Digestive Diseases News
Summer 2006

Celiac Spotlight

NIH Officially Launches Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched the Celiac Disease Awareness Campaign to heighten awareness of celiac disease among health care professionals and the public. The Awareness Campaign is the outgrowth of recommendations from an independent consensus panel convened by the NIH in 2004.

The consensus panel concluded that as many as 1 percent of the U.S. population have celiac disease, but the vast majority remains undiagnosed. To address this disparity, the panel recommended that the NIH spearhead efforts to educate health care providers and the public about the disease.

Initially, the Awareness Campaign, an initiative of the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, will focus on increasing awareness among health care professionals about the prevalence of celiac disease, its disparate symptoms, and the blood test to detect it. Other Awareness Campaign messages will address the array of health consequences related to celiac disease with the goal of dispelling the common misperception that it is only a gastrointestinal problem.

Restaurants Increasingly Cater to People with Celiac Disease

Chinese restaurants have long been a danger zone for people with celiac disease. Avoiding wheat-laden noodles is simple enough, but steering clear of sauces—including the ubiquitous and usually wheat-containing soy sauce—can be a serious challenge.

At P.F. Chang’s Chinese Bistro, a nationwide chain, people with celiac disease can indulge without worry—they can order more than a dozen menu items without gluten, including noodle dishes made with rice sticks and a wheatfree soy sauce.

“We were seeing a huge number of emails on our website with people wanting information about what to order,” said Laura Cherry, a P.F. Chang’s spokesperson, who said the menu is 2 years old. “There was a need to come up with new items.”

P.F. Chang’s is among the growing number of restaurants identifying or creating gluten-free menu items that cater to an increasing number of people diagnosed with celiac disease. People with the disease cannot process the protein gluten—found in wheat, rye, and barley—and suffer from such diverse symptoms as bloating, delayed childhood growth, and infertility.

Outback Steakhouse also offers a gluten-free menu and the Mexican eatery Don Pablo’s suggests celiac-safe menu items. Subway, a nationwide sandwich chain, identifies which items contain gluten.

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NIH Publication No. 06–4552
August 2006