Even if you were only recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease or have started a Gluten-Free diet for other reasons, you know to avoid Gluten in your foods - at restaurants and even the hidden sources that can hide in your home! So why do you sometimes still feel bad when you leave your house? Gluten in the air!

Recently, I went shopping at Whole Foods like I do to pick up things I can’t buy online or get at my local grocers. I must have lingered too long in the Gluten-Free bakery section, which is ironically within their bakery AND where they make their pizzas. On my way home, I got horribly sick.

But I hadn’t even eaten anything, so HOW did I get sick?

Well, it turns out you can simply *inhale* Gluten in the air and have a reaction.

FML, amirite?

Costco is usually safer for me to shop in due to the size of the warehouse. However, I’ve gotten sick there once. I hadn’t eaten anything that day, but I stood too long near a naan bread demonstration where they were frying the bread on open griddles (sending lots of Gluten in the air), and within 20 minutes had bloating, stomach pain, and had to run to the bathroom. That night, I got a rash on my joints and had trouble sleeping - I had definitely gotten glutened! I brushed it off as a fluke, but after getting sick at Whole Foods, I noticed the pattern.

So now you know that there is such a thing as getting sick from airbourne Gluten! AS IF WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT!!!

Places/Situations that can make you sick (if they aren’t Gluten-Free):

• Bakeries

• Pizza Places / Restaurants that make pizza

• Pretzel Shops

• Wheat / Barley Fields

• Barns / Stables / Hay Rides (where the hay is made from a Gluten Grain)

• The Baking Section of the Grocery Store (stray flour can hurl Gluten in the air that stays for up to 24 hrs!)

• Being in the kitchen while someone is baking

• Standing over/near a pot of boiling pasta

• Playing with Playdoh (yes, really)

• Pet food containing Gluten (either airbourne Gluten from pouring it or from cross-contamination)

• Drywall installation (yes, again, really)

Basically, if you can smell bread you’re at risk of inhaling enough Gluten in the air to cause a reaction.