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The Emerald Isle of Celiacs
November 13th, 2009 | admin | Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Celiac Ireland, Gluten Free Ireland, Gluten Free Travel, Tescos

Over the past two years, one of the things I’ve noticed is the incredible obstacles Glutastic needs to confront when travelling. Whether it’s a road trip to the coast or a flight to Mexico, traveling is whole new ball game when living a Gluten-Free lifestyle.  It’s all about detailed planning, research and thanking the good lord that back-up rice cakes aren’t a banned substance in airports.

To be quite frank it’s quite impressive and it astounds me how exhausting the whole ordeal really is.

In the upcoming months, one of the places that we are ultimately planning to visit is England & Ireland. If you are unaware, I am a first gen-Canadian with strong tie to Cork City and London. While it’s still in the works, our goal is to go home to Ireland for the test … err to meet my wonderfully lunatic family and to see all the wonders the Emerald Isle has to offer.

Luckily for us, as you may have noticed from one of  Glutastic’s previous posts, Ireland has a strong level of Celiac awareness. It turns out that Ireland has one of the highest concentrations of Celiacs in the Westernized World. Recent studies have shown that 1 in 112 Irishmen have a gluten intolerance. Which ranks the country higher than Italy in Europe and well ahead of estimated numbers for the United States of America. (This is based on a strong estimate of undiagnosed cases in the US). In addition, studies are now being released that are examining the genetic reasoning behind the commonality of Celiac disease in the Irish genealogy. Which in turn would allow us to blame it on the Irish. (I’m kidding)

Since such a high percentage of the population struggles with the disease, Ireland turns out to be one of the most supportive countries when it comes to the Gluten Free lifestyle.

The Irish Coeliac society’s web site has a wealth of information on the latest Gluten-Free Products and Celiac friendly restaurants. It even goes as far as to publish a monthly update on the products in Cadbury’s long line of chocolaty delights that are gluten free. Which is really the most important food list when it all boils down to it. The site even publishes an extensive list of Celiac friendly caterers, products and cook books.

And if you read the previous post from Glutastic, you’ll know that Testcos (essentially the UK’s equivalent to Safeway/Wallmart) has an entire line of Gluten-Free/Lactose-Free products. Which for a country with a population base of 4 million (not including the N.Ireland) is quite a feat.

While this might sounds like a plug by the Irish Tourism board, I still find it quite remarkable that this small country is so informed on the disease. It also relaxes me to know that the 10 hour flight over to Ireland might be a bit strenuous for Glutastic, at least the flight home will filled with Caramel Shortcake Slices and Curly Wurls.

More Glutastic!

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