Julie McGinnis, M.S., R.D., certified herbalist holds a Master's degree in nutrition from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. She has been involved in the field of nutrition for twenty years and started work in a conservative hospital setting as a registered dietitian. Upon completion of her herbal certification began her career in complimentary health and worked for years in research and development for a professional line of nutrition supplements. She has instructed many on-line nutrition classes and has continued a private practice throughout her career. In 2009, The Gluten Free Bistro was born! We make whole grain, non-gmo, delicious tasting pizza crust and fresh-style pasta. Visit www.theglutenfreebistro.com for all our restaurant partners and retail locations.
Why I am the Gluten Free Girl
Through my own experience, as told below, and passion for nutrition, I have researched and read almost everything that has to do with celiac disease and gluten intolerance. I hope you find this site useful, as I have included all that I found important in my studies.
I grew up in a small town in south Jersey that had a non-existent Jewish population and therefore no Jewish deli. Every Sunday my father would get up at the crack of dawn and make the trip into Philadelphia to go to Famous Delicatessen. He would bring back bagels, lox, whitefish salad, pickles, and creamed cheese. Upon his return my dad would walk down the bedroom hallway and declare that, “breakfast was served!” He would open the curtains in each of our rooms and continue to convince us to wake up. Following the smell of the platters of onions and fresh bagels, my brothers and I would scramble downstairs to the feast. We were often greeted by our family friend and neighbor whom would already be picking at the lox and drinking coffee. This tradition carried on through divorce, college, adulthood and even through “low carb” diets.
Despite the lack of Jews in our neighborhood, a few towns over there was a synagogue that became our home away from home. My mother was president of the synagogue and my siblings and I attended Hebrew school 3 days a week after conventional school. Of course, we were all bar/bat mitzvahs and if that is not enough, upon one brother’s return from Israel where he spent time on a kibbutz, we became kosher. For holidays, as both sides of my family are of European descent, we had, shall I say, a plethora of Jewish recipes from which to choose and plan our meals. Besides lots of time in services each holiday, big or small, was celebrated with an abundance of food that included challah bread, matzoh balls, knishes, blintzs and kugel. So, needless to say, I know Jewish and I know Jewish food.
Continuing the tradition of “eating together,” during the 80’s we all steered our diets toward the very popular low fat high carbohydrate way of eating, and together, we all “blew up.” None of us looked or felt very well. We all had a difficult time staying lean, even though we were all active and had always stayed fit. We seemed to be holding a layer fat and to be bloated from water weight.
In an attempt to lose some of this weight in the late 90’s, one of my brothers decided to try the Atkin’s diet. A bigger problem than his gaining a few extra pounds, however, was a history of bad gas, and not just “funny” bad gas, but clear a room bad gas. For years, we all just thought he was rude and gross but as he cut out breads and other flour containing products, a requirement of the Atkins diet, the gas disappeared. Once thinking that cheese was the source of his digestive problems, he realized that it was the crackers and breads eaten with the cheese that caused the gas, not the cheese itself. Thankful for this unexpected discovery from following the Atkins diet, he decided he had a “wheat problem” or “allergy” and eliminated it from his diet. My other brother also began watching his diet to lose weight after the 80’s low fat high carb days. After following a low carbohydrate regimen, greatly eliminating wheat products from his diet, he felt and looked a lot better too.
Now, until 2002, I thought I was clear of the gluten/wheat problems that seemed to have plagued my brothers. At the end of 2002, I had lost a long time job and also ended a relationship. I was in such a state of stress that I had never known before that created quite a bit of restlessness. At night, I rarely slept and during the day, since I was collecting severance and then unemployment, with plenty of time to kill, stress to release, and fun to be had, I worked out. I worked out all day; hiking, playing basketball, running and lifting weights.
Soon, I was looking lean and fit but my abdomen was always bloated. Besides a constantly bloated abdomen, I had painful sores in my nose and badly bleeding gums. The worst of it was that I was now the one with the bad gas! I had it every day, all day and quite frankly, it smelled worse than any gas I had ever had! I was also constipated. I was appalled and confused. After all I had a master’s degree in nutrition and had been working in the field for over 10 years. How could I be suffering so badly? What could this be? I figured I had irritable bowel, which is a common diagnosis for the types of GI problems I was experiencing, and is even more common when accompanied by stress. So I started a supplement protocol to work on myself.
I tried using all the researched supplements to help find relief from my symptoms. I started with digestive enzymes and peppermint oil softgels. No relief. I drank aloe juice for weeks and still nothing. I then tried handfuls of enzymes from both plant and animal sources, and still no relief. I had already been taking fish oil, probiotics, and antioxidants for years and decided that increasing the dosages might help. Still nothing. So, next, I started eliminating foods to which I thought I may have built up intolerance to. I had been eating a lot of egg whites so I tried them first. Nope, I was still bloated and gassy. I tried eliminating dairy. Not it either. I tried vegetables and rice for a week (but I still put soy sauce which is a wheat product on them) and as a gluten intolerance would have it, still no luck.
Since I wasn’t having much luck getting any relief from things I was trying, I made an appointment with a gastroenterologist for testing and to see if maybe I was developing Crohn’s disease. Since my mother and grandmother had it, it seemed likely that I might be predisposed. I went in and described what was going on and told the doctor I thought I had irritable bowel syndrome. He agreed and sent me home with samples of acid blocking drugs. My mother suggested I take them just to try but I knew I did not have an acid problem. I threw my hands up with disgust as I left the office and threw the drugs out when I got home.
Finally, after almost a year of trying to get to the root of my health issues, I followed by brothers’ leads and eliminated wheat from my diet. Up until this point, I guess I figured I had eaten wheat for so long that I could not possibly have a problem with it. From this point on, however, I changed all my wheat containing foods for those with rice or other non-gluten ingredients. I didn’t need to wait long to see a result. The day I stopped eating my wheat tortilla at breakfast and my wheat crackers throughout the day, was the day all my symptoms stopped. The gas was gone, the bloating gone, and my body and mind felt relaxed. I could not believe it. Now, I was not sure if it was just wheat or all gluten containing foods, which includes barley, rye and oats (due to contamination which I will address later). So, after eliminating wheat and avoiding barley, rye and oats, I tried some mushroom barley soup and my stomach cramped up beyond belief. So, that solved it for me and I avoided all gluten containing foods until I was tested to confirm my suspicions. But how, after all these years had I developed an intolerance or sensitivity to gluten? Did I have celiac sprue? What had changed?
I began to wonder if a side of serious health problems came with our Sunday and holiday traditions--if all the wheat-based foods my family had been sharing through the years had manifested as different health issues.
The problems suffered by my brothers and me were the least severe. As I started thinking and reviewing our family history I realized before my mother’s diagnosis with Crohn’s disease, we had a huge family loss. Her first child was born with encephaly and sadly passed shortly after birth. Encephaly is a neural tube defect usually caused by a folic acid deficiency in the mother. This deficiency most likely was a result of malabsorption problems because more than likely her Crohn’s disease which is related to celiac disease had damaged my mother’s intestines. So, without proper amounts of folic acid being absorbed an unhealthy baby was born. I believe it was celiac disease that later resulted in my mother’s Crohn’s disease.
As mentioned earlier, my grandmother had Crohn’s disease also as did two other relatives on the paternal side. My great grandmother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and my grandfather, from adult onset diabetes but was insulin dependent and not controlled with oral medication. Now, both of these autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and Type I diabetes, have been linked to gluten intolerance.
Could it be that the common denominator in all of these health problems was in the food we loved to share? Could they be from all the wheat-based foods, from a gluten intolerance?
These questions started my quest to unravel the gluten mystery. I started to do what I love to do best—I began to research, reading everything and anything that had to do with this topic.
My stress at that time would have caused the elevation of my cortisol levels (stress hormone) and left my small intestine more vulnerable to gluten. This is because cortisol inhibits the ability of the digestive tract to repair itself, the inflammation continues and so does the cortisol release. Through out my life, however I was making it by before with no gastrointestinal problems ended with the influx of stress. Emotional stress can definitely be a factor in allowing gluten sensitivity to turn into CD, and then subsequent damage to the small intestine begins. As the gluten created more damage to my intestine in my vulnerable state it pushed me to a point I had not reached before and I began to feel the symptoms more and more. I think since childhood I have had sensitivity to gluten and as the years went on the sensitivity showed itself in many ways. As I look back over my life now I realize I had symptoms/conditions from my gluten sensitivity. I had bouts of dermatitis herpetiformis, that when undiagnosed from dermatologists, I had migraines, and have had bouts of anemia. I never put it all together but it is a miracle that I did not end up with a more serious health condition.
Resume
Julie Kreloff-McGinnis, M.S., R.D., Herbalist
Work Experience
Pharmaca, Boulder, CO
11/06-5/09
1 Provide customers with information on products and ingredients. Provide personal nutrition consultations for customers. Cashier assistance, order and stock inventory, monitor inventory for reordering
Colorado Community College Online, Boulder, CO
1/06-5/06 and 5/04-5/05 Nutrition Instructor (part-time)
1 Instruct basic nutrition course online to 20 students. Duties include online discussions, exam and project grading, student monitoring and email interaction
Australasian College of Health Science, Boulder, CO
3/05-2/06 Nutrition Instructor (part-time)
1 Instructor for on-line holistic nutrition course to 36 students. Duties include on-line discussions, exam grading, student monitoring and email interaction
Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers (contract work), Lakewood,CO
3/05-9/05 Nutrition Researcher and Writer
1 Researched and updated nutrition education materials for the nutritionist to use in consultations and for the customers in store flyers
2 Developed testing materials for nutritionist in training and for vitamin aisle employees
3 Wrote nutrition articles for Health Hotline (a newspaper advertisement flyer)
4 Answered nutrition email questions from employees and customers
5 Responded to nutrition questions from the press
Seven Bowls School of Nutrition, Longmont, CO
10/04-3/05 Program Director
1 Developed and Coordinated Curriculum
2 Researched and Applied for Accreditation
3 Managed daily operations/student services
4 Instructor for nutrition classes
American Health Science University, Aurora, CO
6/04-10/04 Master’s Program Director/Internship Coordinator (part-time)
1 Monitor master’s program students, grade exams/papers, email interaction, monitor internship students, edit and write master’s courses
Sound Formulas, LLC (contract work), Boulder, CO
4/03-5/04 Sales/Marketing
1 Implement sales and marketing strategies for a nutrition supplement line
Noodles and Company (contract work), Boulder, CO
3/03-4/03 Nutrition Analysis
1 Nutrition analysis of all menu and ingredient items
2 Worked with marketing team on menu ideas
Marint of Boulder (contract work), Boulder, CO
12/02-03/03 Research
1 Research and development for a new nutrition line including; nutrition bars, meals, and nutraceuticals
Good to Go Software (contract work), Seattle, WA
9/01-9/02 Research and Development
1 Conducted research for palm pilot software that is used as a food diary with analysis
2 Researched for all the nutrition, fitness, and food glossary information
Designs for Health, Boulder, CO
3/99-12/02 Research and Development for a nutrition seminar and supplement company.
1 Planned (topic developed/themes), promoted, organized, facilitated vendor and speaker contracts for nutrition education seminars for professional.
2 Researched, wrote, and edited education and seminar materials, product and patient education flyers, nutrition and education catalogues.
3 Manufacturing responsibilities included product development, developing/negotiating contract relationships and pricing contracts, purchasing of raw materials, label information development, management of manufacturing, and quality control including lab testing of products.
4 Sales Representative responsibilities included technical support, seminar sales, and educational material sales.
5 Managed clinical research trials on nutraceuticals and the possible health benefits. These trials were funded by Designs for Health. Collected and organized study data and managed the clinical teams.
Herb Research Foundation, Boulder, CO
7/98-3/99 Information Specialist
1 Responded to calls from the public regarding the safety and efficacy of herbs via an 800-hotline set up by sponsoring herb companies.
2 Performed general research and library management.
Laser Disc Entertainment, Boulder, CO
1/93-5/98 Chief Financial Officer
1 Managed accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, bank deposits, and bookkeeping for six related entities.
2 Supervised four employees.
Berkeley East Convalescent Hospital, Santa Monica, CA
1/92-1/93 Dietary Manager
1 Supervised kitchen staff.
2 Managed purchasing and inventory.
3 Conducted patient interviews, and nutrition charting and consultations.
Education
University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT
3/99-12/00
1 Master’s Degree in Human Nutrition
Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies, Boulder, CO
3/98-10/98
1 Certified Herbalist
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
1986 -1991 Bachelor of Science
1 Major: Coordinated Program for Clinical Nutrition Specialists
2 Certificates: Gerontology
Affiliations
American Dietetic Association
1 Registered Dietitian since October 1991
Educational Experience
St. Joseph’s Hospital Center, Syracuse, NY
3/91-5/91 Acute Care-Cardiac Rehabilitation
1 Assisted with patient assessment in cardiac rehabilitation program.
2 Revised and updated menus.
3 Provided in-home nutrition counseling.
Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, NY
8/90-12/90
1 Clinical dietetics and food systems management in an acute care setting.
Computer Software
MS Office, Power Point, Excel, ESHA Food Processor, Visio, Endnote, Internet
