Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090005
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She is a victim of celiac disease. The culprit, found in such American staples as pizza, pasta and fresh-baked baguettes, attacks the pronglike cilia in her small intestine, causing flu-like symptoms, stomach cramps, diarrhea and fatigue.
Yet Hillson is able to ingest hot hunks of savory bread without gastronomic distress, thanks to gluten-free mixes she devised of rice flour, potato starch and guar gum. They provide the ``stretch factor'' usually supplied by gluten in baked goods.
French Bread/Pizza Mix is one of 17 mixes Hillson sells through her Gluten-Free Pantry, a mail-order enterprise that has grown from a fantasy to a phenomenon in just two years.
More than 7,000 customers worldwide have put forbidden culinary delights back on the menu, thanks to Hillson's mixes, which cost from $3.95 to $5.95. Chocolate truffle brownies, orange walnut biscotti and fresh-baked bagels can be savored in gluten-free glory.
In fact, Hillson said the very mission of The Gluten-Free Pantry is to make customers feel ``special, a little spoiled ... and never regretful.''
For the record, celiac disease, also known as nontropical sprue, is not the same as a food allergy. Celiac disease, which predominantly affects Caucasians of European descent, is a hereditary immunological disorder. However, those with food allergies, particularly to wheat, are some of Hillson's best customers.
Hillson, 47, was one of the first people to be diagnosed in the late 1950s post-World War II era with celiac disease.
``I wasn't going to sit around eating hamburgers for the rest of my life,'' says Hillson of one of the ``permitted'' foods in the celiac's diet. ``So I started experimenting.''
Her prime complaint about gluten-free fare was its ``health-food flavor.''
By 1992, after years of testing formulas to perfection and developing a solid reputation in the culinary profession, she was ready to market her products.
Hillson contacted celiac support groups throughout the Northeast, sending off the mixes, bearing a home-computer-generated label, to serve at meetings. When Hillson attended a local meeting to get feedback, participants nearly mobbed her. Today, Hillson's mail-order catalog offers her mixes plus gluten-free products from other companies, such as Gloria's Glorious Almond Marzipan Tea Cake and rice pasta shaped like fettuccine, vermicelli and angel hair.
Though Hillson works from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., there aren't enough hours in the day to keep up with orders. In fact, she now hires a Massachusetts company to prepare the mixes in bulk. But she still talks to customers from all over the globe, providing them with tips and extra recipes.
For mail orders of Gluten-Free Pantry products, write P.O. Box 881, Glastonbury, Conn. 06033; or call (203) 633-3826.
For information on the Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance Support Group, which recently formed in the Roanoke Valley, call Becky Walter at 362-0811.
\ Food allergies affect approximately 50 million Americans and are associated with over 50 medical conditions ranging from acute gastroenteritis to sleep disorders.
In ``Allergy Free Eating - Key to the Future'' ($16.95, CelestialArts) Liz Reno and Joanna Devrais deal not only with the nutritional aspects of the problem, which is estimated to cost Americans nearly $5 billion annually. They first approach the allergies from their often underlying mental and physical entwinements and offer streetwise tools for combating them. For example, they provide tips for resisting temptation to the wrong foods while grocery shopping, traveling and dining out.
Next, the authors provide guidelines, including shopping lists, for developing a healthy diet plan. Finally, they provide a rotation diet of over 300 recipes, demonstrating how to replace forbidden ingredients with acceptable healthy substitutes.
Reno and Devrais back up their no-deprivation philosophy with an assortment of baked goods, soups, salads, meat and meatless entrees, fruits, juices, sauces and desserts.
by CNB