Comments on: Health: Living with celiac disease

By: Jordan's mom

Jordan's mom — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:09:57 +0000

Thank you for the wonderful article. I want to add my praise of Steve at Guido’s Pizza in Okemos. He is a best friend of the GF community. I have a GF teenage son and Guido’s is 5 minutes from our house. But I would drive much farther and longer for his GF items – not just as good as “real” pizza, but pasta, sandwiches, stromboli, “motz” sticks and more! He is also opening a totally GF deli next door! This man goes way above and beyond the call of customer service and my family really appreciates it! No, I am not related to Steve in any way, nor do we receive any free products or compensation of any sort. Though I am really grateful for the coupons that arrive in the mail fairly frequently.

By: Bonnie Bucqueroux

Bonnie Bucqueroux — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:53:43 +0000

What wonderful information. I had heard that food was deductible, but I have not been good about keeping all receipts. Beginning in January, I certainly will.

By: Hajo

Hajo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:27:53 +0000

Bonnie, thanks for helping to raise awareness for celiac disease. It is frightening, but I hear the same story over and over again – patients visits a number of doctors, never get diagnosed correctly, eventually stumble across CD on the internet, and only then actively ask their doctor for a test. Articles likes yours are therefore extremely important!
You point out that gluten-free food is more expensive than the off-the-shelf equivalent that contains gluten. Very true. However, there is some relief: if you officially diagnosed with celiac, the IRS qualifies the additional costs for food expenses as medical expenses, which are tax deductible if they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross annual income. While 7.5% seems a lot, gluten-free food expenses over the course of an entire year add up quickly, so it makes a lot of sense to keep all receipts. If you haven’t done so in the past, 2010 is near and you should start this habit in the new year. The nice part is that if you purchase gluten-free food items on the internet, shipping costs are 100% deductible.
Last but not least – there are tons of helpful, active gluten-free bloggers out there, so browse around and bookmark a couple of their pages. Hope this was helpful.

By: Greta deWolf

Greta deWolf — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:02:22 +0000

Thanks for giving our group publicity. Besides monthly meetings, we have an annual dinner at the MSU School of Hospitality where no one needs to wonder “what is in it.” We have an annual Gluten Free Vendor Fair with vendors, books, and cooking demonstrations. We publish a monthly Gluten Free Newsletter. We also have an annual Cookie Exchange, picnic, and more. Everyone is welcome to join. As we are a chapter of the Celiac Sprue Association, insurance is covered. We provide information from the annual CSA conference.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:12:54 +0000

We just launched our website http://www.gfhomecooking.com to help people get started on
cooking Gluten Free. We hope you will find the time to take a look at it. Thank you.