Ep 202 CCA Holiday Guide 2021

Let’s start the blog with the show notes for this Episode –

The Canadian Celiac Association has once again produced a Holiday Guide with great recipes and tips to help us cope with our festive holidays in a Gluten Free safe way.  Nicole Byrom RD, from the CCA goes through the different articles in the guide and I’m able to tease out a little information from each section.  If you are not already on the CCA mailing list, you can download a copy of the guide at – celiac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-CCA-Holiday-Guide.pdf

Sue’s Websites and Social Media –

Podcast https://acanadianceliacpodcast.libsyn.com

Podcast Blog – https://www.acanadianceliacblog.com

Email – acdnceliacpodcast@gmail.com

Celiac Kid Stuff – https://www.celiackidstuff.com

Baking Website – https://www.suesglutenfreebaking.com

Instagram – @suesgfbaking

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUVGfpD4eJwwSc_YjkGagza06yYe3ApzL

Email – sue@suesglutenfreebaking.com

Other Podcast – Gluten Free Weigh In – https://glutenfreeweighin.libsyn.com

My Thoughts –

This is now our second December and Holiday Season living under the dark veil of the Covid-19 pandemic.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve said to yourself at least a few times – “I already have celiac disease, and now this!”  I cope well with the gluten free diet, but there are times when it feels like a burden.  For most, those feelings lessen as they get more established with the diet.

Then come the Holidays when family and friends get together, to share good times and familiar foods.  The good times, I’m fine with, but the familiar foods take a great deal of work to ensure safety.  In my family, I’m not the only celiac, and for the most part everyone is on board with our needs.  There will always be times when I feel like an island, all alone in my diagnosis, asking far too many questions about food.

As I said, I’m a well-adjusted celiac, but some situations are isolating.  That brings me back to the pandemic (everything seems to these days).  At the start of the pandemic we were all just learning about transmission and testing and masks and positivity rate, but there was a sense that we were all in this together.  Politicians and health care leaders took up this slogan and tried to impress on everyone to do their part. 

A newly diagnosed celiac can learn from great resources like the Canadian Celiac Association.  It’s a steep learning curve, but slowly, we all climb the hill of knowledge.  The more difficult sentiment to instill is the “we’re all in this together” belief.  You may have other family members who are celiac and you can literally stick together to support one another, or you may not know other celiacs, or just have them as acquaintances.  The CCA has, for many years, taken on the task of trying to unite celiacs around common issues, and one great way to do that is the Holiday Guide.  The CCA has been sending out a holiday guide for as long as I can remember.  There was always valuable information in the guide, but more importantly, it made me realize I was not going through these difficult social situations alone.  If nothing else, the annual Holiday Guide lets us take comfort in the fact that “we’re all in this together”.