By Marie Moeller ‘ 15

It seems like going gluten-free is the new peanut allergy for teens. For some, a gluten-free diet is just a fad for losing weight, but for others this diet is a life altering reality due to their gluten intolerance. At Sherwood, several students have been diagnosed as gluten intolerant within the past year and have been working to overcome the challenges presented with adjusting to their diet.

Gluten intolerance is a broad term used to describe a condition in which the body reacts to gluten, the proteins responsible for the elastic texture of dough. People suffering from gluten intolerance cannot eat anything with gluten, which is found in barley, rye and wheat.

These foods and their derivatives are a significant part of the American diet, so many initially struggle with a total shift in diet. “I was scared I would have nothing to eat,” said gluten intolerant freshman Katish Sussman. “It is because you start to miss the flour in your life, like not being able to eat real pizza or bread, but almost everything that is made with flour can be made without it.”

Gluten intolerance encompasses a series of gluten-related health problems, including gluten sensitivity, celiac disease and wheat allergy. Many teenagers, who were previously undiagnosed, tend to suffer from gluten sensitivity as opposed to celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that damages the lining of the small intestine, or wheat allergy, which is caused by the immune system overreacting to proteins in wheat, usually resulting in hives. People with gluten sensitivity experience nausea, pain in joints, and fatigue.

However, an uneducated audience often believes that anyone with an actual gluten intolerance would have been diagnosed at a young age rather than later in life. As a result, these people fail to recognize the legitimacy of the first-time diagnosis of teens, claiming that the adverse symptoms gluten intolerant teens experience are more imagined than real.

“It’s really annoying because it feels like they’re telling me that I don’t know what my body is feeling … It’s not something I would do to get attention because if I could, I would eat gluten,” commented senior Lianna Lieberman on her experience when she first shared her diagnosis as gluten sensitive.

In addition to these challenges, Lieberman’s gluten sensitivity significantly impacts her personal lifestyle. As an avid baker, she faced the possibility of giving up her passion since she cannot eat the flour-based goods she bakes for friends. “I had to make the choice between sharing what I make and being able to eat what I make,” said Lieberman.

Luckily, Lieberman can share and eat her food in the gluten-free club created by Sussman and freshman Danielle Russell. In the club, which meets every Wednesday in E148, gluten-intolerant students can meet to eat a gluten-free lunch and exchange recipes. “We both thought about how we are probably not the only people in the school who are gluten free,” said Sussman. “So we decided to make a club to share knowledge of different ways people are gluten free and … show people that being gluten free is not as hard as it seems.”