By Mike Gibson
For the Wire
It can be found far more often these days.
You see it in the supermarkets, in restaurants, even at Citizens Bank Park stadium in South Philly.
Gluten-free.
In recent years, the awareness regarding gluten-free food has increased substantially. And locally, that newfound understanding has spread, thanks to Alice Bast.
The Ambler resident initiated her cause with nothing more than a laptop and a third-floor home office. Nowadays, the laptop has been replaced by a bank of computers and the office is in a building at 224 Maple Lane, also in Ambler, that houses the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, where Bast is president.
People at the foundation are fighting the good fight for healthy living, realizing that, along with exercise, healthy living for those with Celiac disease means staying away from gluten.
That was a lesson Bast, 52, learned the hard way.
“It’s a story of heartache,” Bast said. “Circle back and 21 years ago, I was walking around thinking I had cancer. Before the diagnosis [of Celiac disease], it took me eight years to figure out what was going on.
“I had a full-term stillborn, three miscarriages and a two-pound baby,” she continued. “I had teeth breakage and my hair falling out and I went to 22 doctors and doctor №23 told me that sometimes animals have trouble with wheat products and I insisted that I get tested for that. They basically said I had Celiac Disease.”
Most people when told they have a disease are devastated.
Bast was relieved.
“I was thrilled,” she said. “My mother died young of pancreatic cancer and I was thrilled I didn’t have it. They told me I could not eat food with gluten in it and I said¸ ‘What is gluten?’
“I looked for a group in the local area with the same thing I had and I joined the group and ended up running that support group,” she added.
And the rest is history.
“While I was in that group, I asked the women, ‘How many of you have had reproductive health problems?’ and almost every one of them raised their hands,” Bast recalled. “That was statistically significant and, along with my personal story, that fueled my passion to do something about it.
“You hear about people all of the time saying they want to do something to make a difference but it was right then that I felt I had to quit my job and do something about it.”
At the time, Bast was going to school at the University of Pennsylvania, but she was able to secure a grant from the National Institutes of Health to start the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.
“Dick Moberg of Moberg Research said to me, ‘You can’t start a foundation out of your house’ so that led me to one cubical where he’s at, 224 Maple,” Bast explained.
The cubical led to a floor and the one laptop led to a desktop and the desktop begat eight current full-time employees. In addition, there is a restaurant training program run out of the site that assists restaurants in developing gluten-free menu items.
There is also a supermarket awareness effort that has been in place for a while. Bast was able to initiate that with the Whole Foods chain. Others soon followed and now you can see aisles devoted to gluten-free living in just about every major chain.
“We want to have that availability and affordability,” Bast said. “The consumer needs to be a detective in reading labels. For example, they are required to post on the label that this factory also produces things like peanuts and stay away from that. Gluten can be found in all kinds of foods, like dairy substitutes, deli meats, gravy, even licorice.”
The national media have come on board, with people like CNN’s Heidi Collins being the first high-profile person to bring awareness to the airwaves. Elisabeth Hasselback of The View, who has the disease, did her part to put it in the national spotlight. Bast has also been on The View.
Bast said she plans to continue her duty of spreading Celiac awareness, and is proud that her personal mission initiated in Ambler.
“Ambler is a desirable place,” she said. “It’s got a great little downtown and the train is there and we’re within walking distance of the downtown area. It’s easy for people to get to from everywhere.”
For more information, or to donate, visit www.celiaccentral.org
