CELIACvsME
When Gluten Turns Your Food World Upside Down
by Gregory Wilson
A practical and deeply personal companion for coping when gluten turns your food world upside down — written for the newly diagnosed and the people who love them.
About the Book
The test result came back positive for celiac. Not borderline. Overwhelmingly.
My doctor called within five minutes. “Well,” she said, “we know what the problem is. You have celiac disease.”
That was May 2024. What followed was two years of figuring out how to live a normal life again — the kitchen audit, the second toaster, the first time I had to ask a waiter whether the fries shared a fryer with anything breaded, the afternoon at a mall food court where I sat down and quietly said I hate this until I had said it enough times.
Part memoir, part guide, Celiac vs Me walks you through the real-world details no one thinks to explain — how to shop, eat out, travel, plan ahead, handle holidays, talk to people, and rebuild confidence in your body and your choices. The confusion, the grief, the mistakes, the awkward conversations, the surprising places gluten hides, the gradual return to ordinary life.
Written for newly diagnosed celiacs and the people who love them, this is not a medical textbook or a recipe collection. It is a practical and deeply personal companion for coping when gluten turns your food world upside down — and finding your way forward.
What's in the book
Eight chapters, a resource appendix, and a thank-you. The chapters are roughly chronological — the diagnosis itself, the first weeks at home, then outward in widening circles to other people, the grocery store, the restaurant, the road, the holiday calendar, and finally back inward to the body underneath. Every chapter has a substantial free excerpt on this site, marked Read excerpt → below.
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Ch 1. The Diagnosis. The morning the number on the screen changed your life — what the test results actually mean, the language doctors use, and what to do with the first 48 hours.Read excerpt →
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Ch 2. The First Weeks. A celiac diagnosis walks into your kitchen and starts opening drawers. Two toasters, a clean cutting board, the soy sauce, and the slow project of making the floor stop shifting.Read excerpt →
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Ch 3. Telling People. The conversation you have to have, over and over, with everyone you love. Strategic word choice, the “severe gluten allergy” shorthand, and how to spot the ones who already understand.Read excerpt →
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Ch 4. The Aisles. The cereal box that says Certified Gluten-Free versus the one that just says gluten-free, the apps that help, and the shopping geography of your new life.Read excerpt →
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Ch 5. The Table. “Any pizza can be made gluten-free” — six words on a menu and what they actually mean. How to order, what to ask, the questions that work, and the ones that don't.Read excerpt →
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Ch 6. The Road. Six hours into a drive when nothing at the rest stop is safe. How to plan a trip, what to pack, and the surprising places that turn out to be easy.Read excerpt →
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Ch 7. The Calendar. The first Thanksgiving, the first birthday, the first wedding. How to retool the scheduled occasions of your life around the new diet, year by year.Read excerpt →
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Ch 8. The Body Underneath. 1021 on diagnosis day. 101.4 nine months later. What the antibody numbers tell you, what they don't, and how to rebuild trust in a body that has been quietly unreliable for years.Read excerpt →
Plus a resource appendix — Where to Learn More: the apps, YouTube channels, Instagram creators, advocacy organizations, and online communities that helped me most.
Where to Learn More
The apps, channels, creators, organizations, and online communities that helped me most. The full annotated list is in the back of the book; this is a working version of it that I will keep updated here.
Not every voice on this list is a celiac. Most of the people you will meet in your gluten-free life will be gluten-free for reasons other than celiac. Each entry below names what the creator's situation is.
Apps
Fig
Daily product scannerScan a barcode at the grocery store, or search by name, and Fig tells you whether the product is safe for your specific diet. Vast database, conservative on natural flavorings. The single tool I open most often.
Visit FigFind Me Gluten Free
Restaurant directoryLong-running, crowd-sourced restaurant directory. User-submitted reviews and a five-star celiac safety rating per restaurant. The first place I check before walking into anywhere unfamiliar.
Visit FMGFAtly
GF map & listingsNewer crowd-sourced gluten-free map and listing service. Partial overlap with Find Me Gluten Free; different interface, partly different database. Worth checking alongside the first.
Visit AtlyYouTube
Robyn's Gluten-Free Living
Celiac · my entry pointMy online entry point into this whole universe and a channel I trust. Robyn covers products, restaurants, travel, and runs a separate baking-courses arm where most of her cooking content lives. If you only follow one creator, follow her.
Visit ChannelLet Them Eat Gluten Free Cake
Celiac · bakingKim's channel and companion site. Strong on baking-recreation: real gluten-free versions of the desserts and breads you didn't think were possible.
Visit ChannelThe Gluten Free Blogger
Celiac · UKSarah's daily-life voice. Practical, warm, oriented to UK products and restaurants but with plenty that travels.
Visit ChannelG-Free Foodie
Celiac · cookingK.C. Cornwell's gourmet-leaning gluten-free channel, with a real point of view on cooking and dining.
Visit ChannelCeliac Kitchen
Celiac · recipesRecipe-focused channel covering everyday cooking for celiacs.
Visit Channel@glutenfreeglobetrotter
Celiac since 1981 · travelErin Smith. The established voice on celiac travel, 25+ countries. If you are about to take a trip, start here.
Visit Profile@the_celiac_space
Celiac · registered dietitianThe credentialed-medical voice in the space. Helpful when you want a clinical lens on something a forum thread is arguing about.
Visit Profile@healthylivingellie
Coeliac since 2003 · UK/EuropeEllie. UK and European travel, product reviews, day-to-day GF life.
Visit Profile@collegeceliackc
Celiac · newly diagnosedCasey Cromwell. Newly-diagnosed-friendly. Grocery 101 walkthroughs, short skits, practical guides for people just starting out.
Visit Profile@celiacsarahexplores
Celiac · world travelerSarah. International celiac travel, paired with her partner-account world-trip work. Strong on countries the bigger creators haven't covered yet.
Visit Profile@philhatesgluten
NOT celiac · EoE / GERDPhil. Comedic angle, big reach. Included deliberately as a reminder that most of the gluten-free people you'll meet got there for reasons other than celiac.
Visit ProfileAdvocacy & Research
Beyond Celiac
US advocacy nonprofitMajor US celiac advocacy nonprofit (formerly the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness). Strong on plain-language research updates.
Visit SiteCeliac Disease Foundation
US advocacy nonprofitThe other major US advocacy organization. News, resources for the newly diagnosed, advocacy work in Washington.
Visit SiteNational Celiac Association
US advocacy · 5 ppm sealThe third major US celiac advocacy organization. Administers the 5 ppm Gluten-Free Recognition Seal program, the strictest of the common third-party certification marks.
Visit SiteGluten Intolerance Group (GIG)
GFCO certificationThe parent organization behind the GFCO certification mark you see on so many gluten-free products. Useful reference for what the certifications actually promise.
Visit SiteClinicalTrials.gov
Live research pipelineThe official US registry of clinical trials, including everything currently being studied for celiac. By the time you read this, the picture will have changed; that is the point of pointing you here.
Visit SiteCommunity
r/Celiac on Reddit
Active communityA very active community of celiacs (and parents and spouses of celiacs) sharing what works and what doesn't. Search any product or restaurant before you commit to it for the first time, and there is usually a thread. The single most useful free resource on this list, for me.
Visit SubredditLocal Facebook groups
Hyper-localSearch for celiac groups in your city, state, or country. The membership is hyper-local in a way the bigger creators cannot be, and the recommendations track openings, closures, and protocol changes in something close to real time.
Search Facebook