Mississippi Celiac Searching For Others

[OleMissLass]

I was diagnosed with celiac about 6 weeks ago and would love to find others in North Mississippi. In addition to the difficulty of living in a small town and trying to find gluten-free foods, I've found it challenging to talk about the disease since food is such an important part of life in South. Very few people here are even aware of vegetarianism and veganism, much less what a gluten-free diet is.

There are no support groups anywhere close by but I think an informal friends group would be just as helpful. I'm a Southern girl and think we should be able to figure out a way to enjoy food and friends while still eating to protect our bodies.

Tara

[Sandra M.]

I was diagnosed with celiac about 6 weeks ago and would love to find others in North Mississippi. In addition to the difficulty of living in a small town and trying to find gluten-free foods, I've found it challenging to talk about the disease since food is such an important part of life in South. Very few people here are even aware of vegetarianism and veganism, much less what a gluten-free diet is.

There are no support groups anywhere close by but I think an informal friends group would be just as helpful. I'm a Southern girl and think we should be able to figure out a way to enjoy food and friends while still eating to protect our bodies.

Tara

Hey Tara. I live around the Madison area, not up in north mississippi, but it would be great to chat back and forth. I've had Celiac Disease for about 2 1/2 years now. I thought my life had ended when I was diagnosed with it, but it really hasn't been too bad, considering what my life was like and the symptoms I was dealing with before I was diagnosed. You can email me also. It's smoffat_210@yahoo.com.

[sb2178]

Not in MS... but, hey, sweet potatoes? My mother and grandmother (from MS) were very happy to hear that I could eat both sweet potatoes and cornbread.

And flourless chocolate cake. (woohoo!)

[bethanysmom]

My daughter has celiac- we are in Philadelphia and remarkably there seems to be several in our area that have this disease. We actually have a total of three at our church! Biaggi's at Renaissance in Ridgeland is a wonderful restaurant. Great gluten free menu. Also mellow mushroom has gluten-free pizza. At Chick-fil-a you can have FRIES!! and the grilled chicken and fruit salad. Applebees has a fairly good gluten-free selection as well as Outback. It is a challenge with a teenager to deal with the social aspects of having celiac disease, but you manage....there's no other choice!

[KrisC147]

I just got diagnosed about two months ago. I live in the Tupelo area!

[kareng]

Just a reminder that most cornbread is more wheat flour than cornmeal.

I have to say that just incase someone reads this and doesn't know that.

[SilverSlipper]

It depends on how you cook it. We eat cornbread quite a bit, but make it without wheat flour. I also thin it a bit and cook it like pancakes (basically corn cakes). Absolutely great for soup and veggie plates!

But yes, if anyone ELSE offers cornbread, run far, far away! And realize that cornmeal and cornmeal mix are very, very different.

[OleMissLass]

I just got diagnosed about two months ago. I live in the Tupelo area!

That's great. I just started working in Tupelo and commuting from home. Do you know of any gluten-free support groups in your area?

[GlutenFreeManna]

I'm not in Mississippi but I live in the South too and there are lots of Southern foods that are naturally gluten-free or easy to make that way if you make it yourself.

Besides cornbread there's:

Grits

collard greens (and other greens)

hush puppies (if you make yourself)

coleslaw

BBQ ribs

sweet Potatoes

Shoepeg corn

Green beans

fried cabbage

redbeans and rice

black eye-peas

Gumbo

baked squash

sweet tea

Jambalaya

Boiled peanuts

Cornbread dressing

Potato salad

corn pudding

pulled pork

butterbeans

watermelon

fried peaches

fried apples or baked apples

snap peas

mashed potatoes

Get yourself some sweet rice flour and you can easily make all those southern fried favorites like:

okra

fried green tomatoes

fried chicken

fried catfish

chicken fried steak

fried squash

onion rings