Zantop, brewmaster,
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “We use only the highest quality ingredients to
brew Redbridge as is the case with all our beers. Sorghum is the
primary ingredient. We then use the lager brewing process using
imported Hallertau and domestic Cascade hops without adding wheat or
barley to give Redbridge its rich, hearty taste.”

The
National Foundation for Celiac Awareness is proud to have worked
closely with Anheuser-Busch on development of Redbridge and is thrilled
to have the company be a sponsor of events nationwide. At each NFCA
event, Anheuser-Busch will display Redbridge and have samples available
for everyone to taste!!
Also,
Redbridge is available at bars, restaurants, supermarkets and liquor
stores nationwide, so make sure to go out and get some!! The more
people that request the product, the more places will stock it!!
Thank
you to Anheueser-Busch for developing a product that brightens the
lives of so many people with celiac disease and allows those frequent
bar patrons to enjoy a beer that is priced the same as most of the
others!
