People in the community with stomach and intestinal issues may be diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome when they really might have celiac disease or be gluten sensitive. Hanson said that she is seeing more and more people diagnosed with celiac disease; she estimates that 60 percent of the people she works with found that they were gluten sensitive through experimentation rather than being tested.



“It’s actually a genetic autoimmune disorder and so a lot of times what happens is they carry the gene for it and then there can be an environmental trigger,” Hanson said. “Some of my customers that I’ve worked with had both parents have been tested and found that they carry the celiac gene. And so typically if both parents do, then that person’s most likely going to have that as well.” 



​Celiac is not a disease that attacks a certain group of people. Hanson said she has had customers from 1-year-old to 82-years-old, men and women with varying degrees of symptoms. Switching to the gluten-free lifestyle can be a hard change for some people. However, Hanson said that when people discover that gluten is the problem and that they’re health improves by omitting it, they make the necessary changes.

 

People with gluten sensitivity sometimes decide to cheat once in a while depending on the level of their reactions. Hanson said that for true celiacs, their body will allow them to cheat up until the point when their body retracts and wont heal itself again.
 

“I really try to encourage people with celiac, true celiac disease, to really stay very strict and not cheat because you never know when that point’s going to come,” Hanson said.  “And then they really deal with a much more severe case.”
 

Hanson said that the onslaught of new gluten free products in the market has made it easier for people to eat gluten-free and live a very normal life. But some of those products can also be pricey.
 

“Specialty [products] like the quinoa is just a lot harder to grow and provide in large mass amounts than just regular wheat so the products themselves are pricier,” Hanson said.
 

Shopping isn’t the only problem that gluten-free people run into. Eating out can also be a very straining experience for celiacs and gluten-sensitive citizens.
 

“Eating out is probably one of the scariest things for people with celiac or gluten sensitivity because there’s several issues at hand,” Hanson said. “The big issue in restaurant kitchens a lot of the time can be cross-contamination.”
 

Hanson said that because of an increase in gluten-free living, more and more restaurants are coming out with gluten free menus and specially training their staff to understand the importance of separating out gluten-free cooking.
 

Hanson also counsels her customers on being aware of cross-contamination at home.
 

“In people’s homes I encourage them to get two toasters – one for the people that aren’t celiac and one for the person who has to deal with the gluten-free diet because the toast crumbs from that toaster can contaminate the gluten free bread,” Hanson said. “As little as an eighth of a teaspoon of flour can send a person who is a true celiac into a real reaction.”