Gluten in the News: Disney's Jessie

Disney messed up. They messed up big time in my opinion. At this point, this story is old news, but if you haven't heard, Disney airs a show called Jessie where they included a few scenes of a child who was on a gluten-free diet being bullied. There has been outrage from both sides. The parents of children with Celiac Disease are outraged that Disney would condone bullying of someone who essentially has a food allergy, and those unfamiliar with the gluten-free diet say that parents are being to thin skinned, and it was just a joke.

I get jokes. I like jokes. I understand when jokes are appropriate. I've been searching my brain for the best example that would help those unfamiliar with the gluten-free diet understand why people are upset. What I came up with would be a paraplegic child in a wheelchair who does not have use of their legs. It's not the perfect example, but it makes sense to me.

In my metaphor, the legs are the reaction to gluten, and the wheelchair is the gluten-free diet. There were two scenes that I saw where the child was being teased. First some background on the show from someone who has seen only a few episodes (not by choice) and done minimal research about the show. The show revolves around Jessie who is a young adult who moved from Texas to New York to pursue her dream of being a singer. She somehow ended up being a nanny for four very well-to-do children (some are adopted). The parents are rarely present, so she is their main care-taker as far as I understand. They live in what seemed to me to be a hotel, but it may have been an apartment building.

In the first scene, there is another child named Stuart who was there to eat breakfast. When their butler offers him the pancakes, he asks if they are gluten-free. The butler responds with a snide response (I think he said "They're glue-free, isn't that close enough?") which everyone laughs at. Jessie explains that Stuart has a few minor dietary requirements, and the list is five pages long.

In the second scene, one of the children throws pancakes at Stuart, so he yells out "aaaaah! Gluten!" Of course everyone laughs.

Back to my metaphor. How would people respond if Stuart were in a wheelchair and he needed to use that wheelchair to get someplace that was not wheelchair accessible and all of the children laughed at him? How would people respond if later on, those same children dumped Stuart out of his wheelchair and everyone laughed? Not the same thing? I think it is.

In the first scene, the children laugh at him because he can't do what they are doing--eating pancakes. He cannot eat pancakes because he will likely suffer from horrible gastrointestinal distress. It's unknown if he actually has Celiac Disease, but it is my opinion that those who have Celiac Disease do not have the choice as to whether or not they will eat gluten. They simply can't do it just like someone in a wheelchair cannot walk. I'll admit that is where my metaphor is the most imperfect, but I'm sure you're following what I mean by it. Bottom line: the children laughed at him because he is different and has a condition that cannot be changed by choice, nor did he choose that condition

In the second scene, they throw pancakes at him. I'm fully aware that in most cases, gluten needs to be ingested to cause a reaction....but....how easy would it be to get crumbs from the pancake in your mouth as they are throwing them at your face? Also, some people do have skin reactions although I'm unfamiliar as to how exactly it works as I do not have topical reactions. The example of someone throwing peanuts at someone with a peanut allergy has been used multiple times, but the issue with that is many people still don't understand the severity of a peanut allergy. Hence my wheelchair example. Would the writers from that show have ever even considered writing a scene where the children dump a child out of a wheelchair?

I really hope not.

I'm really glad Disney chose to pull the episode before it actually aired. From what I read, they generally put new episodes on Video On Demand the week before the show is set to air on the Disney Channel. A mother of two children with Celiac Disease, Amy Raslevich, started a petition at Change.org after her children viewed the episode and became very upset. It is unknown if it was specifically the petition or the reaction overall that caused the show to be pulled, but they pulled it, choosing to air a re-run in it's place.

I don't know that I would be having the same reaction if this were a show centered around adult. I personally think we have a large enough bullying problem, that we don't need kids channels showing children that it's ok and funny to bully someone. Disagree with me if you choose, I firmly believe this is bullying rather than simple teasing.

It proves how self-centered people are if I'm right, but I'm hoping that some of the reaction from the other side of this issue stems from people being upset that they didn't get to see a new episode of their favorite show when they were expecting to see one. Now, rather than learning something positive about the gluten-free diet, they are condemning all those that are on it because they lost something so incredibly important as a new episode of a show because all of us gluten-free folks are being ridiculously insensitive (please note my sarcasm).

I love that the gluten-free community is so strong that we are able to right some wrongs when we come together (as in the show was pulled). I hope that something good comes out of this, but I'm not quite sure what that is yet. My fear is that this situation has further divided the gluten-free community from everyone else due to additional misinformation being spread.

If you would like to read more about this than my opinions, here are some links:

Gluten Dude (includes video of the two scenes)
http://glutendude.com/media/disney-thinks-bullying-a-gluten-free-child-is-funny/

CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57585388/disney-pulls-jessie-episode-that-makes-fun-of-gluten-free-child/

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/disney-pulls-jessie-episode-about-gluten-allergies_n_3307231.html?ir=Parents

Google is your friend if you want additional info and don't like these news sources. I apologize I did not have time to find better ones.

And just so you have an idea of why this is such a two-sided issue, here are two comments found on an article about this topic:

• Seriously, are we so PC now we can’t even make an effing joke about gluten intolerance on a Dinsey channel show? This is unbelievable. People need to lighten up, for chrissakes. It’s a JOKE. Who cares?!

  Comment by Jack Tor s
• Jack Tor, I would think the kid who is gluten intolerant or celiac and feels belittled and marginalized would care.

  
  

  One more thing. This isn't something that has never happened with Disney before. I don't have a lot of details, but there was supposed to be an episode of Hannah Montana where a diabetic child was being made fun of for not being able to consume sugar. The exact same thing happened with the show being pulled before it actually aired. In that situation, they reshot some of the scenes and changed the title of the show because it specifically referred to "sugar."

When Life Gets Away From You

Eight days ago, I said I was going to do a post a day for Celiac Awareness Month. Yeah... that didn't happen.

In my own defense, and what I will use as my very weak excuse is that I'm getting married in a month. Yay!!! Exactly one month from today, I will be walking down the aisle towards the man I will be spending the rest of my gluten-free life with. The thought of that causes an indescribable feeling of happiness. 

So I guess today I will talk about wedding planning. I'm a very relaxed bride compared to what I've seen, but I've also questioned the whole time if I'm too relaxed. With one month to go, we haven't "actually" signed the contract for our reception venue (we know we have it either way, but it's a minor detail we should probably get out of the way), we have someone who can do cupcakes for us but we have no cake, we haven't done our food tasting, our dj doesn't have our list of songs yet, we haven't chosen our flowers, we haven't rented a limo (we want a trolley), etc, etc, etc.

I'll admit I've been frustrated a few times that things aren't taken care of, but ultimately, I figure we have each other (you need someone to marry if you're getting married), we have the church and a pastor, we have the reception venue (even though it's not legal), and we know our caterer can do gluten-free food and a flourless chocolate cake if worst came to worst. Beyond that, everything else is just details, and its unlikely anyone would really notice if anything wasn't completely perfect. 

This blog is about gluten-free food, so I'll talk about that for a moment. I was amazed at how easy it was to find a caterer that was able to accommodate a gluten-free event, and I was also amazed at how incredibly hard it has been to find an actual gluten-free wedding cake. 

Every single caterer I spoke with didn't even flinch when I said that I needed the entire event to be gluten-free. Most of them simply eliminated the possibility of pasta, subbed in cornstarch where flour would normally be used, and skipped rolls as part of the meal. I think they actually appreciated that we wanted the entire event to be gluten-free because then they know that there is no chance they'll cross contaminate something with something else on our menu. 

When it comes to the tasting, we are 99% certain we know what we want, but the tasting is included as part of our cost so I told my fiance we are doing it. He had no problem with getting a "free" meal. Now we just need to find the time to do it. 

As for the cake--that is a whole other story, and it's been incredibly frustrating. There are a few local bakeries that do gluten-free items including cakes, but every single one of them is a shared facility. Each one of them seems to have a major cross contamination problem which makes me angry that they're offering items in the first place. I believe they should be incredibly up front that their items are cross contaminated, but they all simply have it in the fine print. How terrible would it be to get glutened on your wedding day?

I started branching out to bakeries that were further away, but I quickly discovered that they aren't able to do it because it's unlikely a cake would travel two hours in June without "melting." I have one more option, but as far as I know, it's essentially a flourless chocolate cake. My caterer can do a flourless chocolate cake, and we really want an actual cake to cut. I have a back-up bakery that is only about 30 miles away that is happy to do cupcakes, but the frosting wouldn't be super fancy. She said she could also do a cake, but she definitely can't decorate a wedding cake--she could only bake it. 

I tossed out the idea of myself making the cupcakes and attempt a cake a few weeks ahead of time and then freezing them, but everyone is saying I'm crazy. I figure we have a large chest freezer that is essentially empty right now, and I have a few recipes that freeze well, so why not? My friends and my fiance all still say I'm crazy. I'm not convinced ;)

So that's where I'm at. I have one month to pull this wedding together, so no promises on a post a day, but I promise to try. 

The good news is that I am still... Alive Without Gluten ;)

Receiving Gifts of Food

Pre-diagnosis, I used to love it when people gave me food. Everyone loves free food, right? Wrong. Now I fear it.

Case in point: About a week before Easter, we discovered a box on our front step that said "Perishable." Instead of jumping for joy that we got free food, I froze. It's not like packaged food will hurt me if there is gluten in it, but there is so much more than not being able to eat the food itself. How do I thank someone for their good intentions without hurting their feelings. Do I thank them and lie when I say I'm looking forward to eating it? AUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!

That's how I feel. It probably seems silly to most, but I'm sure others with food allergies understand.

We discovered the box was from my fiance's parents. Oh goody! I potentially get to offend my future in-laws. That sounds like a great time, and I'm totally looking forward to doing something that they will potentially remember about me FOREVER.

Ok, yes, I'm being slightly dramatic, but seriously! Who wants to tick off their in-laws before they're even in-laws.

My fiance didn't have any interest in opening the box (probably because he knew he would probably be told we couldn't eat it anyway). I opened it with slight trepidation. Would I be pleasantly surprised or would I be figuring out who I could regift this to?

There was a note inside from his step-mom explaining that she had heard about this company on the news and noticed they were talking about allergies and gluten-free. The food itself was 3 chocolate Easter bunnies and 2 bags of jelly beans. I had to look it up on the internet to determine if it was in fact "safe" for me or not because the packages didn't say anything about gluten-free on them.

End result: pleasantly surprised.

I love when people "get" it. I fear the day when a family member of his bakes me "gluten-free" cookies and I have to politely turn them down without forever offending them. "But they were made from a gluten-free mix, and I mixed them in the same bowl that I used for all my gluteny stuff, and they were baked on the same pan as my gluteny cookies--how could that possibly get you sick," they will say. Ok, that's not what they will say, but that's what I will be imagining them saying.

So to those of you who have good intentions in giving people with allergies food, I have some advice for you:

1. Make sure you know EXACTLY what you are doing, and don't be offended if they still aren't comfortable eating it.

2. Don't try at all unless you're willing to do it right.

3. Ask the individual for help/advice and/or see if they would like to cook/bake with you (preferably in their kitchen). I would much rather spend a day with someone in my safe kitchen baking all kinds of goodies than question if they were able to avoid cross contamination every step of the way in their kitchen.

How do you handle gifts of food?

Celiac Disease Awareness Month

I've never been a huge fan of specific times to recognize things because I feel you should recognize them year-round. Celiac Awareness Month is a little bit different in my mind simply because it is a newer "condition" that isn't very well known.

My goal will be to write one post per day in honor of Celiac Awareness Month. How do you plan to spread awareness, and what have you done in the past?