You’re Killing Me! Exploring How Consumers with Food Intolerances Navigate Eating Out

Abstract

Celiac disease (CD) is a genetic autoimmune disease affecting about 3 million Americans with diagnoses increasing globally. Within minutes of ingesting gluten, sufferers experience a range of reactions from no symptoms to abdominal cramping, spontaneous diarrhea, migraines, days of incapacity, and even hospitalization. Long-term consumption damages their small intestine, interferes with the absorption of nutrients, and can have serious complications including infertility, osteoporosis, and anemia (Ludvigsson et al. 2013). The only existing treatment for CD is a gluten-free diet. The 2013 FDA ruling, which set the meaning of “gluten-free” to be less than 20 parts per million of gluten, should..