A longtime fan of NuGo bars, which coincidentally I first came across while traveling, I was happy when they asked me to write a post for their blog – on, you guessed it – traveling as someone with both celiac disease and a severe food allergy to shellfish.

First of all, a celiac or food allergy diagnosis is initially overwhelming. I mean we have all been there and it does throw a bit of a wrench into your lifestyle until you get up to speed. There is a learning curve for the newly diagnosed but I am proof positive that it does get easier as time goes on.

Traveling can seem like a daunting challenge because not only do you have to deal with eating out in a new location that may be unfamiliar, but there’s also the getting there and back which depending on where you are going could prove to be a significant chunk of time. So, with Celiac Awareness Month upon us and the summer travel season about to kick in, I thought I would share a few tips and tricks that I have picked up as I have literally circumnavigated the globe as a celiac and food allergic traveler.

The most important tip that I can give is to plan before you go. This will help to alleviate unnecessary stress when you arrive at your destination. I like to go online and get a lay of the land if you will of where I will be visiting. I look for restaurants and grocery stores near where I’ll be staying that are gluten-free friendly. Be sure to also check out any local celiac or food allergy support groups that might have websites as they often provide a host of information at the local level. Trust me, having a lay of the land before you go will make your trip all the more smoother. When you arrive at your destination, talk to the hotel staff or concierge for local recommendations. You’d be surprised what great local tips they can provide and I have even run into a few that were fellow celiacs and had some fantastic recommendations for me.

Planning also involves looking at things like airlines and hotels as some do a better job in catering to travelers with dietary restrictions. If you are flying, go to the airline’s website or call them to find out if they offer a gluten-free (or other special meal type) before you book. This is a must on long-haul and ultra long-haul flights and less important on shorter domestic hops. At the hotel level, more and more hotels are catering to guests with dietary restrictions and a few even have formal programs in place to ensure that guests with special needs can dine without worry. Fairmont Hotels with their Lifestyle Cuisine Plus program does a particularly good job.

Packing is equally as important as planning in my book – and by packing I mean in the food/snack department. Tip number two is to always take along what I like to call a gluten-free contingency pack. This usually contains a range of food items that I can snack on if I am delayed, my gluten-free meal on a flight didn’t make it onboard or is not really to my liking, or I just feel like a treat while enroute to or at my destination. I typically include things like pretzels or chips, something sweet, and of course snack bars – guess which ones you’ll always find in my bag? The good thing about a contingency pack is that you can tailor it to your specific trip and make it more comprehensive for longer journeys and smaller for quick hops. I also like to throw some larger snacks or treats in my checked bag to enjoy at the hotel when I arrive at my destination. More often than not you’ll be able to find a host of great items at your destination but sometimes you might just feel like relaxing after a long journey and it’s nice to have something ready to nosh on.

The final tip that I can offer is to get out there and enjoy yourself. Do not let celiac or another food restriction limit your lifestyle. Will everything always go as planned – likely not. Even those of us that have been doing it for a while still have things go wrong from time to time but look at them as learning experiences. The more often you get out on the road, the more comfortable you’ll become traveling with special dietary needs and it will just become second nature.

About the Author:

Michael De Cicco-Butz

Hailing from New York City, Michael is perhaps best known as his gluten-free alter ego Gluten Free Mike a global advocate for celiac disease who pens a very popular eponymous gluten-free website and blog. He and his site have been featured on MSNBC.com and the TodayShow.com discussing luxury travel from a food allergic perspective. Michael has made it his personal mission to share his experiences on his gluten-free journey to help others navigate and make the most of their own journeys. Diagnosed with celiac disease more than ten years ago (and shortly thereafter developing severe shellfish allergy), when the gluten-free landscape was very different, he understands how confusing, overwhelming, and isolating it can be when first diagnosed.

He lives by his mantra of Living Well, Gluten-Free, No Apologies and does not let celiac or his food allergies limit where he goes or what he does. He has travelled the globe as a celiac taking full control of his food restrictions proving that by making smart choices and asking the right questions anyone can get out there and enjoy all the fabulous tastes and places our world has to offer — just gluten-free.

A foodie through and through, you’ll often find him dining out at both gluten-free and non-gluten-free restaurants and has created a Quintessentially New York Gluten Free dining guide on his site that follows him dining gluten-free at some of the most iconic restaurants in New York City. He also loves to cook and has adapted many of his favorite recipes to be gluten-free.

Read Mike’s blog, Gluten Free Mike, follow him on Twitter @glutenfreemike and Pinterest, and like his Facebook page.

This year we had the biggest running team yet. Team NuGo had 35 people running! David Levine, NuGo President, ran the full marathon. Alyssa Nard, NuGo Marketing Director, ran the half marathon.

We received some great emails about the NuGo Pace Team. Here are some of our favorite quotes.

“Yesterday I had the opportunity to be a part of the NUGO pace team in the Pittsburgh Marathon. Needless to say, it was a wonderful opportunity and time! I want to thank you for your company’s sponsorship of the pacing team. I received many hugs and thank you’s as we crossed the finish line yesterday. Your support of the running community is truly appreciated.” – Sean

“I just wanted to say that I was so super proud once again to be a part of this very special Pittsburgh NuGO Pace team, with the fabulous group of pacers that we had this year.” – Marie

Look at this video we made of the kids marathon on Saturday, May 4.

To see all of our photos from the expo and marathon, view our Facebook album.

We look forward to seeing everyone next year!

If you suspect you have celiac disease, ask your physician to order the celiac panel blood test. It is very important to continue eating gluten until you have completed all testing for celiac disease. A 100% gluten-free diet is the only treatment for celiac disease.

Watch this celiac PSA.

May is National Celiac Awareness Month, which makes this a great month to share celiac blog posts. The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) has chosen KISS: Keep It Simple and Safe as the theme for Celiac Awareness Month.

Throughout this month, bloggers will be sharing many tips on a variety of gluten-free topics in 5 Ways to Keep It Simple and Safe. Visit the Gluten-Free RD, a blog by Rachel Begun, to read 31 Days of Celiac Awareness.

For more gluten-free resources, read our blog post, 10 Great Gluten-Free Resources. Happy Celiac Awareness Month!

NuGo is the only company to make REAL Dark Chocolate coated protein bars for many lifestyles. By law, if vegetable fat coatings are used, the ingredients list must state “chocolaty” or “chocolate flavored coating and vegetable oil.” That is the only way you would know it is not REAL Dark Chocolate. Sometimes the listing will illegally state dark chocolate coating.

We were thrilled to see a recent WebMD article mention that there isn’t a standard of identity for dark chocolate.

“The FDA has established very strict guidelines or Standards of Identity (SOI) that specifies what ingredients constitute the various forms of chocolate. However, for “dark chocolate,” there really isn’t a SOI for the term “dark” but there is for semi-sweet (bittersweet) and sweet chocolate, which are often referred to as dark chocolate. The difference between all of them is the amount of chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, and milk content.”

We have seen major news articles about confusing nutritional claims, but those articles did not include Dark Chocolate Deception. Consumers deserve to know what’s in their snacks!

REAL Dark Chocolate, an antioxidant-rich superfood, has many health benefits and tastes delicious because it is made only from cocoa beans (cocoa butter and non-fat cocoa solids). REAL Dark Chocolate homogenously melts at 89 – 93 degrees, below body temperature, exploding the dark chocolate flavor as it melts in your mouth. Fake chocolate coated snacks substitute vegetable fat, usually palm oil, for cocoa butter, which raises the melting temperature above body temperature, thus the chocolate doesn’t melt in your mouth creating a waxy texture and an overly sweet taste.

The FDA has not set a standard of identity for dark chocolate, allowing the consumer to be misled that they are eating dark chocolate while consuming fake chocolate flavored palm oil (saturated fat). Without a standard of identity, companies can call a product dark chocolate on the front of a package without using REAL Dark Chocolate ingredients!

Read the Truth About REAL Dark Chocolate to learn about the health benefits of eating REAL Dark Chocolate, how fake dark chocolate affects cholesterol, and why other companies coat their bars in fake chocolate. View our special dietary needs chart to see which bars fit your lifestyle. Order boxes of NuGo bars and sample packs online, buy NuGo bars at stores in the US and Canada, or pick up Nutrition To Go (NuGo) at an airport.

About the Author: 

Pamela Hernandez is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, an ACE Lifestyle & Weight Management Coach, and the owner of Thrive Personal Fitness in Springfield, MO. For additional tips and tricks to help you get healthy and fit in the real world, check out her blog, like her facebook page, and follow her on Twitter @ThriveFit.

“But now, studies done by Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis are starting to back him up. She’s in the middle of a groundbreaking, five-year study which has already shown strong evidence linking excess high fructose corn syrup consumption to an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke. That suggests calories from added sugars are different than calories from other foods.”

“Stanhope’s conclusions weren’t easy to come by. Nutrition studies are expensive and difficult. Stanhope has paid groups of research subjects to live in this hospital wing for weeks at a time, under a sort of 24-hour lockdown. They undergo scans and blood tests – every calorie they ingest, meticulously weighed and prepared.”

Surprisingly, Stanhope found that after only two weeks of drinking sugary drinks with high fructose corn syrup, they had increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including higher LDL cholesterol levels. After seeing the powerful data, Stanhope decided to drastically reduce the sugar in her own diet!

“So imagine, for these healthy young people, drinking a sweetened drink might be just as bad for their hearts as the fatty cheeseburgers we’ve all been warned about since the 1970s.”

A Harvard professor, Lewis Cantley, explained how sugar is a catalyst in some common types of cancer, actually causing the tumors to grow! While his team is working on a drug to prevent the tumors from growing, Cantley advises to avoid eating sugar. Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, has shown through MRI scans that sugar is addictive like cocaine.

“Eric Stice says by scanning hundreds of volunteers, he’s learned that people who frequently drink sodas or eat ice cream or other sweet foods may be building up a tolerance, much like drug users do. As strange as it sounds, that means the more you eat, the less you feel the reward. The result: you eat more than ever.”

The good news is that NuGo Nutrition has many options to help you reduce sugar. All NuGo bars are 100% natural and free of high fructose corn syrup. Since NuGo bars are high quality protein coated in only a small amount of luscious real dark or milk chocolate, they contain significantly less sugar and fat than other brands of protein bars. Additionally, NuGO Slim contains only 2 grams of sugar from REAL Dark Chocolate and chicory root. NuGO Slim is the first low sugar protein bar without sugar alcohols or maltitol, which can cause gastric distress and a bad aftertaste. NuGo Family is certified low glycemic.

Click here to watch the 60 Minutes video, Is Sugar Toxic?, and watch the informative extras, including a segment about kids and sugar. Sanjay Gupta recommends eating real food to avoid added sugars and reading labels to cut down on sugar. How many calories of added sugars should a woman consume in a day? Less than the amount in one can of soda!

We sent the sisters NuGO Slim and were eager to hear their thoughts. Olivia loved NuGO Slim and was excited to share it with Hannah. Watch the first four minutes of the video to see their entertaining chat about NuGO Slim, NuGo Dark, and REAL Dark Chocolate! For fun tips about fitness and maintaining weight loss, be sure to visit their informative blog, My Fitspiration.