Path to the gluten-free aisle

By LAUREN KEATING

My sister was a typical college student who preferred night classes over waking up early and chose greasy fast food over nutritious home cooked meals.

She headed to her first day of classes at the College of Staten Island last September in the 85-degree heat after eating a breakfast bar and flushing it down with ice-cold water.

SEE MAIN STORY: NYC’S BOOM IN GLUTEN-FREE FOODS

Her body slouched on a fence, as her eyes focused on the direction of the bus. But something was not right. “I got the feeling that I was in a dream, or in a trance,” she said.

“Next thing I know I’m on the floor and I bruised my hand and my whole right side of my face was cut up and bruised. I didn’t know what was going on. I was in shock,” my sister continued. After being rushed to the hospital, it was confirmed she had a seizure.

My sister Taylor Keating was 19 years old at the time and all her life she was active and relatively healthy. After further testing done as recently as four months ago, she was diagnosed with a rare form of the autoimmune disease lupus, the cause of her unexpected seizure.  “They think why I had seizure was stress-related and not being on a proper sleep schedule and my diet has a lot to do with it,” she said.

Being diagnosed with lupus wasn’t the only autoimmune disease she was battling and her diet played a crucial role. A year prior to that, she began getting severe stomach pains after eating sandwiches, pasta, pizza, and especially fast food. Routine blood tests revealed she suffered from celiac disease, free run 6 v2 femmes an autoimmune disorder in which damage to the lining of the small intestine results from a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley  and rye.

Those with celiac are more commonly diagnosed with other autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, which possibly triggered Taylor’s seizure.

“They do go hand-in-hand,” said Dr. Anthony Salzarulo, a clinical nutritionist who practices in New York and specializes in homeopathy and detoxification. “There are clusters of autoimmune disorders because the immune system doesn’t just stop with just one.”

Last month the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness found in a survey, Future Trends in Celiac Disease Diagnosis, that 72 percent of participants felt that the general population should be screened for celiac disease.

My sister has adjusted to life without gluten in an attempt to keep her seizure an isolated event by exercising regularly. She shops for healthy food at the local Stop & Shop on Staten Island. “The first aisle has gluten-free products, but they didn’t have that big of a selection a year ago as they do now,” she said.

However, Staten Island does not offer a wide variety of products as much as Manhattan does. “Whole Foods is taking over the world. It’s the best to get gluten-free, unless you go to a gluten-free store,” she added.

The majority of the gluten-free products sold consist of snack foods such as cookies and pretzels. According to an August 2012 consumer survey by Packaged Facts, granola snack bars are the leading category of gluten-free products sold, at 15 percent of mass-market sales from 2008 to 2012.

The market of gluten-free products has grown 28 percent over the same period.

Photo: Lauren Keating, left, and her sister Taylor Keating.