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This story is sponsored by Nourished Festival. Learn more about Nourished Festival.
About one in 100 Americans have celiac disease, according to the Gluten Intolerance Group. However, it is estimated that only 17 percent of those with celiac disease have been diagnosed, while many more have a non-celiac gluten sensitivity which can produce many of the same symptoms.
Nourished Festival, which is hosting a gluten-free festival May 4-5 in Sandy, recognizes the struggles of these individuals and their families as well as those who suffer from allergy-related diet restrictions and works to help connect people with gluten sensitivities to vendors, authors and teachers who help educate them about how to live a gluten-free and allergen-friendly lifestyle.
Celiac disease through the years
For many years, the problem was that medical professionals didn’t understand the mechanism behind celiac disease or how to treat it. In fact, in the 1920s the prescribed diet for the “celiac affliction” was the banana diet, which removed all starch from a patient’s diet. It took another 40 years before scientists proved that it was actually wheat protein causing the symptoms and it wasn’t until 1990 that celiac disease was widely recognized as an autoimmune disease with a specific gene, known trigger, and known autoantigen, according to the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.
Nourished Festivals offer access to vendors, samples, coupons
Today, the dietary options for people living with celiac disease or food allergies are much more diverse than they once were. Nourished Festivals started in 2007 with a single expo featuring vendors and samples of gluten-free products. Today, the expo has expanded to eight locations across the United States, starting with the Sandy event on May 4-5. It is the largest gluten-free, allergy and specialty diet festival in the U.S.
Besides offering access to vendors from more than 50 brands, the expo also offers valuable coupons, discounted products and FDA-labeled gluten-free samples, informative classes, and authors and bloggers well-versed on gluten sensitivity and food allergy lifestyles.
The festival features five main zones:
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Paleo
- Keto
- Plant-based.
These zones showcase products free from the top eight allergens, which the FDA lists as milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat. While there are more than 160 foods that can cause allergic reactions, these eight account for 90 percent of all food allergic reactions. All food products at the festival are gluten-free.
“With flavorful comfort foods like pizza and baked goods to healthy lifestyle options like protein bars and probiotic drinks, this expo offers a wide variety of tasty products for nearly any specialty diet,” explained expo founder Jen Cafferty in an interview with Natural Awakenings Dallas. “An event of this scale being accessible to the general public is a rare and exciting way to explore new products and sample new options before you buy them.”
App for finding gluten-free friendly businesses
Nourished Festival has also developed an app called Find Me Gluten Free which offers access to a community of more than 3 million people that help you find gluten-free friendly businesses. It’s the #1 rated gluten free restaurant finder app.
For more information on Nourished Festival or to buy tickets, visit nourishedfestival.com.