My road to being gluten free started out as a Test to see if the diagnosis from the dietition I was seeing was right. For 30 days I was to take all bread and anything I could think of out of my diet that contained gluten.  I had big mistakes and so on in that month but for the first time in my life I had a pink glow in my cheeks and I did not look quite as sick. This helped confirm that it was the gluten that was making me sick I guess. So the dietitian advised me of the mistakes I was making and that I had to continue with being gluten free. The diagnosis of Celiac Disease was then confirmed. For the first month I did not really eat much other then meat potatoes and veg, which was boring but over the past 6 years I have become a better cook then I was before I was celiac.

By necessity! But I like to remind myself that I'm also doing it by choice. I choose to live gluten free to feel better and healthy. And I don't get tempted to eat normal food again. It was actually quite frustrating for me, because I had already just turned 20 years old when I found out I'm gluten sensitive, and it was over the summer. And some of my friends back at college acted as though they didn't believe me since I had always eaten normal before, though it gave me stomach aches. They asked "oh well, you can just eat normal if you wanna right?" and "you're not gonna do this for the rest of your life?" or when we order out or want to make something and I remind them I can't eat that, they just say "Oh..." like they're waiting for me to be "over" gluten free. And my response is yes. yes, I am going to follow this diet for the rest of my life. I haven't consciously eaten gluten since I started this diet, and it makes me feel so much better! At first it was hard getting used to how gluten free tastes. But now I've learned more of what I can eat and how to make gluten free more tasty. And I've even grown to really enjoy some things! Such as Udi's bread. It makes me not miss regular bread at all! (needless to say, I've found that friends who haven't been so supportive aren't such great friends are they? and those who are supportive are the ones worth keeping around!)

Necessity. 

it is a necessity deemed by my parents. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 8th grade, almost 4 years ago and at first I wasn't be super careful and would sometimes still eat whatever I wanted. But for about the past year and a half or two years I've been far more cautious about what I eat because now that I am 100% GF anytime I eat anything contaminated it just straight up makes me sick all over. Every so often I slip up and eat something that I am not supposed to, but it's difficult to be a teenager restricted from so much. My mom and dad and even my boyfriend's mom do their best to get me good gluten free things to eat like cookies and pretzels, and even Monical's Pizza has a gluten free pizza in our town now (small town, incredibly limited)

I am definitely GF by necessity. You can read my story with Celiac disease on my site. melissakbooth.com  It really is nothing to mess around with. For me, I had terrible neuro and B12 issues. I should add, I do feel it is sort of becoming a fad. I don't really care because it does make it easier on me as far as being able to find food out that I can actually eat. What worries me, is it will go the way of other fads and soon there will not be the same demand so our choices will be more limited once again. There have been several food fads I remember and when it fades then the products are not as readily available. The two in particular I can recall recently was Atkins and South Beach. Also weight watchers.  I really hope that does not happen. I think Celiacs may weather the storm though because it IS in fact a medical condition. I simply have no choice. I MUST eat gluten free.

We do gluten free, sugar free by choice.  For us it has been a HUGE leap to healthy living.  Just learning the ropes this year but finding so many people in the same boat.  Always looking for new ideas, tips and recipes to share with others that keep asking what we do and why.

www.homecookedhealthy.com

A little of both. I do not have celiac disease - although I was only tested via the blood panel, which came back negative. My father has it, however, and my sister and brother both had issues with gluten and went gluten-free before I did. I suffered from a variety of ailments - IBS, GERD, frequent viral infections, fatigue, anemia, brain fog/ADD, etc. I trialed a gluten-free diet for 3 months, and when I reintroduced gluten to see what would happen, I suffered such a violent reaction (digestive stuff - won't go into details!) that I KNEW I would have to be gluten-free for life. I react even to slight cross-contamination, so I closely monitor my diet. This means I rarely eat out, and when I do, I try to stick to restaurants that I trust, but it has made me a much better cook as a result!

I have a food sensitivity to gluten, so went gluten free on January 1, 2011. I found this out after having an ALCAT blood test after having an endoscopy and not having celiacs. 

With my type of sensitivity, they recommend that you give up things that you're very sensitive to for six months. I've gone gluten free for longer than that, but have noticed that I can tolerate gluten up to a point. However, since I feel better when I am gluten free, I'm going to stick with it.

I was diagnosed as Celiac about 7 months ago. I've had stomach problems all my life, acid reflux, IBS, you name it. I moved a lot and never really settled until 4 years ago, pretty much moving back to my childhood area. My doctor was looking at my chart, and I am on several meds for anxiety and depression, plus Nexium for acid reflux. I ask him about the whole stomach thing because I've literally had IBS (or what I thought was IBS) literally since the 2nd grade. The doc put 2 and 2 together after asking me if anyone in my family is Celiac.

Well the light bulb lit up...My grandfather, his brother and 3 of his kids are Celiac...One blood test later and add me to the Celiac family tree. Now ironically the others in my family have no problem with oats, but I can't handle any of it.

I really thought I would have trouble because I'm Irish, and well I like beer and bread and all that good stuff. But, I had been dieting, as I was somewhat overweight, okay a lot overweight, and not real active either. But cut out the gluten, eat proper portions, no seconds, keeping up with coaching my son's ice hockey team, and boom 55 lbs later I am back to playing shape in college...

I thought I'd really miss the beer and bread but to be honest, I like Udi's mutli-grain bread, tastes like the kind I used to eat before going off gluten. And beer, well that's a different story...God bless my dad, he is now trying all sorts of recipes now that his dad and one of his own sons is Celiac. I keep telling EVERYONE, "don't worry about me, I can work around this, I am going to have to learn and deal with it." And I have been. But what can I say? Dad's a bit relentless, bringing gluten-free beers from around the area, picking them up when visiting friends out of town, and yeah there are some good ones out there, but with the whole diet thing going on at the same time, I have really been enjoying a nice vodka and diet tonic water. I've always been a whiskey/bourbon/scotch man too, so that was a bit rough trying to find ones that I could tolerate, but I am making do.

And I'll continue to make do. I have an 8 year old son and a 5 year old daughter, a wonderful wife of almost 12 years and I can't help but smile when my little girl asks if the broccoli we had with dinner is gluten-free...I just can't help but smile. The support from family and the potential that my brother, my dad (recently tested and he's okay), a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins could all wind up in the boat that I am, well I make do and am doing just fine.

Definitely a life-changing ordeal, but you just gotta keep moving forward...eventually as I continue on my path as a Celiac, there will be new products and innovations, which there already are. I can't believe how mainstream gluten-free has become and I don't know if it's coincidence or a sign from the universe, but as soon as I was diagnosed, there wasn't a Sunday paper that came that didn't have gluten-free articles and recipes...

It was a big switch, but I am happy, have more energy, am trying out for a professional hockey team again, and am going to keep moving forward regardless of any obstacle in my path.