If you sit within earshot of Rebecca Kinney while she orders at a local Chinese restaurant, nothing would seem out of the ordinary.
But she's spent years studying how her body reacts to certain foods just to make quick order.
"It was actually in my 15th stomach biopsy that I was diagnosed with celiac disease," sad Kinney.
For 42 years, Kinney suffered from unbearable pain and infections throughout her body.
"diarrhea, malnutrition, anemia. There were a lot of problems, chronic infections. I had been to hundreds of doctors before and had been sick for as long as I could remember," said Kinney.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that can be deadly. But it can also be managed.
Gluten, the substance that triggers symptoms, has to be eliminated from a person's diet.
"Now that sounds pretty simple. But a lot of foods contain wheat and gluten. So it's not as easy in practice as it sounds," said Beth Kitchin, Ph.D., P.D.
Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. That means cereal, spaghetti, and even some salad dressing.
Kelly Williamson was diagnosed with celiac disease three years ago. Her grocery store experience has been forever changed.
"I am very careful when I go to the store and do my grocery shopping. I read labels like you would not believe," said Williamson.
So what exactly do you look for in the back of food boxes?
"There are products that will tell them very clearly if they do have gluten, if they do have wheat ingredients in them. This is a wheat cereal and you can see very clearly on the label 'contains wheat ingredient," said Kitchin.
So once a person with celiac disease gets the long list of foods to avoid, what's left ?
"I think the products that everyone eats makes it easier. The products that are being manufactured now, like pasta that's made out of rice, and made out of corn, and bread that's made of corn and potatoes. Lettuce wraps instead of a sandwich, use spaghetti a squash instead of spaghetti," said Kinney.
Kinney says her mission is to be a living example of someone with a severe case of celiac who is not a prisoner to her disease.
The Birmingham Celiac Disease Support Group will host the Gluten Free Expo on February 24th and 25th at Veterans Park in Birmingham.
