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.

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.

Vendors, register for the 2010 Gluten Free Food Faire

Showcase your gluten free products! Register now for the Food Faire April 24th 2010.

ATTENTION SACS MEMBERS

There will be an Election Ballot AND a Vote to amend our By-Laws on Saturday, February 27, during the General Membership Meeting Potluck. We need a quorum in order to complete the vote, so please plan now to attend and participate!

The potluck will be held where it was in 2008, at The Journey Church (formerly First Evangelical Free Church) on Swan just north of River. Directions are on our website and will be in the newsletter, which will come out in another week or so (around Feb. 9th).

Copies of the By-Law amendments will be available at the Potluck, but if you want to see them beforehand, please Email Cheryl Wilson and she will Email you a PDF version. The ballot will be to elect a new Vice President—it’s been three years since we have had an election and so this is an important time for us.

Hope to see you all there!

The Gluten Syndrome books are here!

The Gluten Syndrome books have arrived from Dr Rodney Ford just in time for Christmas! Dr Ford has graciously allowed us to use them as a fundraiser at $15 and we have a limited supply for now. This week, people will may obtain their reserved copies on Tucson’s far east side or they can wait until next week and pick some up from the NW side (Pat Hirsch) or mid-town (Hetty Pardee). Checks should be made out to CSA Chapter 15.

HOW DO YOU GET ONE? Please fill out the book reservation form on our website FIRST http://www.southernarizonaceliacsupport.org/disease/fordbkorder.html

Once you have reserved a copy, then you can Email so.az.celiacsupport@gmail.com to set up a time to pick up your copy this week—OR--you can let us know if you would rather pick up your copy at the NW or central location and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

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.

News and Events

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

Our General Meeting held September 26, 2009

Photos from our September general meeting with our speaker dermatologist Dr. Gerald Goldberg who gave SACS their first-ever lecture on Dermatitis Herpetiformis.

The Amazing Food Faire returned on May 9th

Photos from the Food Faire. Better than ever!

We repeated of our highly successful Food Faire, with free screening for celiac disease and a plentiful selection of gluten-free food samples and lots of information on living gluten-free.

Through the generosity of Prometheus Labs, we were able to offer screening tests for celiac disease (blood tests).

News Coverage of the Food Faire

On April 29th the KOLD early morning show (KOLD News 13 Live This Morning), included an interview with Cheyenne Clark, our event chair, on the Gluten-free Food Faire.
The "Calenti" section of the April 30th Arizona Daily Star featured the Food Faire in an article on "Dining gluten-free"

Photos from the General Meeting, March 28th 2009

Our speaker was Dr. Lindsey Pearson, a member of our Medical Advisory Board. Please view our 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).

GoodSearch will donate to the Celiac Sprue Association

Want to donate to our parent organization (CSA) every time you search the Web? Well, you can by using GoodSearch and setting up CSA as the charity you want to support. Just go to http://www.goodsearch.com/ and enter "celiac sprue association" in the "WHO DO YOU WANT TO GOODSEARCH FOR" box and click the "Verify" button. You should see "Celiac Sprue Association USA - CSA (Omaha, NE)" appear and you're good to go. There's a link (http://www.goodsearch.com/Toolbars.aspx) with instructions on how to add it as a search option for the search box in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. You can even download a toolbar for Internet Explorer.

A Reminder from Your Support Group

We want to remind everyone with celiac disease or on a gluten-free diet that ALL types of wheat contain gluten at levels harmful to anyone who is sensitive to it. This includes: Bulgur, common or bread wheat, Durum, Einkorn, Emmer, Kamut, Semolina and Spelt and any other type of wheat (any member of the genus Triticum). Be wary of any claims to the contrary.

Our parent organization, the Celiac Sprue Association, has a web page outlining the different gains and their gluten-free status.

Gluten-Free School Lunches

The diet.com blog recently posted an article on school lunchs and making sure they are gluten free. The include suggestions on how to ensure that your child receives gluten-free meals at school. There's also a good article from the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness on gluten-free lunch guidelines and how to navigate the requirements of your school.

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.

Collecting Ideas on a living facility with a gluten free kitchen

Suppose you could no longer live independently, had no relative, friend, or group able to share housing, food preparation, etc.
Suppose there were a facility featuring a gluten-free kitchen. that was affordable to you, had room/apartment that would accommodate you where the staff were knowledgeable about GF food prep.

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

Would you like to add your name(s) to a list of others who have expressed interest in locating or creating such a facility? If so, contact Pat Hirsch at (520) 971-9595, patriciahirsch1@aol.com or Phoenix Wheeler at (520) 751-2332, 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.

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.