Welcome to the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group

This is the official web site of the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group, CSA/USA Chapter 15. We are dedicated to assisting Southern Arizona residents and visitors with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis, as well as their family and friends.

More Documents and Forms

Our Objectives

Educating newly diagnosed patients with CD/DH on how to switch to a gluten-free (GF) diet: i.e., no wheat, barley, oats or rye or other grains containing harmful gluten.
Aiding members in self-education by assisting in their search for information, finding hidden sources of gluten, and determining safe sources of food.
Alerting members to recent research concerning CD.
Educating the medical community about recent research that indicates that CD is drastically under-diagnosed in the US because it actually occurs in about 1 out of 133 people instead of the one in five thousand that are actually diagnosed.

News and Events

For a full schedule of support group events please see our calendar.

2008 Annual GF Food Faire, May 10, 2008

Our Annual Gluten-Free Food Faire and First Annual Community CD Screening program will be held at Christ Community Family Life Center, 7801 E. Kenyon Dr, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 10, 2008. For more details, see our colorful poster (print it out and pass it on if you know anyone who would be interested). Last year we had double the number of attendees we expected, and we're planning another record event. It's free and open to the public. Just show up.

Applications for screening for celiac disease are available online. Screening participants must be 18 years old, or greater.

News Links

The Arizona Daily Star published an article "Celiac disease mystery can be tough to crack" in the Sunday, May 4th, Neighbors section.
Going Gluten-Free from the KOLD News 13 Live This Morning program on May 6th.

Attention Vendors

This will be an excellent opportunity for vendors of gluten-free food to showcase their products. Please use our online vendor registration form to sign up for a place.

Photos from the General Meeting, March 29th 2008

Photos from our March general meeting.

Support SACS when you have your taxes done

H & R Block will provide a $25 reward to the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group for each new customer if you bring a referral form to H & R Block when you have your taxes done (starting Jan. 1).

Photos from the Potluck

We have the photos from the SACS Potluck on November 17th online for your enjoyment, along with photos of Cel-Kids at the potluck.

Tucson Hosts the 2007 CSA Annual Conference

The Celiac Sprue Association Annual Conference was held in Tucson, September 28th through 30th 2007. The conference was a great success with many interesting and exciting speakers and great meals. Take a look at our photos from the conference.

Inside Kinnikinnick with Shirley Curtis

Shirley has shared her photos for a virtual tour of the Kinnikinnick GF Bakery in Edmonton, AB, Canada. Tour K2 which is the huge 2 1/2+ acre facility with lots of automation and K1, which is only 30,000 square feet and concentrates on products which must be made by hand. Take a look at the Kinnikinnick retail store which features fresh baked products as well as GF products from other vendors. No gluten is allowed on Kinnikinnick property. Ever.

Tucson Cel-Kids (formerly R.O.C.K. Tucson Chapter)

Cel-Kids - For assistance with a newly diagnosed child or just to connect with families that have celiac kids, contact Diana, 520 574-0777 or visit the Tucson Cel-Kids Google Group.

Results of a Gluten-Free Survey

Connie Sarros of Gluten-free Cookbooks (www.gfbooks.homestead.com) has graciously allowed us to post the results of the survey they recently ran at their web site. You can contribute your input to their current survey at http://www.gfbooks.homestead.com/GFFoodSurvey.html.

Proposed Standards for Gluten Free Labeling

The FDA has released their proposed rules for voluntary gluten free labeling, based on a standard of 20 parts-per-milion. They also have a web page of questions and answers on the proposed rule.

The Celiac Sprue Association has posted information on the proposal on their web site.

Comments received by the FDA about the proposed rule will be posted online. As of the beginning of September 2007 over 1000 comments had been received.

"Will you still feed me, When I'm sixty-four?"

Suppose you could no longer live independently.
Suppose you had no appropriate kin, friend, or group able and/or willing to share housing, food preparation, etc.
Suppose there were a facility featuring a gluten free kitchen.
Suppose it was affordable to you, had room/apartment that would accommodate you and your stuff, and the staff were knowledgeable and pleasant. Would you prefer living there versus a conventional facility that agreed to prepare GF meals for you?

Suppose there were NO facility featuring a gluten free kitchen available to you.

Would you be interested in a brain-storming session to explore the possibility of creating such a facility? If so, check our calendar for information on planning meetings or contact Phoenix Wheeler at 520.751.2332 or email her at fenx23@cox.net.

Symptom Checklist

With the kind permission of Dr. Peter H.R. Green we are able to reproduce the symptoms checklist from his book Celiac Disease—A Hidden Epidemic. Use it to see if you should talk to your doctor about testing for celiac disease. We've also attached a diagram showing the steps to arrive at a diagnosis. Note that not every doctor will follow exactly this sequence, but you should be insistent on following up with all tests needed to establish for certain if you do or don't have celiac disease.

Celiac Disease Survey

If you have been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance you probably have a story about your experiences. Please share it with us by taking our survey.

Contact Us

Your comments and requests for information are welcome. Contact us at info@southernarizonaceliacsupport.org, use our online form or you can call us at (520) 298-5551.

To join or renew your membership, download and print the membership form in PDF format.

Up-to-date news feed courtesy of Celiac.com

Note: This is an automatic news feed. Items are not selected by SACSG and may not be authoritative or represent our position. Please use it as a method to keep up-to-date on celiac disease in the news, not as a definitive source of information.