Article: New Bakery Offers Goodies Without Gluten (Middletown, NY area) (taken from recordonline.com)

[Guest guest]

New bakery offers goodies without gluten By Sullivan Times Herald-Record jsullivan@... After an amazing 10 days in business, Marisa Frederick and Kathy Iozzino wonder if it was family necessity, business instincts, or divine intervention that spurred their business to success. After all, when the two first decided on locating their Gluten Free Bread Basket bakery at 123 Main St. in the Village of Chester, the female pastor from the church across the street swooped into their store to offer her blessing. Apparently, the pastor, too, had Celiac disease, the medical condition that spurred the idea for the business. "This is a sign," Iozzino said she thought to herself.

A hereditary disorder, Celiac disease undermines and erodes the ability of the small intestines to absorb nutrients from food. Eating gluten – a protein found in wheat, barley, oats and rye – can trigger the disease, resulting in severe vomiting, skin lesions and dramatic weight loss. Those who have the disease are forced to travel great distances or order their gluten-free goods from a few wholesalers or health-food stores around the country. And not every supplier is careful about keeping their gluten-free ingredients uncontaminated by utensils or grain bins that handle gluten-containing grains. Frederick, a freelance journalist and soccer mom, tested positive for Celiac disease nine years ago after doctors found the gene in her then-2-year-old son, and in her oldest daughter, who was 4. Frederick's youngest daughter, now 10, also has the disease. Iozzino began experimenting with gluten-free

baking after it was discovered that her sister had the disease five years ago. A former marketing executive, Iozzino began taking gluten-free baking lessons at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park as a way to change careers, as well as to help those like her sister, she said. Misdiagnoses of Celiac patients was common until recently. A study published in the American Medical Association in 2003 found that one in 130 people has the disorder, shattering previously held dogma that placed the figure at one in 300. The change in public awareness has resulted in a surge of new patients. Add to that an unknown number of patients with Down's syndrome, autism, arthritis and other ailments who believe a gluten-free diet can help them, and Iozzino and Frederick find themselves at the head of a potentially huge untapped market. Kathy Hart, an executive administrative assistant from New City, is just one of the many

customers willing to drive an hour or more to the store since it opened on June 23. "I haven't had these in eight years," she said about the banana muffins she bought at the bakery yesterday. She also bought bread, two boxes of cereal and orange cranberry muffins, and planned to ask the bakery owners how to order a birthday cake. "It would be nice to have a real birthday cake after all these years," she said.

~Melonie (R.O.C.K. leader for NoVa/Metro DC Chapter) & Owner of SillyYaks (www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SillyYaks)

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson__________________________________________________