Ep 211 Food Bullying and the Gluten Free Diet
Let’s start the blog with the show notes for this Episode –
The topic of food bullying is a broad one and means different things to different people. To help me tackle with subject, I invited Nicole Byrom, Registered Dietitian with the Canadian Celiac Association to discuss food bullying in the context of the gluten free diet. The act of making someone feel bad for the food they are eating often comes from a place of ignorance about celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Education can be a key factor in your response to a food bully, but issues get more complicated depending on who is the being bullied and who the bully is. Children often face negative comments on their food when away from home and adults often have negative interactions with family members, or they are seen as being needy and high maintenance. Nicole is able to put food bullying in perspective with tips and strategies to empower you or your chid. Nicole gave us her email, Nicole.Byrom@celiac.ca, if you have any suggestions for issues you are facing that the CCA may be able to help with.
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 –
When I started editing the audio files for this podcast, I kept hearing two words – negative and positive. These are very specific terms, it’s not very often that one person’s negative would be someone else’s positive, as we often hear with trash becoming treasure. Herein lies our challenge. The bully, in comments, tone and sometimes deeds is completely negative. It’s hard work turning the negative experience for someone being bullied into a positive experience for both parties.
Nicole’s strategies of education and empowerment are a good place to start. Education involves the victim feeling secure in their knowledge of celiac disease and the gluten free diet, as well as being able to pass on some vital facts to the bully in hopes that they will realize the seriousness with which you must take the diet.
Empowerment is harder to “learn”. Most kids get pretty good at it. Those of us diagnosed later in life often have trouble finding a balance between talking (emphatically) and listening (with sincerity).
The other thing we touched on near the end of our conversation was just saying “NO”. This sounds simple, but the diverse social, cultural and family situations we often find ourselves in, make saying that little word very had. For me, like most celiacs, being glutened is painful and can set me back for a couple of days at least. These episodes give me the strength to stand up to anyone who wants to challenge me, or make me feel bad for eating my special food. No food is worth the pain, discomfort and longer-term effects on my body. The bullies don’t realize that, because if they did, they wouldn’t be bullies. Oh yes, and during my editing, I realized we both used the word “positive” much more than the word “negative” – so there is a way to deal with this.