Gluten Free Raleigh Fundraising Summary

Many of you have been very gracious and participated in one or more of Gluten Free Raleigh's past fund raising events. Just wanted to point you all to a new summary on the right side bar where I will keep track of the good we have done for the Celiac community. Hopefully this will continue to grow!

Thanks for your participation now and in the future!

Fund raising Summary - As of July 15, 2009
1) Jules Shepard Gluten Free Cooking Class - 7/12/2009
$300 donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research

2) Gluten Free Raleigh Run/Walk Fundraiser - 6/13/2009
$915 donated to Gluten Free Week @ Camp Kanata (GIG sponsored camp in Wake Forest)

3) Jules Shepard Gluten Free Cooking Class - 2/28/2009
$100 donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research
$400 donated to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA)

Grand Total = $1,715

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Grocery Store Review: Earth Fare

I've previously written about the grocery store Earth Fare numerous times. I've teamed with Kristi Kanzig (Earth Fare's marketing genius - check out her events here) on two occasions to host Gluten Free cooking classes with Celiac expert and author; Jules Shepard. I've also written before about some other Gluten Free classes conducted in Earth Fare's community room. Below is my full Grocery review for this awesome Gluten Free resource.

About Earth Fare
Earth Fare is a healthy foods supermarket which began in Asheville, North Carolina in 1975. An expansion, which began in the late 1990's, has brought the grocery store to Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina, Greensboro, Boone, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, Athens and Augusta, Georgia, and Knoxville and Johnson City, Tennessee. Earth Fare states on it's Web site the following about the products it chooses to carry -

We sell foods as close to the ground as it gets. Products with these ingredients/processes WILL NOT BE SOLD at Earth Fare :

• NO hydrogenated or partially- hydrogenated oils added trans-fats
• NO high fructose corn syrup
• NO artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners & preservatives
• NO antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones or animal by-products in the feed (fresh meats & milk)
• NO bleached or bromated flour
• NO irradiated single source spices, produce or meat
• NO animal by-products in pet foods
• NO inhumane treatment of the animals providing us with dairy, meat and eggs
  

Gluten Free Products
You can tell that Earth Fare takes a lot of pride in the products they carry by reading the above statement. In addition to that, Earth Fare also makes it easy for gluten intolerant customers to find foods they can stomach – pun intended. With thousands of gluten-free items to choose from and clearly marked “gluten-free sets” within the store, shoppers don’t have to guess about where to find gluten-free products anymore. These clearly marked "gluten free sets" are basically wood faced shelves. Earth Fare does mix in Gluten Free items with their Gluten full items throughout the store. If you are looking for GF cereal, head to the normal cereal isle and look for the wood shelves and well marked Gluten Free signage. They also have a very extensive frozen food section as well. Stop in to the customer service desk upon your arrival and ask for a "Living Gluten Free" brochure. It provides some more detail as to the brands they carry which are GF. Way too many to list here. I couldn't find this brochure on their Web site, so I scanned a copy I picked up the other day. Check with the store for the latest version.

To sum up - Pretty much any Gluten Free item you have seen or tried before (along with many you have not) is available at Earth Fare. Each time I visit, I'm pleasantly surprised to see new items. The folks at Earth Fare are great to work with and care about you as a Gluten Free consumer. Did I mention the thousands of Gluten Free items they carry?

Information
Earth Fare - Brierdale Shopping Center
10341 Moncreiffe Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27617

Phone: (919) 433-1390
Email
Web site

Store Hours:
Monday - Sunday 9am to 9pm


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Gluten Free Raleigh Dispatch: 7-13-2009

Gluten Free Raleigh Dispatch: 7-13-2009

• More info on the latest Celiac Study from the Mayo Clinic which details a dramatic increase in the number of Celiac cases versus 50 years ago. Reuters | NY Times | About.com's Celiac Disease blog | Celiac.com | Savvy Celiac
  
• The Super Allergy Girl has a new cookbook (405 pages) of recipes (gluten-free, casein-free, dairy-free, egg-free, peanut and tree-nut free and other allergen-free) and also has offered up a new travel tip video and tip sheet at her Web site. PRWeb
• Nancy Lapid's About.com blog article on Celiac Disease See's Candy Company and their Gluten Free product list. See's doesn't have any NC locations but you can purchase their products online . Nancy also has a larger Gluten Free Candy list here.
• Introducing Celiac-Disease.com version 3. Kyle does a great job covering Celiac Disease and the Gluten Free Diet. If you are not reading this Web site, you should be.
• Celiac.com article linking Autism and Celiac Disease. A new study shows that if mom has an auto-immune disease (like Celiac), the child is 3 times more likely to be Autistic.
  
• The Gluten Free Hub has an article about personal care products from Clinique that are Gluten Free.
• Survey results from Savvy Celiac around the FDA's proposed 20 PPM Gluten Free food labeling law. Interesting stuff here - I'm a little confused about the folks who say it must be 0 PPM - there is no testing available for this (lowest I've seen is 5 PPM) so how is the FDA supposed to regulate?
  

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Gluten Free Raleigh Product Giveaway Contest - July

Announcing the first Gluten Free Raleigh Product Giveaway Contest!

Hopefully this will become a regular thing here on Gluten Free Raleigh. You've probably seen this on other blogs - but basically, one lucky reader of this blog will win a huge prize pack from Betty Crocker/General Mills. The prize pack was provided to me by a company called MyBlogSpark.com - which is basically a group of bloggers who have signed up to be among the first to review new products.

Prize Pack Details
-Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie mix
-Betty Crocker Gluten Free Brownie mix
-Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake mix
-Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devils Food Cake mix
-Betty Crocker re-usable shopping bag
-Betty Crocker pen & shopping list magnetic pad set
-Coupons for 2 additional free Betty Crocker mixes

Betty Crocker Gluten Free products
I've written plenty before about the good stuff going on over at Betty Crocker and General Mills. MyBlogSpark.com also provided me with the above prize pack so I could try out all the new GF mixes. We've made the cookies and brownies so far and have been extremely pleased with the results, texture and taste. The only downside so far was that the cookies were a little crumbly but who cares when that taste that good, right? We've yet to try the cake mixes but will do so very soon and provide a review here. FYI - in case you have not heard, all flavors of Betty Crocker Ready-to-Spread Frosting will be labeled Gluten Free this Fall!

How do you win?
It's pretty simple... in order to be eligible, you need to be an email subscriber of Gluten Free Raleigh. There are about 90 of you already registered to win at this point. If you are not sure if that includes you or would like to sign up for email subscriptions to Gluten Free Raleigh, please use the form below to sign up. If you are already an email subscriber, the form below will notify you (you cannot sign up twice with the same email address). This will automatically register you for the prize pack from Betty Crocker.

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Deadline to sign-up and other rules
Please sign-up for email subscriptions by July 30, 2009. All subscribers at that point (only Raleigh area residents) will be eligible. The randomly chosen winner will be announced right here on Gluten Free Raleigh on Friday July 31, 2009. GOOD LUCK!

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Jules Shepard Gluten Free Event Update

EVENT SOLD OUT!!!

Just wanted to let you all know of some updates for the upcoming Jules Shepard Gluten Free Cooking Class at Earth Fare. The event is still being held this Sunday, July 12, 2009. Some timings have been updated for the event as noted below. I have attempted to contact everyone who has registered and most are okay with the changes.

The event will still begin at 10am on Sunday 7/12 but will feature a Gluten Free Vendor Fair at the Earth Fare store. The GF Vendor Fair will feature several GF food vendors with samples available for your tasting pleasure. Some of the vendors will include local gluten-free products, including Escazu Chocolates, Pepper Dog salsa and Bella Monica's frozen gluten-free pizza. Other vendors like Nature's Path, Namaste and Blue Diamond will also be included. Some of the details are still being worked out, but the idea is for you to have the opportunity to taste some of these GF products before you buy. We all know how expensive they are!

The Gluten Free Cooking Class with Jules Shepard will begin around 1pm instead of the original time of 10am. Jules will be teaching, cooking and providing samples of delicious Gluten Free foods like pizza, graham crackers, strawberry shortcake and Pop Tarts! She will also have copies available of both her cookbook Nearly Normal Cooking for Gluten Free Eating and her latest book The First Year: Celiac Disease and Living Gluten Free. You may also purchase her cup-for-cup replacement Gluten Free Flour at the event and save on shipping costs.

Also, check out today's News & Observer article by columnist Andrea Weigl.

Click here to register for the event.
The deadline to sign-up online is Friday July 10th.

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Gluten Free Raleigh Dispatch: 7-6-2009

There is so much going on in the world of Celiac Disease and Gluten Free that I'd thought it would be a good idea to start a Gluten Free Raleigh Dispatch. Kinda like a mash up of recent Gluten Free/Celiac Disease news. I'll shoot for weekly editions and see how that goes.

Gluten Free Raleigh Dispatch: 7-6-2009
Lots of news to share with you over the last few days... Check it out below.

• Wall Street Journal article about General Mill's decision to go Gluten Free.
• HealthNews.com article about Celiac Disease & Gluten Intolerance in the top 5 Food Allergies.
• Celiac Princess writes about a new Mayo Clinic study which shows Celiac Disease is four times more common today that 50 years ago. More from Nancy Lapid's About.com Celiac blog here and here.
  
• Gluten Free Durham blogger and registered dietitian Debbie Jongkind will be the feature speaker at a GF lecture at UNC Wellness Center.

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Reminder: Jules Shepard Gluten Free Cooking Class @ Earth Fare July 12

Just a quick reminder that the Jules Shepard Gluten Free cooking class is fast approaching. The class will be held Sunday July 12, 2009 at the Brier Creek Earth Fare grocery store.

There are currently 9 folks registered which means there are 31 slots still available. Please sign up now if you are interested. The deadline to register is Friday July 10th.

Click here for more information.

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Useful Resources: At Home Celiac DNA Tests

Some cool news from Prometheus Labs which has just come out with a brand new at home DNA test for Celiac Disease. This new test uses a cheek swab collection method rather than a more invasion (and painful) blood sample. The new cheek swab test is called MyCeliacID - check out the Web site here for more information and ordering. The test can be ordered online, taken at home and mailed back to Prometheus. The test runs $329 and results are usually returned within 7 days. Click here for a video about how to perform the test. Prometheus also has a page which provides information on exactly who should be tested.

Here are a couple of articles about this new test.
celiacdisease.about.com
celiac-disease.com
celiac.com

Note - a positive gene test for Celiac Disease does not indicate a diagnosis of CD. This is not an antibody test for active CD and can only be used to rule out the possibility of CD. Bottom line, if the genes are not present, the individual cannot ever develop CD - and if the genes are present, the individual may or may not already have CD. A person with the genes should not immediately begin a Gluten Free diet and should be watched for symptoms and screened using the antibody test in the future. An antibody blood test, biopsy of the small intestine and recovery on a Gluten Free diet are the gold standard for accurate diagnosis of CD.

Just an FYI - Prometheus claims that this is the first test of it's kind but some of us out there may have already used another lab called Kimball Genetics which was already offering a cheek swab DNA test. The cost of this test is closer to $400.

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Twin Cakes Bakery Farmer's Market Update

Beginning today, Twin Cakes Bakery will be selling their delicious Gluten Free baked goods at the North Raleigh Farmers Market. The market is held from 4pm - 7pm each Wednesday until October at the Falls River Town Center.

Check them out this afternoon and enjoy the following Gluten Free items...

• Brownies
• Sugar cookie
• Lemon Blackberry muffin
• Blueberry muffins
• Chocolate chip banana muffin
• Chocolate mint cupcakes
• Vanilla cupcake with chocolate banana frosting
• Chocolate chip cookie sandwiches
• Breadsticks
• Monkey Bread

Click here for the Twin Cakes Bakery Web site.

Click here for the market Web site.

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Gluten Free Beer: RedBridge @ The Pour House

Lots of Gluten Free Beer news this week... Big thanks goes out to loyal reader John for getting The Pour House in Downtown Raleigh to carry Redbridge. Check out John's summary of The Pour House below if you've never been.

The Pour House is a friendly neighborhood type bar that hosts live music most nights of the week and has pool tables upstairs on it's second floor. And, many of you may already be aware, but the Pour House is always open when something is happening at Moore Square. At events like Artsplosure you can get beers in to-go cups and walk out into the afternoon sun onto the blocked off streets to enjoy the music and art and street performers. There are the other events such as SparkCon and the First Friday Art Walks, where many people are out and about but celiacs who wish to have a drink are limited to only wine (which is fine!) But, now with a bar right on Moore Square, we can stop in for a Red Bridge and continue on our way!

The Pour House
224 S. Blount St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
919.821.1120


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General Mills Update

General Mills has had a ton of Gluten Free news over the last couple of months so it's not surprising to see some more. Check it out below.

*GM bought LaraBar earlier this month... click here for the press release. LaraBars are excellent Gluten Free energy bars in 13 varieties of flavors.

*GM has reformulated Kix & Cookie Crisp cereals to remove Gluten ingredients... click here and here for the information from Gluten Free Philly. Note - GM has not decided to label either of these cereals as Gluten Free which might mean they are not produced on a dedicated line like Chex.

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Gluten Free Beer: New Grist @ The Busy Bee

The Busy Bee Cafe located in Downtown Raleigh is now featuring Gluten Free beer in Downtown Raleigh. Check out this YouTube video featuring Busy Bee Manager and Bartender Ashley Edwards discussing this new choice.



Thanks Busy Bee for carrying some GF beer!

Information
Busy Bee Cafe
6 am - 2 am (M-F)
7 am - 2 am (Sat/Sunday)

919.424.7817

225 South Wilmington Street
(plenty of FREE Parking nearby)


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Useful Resources: Whole Foods iPhone App

Check out the following page on WholeFoods.com about their brand new iPhone application. You can use the app to find Whole Foods locations and to get Gluten Free recipes while on the go!

Whole Foods Market Recipes on the iPhone
Healthy & convenient recipes in your pocket
Cooking with natural and organic foods? Search Whole Foods Market Recipes for delicious recipes that include everything from dinner entrees to breakfast and beverages.

* Filter by categories such as Budget, Cooking with Kids, and Quick & Easy
* Target special diets, including gluten-free, lowfat, and vegetarian/vegan
* Find recipes that use ingredients you already have with our On-Hand Search feature.

Find your nearest store, fast
You can also use our store locator to find the Whole Foods Market locations near you, or search by ZIP code. Each store page includes links to the store's website and weekly specials.

Click here to download the app from iTunes.

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Camp Kanata: My Day at Gluten Free Camp

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of visiting Camp Kanata in Wake Forest, NC. As you may know, this week is a special week for the camp as it offers the chance for Gluten Free kids to attend a summer camp. This camp is one of two in the nation sponsored by the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG).

This year's camp featured about 30 GF kids from all around the country. These kids would not normally be able to attend a summer camp due to their dietary restrictions. But thanks to Camp Kanata, the GIG and the great folks involved in running the camp, these kids can have a normal summer camp experience.

The camp does a wonderful job of making the GF kids feel normal. From my observations, they are mixed in with all the other kids (there were 200+ kids this week total), not only at eating time but also living arrangements. I sorta expected all the GF kids to be completely separate, but this just wasn't the case.

I spent the afternoon helping Trevor from Bella Monica Flatbread Company cook a couple dozen of their Gluten Free Margherita pizzas - which Trevor graciously donated. The camp does feature a separate kitchen to avoid cross contamination. After the pizzas were cooked, they were taken to the main dining hall to be served. It was an amazing experience to see the GF kids come up and be able to eat pizza like the non-GF campers! A huge thank you to Trevor for donating his time and pizzas to this great cause. FYI - click here if you'd like to follow Trevor and his Gluten Free Pizza adventures on Twitter.

Another huge thank you must go out to Alanna Conder who is the local GIG volunteer running the Gluten Free portion of the camp. Alanna has been doing this for six years running! It takes a lot of heart, dedication and organizational skills to coordinate something like this. I was told the cost to feed these GF kids runs around $500 per day. Alanna is also lucky to have a dedicated group of volunteers to help her out - there were four of them there during my afternoon visit. Also, a special thanks to Debbie Jongkind who serves as the GF Dietitian during this week of camp. Debbie is also the blogger behind Gluten Free Durham.

I know some other folks from the Raleigh area were also involved in donating their GF products and services including Twin Cakes Bakery, Rosie's Plate and The Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse. I know there are others out there - thanks very much for your support of this week of summer camp. Also, a huge thanks for those of you involved in the Gluten Free Raleigh Run/Walk Fundraiser held this past June 13th, which raised $915 for this camp.

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Gluten Free Fayetteville Update

Allow me to introduce Terri who will be a guest blogger adding content for Gluten Free Fayetteville. Terri was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about 2 years ago and has lived in the Fayetteville area since 2000. Check out her intro post here. And she has already put up a grocery store review as well. Terri also writes for another Gluten Free blog called Faking It Gluten Free Style which is about gluten free cooking and living, recipes and ideas on how to stay gluten free in today's busy world.

Welcome Terri and thanks so much for helping expand the Gluten Free North Carolina concept to Fayetteville.
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