Lyndhurst resident, health department want more restaurants to go gluten free

"I travel for gluten-free," said Van Riper, who is 27 weeks pregnant with her first child and fears her daughter will also have Celiac disease, which is a genetic disorder. "We go to Boonton, we go to Pompton Lakes, we go to all these places that have gluten-free food."

Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. When Celiac sufferers eat foods containing gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley, it destroys the intestine's nutrient absorbing lining, or villi. If a person with Celiac eats gluten he or she suffers severe stomach pains, and prolonged gluten intake can cause malnutrition, no matter how much someone eats. Adhering to a gluten-free diet is essentially the only way to tame Celiac disease's effects, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. About one in 133 people have it and many don't know it. Van Riper was diagnosed just over a year ago, having been through about 10 doctors before one actually performed a genetic blood test and colonoscopy to give her the proper diagnosis after years of suffering from severe stomach woes.

"I could have had it my whole life. I was gastrointestinal sick for seven years," said Van Riper. "Because I was so young, no one ever did a colonoscopy. People can have bloating, eat something and it doesn't agree with them; you keep getting stomachaches and may not know that you may have a genetic disease."

Lyndhurst's Health Administrator Joyce Jacobson, after hearing Van Riper's story, wants to do something about the problem. When Van Riper called about a month ago asking how she could obtain her marriage license, she also wanted to talk to someone about gluten-free awareness. Jacobson answered the call and found the issue confounding, but noteworthy, because the health department was in the midst of holding food handling courses. In her two previous classes with 42 attendees, not one, she said, offered anything gluten-free at their eateries. She had Van Riper come in and speak to the third class of 15 to inform them about the benefits of offering a gluten-free menu option. The two are now going to embark on an awareness campaign starting with an open community support group in May to any residents of Lyndhurst and surrounding communities that have Celiac or want to know more about it. Then they want to bring evidence to restaurants that Celiac is more common than thought and restaurants would benefit from offering gluten-free menu options.

"When we increase awareness, I want to also challenge our restaurants to include at least one item so Melissa and other people with Celiac can go into a local restaurant," said Jacobson. "I'm a big promoter of staying local, especially in this economy. If she is driving that far to find gluten-free, think about all the people that would come here if there were gluten-free restaurants."

It's not just in Lyndhurst, but in the South Bergenite coverage area, that the options aren't plentiful when seeking out a gluten-free meal. Many of the restaurants that offer gluten-free are conventional chain restaurants: Charlie Brown's in Carlstadt, Chili's in East Rutherford and Boston Market in North Arlington, according to Gluten-Free Registry, an online portal that provides directories of gluten-free restaurant offerings nationwide. Other eateries mentioned on the site are the Rutherford Pancake House and Sweet Avenue Bake Shop, a cupcake shop on Park Avenue in Rutherford that offers a different gluten-free cupcake every day. In East Rutherford, the Park and Orchard restaurant, which is absent from Gluten-Free Registry, offers a Celiac Menu, delineating what sauces, salad dressings and soups can be ordered without gluten ingredients. Van Riper said she's been to the Park and Orchard about 20 times because of the menu.

Spiro Alexander, owner of the Rutherford Pancake House, which opened about two years ago, said his gluten-free items range from waffles and pancakes made with rice flour, soups that use no flour for thickening and wraps that use corn tortillas opposed to flour tortillas. With 30 years in the business, he knew when opening his own restaurant that there was a calling for vegans and a calling for gluten-free diners.

"When we opened up the Pancake House, we wanted to have an environment that was inclusive of all customers and there is a high percentage of people with Celiac disease," said Alexander. "From a business perspective, it's a plus for us because it's become a destination for a lot of people, even people that live quite a distance away that come here because they know they can have breakfast with their whole family. It's one of the reasons we are as successful as we are because the gluten-free and vegan options."

At Sweet Avenue, which was established on the basis of vegan cooking, owner Jake Vance said it took only a short time after opening that customers began asking why there were no gluten-free choices. He said he started introducing about one flavor of cupcake once or twice a week in gluten-free, but the demand now has the shop selling gluten-free each day. The entire batches are sold by closing time.

"People with food sensitivities tend to flock together to find places to eat, so we had a lot of people request that we do some gluten-free stuff," said Vance.

Both Van Riper and Jacobson said they are approaching the campaign with caution, however, because any restaurant that wants to be or claims to be gluten-free needs to take proper precautions to avoid cross contamination with gluten foods.

"You are putting all your trust in the person that prepares it, the person that washes the dishes and even the server to make sure they don't switch or slip and bring you the wrong thing," said Van Riper. "There should always be someone in charge at a restaurant for gluten-free that oversees the entire preparation of the meal."

At the Pancake House, Alexander said all the gluten-free food is prepared separately with grills and waffle irons wiped down before cooking to avoid any residue from gluten foods. At Sweet Avenue, a disclaimer on its website notes that the shop is not strictly gluten-free/wheat-free because non-gluten-free items are still baked in close proximity due to the small kitchen.

"Everything here is made in the same shop, so it's not totally separate, but we do what we can to use separate equipment and isolate gluten-free ingredients so there is no cross contamination," said Vance.

Melissa Van Riper will moderate a one-hour support group and outreach seminar on Celiac disease and gluten-free eating on Wednesday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at the Lyndhurst Health Center, located at 253 Stuyvesant Ave. in Lyndhurst. Residents of Lyndhurst and surrounding communities who are affected by Celiac disease or want to learn more information about it are invited to attend. Local restaurants are also invited to learn more.