September 23, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Don’t Feed the Fear, Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) joins us to talk about being a young celiac influencer diagnosed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We talk about the unique challenges of navigating a new diagnosis in young adulthood during the global shutdown, the insecurities and uncertainties that came with it, and coping through connecting with others. Gabby shares how she began posting online, the ups and downs of sharing her life so publicly, and continuing to build community for people living with celiac.
Follow Gabby @noglutengabby
Hear Gabby speak at the FAACT Summit 10/3-5/25:
FAACT Allergy Summit
Celiac and kissing study: Smooching Safely: New Study Finds Kissing After Gluten is (Mostly) OK for People with Celiac Disease | Celiac Disease Foundation
Special thanks to Kyle Dine for permission to use his song The Doghouse for the podcast theme!
www.kyledine.com
Find Dr. Whitehouse:
-thefoodallergypsychologist.com
-Instagram: @thefoodallergypsychologist
-Facebook: Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, Food Allergy Anxiety Psychologist
-welcome@dramandawhitehouse.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby (00:00):
,I just wanted to talk to somebody
(00:01):
who either has it, understandsthe disease, anything, and I
feel like even five years ago.
wasn't as known as it is now.
So at that time, like I rememberany information I found it said
10 years ago was this post, Iwas so desperate for.
Any community or communicationor anything at that point.
And so I just started writing.
Speaker (00:23):
Welcome to the Don't Feed the Fear podcast, where we
dive into the complex world offood allergy anxiety.
I'm your host, Dr.
Amanda Whitehouse, food allergyanxiety psychologist and food
allergy mom.
Whether you're dealing withallergies yourself or supporting
someone who is, join us for anempathetic and informative
journey toward food allergy calmand confidence..
(00:44):
Welcome back to Don't Feed TheFear.
Today I am joined by such a funguest, Gabby Hemond, A young
celiac influencer who you knowas gluten-free Gabby, she was
diagnosed during the height ofthe COVID-19 pandemic.
Her journey has included thesteep learning curve of
adjusting to gluten-free livingas a young adult who had just
begun living independentlyfacing the insecurities and the
(01:06):
unknowns of what that means forher and her health, and
discovering joy in makingchoices about what her life
looks like moving forward, Gabbybegan sharing her experiences
online and quickly realized howimportant it's to connect with
others who truly understand whatyou're going through.
So she's been creating greatcontent and is looking forward
in the future to creating moreresources and even events that
(01:28):
bring people together incommunity.
I'm so excited to have her hereto chat with us today.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (01:32):
Gabby, thank you so much for taking the
time to chat with me here onDon't Feed The Fear.
I'm excited to meet you.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) (01:38):
I am super excited to be here.
Thank you for inviting me on.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (01:41):
Of course.
I've been following you onsocial media and I love,
everything that you're sharing.
I was hoping that we could justlet the audience know your
story.
I think some of it they'llrelate to and some of it's
really unique about the way itall unfolded for you.
But we know you, for beinggluten-free.
So tell us how, how that came tobe.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (01:59):
Yeah, I had more than an identity than
that prior to my celiacdiagnosis.
Of course, as everyone does.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (02:04):
It does tend to do that.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (02:05):
Yeah, but I was diagnosed about five
years ago.
It was right at the beginning ofCOVID in 2020.
I had symptoms growing up andbackground.
My sister also has celiacdisease and she's seven years
older.
Was diagnosed about three orfour years prior to me.
That plays obviously a huge roleinto the story and my entire
life.
Growing up, like I never knewabout celiac disease.
My sister didn't know aboutceliac disease.
(02:26):
We have autoimmune on myfamily's side, but nothing about
celiac.
So very unknown growing up, buthad a lot of weird symptoms that
I.
Didn't even realize untilgetting diagnosed with celiac
disease.
But I was 22 years old.
It was right during my finals ofcollege.
COVID, everything shut down.
I was I worked at a pro, I was aleasing agent at that time too,
so I was working for a propertymanagement company.
(02:47):
Obviously in person that all gotshut down.
So it was juggling so manythings.
You know, 40 hours of work,school, all of that, that, you
know, you can already tell likea lot of stress hit my body.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (02:58):
Right, and we know that that's part of
it, right?
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (03:00):
Exactly.
That's usually what it does.
And I remember it was mid-March,it was like literally two weeks
after the shutdown is when Ijust really started noticing
daily symptoms of waking up,throwing up, sorry if this is
TMI, but waking up, throwing up,like to a point where I remember
the last two weeks before Ifinally got tested, I was
setting my alarm prior, like 30minutes prior to actually waking
(03:22):
up.
'cause I was like, okay, I knowI'm gonna be sick because I'm
sick every single morning.
It was just starting to becomemy routine.
Again, wasn't thinking I shouldgo to the doctors.
'cause also everything just shutdown.
The hospitals are packed.
But leading up to my diagnosis,like I had those two weeks of
feeling awful and then.
Randomly.
I remember eating this is alwayslike the funniest story to me
'cause I was eating an apple,like I was having like a little
(03:43):
fruit salad.
I cut up, you know, whatever.
And I remember eating this appleand within.
30 minutes, 45 minutes.
I got food poisoning likesymptoms.
So like something I've neverexperienced before from knowing
like all I ate today was fruit.
How am I getting deathly sickoff of fruit?
So I immediately text my sister.
I tell her everything that'sgoing on with me that I keep
getting sick.
You know, I've always hadmigraines.
(04:04):
Struggled with those all my lifetoo.
She's like, you gotta gettested.
'cause that's, she got testedwhen her, her stressful moment
was, you know, the bar studyingfor being a lawyer and
everything.
So she got shut down.
Quickly.
She's like, I'm guessing withyour finals, with work, with
everything going on in theworld, your body's like, I can't
do this anymore.
So I listened to herimmediately, got on my, like,
(04:24):
MyChart, got an appointment.
Thankfully, the next day, it waspure luck that And I went in,
got my blood work done, and itimmediately came back positive.
And when that happened, theytold me, they're like, oh, it
could be a false positive, likelet's get you to a gi, get an
endoscopy.
And I said, okay.
But again, it's COVID whereeverything's.
out nine to 10 months.
I was, that was blood work wasdiagnosed beginning of April and
(04:46):
I didn't have my actualendoscopy until January, 2021.
So it was about nine or 10months of not having anything,
any knowledge, not being able togo to a gi, not even being able
to get a dietician, because inMichigan it's not covered under
insurance and I didn't havetechnically the official
diagnosis to go to a dietician.
And even when I did get to mydietician at that point, it was
(05:07):
not helpful.
But during those nine months, ornine or 10 months, that's when I
kind of just plugged in myselfand I was like, okay, I'm gonna
be my own doctor right now slashdietician and use the internet
as my guide, which is adouble-edged sword.
It could be helpful and it couldbe really detrimental, as you
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (05:23):
Well, internet and sisters with a
sister to guide you through it,I'm sure.
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (05:27):
Exactly.
And so, and it was interesting'cause my sister and I, we both
have celiac and those are theonly, the only disease or
anything that we have.
And the way she shoots showedsymptoms is her immune system
was just so shot that like, shewould get sick very easily.
Shingles, chickenpox, anythingyou could think of.
Like she would get that where Iwas on the other side of just.
Stomach issues, migraines jointissues, things like that.
(05:50):
So with it being even just alittle bit different like that,
I thought, oh my gosh, I can'teven relate to my sister who has
the same exact disease.
And so again, I was doing a lotof research asking her questions
and we would even be back andforth of like, is that true?
I don't know.
Like, we don't know for sure.
And so it was just getting veryfrustrating'cause she was the
only other person at the timethat I knew had celiac disease
that I was close with.
(06:11):
And so I started just like.
Journaling.
That was always my outlet.
I loved writing and so I waslike, oh, I'm gonna start
journaling, which kind of turnedinto, maybe I'll start a blog,
like I gotta reach other people.
'cause my biggest thing was Ijust wanted to talk to somebody
who either has it, understandsthe disease, anything, and I
feel like even five years ago.
wasn't as known as it is now.
(06:31):
So at that time, like I rememberany information I found it said
10 years ago was this post, andI'm thinking, okay, I'm sure
studies have changed.
I'm sure science has changed,but I don't know.
And I just went like, I was sodesperate for.
Any community or communicationor anything at that point.
And so I just started writing.
I didn't post anything yet.
Also because I was like, I don'tknow what I'm gonna do.
(06:53):
I'm not even gonna find anybody,I'm sure.
'Cause I only saw like a couple,I remember one was a celiac
space.
She's a dietician, has a diathat's a dietician group.
Erin, she was like one of thefirst people I saw and I was
like, oh, it's a dietician whohas celiac.
And she's like, A wholepractice.
I'm learning so much.
And that kind of started toinspire me'cause I saw other
people comment on there and Iwas like, oh.
There's other people who aregluten free in this world.
(07:14):
Kinda was like a brain shock tome.
This is like November, 2020 atthis point.
So I'm like, okay, well maybelike I will start my own like
platform or do something, but Iwanted to do like a 2008 blog
style, like just have a website,go on Pinterest here and there.
And all my friends were like,you're.
years old, Gabby, do you thinklike anybody else is gonna be
finding you through that youhave to get on TikTok or social
(07:36):
media or do something?
And I thought, okay, that'sprobably the smartest move.
That was like the smartest likedecision I made and tip that I
got from my friends was to go onsocial media because once I was
finally diagnosed in 2021 andJanuary, 2021, that's when I
started my account.
And it started with just more solike fun just trying to get into
TikTok because I just more sowas watching it like.
(07:58):
The dancing funny app.
At first I was like, there'snothing serious.
I'm not gonna come and come onthis app and start being very
depressing about my disease.
That's just not who I am inanyway.
But obviously it was hard.
I needed to get away to vent itout, so I just started posting.
In the beginning of 2021, justsaying random things of like,
oh, I didn't know this wasn'tgluten-free, or this is like a
(08:18):
meal that I randomly made.
And looking back at thosevideos, I'm like, that's so
disgusting.
I've grown a lot.
It's, it's a great like platformto now look back at and be like,
okay, I've grown a lot in myfood and my knowledge,
everything.
'cause I got, I've even lookedback, I'm like, I just said so
many things where I was likethat.
That definitely was not like,not it of the sense of like.
Just not knowing what'sgluten-free or not and be like,
(08:39):
oh, I thought like digestiveenzymes were safe for me to
take.
I mean, they're safe to take,but they're not actually healing
my celiac disease.
Like that's what I genuinelythought.
So there's a lot of things thatI've learned, but what was
really cool is once I startedposting on TikTok, so many
people started commenting andasking questions of like, what
is Celiac or.
What's gluten free or what?
Just the questions that reallygot me rolling.
(09:00):
And so that's kind of, I feellike what took my platform off a
lot is once I saw thosecomments, I thought, oh my gosh,
it's just people, somebody whowants to talk to me.
So open up my phone and I'm soused to, like I grew up on Snap
or grew up, but use Snapchat alot.
And that's how like my friendsand I communicate, especially
during COVID as we would stalike Snapchat, video each other.
So I was so comfortable withtalking in front of the camera
that it felt like, oh, I'm justlike snapping one of my friends
(09:21):
again.
So I was just answering allthose questions.
For now, four years that I'vebeen doing this.
But that's how it started.
And then I just got ontoInstagram from there and it just
started growing from there.
And as I started posting moreand more questions came in and
more community and my followersgrew and I was just like, more
so thinking, oh my gosh, thismany people are gluten-free or
like, even like, care enoughabout the gluten-free diet,
(09:43):
they're affected by somebodywho's gluten-free something.
So that was always veryinteresting.
And what like, kept me goingwith my platform and.
was on the side.
This was like my side gig forthe longest time.
I started doing it full time.
Last, yeah, last year.
Last year.
It was in spring 2024.
So after three years I was like,okay, maybe I'll start doing
this full-time so I can take onmore.
(10:04):
I really wanna like do moreevents and ex I, my new goal
right now for next year is to doan expo.
So I'm like, I really just wannafind more ways to now make.
My online community andin-person community now that
COVID is shut down or COVID isnot shut down anymore and we can
have, you know, in-person eventsand stuff, but starting it was
very much all around, I justwanna find community online and
(10:26):
that's the only way you can findit at that time.
It's very
Amanda Whitehouse, P (10:28):
especially at that time, and there's so
much to be said for thatvalidation and people finding
your content that now you lookback on, but you were in the
learning process and otherpeople were in the midst of that
learning process too.
So we just wanna know otherpeople think and feel and do
what we're doing right.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluteng (10:44):
Right, right.
And that's why I always thought,I always say COVID was the best
and worst time to get diagnosedbecause when I got diagnosed, I
mean, I was home.
So my whole hobby, my wholeidentity was let's learn the
gluten-free diet, let's learnthe food, let's figure out what
alternatives we can do.
I was always into cooking,thanks to my grandma and
everything, but.
Gluten-free.
Cooking's a whole differentbeast.
(11:04):
And so that was a lot to learn.
But at the same time, I felt sosafe.
'cause I was like, oh, I'm homeall the time, cooking all my
food.
Everything felt pretty good.
And at that time too, I wasliving with people living with
two of my girlfriends who werejust interested in learning too.
So it kind of felt like we havean activity.
It was like my lifelong diseaseis now this activity that we get
to like learn about.
(11:25):
So it became very fun, I didn'teat out at all during 2020.
I think maybe I ordered Chipotleonce.
But other than that, I ate athome all those months leading up
to getting my endoscopy.
Soon as I got my blood workbecause I thought, no, it's, my
numbers were way too high forthat to be a false positive.
I'm gonna go gluten free.
And then I didn't know that Iwasn't supposed to do that when
(11:45):
I had my endoscopy.
'cause I had to eat gluten againfor two weeks right before my
endoscopy.
I only lasted five or six days.
So that was very interesting.
And that put in perspective, I'mlike, that definitely was not a
false positive because I was sosick.
And I think that.
Honestly made me more sensitiveor brought me back or put me in
a different realm because that'swhen I feel like I really got
(12:06):
hit with, oh, I have celiacdisease.
Even though I didn't know no forsure at that point.
But those five days where I wasjust in so much pain, I was
like, there's no way.
This is about to be the rest ofmy life.
And at that time too, with myendoscopy, I also had a
colonoscopy because of all thestomach issues and everything
that was going wrong.
They wanted a test for coloncancer and stomach cancer.
(12:28):
sure that there was nothinggoing on there.
And I remember they found like hpylori.
So during that one week, Iwasn't sure.
I'm like, is it benign?
Is it safe?
So I was stressed out and thenonce I got my diagnosis of like,
oh, it's just celiac, I was sopumped.
I was like, okay, I've alreadygot this down.
This is fine.
And then we went out to eat andI got extremely sick.
Immediately I thought I askedall the right questions, it was
(12:50):
cross-contamination'cause Ididn't really understand
cross-contamination at thattime.
And that's when I think.
whole life kind of like shutdown for a second.
It wasn't even those ninemonths, that was when it was
exciting.
'cause it's like something new,something to do during COVID
where now this is like beginningof 2021, I finally got sick off
of something and I'm like, okay,I can push the concern that I
(13:10):
don't have cancer anymore, but.
I have celiac, I still have thislifelong disease.
I just remember thinking, oh mygosh, I.
Was, I thought I was playing afun game the last nine months
and now this is real life andI'm getting sick and I have to
ask so many questions.
And even though I was alreadyposting online at that point,
like.
I was only a couple weeks in,but I was feeling like super
(13:31):
excited more so, and I used alot of it as like a venting
session.
I, I don't, I never think I liketo, was negative when I was
posting about it, but there's alot of times where you could see
the frustration and I'm liketrying to smile through it.
Like you could see my anger,smile as I'm like, how do people
not understand this?
And then.
Thankfully, thankfully overthese last four years on social
media, I have not been bulliedor like had to deal with too
(13:53):
many like negative.
I mean, there's negativecomments, but any like negative
gluten-free comments, somebodymaking fun of the diet, I'm just
like, okay, you just don't knowit.
That's totally fine.
But thankfully I've never hadthat issue.
But there was like a lot oftimes where I was so hard on
myself and I was just like, Idon't know if I should post
anymore or if I should do this,if I'm even like giving right
information.
You like.
through all these differentphases through Celiac diagnosis,
(14:16):
and I think with the added, I'mon social media.
I'm putting it all out there atthe same time.
If you, my, if you talk to myboyfriend at half my friends,
I've had mental breakdown aftermental breakdown, after mental
breakdown because I'm just like.
My whole life's on here.
I feel the pressure of it, butalso I'm like, I just feel the
pressure of just having celiacdisease and living my life like
this is so not normal.
(14:37):
It's hard to, when you have reallife situations while having
your whole life on social mediatoo.
Well, most of my life, anythingwith celiac, because people come
to me and they think I'm ahundred percent an expert.
I'm like, no, this platform'sall about a journey..
I remember my username, butfirst before was no gluten.
Gabby was no gluten guru.
Just'cause I didn't wanna use myname yet.
I was like, why did I choosethat?
(14:58):
I'm not a guru.
I'm like the opposite of thatcompletely.
So it was a good thing that my,my account was hacked like two
years after I started myplatform and that's why I went
to no gluten Gabby.
So it was like, you know,honestly this was like a message
should have just gone to this tobegin with and keep my name and
just make it about more so likethe journey and not trying to
like.
Pretend to be, you know, adoctor or a dietician.
(15:19):
'cause I was nowhere near that.
My approach was always to justshow like, I am a patient of
celiac disease.
This is how much it can suck,but this is how we are making it
better, versa.
But there were so many times,especially like 2021, the
adjustment of all of that, and Iwas going through a breakup and
just moving and trying to gothrough so much too.
I feel like I never have had a.
A moment where I'm like, youknow what, just one problem I'm
(15:41):
dealing with right now.
There's always like 30 at once.
side note too, when I wasofficially diagnosed with my
disease and I came to myboyfriend at the time, ex
immediately after thisconversation, but I was like,
I'm actually like reallydepressed.
Like, I've never admitted that,never admitted in my past like
about depression.
'cause I never knew really whatit felt like.
But at, you know, at that momentI was like.
(16:03):
I think I'm depressed.
I was like, I don't know what todo.
Like maybe I should starttherapy.
What should I get into?
And he just told me that I'veknown it for a week and I've
been doing it for nine months,so I shouldn't be sad anymore.
And that like, it shot my heart.
I broke up with him the next daybecause that shot my heart
because I was like, oh.
But it also, in a weird way, hasstayed, stayed in my mind for so
long because I remember just ayear ago I was getting super
(16:26):
upset about having celiacdisease again, and I don't know
why.
And I just had that voice in myhead where I was like, you can't
be sad anymore.
Like it's been years now.
Why are you even sad?
Like I'll say that to myself somuch and I'm like, oh, I gotta
stop doing that especially whenI post about things, when I'm
just either complaining ortrying to share just like a
story, so many people are like,oh my gosh, I deal with the same
(16:47):
thing.
It's so annoying.
Or when people like reply,that's so annoying.
Oh, I hate when that happens.
It's honestly like, I know it'snegative words, but it reassures
me so much to know like, yes.
This is life and like it can beannoying.
Like it's not like it's everyday that you're complaining
about it, but.
was something that became reallytough because I always wanna
portray, obviously, you know, onsocial media, this positive
(17:09):
light, in reality I'm like,that's not what celiac disease
is.
So this whole community, I thinkis amazing.
The whole gluten-free communityon how they balance everything.
I mean, it's, there's a widerange of like.
All the emotions when you likelook on gluten-free community or
hashtag gluten-free.
So it's very cool to see thatbecause I feel like a lot of
other communities in socialmedia, you know, you have to be
(17:30):
a certain way, have to do acertain thing, but that's the
one thing.
It's not just gluten-freeeither.
It's like, I, food allergiesanybody with, you know,
autoimmune diseases, it's reallynice to see and like have that
openness.
'cause I didn't feel that in thebeginning where I felt like so
much pressure.
But then.
You know, that's what like thecool thing about this community
growing so much too, and likegluten-free in general, growing
so much I feel like at thispoint now, You are gluten-free
(17:53):
or there's somebody in your lifethat you know, everyone's
starting to understand a littlebit more, which makes it nice,
but it's still, it's still canbe a struggle sometimes.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (18:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and like you said there,there's so many layers of it.
When I think about you, youmentioned it starting during
COVID and there just was so muchuncertainty and fear about that.
And then, another layer of itthat I think for you is so tough
to be diagnosed as an adult isso different than if you're a
child diagnosed with Celiac orother food allergies.
Both hard in different ways.
But can you talk about thatpiece of it and what you think
(18:22):
that's like for adults now youhave to change the entire way
that you live, that you're usedto living life.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (18:28):
Yeah.
Honestly, that is the toughestthing.
'cause again, 22 years of doingwhatever, it's like aside from
just the diet change, it's fromdoing whatever I want.
Whenever I wanted, I think backall the time to my college years
right before I got diagnosed,and I remember I was always
working 40 hours a week.
I went to school, I didfull-time school for those four
years, and I remember.
(18:49):
Eating so much fast food duringthat time, or just eating frozen
food.
And obviously it's not healthy.
I always say it's a good thing Igot diagnosed with celiac
disease with how bad I waseating, so I can't complain
about that too much, but I domiss how convenient it was where
now I'm either not eating, whichis not good, or I'll just like
(19:10):
pack a little granola bar andnot eating enough, which is not
good.
Or you know, just having thatstress of like.
Where's my next safe meal?
Asking that question, I neverthought I would ask that.
Which is funny too, because likeI said, my sister was diagnosed
three or four years before Iwas.
When she was first diagnosed, Iwas like, I should try the
gluten-free diet.
Let's see what that's like.
And all I did was buygluten-free bread and it for one
(19:33):
lunch and I thought, oh my gosh,I can never do this.
This is awful.
I was the people that like, makethose mean comments.
I'm like, I was that person.
I think that's the biggestthing.
It's not even the food itself.
I mean, there's a lot of foodthat I miss too, but I also am
very happy to be diagnosed as anadult to like love and explore
the gluten foods.
(19:53):
That's like the one thing that Ihave positive to say about it, I
would Is, oh, at least I got totry everything.
And I knew what it tastes likeso it's easy for me to recreate
it or some of that naturecompared to somebody who's
diagnosed, you know, at twoyears old and never knew
anything about it.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (20:09):
great.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabb (20:10):
but I guess another part that really
gets me is being 22 years old,getting diagnosed, and then like
I said, over the last few years,I've just been looking back at
my childhood growing up.
Maybe that was celiac.
Maybe that was celiac, becauseI, I played lacrosse growing up
and I was literally known as theace wrap girl because my bones
would break so easily.
Fractures, I would go to the er,so many things with concussions,
(20:34):
broken noses, broken arms, legs.
There was always something likeevery season, it was one or two
times I'd be in the hospital.
Looking back, I was like, oh mygosh.
Like Women's of Celiac was moreknown back then.
Maybe I would've been fine.
And like not dealing with allthese weird symptoms as an adult
too, because I know a lot oftimes like it can untreated
celiac disease.
The longer you do that, thelonger or the more susceptible
(20:57):
you are to other diseases orother just issues that you could
have and or other foodallergies.
And so that's always myunderlying fear because I'm
wondering when did it triggerfor me?
Because you, I also, you neverknow that,'cause you can't get
that answer either.
I just wish there was more onceliac disease that we could
figure out more.
But it's still so new, like evenwith all the studies that are
(21:18):
going on.
I still feel so unknown withceliac disease and I think as
being an adult, that's even morefrustrating.
I mean, I was, as a kid, you'rejust kind of like, I do what my
parents say, like they'refeeding me.
It's so whatever.
I just know this is what I haveto do.
But as an adult, I'm like, oh, Ihave one health issue.
And I'm like, okay, so is thatceliac?
Did I get gluten?
Is it this?
You know, you go down the wholelist.
(21:40):
And then I'm like, is thisbecause I was eating gluten for
22 years when I shouldn't havebeen or whatever the case may
be.
So that's always my biggestthing.
And obviously I went throughwaves and I love my parents, but
we're still learning aboutceliac disease to this day, and
so there's no way back in 2001my parents would ever have
understood.
Why I feel like this or looklike this.
But I even look back at threeyears old and above and every
(22:03):
picture I had huge bellies.
Like I always had like this hugebelly.
It just looked bloated.
And I remember in like middleschool and high school being
very insecure about it.
No matter what I did.
I remember like especially goingthrough puberty and going to
these pool parties, I rememberlike looking at other girls and
being like, wow.
They have flat stomachs.
I was like, why am I not likeI'm small, like I'm only, you
know, five one.
(22:23):
I only weigh like at that pointtoo, I was like only a hundred
pounds less than that, and I waslike, I shouldn't have a belly
when I'm this small.
Like, it just doesn't makesense.
It never did to me.
Getting diagnosed such an at anolder age, I just look back at
like, oh my gosh.
Is that why?
And then I get insecure you gothrough all of the emotions
every single time.
(22:43):
But you know, that's the onething where I'm like, well, at
least I got eat everything Iwanted for a little bit.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (22:49):
Yeah.
All that you're describing is sonormal to go through.
You talked about like kind ofthe stages of it, and I'm sure
you're familiar with this, butlike anything.
Any loss, any diagnosis, any bigchange like that, it's common
for people to go through.
The stages of grief?
Which people have themisconception that they're in
order, but they're not.
You can bounce all aroundbetween those and, and that like
thought to your parents thatlike, you know, there's a little
(23:11):
bit of bargaining of like, oh,if my parents would've known,
it's not'cause you think their,your parents are awful.
It's just that like, almostlike, can I think my way out of
this?
You know what I mean?
If I go back and find thesolution, our brain plays those
tricks.
So it's all very normal, butThat doesn't make it easier, but
that's the kind of stuff that,it sounds like it's nice to
connect with people online aboutRight.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (23:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's where I love thiscommunity.
'cause there's been again, somany times of course, where I'm
like, do I just stop posting?
And then I've realized when I dotake my breaks, I'm like, I
love, you know, obviously havingthe social media break, but then
I get.
A weird feeling of like, I feellike I'm losing like my people,
like I'm losing my community bynot being active.
And it's not for like me to getpost out.
(23:50):
I'm like, I just wanna look tosee what everybody else is
talking about or what's going onin the world, or things like
that.
And that's it.
It shows how powerful even anonline community can be and.
Again, what inspired me onceCOVID lifted the shutdown and
everything to start doing likemore in-person events, like I've
done a couple brunches so far.
And I do like an online supportgroup for teens right now at the
(24:10):
Celiac Foundation, I'm glad thatthey're figuring out so young,
but when I hear what they arestruggling with, I'm like, I'm
also very happy I got diagnosedas an adult because it's aside
from even.
The easiness of being likeeating whatever you want, but
it's the bullying that I get.
I could not handle that as achild.
I know I was bullied for otherthings.
I'm like, on top of that, likekids said that they have gotten
bread thrown at them thatthey'll, like kids will go up
(24:33):
and just rub food over their,like stuff like gluten over
their food and.
Things like that.
And it just makes me so sad torealize how much negativity goes
in the world just because you'regluten free or because you have
a food allergy or what it is.
And that's always like so sad.
But I, it's interesting to hearthose things too.
And in a selfishly reassuringway, I am like, okay.
(24:54):
not the only one dealing withthis.
I have it a lot better than alot of people too.
At the same time, like it couldbe a lot worse.
At least I have a family that'ssupportive versus somebody who
think, or like a family thatthinks I'm faking it.
Vice versa.
so it's very interesting just tohear all the different
demographics of dealing withceliac disease.
'cause celiac disease, I mean,that's multi-generational, but
(25:15):
it's very interesting to see howlike a teenager deals with it
versus somebody.
I was just on the celiac cruisea month ago, and there's a woman
on there who was.
In her late seventies withceliac disease, and she's known
about it for like 30 years.
And it was very interesting justhearing how the last 30 years
for her were, you know, havingceliac disease going from
probably no gluten-free brandswhen she first was diagnosed to
(25:39):
on a, being able to go on acruise now with that, with a
hundred percent gluten-freefood.
But yeah, it's very interestingto have such like a wide variety
of people.
this, in this community too, isjust hearing all these stories
and whether or not you canrelate to that specific story,
you can kind of relate to likethe overall, like I'm dealing
with somebody who doesn'tbelieve me.
And it's hard because you, youreally, especially when you have
(26:00):
somebody so close to you tellingyou like they don't believe you,
basically it's, it's, I mean,it's gaslighting you into
thinking like, maybe this isn'treal or whatever.
And I've had that happen to metoo, like I said.
I shouldn't have been as sad asI was.
Or maybe it's not that seriousor cross contamination's not
that serious or whateversomebody else in your mind or
(26:20):
somebody else on the outsidewants to put into your mind.
It's, that's always the toughestpart.
And that's like another thing Ialways like to do with how I'm
posting too, is try to all ofthose feelings on top of com.
Like complaining, validating,but like, here's how I look at
it on the brighter side type ofthing.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (26:38):
Can you give us a couple of those?
Do you have favorite ways thatyou kind of reframe that or give
a different perspective?
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (26:43):
Yeah, like one, well, one, I just
like, I've had this a coupletimes just at like parties,
buffets, not buffet, but likeparties that have the buffets
and things like that.
And people will be like, oh no,you can eat that.
That's totally fine.
Or just, you know, very
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (26:57):
Right.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (26:57):
with me and.
We've had conversation, it'sfine, but like I'll go to the
internet then'cause I'm like,oh, you know what?
This is like something I knoweverybody struggles with and I
always like to go about it.
Like a lot of times, like myranting videos that I post are
just from me sitting theregoing.
I could complain about thisonline probably, and I'll prop
my phone out.
And I posted this, this is likelast over Christmas time, I
(27:18):
think it was, where I was like,I love when people just like
tell me like what I can andcan't eat and, you know, make it
very dramatic.
I try, you know, add the humorto where I'm like, oh, I didn't
know, like everybody else knewwhat they were doing besides me.
And you know, just try to makeit lighthearted.
I can definitely have like alittle bit of that anger in My
dad even text me.
He is like, you're a littleangry in that video.
And he's like, and he's like,alright, I'm never gonna mess
(27:39):
with you.
But I always try to laugh it offand saying like, oh, okay.
Well, like whenever people tellme that, I'm just like.
Okay.
And then I'll just not just putit right over my head and that's
what I, yeah, I always try tosay that like, oh, just I don't
listen.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (27:54):
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (27:54):
it's okay to not listen to these
people and what they're sayingor just, servers and dealing
with like stuff in restaurantsthere was one time I did get
glued in and I shared thatentire experience'cause I
recorded the entire thing.
I was so excited to eat at thisplace.
And I noted that I had celiac, Idid everything I possibly could
and I shared about it.
But then I also realized.
Okay.
One thing I could have donedifferently, which I shared in
(28:15):
the video itself, was I noticedanother person had a food
allergy, you know, a coupletables down, and they had flags
in their meals where I didn't,and I was like, oh, I should
have asked or said, because itwas just a runner that brought
our food out too.
I'm like, here's what I couldhave done differently.
Like, yes, this sucks.
And yes, even though I did mycomplete due diligence or what I
thought was my complete duediligence of explaining that I
have celiac doing all of this, Ihad, once I saw the runner like
(28:38):
a.
Random runner come out to myfood.
That should have been myindicator of, okay, well I
should have asked like, is thisgluten-free?
Instead of just assuming andgoing in and eating it where I
was like, tried to share likelike yes, it was not a hundred
percent my fault, but it was99.9% could have not been my
fault.
You know,
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (28:56):
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluteng (28:57):
figure out the balance of is what I can
do to be the better and
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:01):
Right.
What can I take away from thisfor the future?
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluten (29:05):
Because my platform's about my journey,
and sometimes I'm gonna havevideos on there where I made a
complete mistake, but I'm notpromoting that mistake.
I'm just saying I made thatmistake.
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:14):
It's just something unfortunately
that you have to learn along theway.
You have to learn it as you go.
You can't start out with allthat information already in your
head, even if there's all thesegreat resources out there, which
there are more of now.
You can't take it all in all atonce.
It's unfortunate
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (29:28):
much.
And
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:29):
too.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (29:29):
That reminds me of another video that
I posted about miss Vicky'schips a while ago.
I was just randomly on theinternet searching.
I'm like, what potato chips aregluten-free, whatnot, you know,
just having fun on the internet.
And I saw that Miss Vicky's.
Said has a statement on theirwebsite.
Larry said they can't confirm ordeny like it's gluten-free or
not.
And I thought, oh, I get those alot, so I'm gonna make a video
real quick.
(29:50):
And so I made a video justexplaining like I had no clue
that Ms.
Vicks weren't gluten-free orthat they had this statement on
their website, showed it.
And I had a lot of commentssaying like, how could you not
know how, like you have celiacdisease, you should be knowing
this stuff.
And was like, first of all, Iwas like, okay, well I'm not
supposed to know everything allthe time.
This is very
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (30:09):
I Guru anymore.
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (30:11):
Exactly, and so then after I saw a lot of
those comments, I was like, thisis a perfect opportunity to make
another video just about.
How you are not gonna knoweverything.
And that's again, a learningexperience.
But that's also like, that'slife.
That's celiac disease or that'slife with celiac disease, it's,
you're gonna have mess ups.
And I think that's what's sohard because you know, as I love
(30:32):
the community, there's alsoextremists on both ends where
some are like, I still eatgluten and though even though I
have celiac disease, I'm like, Idon't relate to that.
And then there's people who arelike, I can't even step inside
of a restaurant or I'll getsick.
Also cannot relate to that.
Like I love to travel and go outand do all of that.
I also know that comes with therisk of like getting sick and I
never wanna promote, know,getting sick.
(30:53):
But I wanna promote being ableto live your life with celiac
disease because prior to mehaving celiac disease, I was
like, I love traveling.
I love going out, I love tryingnew restaurants, I love going
all of that.
And that took a complete stop.
For two and a half years, COVIDplayed a role, but also my fear
of going out played a huge rolewhere I was like, I can't do
this.
(31:13):
And then finally had a moment.
This was the beginning of 2023.
I finally moved into my firstapartment by myself, like my
living by myself for the firsttime, feeling so confident, and
I was like.
Now I have to like live, I haveto go back.
In 2022 that's where I washaving like a lot of mental
breakdowns and not understandingwhat to do because I was like, I
don't feel like I'm Gabbyanymore.
(31:33):
Like I'm no gluten Gabby.
Like I'm always on thisgluten-free mindset.
I'm always posting about it.
I was like a huge reason.
I didn't wanna make this myfull-time gig at first because I
was like, I can't.
Make my entire career already,like my entire disease.
Like this is so, like, this isso overwhelming.
And this is like my entirepersonality because those were,
that was some of the comments Igot too.
Like, is this your entirepersonality?
(31:54):
I'm like, no, but it is my,almost my entire life.
So that's 90% of my personalityis this.
And it became really like hardbecause I was like, who am I
anymore?
Like.
I miss who I was.
And I remember saying that, Iwas like, I just miss who I was
in 2019.
I was like, okay, well I'm notthat girl anymore'cause I'm have
Celiac.
But then that made me actuallysit down with myself and go.
(32:14):
Okay, you still wanna travel,you still wanna do all this
stuff.
How do you do that with celiacdisease now?
Like here's your huge obstacle.
Like I'm not, it's not like atiny little obstacle.
It's, this is like a big brickwall in front of your face.
How are you gonna like tear itdown or at least get around it
or sit on top of it and take iton?
So that's when I was like, youknow what, I booked a trip to
the Philippines with my friends.
(32:35):
I highly recommend not doingthat as your first trip out of
the country with celiac disease.
'cause I got very sick.
I went to the hospital, it wasalso from, I got gluten and then
on top of like bad fish,brushing my teeth with the
water, you know, a pile ofthings that got me to the point
where I had to go to thehospital.
But I thought.
my gosh, it can't get worse thanthis.
It honestly gave me moreconfidence to travel because
(32:57):
then I went to Italy for amonth, only a few, months after
that.
And so I started getting backinto my travels.
'cause I was like, I just wannaget out there.
Like maybe that's where I'msupposed to be.
'cause I'm unhappy.
Like I'm very unhappy right now.
Like, I love posting, I lovebeing able to have my community
and everything, but I don't feellike I have anything else.
And so that's when I was like,okay.
(33:19):
go on some trips, let's startdoing this.
And after that it started tofinally like, I feel like my
ball started rolling again whereI was like, okay.
And then I finally, I got a newjob at that point too, where I
was a marketing director for aproperty management company.
So it was in my realm and I feltreally good'cause I was like,
okay.
That was kind of my outlet atthat time.
And then it was a startupcompany.
I was there for about two yearsand it was.
(33:40):
they shut down.
And that's when I was like,okay, like I'll just do this
full time.
And I honestly started to fallin love with it all over again
because I was like, okay, now Iget to get really in, in like
involved in recipes or workingwith companies that I can do
travel and stuff with and nowlike working with the celiac
crew.
So it kind of all worked out.
Just took like two or threeyears to get there.
I accepted it first and then Iwent back back on everything of
(34:03):
the other stages.
'cause I was just feeling sodown.
Bargaining, trying to do all ofthis.
And then finally I was like, Igotta live my life, make my
mistakes.
And now like when I do get sickand make my mistakes, trust me,
it still is the worst thing thatcould possibly happen.
And it makes me reevaluate mylife every time.
But each time I'm like, okay,it's not the end of the world.
It could be, but you know, it'snot like right now I'm still
(34:26):
here.
Like everything's fine.
I'm still wanna like try to keepgoing out because I've noticed
I'm like so much happier tryingto live my life with celiac
disease and just trying to livethe life of celiac disease, if
that makes sense.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (34:39):
It does.
And I think that's a really gooddistinction that hopefully
people will catch because yeah,that, that loss of self, that
loss of identity, it just kindof can consume people.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (34:48):
yeah.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (34:49):
I'm curious what else has helped
you, you know, once you startedtraveling again, that was a big
shift, but what else do you findhelps you to keep that balance,
especially now that it's yourfull time?
Work as well.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (34:58):
Yeah, now it's a lot of finding
external hobbies.
I love camping, hiking, doinglike the things that I love to
do I try to find a balancebetween all my food related
activities.
Like when I go see my friends, alot of times we will grab a
coffee and go for a walk orwe'll do something like, there's
a lot of cool things that go onin Grand Rapids, like art based
stuff, like building your owncandles or there's thrift like
(35:21):
markets that go around.
So we always try to find theselike non-food activities to go
see each other and go do thingsthat's not just like, oh, let's
go eat at a restaurant, becauseas fun as that can be, like,
catch up and have that.
I'm like, okay.
Every time we go out to arestaurant, though, I'm
explaining my disease and I'mdoing this.
So it's kind of an extra stepand a little bit stressful do
that every single time.
So finding other ways that hashelped me so much and just
(35:44):
finding like, again, I know thisis my full-time career now, but
even when I do a lot of stuffwith my.
Job, like a lot of it's contentcreation, video recording, even
though it's all based aroundfood in a sense, like I try not
to think of it that way anymore.
'cause at first I was alwayslike, okay, here's a gluten free
food.
Gluten free, gluten free.
And I'm like, no, this is justlike a recipe.
(36:04):
Because my favorite thing now isto make a food or make a meal
and have my friends.
Eat it and go, oh, I can't eventell this is gluten-free.
Like that quote is my favoritething to hear.
So I'm like, oh, it's kinda likea little game now and just like
working on building a recipe outor like trying to build
something out.
Like I know it's gluten-free inthe back of my mind, but kind of
keeping that mentality out of itwhen I'm in the kitchen of like
(36:26):
I'm just making a meal.
Like I'm doing something sonormal.
At least alone in my own mentalstate, like making it feel like
it's not stressful as it needsto be.
And that comes with time too,for like anybody who's dealing
with this, it's not like you'regonna wake up and go, oh, it's
no big deal.
I'm five years and now I'm like,the last year is when I'm
finally like, okay, like.
think it's not like as stressfulas it needs to be and with more
(36:50):
studies coming out.
I'm becoming a lot lessstressed, like the kissing study
of just showing like how muchgluten can get like
cross-contaminated and thingslike that I feel so much less
stressed, knowing it's a lotharder to get gluten than it is,
if that makes sense in the senseof like those little things.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (37:07):
Right.
Especially in your own homewhere, you know, people are
informed and, and understanding.
Yeah.
Let's talk about, I did a seriesearlier in the spring.
For IgE mediated food allergiesabout kissing.
But I haven't talked a lot aboutthat kissing study that came out
about Celiac.
And so I think that would be ahelpful distinction to make.
'cause I haven't reallyaddressed it on the show yet.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (37:25):
Yeah.
Yeah, so the Celiac DiseaseFoundation came out with a
study, basically what they didis they had couples eat, 10,
saltine crackers, like thereally powdery, creamy, like,
you know, no water in betweenany of those either.
So we just have to eat allthose.
Then they had to heavily makeout, however you wanna picture
that heavily make out with theirpartner.
(37:46):
And then 18 came back less than20 ppms.
So the amount that is actuallygoing in and out with saltine
crack.
'cause I think of this studytoo,'cause I'm like, no one is
ever gonna kiss their partnerafter eating that
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (37:58):
Right.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (37:58):
Even a burger like you drink water
and you are fine.
So after hearing about that, Iwas like, okay.
So basically what they say is.
Wash your mouth out with somewater and a mint for good
measure.
So beforehand too, I thought,oh, I can't kiss somebody I
remember I'm making a post aboutthat when I first started my
platform of, oh my gosh, I can'tkiss anybody who's ate gluten.
Like I'll get sick.
(38:19):
But I'm like, you have toactually have the crumb.
to a summit last year, the FAACTsummit, and it was really
interesting had the greatestanalogy and I don't know why.
It never really clicked in mymind until that is like you have
to have like a physical crumbgoing in your mouth, like a
physical thing going in yourmouth, ingesting it to actually
feel it.
So when people get nervous abouttopical products, which I was at
(38:41):
the time, or just like littlethings actually visualizing
like, oh, I would have to put itin my mouth for me to feel
anything.
That for some reason made mefeel so much better.
Going to like summits or goingto these talks, or even just
being a part of support groups.
Hearing what people have to say.
Every single time I go to oneI'd feel a little bit lighter
because I'm like, oh, I've neverthought about it that way.
(39:02):
Or, oh, I could have done thatone extra step when I'm ordering
at a restaurant and I feel likea lot safer, whatever.
It could be as simple as likethe way you were to question or
anything that, you know, it'svery interesting to see after
everyone.
I'm like, oh, I feel a lotbetter about my disease.
And I think that's just a goodway of saying, this is how
important community is.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (39:23):
Exactly.
I think even just at at summitsand gatherings, it's kind of
cool to look around the room andEven if you're not talking to
all of them, like, all thesepeople know how we feel.
All these people are doing okay.
Like, okay, enough to be at thissummit and or at this
conference, right.
And, and managing what's goingon.
And so you reminded me before wewrap up you, are you gonna be
speaking at the Fact conferencethis year?
I believe.
(39:43):
Okay.
Tell us what you're talkingabout at FAACT this year, or.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (39:46):
Mine I'm gonna be speaking with a few
other content creators justabout content creation, how to
stay authentic in the socialmedia world.
You know, talking about adisease, but also not trying to
make it seem like it's the endof the world.
Like how do you show your lifewithout feeling like you're
telling people what to do?
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:02):
Doom and gloom.
Right.
It sounds like you've got a lotof things that you, you wanna
get rolling.
So tell people how they can makesure that they don't miss out on
that.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (40:09):
Yeah, I'm always posting on TikTok and
Instagram.
TikTok is where I feel like alot of my own personality goes
down there.
'cause that's where I just likeopen up my camera and I'll just
talk sometimes.
But TikTok and Instagram, slowlygetting into YouTube.
I have some videos up that I'vehad for a while, but rolling out
a lot more of gluten-freeMichigan Eats too.
So, over this next year, or?
End of this year, I should sayonly, only have like five months
(40:32):
left.
But those are the threeplatforms that I'm always gonna
be on..
Just no gluten, Gabby.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:36):
Awesome.
Gabby Hemond (@noluten (40:38):
Awesome.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:38):
well thank you so much for taking the
time to talk.
What else didn't we touch on?
What do you wanna leave peoplewith as a final wrap up thought?
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) (40:46):
I guess to anybody who's has
celiac or just gluten-free orfood allergy in general, just
know that it's a roller coaster,but it's a fun roller coaster if
you make it one.
Always give yourself patience orlike allow yourself that
patience that you need,especially when you're sick and
when you do get sick.
Rest and recharge because that'sthe one thing I need to do
better about.
One, I do get sick, but alwaysbe patient with yourselves
(41:08):
because you are, as much as we'dlike to think we're not, we're
different from the normaleveryday person.
So we have a couple extra thingsthat we always have to look out
for, but that should give yousome more grace.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (41:19):
Aw, thank you.
Yeah, I think it's veryencouraging.
As much as you worry that you'recoming across, you know that
you've come across angry ordiscouraging, I think I really
enjoy everything that I see, andobviously a lot of other people
do too.
You.
So thank you for sharing it witheveryone.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (41:31):
Yeah.
Thank you so much again forhaving me on.
I loved this.
Gabby's been so much fun to talkto and I really appreciate her
coming here on the show to talkabout Celiac connection and
community.
So before we wrap up, here arethree action steps that you can
take.
Number one, follow Gabby onsocial media@noglutengabby, to
continue learning from herjourney and to be part of the
supportive community that she'screating.
(41:53):
Number two, we've talked aboutthis already this month.
Seek out other connections inyour own life, whether online or
in person.
Sharing experiences with otherpeople who understand you can be
very validating for youremotional experience, as well as
just give you so many tips andinformation that other people
have learned through theirexperiences and are happy to
share with you.
Number three, join us.
(42:14):
Gabby will be speaking at theFAACT Allergy Summit in
Oakbrook, Illinois, October 3rdthrough fifth, 2025, You can
find all the details about theFAACT
summit@foodallergyawareness.org.
As always, thank you so much forlistening and if you enjoyed the
episode, I would appreciate itso much.
If you can give me a rating or areview and share it with anybody
(42:34):
else who might enjoy it too.
the content of this podcast isfor informational and
educational purposes only, andis not a substitute for
professional medical or mentalhealth advice, diagnosis, or
treatment.
If you have any questions aboutyour own medical experience or
mental health needs, pleaseconsult a professional.
I'm Dr.
Amanda Whitehouse.
Thanks for joining me.
(42:54):
And until we chat again,remember don't feed the fear.
,I just wanted to talk to somebody
(00:01):
who either has it, understandsthe disease, anything, and I
feel like even five years ago.
wasn't as known as it is now.
So at that time, like I rememberany information I found it said
10 years ago was this post, Iwas so desperate for.
Any community or communicationor anything at that point.
And so I just started writing.
Speaker (00:23):
Welcome to the Don't Feed the Fear podcast, where we
dive into the complex world offood allergy anxiety.
I'm your host, Dr.
Amanda Whitehouse, food allergyanxiety psychologist and food
allergy mom.
Whether you're dealing withallergies yourself or supporting
someone who is, join us for anempathetic and informative
journey toward food allergy calmand confidence..
(00:44):
Welcome back to Don't Feed TheFear.
Today I am joined by such a funguest, Gabby Hemond, A young
celiac influencer who you knowas gluten-free Gabby, she was
diagnosed during the height ofthe COVID-19 pandemic.
Her journey has included thesteep learning curve of
adjusting to gluten-free livingas a young adult who had just
begun living independentlyfacing the insecurities and the
(01:06):
unknowns of what that means forher and her health, and
discovering joy in makingchoices about what her life
looks like moving forward, Gabbybegan sharing her experiences
online and quickly realized howimportant it's to connect with
others who truly understand whatyou're going through.
So she's been creating greatcontent and is looking forward
in the future to creating moreresources and even events that
(01:28):
bring people together incommunity.
I'm so excited to have her hereto chat with us today.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (01:32):
Gabby, thank you so much for taking the
time to chat with me here onDon't Feed The Fear.
I'm excited to meet you.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) (01:38):
I am super excited to be here.
Thank you for inviting me on.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (01:41):
Of course.
I've been following you onsocial media and I love,
everything that you're sharing.
I was hoping that we could justlet the audience know your
story.
I think some of it they'llrelate to and some of it's
really unique about the way itall unfolded for you.
But we know you, for beinggluten-free.
So tell us how, how that came tobe.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (01:59):
Yeah, I had more than an identity than
that prior to my celiacdiagnosis.
Of course, as everyone does.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (02:04):
It does tend to do that.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (02:05):
Yeah, but I was diagnosed about five
years ago.
It was right at the beginning ofCOVID in 2020.
I had symptoms growing up andbackground.
My sister also has celiacdisease and she's seven years
older.
Was diagnosed about three orfour years prior to me.
That plays obviously a huge roleinto the story and my entire
life.
Growing up, like I never knewabout celiac disease.
My sister didn't know aboutceliac disease.
(02:26):
We have autoimmune on myfamily's side, but nothing about
celiac.
So very unknown growing up, buthad a lot of weird symptoms that
I.
Didn't even realize untilgetting diagnosed with celiac
disease.
But I was 22 years old.
It was right during my finals ofcollege.
COVID, everything shut down.
I was I worked at a pro, I was aleasing agent at that time too,
so I was working for a propertymanagement company.
(02:47):
Obviously in person that all gotshut down.
So it was juggling so manythings.
You know, 40 hours of work,school, all of that, that, you
know, you can already tell likea lot of stress hit my body.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (02:58):
Right, and we know that that's part of
it, right?
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (03:00):
Exactly.
That's usually what it does.
And I remember it was mid-March,it was like literally two weeks
after the shutdown is when Ijust really started noticing
daily symptoms of waking up,throwing up, sorry if this is
TMI, but waking up, throwing up,like to a point where I remember
the last two weeks before Ifinally got tested, I was
setting my alarm prior, like 30minutes prior to actually waking
(03:22):
up.
'cause I was like, okay, I knowI'm gonna be sick because I'm
sick every single morning.
It was just starting to becomemy routine.
Again, wasn't thinking I shouldgo to the doctors.
'cause also everything just shutdown.
The hospitals are packed.
But leading up to my diagnosis,like I had those two weeks of
feeling awful and then.
Randomly.
I remember eating this is alwayslike the funniest story to me
'cause I was eating an apple,like I was having like a little
(03:43):
fruit salad.
I cut up, you know, whatever.
And I remember eating this appleand within.
30 minutes, 45 minutes.
I got food poisoning likesymptoms.
So like something I've neverexperienced before from knowing
like all I ate today was fruit.
How am I getting deathly sickoff of fruit?
So I immediately text my sister.
I tell her everything that'sgoing on with me that I keep
getting sick.
You know, I've always hadmigraines.
(04:04):
Struggled with those all my lifetoo.
She's like, you gotta gettested.
'cause that's, she got testedwhen her, her stressful moment
was, you know, the bar studyingfor being a lawyer and
everything.
So she got shut down.
Quickly.
She's like, I'm guessing withyour finals, with work, with
everything going on in theworld, your body's like, I can't
do this anymore.
So I listened to herimmediately, got on my, like,
(04:24):
MyChart, got an appointment.
Thankfully, the next day, it waspure luck that And I went in,
got my blood work done, and itimmediately came back positive.
And when that happened, theytold me, they're like, oh, it
could be a false positive, likelet's get you to a gi, get an
endoscopy.
And I said, okay.
But again, it's COVID whereeverything's.
out nine to 10 months.
I was, that was blood work wasdiagnosed beginning of April and
(04:46):
I didn't have my actualendoscopy until January, 2021.
So it was about nine or 10months of not having anything,
any knowledge, not being able togo to a gi, not even being able
to get a dietician, because inMichigan it's not covered under
insurance and I didn't havetechnically the official
diagnosis to go to a dietician.
And even when I did get to mydietician at that point, it was
(05:07):
not helpful.
But during those nine months, ornine or 10 months, that's when I
kind of just plugged in myselfand I was like, okay, I'm gonna
be my own doctor right now slashdietician and use the internet
as my guide, which is adouble-edged sword.
It could be helpful and it couldbe really detrimental, as you
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (05:23):
Well, internet and sisters with a
sister to guide you through it,I'm sure.
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (05:27):
Exactly.
And so, and it was interesting'cause my sister and I, we both
have celiac and those are theonly, the only disease or
anything that we have.
And the way she shoots showedsymptoms is her immune system
was just so shot that like, shewould get sick very easily.
Shingles, chickenpox, anythingyou could think of.
Like she would get that where Iwas on the other side of just.
Stomach issues, migraines jointissues, things like that.
(05:50):
So with it being even just alittle bit different like that,
I thought, oh my gosh, I can'teven relate to my sister who has
the same exact disease.
And so again, I was doing a lotof research asking her questions
and we would even be back andforth of like, is that true?
I don't know.
Like, we don't know for sure.
And so it was just getting veryfrustrating'cause she was the
only other person at the timethat I knew had celiac disease
that I was close with.
(06:11):
And so I started just like.
Journaling.
That was always my outlet.
I loved writing and so I waslike, oh, I'm gonna start
journaling, which kind of turnedinto, maybe I'll start a blog,
like I gotta reach other people.
'cause my biggest thing was Ijust wanted to talk to somebody
who either has it, understandsthe disease, anything, and I
feel like even five years ago.
wasn't as known as it is now.
(06:31):
So at that time, like I rememberany information I found it said
10 years ago was this post, andI'm thinking, okay, I'm sure
studies have changed.
I'm sure science has changed,but I don't know.
And I just went like, I was sodesperate for.
Any community or communicationor anything at that point.
And so I just started writing.
I didn't post anything yet.
Also because I was like, I don'tknow what I'm gonna do.
(06:53):
I'm not even gonna find anybody,I'm sure.
'Cause I only saw like a couple,I remember one was a celiac
space.
She's a dietician, has a diathat's a dietician group.
Erin, she was like one of thefirst people I saw and I was
like, oh, it's a dietician whohas celiac.
And she's like, A wholepractice.
I'm learning so much.
And that kind of started toinspire me'cause I saw other
people comment on there and Iwas like, oh.
There's other people who aregluten free in this world.
(07:14):
Kinda was like a brain shock tome.
This is like November, 2020 atthis point.
So I'm like, okay, well maybelike I will start my own like
platform or do something, but Iwanted to do like a 2008 blog
style, like just have a website,go on Pinterest here and there.
And all my friends were like,you're.
years old, Gabby, do you thinklike anybody else is gonna be
finding you through that youhave to get on TikTok or social
(07:36):
media or do something?
And I thought, okay, that'sprobably the smartest move.
That was like the smartest likedecision I made and tip that I
got from my friends was to go onsocial media because once I was
finally diagnosed in 2021 andJanuary, 2021, that's when I
started my account.
And it started with just more solike fun just trying to get into
TikTok because I just more sowas watching it like.
(07:58):
The dancing funny app.
At first I was like, there'snothing serious.
I'm not gonna come and come onthis app and start being very
depressing about my disease.
That's just not who I am inanyway.
But obviously it was hard.
I needed to get away to vent itout, so I just started posting.
In the beginning of 2021, justsaying random things of like,
oh, I didn't know this wasn'tgluten-free, or this is like a
(08:18):
meal that I randomly made.
And looking back at thosevideos, I'm like, that's so
disgusting.
I've grown a lot.
It's, it's a great like platformto now look back at and be like,
okay, I've grown a lot in myfood and my knowledge,
everything.
'cause I got, I've even lookedback, I'm like, I just said so
many things where I was likethat.
That definitely was not like,not it of the sense of like.
Just not knowing what'sgluten-free or not and be like,
(08:39):
oh, I thought like digestiveenzymes were safe for me to
take.
I mean, they're safe to take,but they're not actually healing
my celiac disease.
Like that's what I genuinelythought.
So there's a lot of things thatI've learned, but what was
really cool is once I startedposting on TikTok, so many
people started commenting andasking questions of like, what
is Celiac or.
What's gluten free or what?
Just the questions that reallygot me rolling.
(09:00):
And so that's kind of, I feellike what took my platform off a
lot is once I saw thosecomments, I thought, oh my gosh,
it's just people, somebody whowants to talk to me.
So open up my phone and I'm soused to, like I grew up on Snap
or grew up, but use Snapchat alot.
And that's how like my friendsand I communicate, especially
during COVID as we would stalike Snapchat, video each other.
So I was so comfortable withtalking in front of the camera
that it felt like, oh, I'm justlike snapping one of my friends
(09:21):
again.
So I was just answering allthose questions.
For now, four years that I'vebeen doing this.
But that's how it started.
And then I just got ontoInstagram from there and it just
started growing from there.
And as I started posting moreand more questions came in and
more community and my followersgrew and I was just like, more
so thinking, oh my gosh, thismany people are gluten-free or
like, even like, care enoughabout the gluten-free diet,
(09:43):
they're affected by somebodywho's gluten-free something.
So that was always veryinteresting.
And what like, kept me goingwith my platform and.
was on the side.
This was like my side gig forthe longest time.
I started doing it full time.
Last, yeah, last year.
Last year.
It was in spring 2024.
So after three years I was like,okay, maybe I'll start doing
this full-time so I can take onmore.
(10:04):
I really wanna like do moreevents and ex I, my new goal
right now for next year is to doan expo.
So I'm like, I really just wannafind more ways to now make.
My online community andin-person community now that
COVID is shut down or COVID isnot shut down anymore and we can
have, you know, in-person eventsand stuff, but starting it was
very much all around, I justwanna find community online and
(10:26):
that's the only way you can findit at that time.
It's very
Amanda Whitehouse, P (10:28):
especially at that time, and there's so
much to be said for thatvalidation and people finding
your content that now you lookback on, but you were in the
learning process and otherpeople were in the midst of that
learning process too.
So we just wanna know otherpeople think and feel and do
what we're doing right.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluteng (10:44):
Right, right.
And that's why I always thought,I always say COVID was the best
and worst time to get diagnosedbecause when I got diagnosed, I
mean, I was home.
So my whole hobby, my wholeidentity was let's learn the
gluten-free diet, let's learnthe food, let's figure out what
alternatives we can do.
I was always into cooking,thanks to my grandma and
everything, but.
Gluten-free.
Cooking's a whole differentbeast.
(11:04):
And so that was a lot to learn.
But at the same time, I felt sosafe.
'cause I was like, oh, I'm homeall the time, cooking all my
food.
Everything felt pretty good.
And at that time too, I wasliving with people living with
two of my girlfriends who werejust interested in learning too.
So it kind of felt like we havean activity.
It was like my lifelong diseaseis now this activity that we get
to like learn about.
(11:25):
So it became very fun, I didn'teat out at all during 2020.
I think maybe I ordered Chipotleonce.
But other than that, I ate athome all those months leading up
to getting my endoscopy.
Soon as I got my blood workbecause I thought, no, it's, my
numbers were way too high forthat to be a false positive.
I'm gonna go gluten free.
And then I didn't know that Iwasn't supposed to do that when
(11:45):
I had my endoscopy.
'cause I had to eat gluten againfor two weeks right before my
endoscopy.
I only lasted five or six days.
So that was very interesting.
And that put in perspective, I'mlike, that definitely was not a
false positive because I was sosick.
And I think that.
Honestly made me more sensitiveor brought me back or put me in
a different realm because that'swhen I feel like I really got
(12:06):
hit with, oh, I have celiacdisease.
Even though I didn't know no forsure at that point.
But those five days where I wasjust in so much pain, I was
like, there's no way.
This is about to be the rest ofmy life.
And at that time too, with myendoscopy, I also had a
colonoscopy because of all thestomach issues and everything
that was going wrong.
They wanted a test for coloncancer and stomach cancer.
(12:28):
sure that there was nothinggoing on there.
And I remember they found like hpylori.
So during that one week, Iwasn't sure.
I'm like, is it benign?
Is it safe?
So I was stressed out and thenonce I got my diagnosis of like,
oh, it's just celiac, I was sopumped.
I was like, okay, I've alreadygot this down.
This is fine.
And then we went out to eat andI got extremely sick.
Immediately I thought I askedall the right questions, it was
(12:50):
cross-contamination'cause Ididn't really understand
cross-contamination at thattime.
And that's when I think.
whole life kind of like shutdown for a second.
It wasn't even those ninemonths, that was when it was
exciting.
'cause it's like something new,something to do during COVID
where now this is like beginningof 2021, I finally got sick off
of something and I'm like, okay,I can push the concern that I
(13:10):
don't have cancer anymore, but.
I have celiac, I still have thislifelong disease.
I just remember thinking, oh mygosh, I.
Was, I thought I was playing afun game the last nine months
and now this is real life andI'm getting sick and I have to
ask so many questions.
And even though I was alreadyposting online at that point,
like.
I was only a couple weeks in,but I was feeling like super
(13:31):
excited more so, and I used alot of it as like a venting
session.
I, I don't, I never think I liketo, was negative when I was
posting about it, but there's alot of times where you could see
the frustration and I'm liketrying to smile through it.
Like you could see my anger,smile as I'm like, how do people
not understand this?
And then.
Thankfully, thankfully overthese last four years on social
media, I have not been bulliedor like had to deal with too
(13:53):
many like negative.
I mean, there's negativecomments, but any like negative
gluten-free comments, somebodymaking fun of the diet, I'm just
like, okay, you just don't knowit.
That's totally fine.
But thankfully I've never hadthat issue.
But there was like a lot oftimes where I was so hard on
myself and I was just like, Idon't know if I should post
anymore or if I should do this,if I'm even like giving right
information.
You like.
through all these differentphases through Celiac diagnosis,
(14:16):
and I think with the added, I'mon social media.
I'm putting it all out there atthe same time.
If you, my, if you talk to myboyfriend at half my friends,
I've had mental breakdown aftermental breakdown, after mental
breakdown because I'm just like.
My whole life's on here.
I feel the pressure of it, butalso I'm like, I just feel the
pressure of just having celiacdisease and living my life like
this is so not normal.
(14:37):
It's hard to, when you have reallife situations while having
your whole life on social mediatoo.
Well, most of my life, anythingwith celiac, because people come
to me and they think I'm ahundred percent an expert.
I'm like, no, this platform'sall about a journey..
I remember my username, butfirst before was no gluten.
Gabby was no gluten guru.
Just'cause I didn't wanna use myname yet.
I was like, why did I choosethat?
(14:58):
I'm not a guru.
I'm like the opposite of thatcompletely.
So it was a good thing that my,my account was hacked like two
years after I started myplatform and that's why I went
to no gluten Gabby.
So it was like, you know,honestly this was like a message
should have just gone to this tobegin with and keep my name and
just make it about more so likethe journey and not trying to
like.
Pretend to be, you know, adoctor or a dietician.
(15:19):
'cause I was nowhere near that.
My approach was always to justshow like, I am a patient of
celiac disease.
This is how much it can suck,but this is how we are making it
better, versa.
But there were so many times,especially like 2021, the
adjustment of all of that, and Iwas going through a breakup and
just moving and trying to gothrough so much too.
I feel like I never have had a.
A moment where I'm like, youknow what, just one problem I'm
(15:41):
dealing with right now.
There's always like 30 at once.
side note too, when I wasofficially diagnosed with my
disease and I came to myboyfriend at the time, ex
immediately after thisconversation, but I was like,
I'm actually like reallydepressed.
Like, I've never admitted that,never admitted in my past like
about depression.
'cause I never knew really whatit felt like.
But at, you know, at that momentI was like.
(16:03):
I think I'm depressed.
I was like, I don't know what todo.
Like maybe I should starttherapy.
What should I get into?
And he just told me that I'veknown it for a week and I've
been doing it for nine months,so I shouldn't be sad anymore.
And that like, it shot my heart.
I broke up with him the next daybecause that shot my heart
because I was like, oh.
But it also, in a weird way, hasstayed, stayed in my mind for so
long because I remember just ayear ago I was getting super
(16:26):
upset about having celiacdisease again, and I don't know
why.
And I just had that voice in myhead where I was like, you can't
be sad anymore.
Like it's been years now.
Why are you even sad?
Like I'll say that to myself somuch and I'm like, oh, I gotta
stop doing that especially whenI post about things, when I'm
just either complaining ortrying to share just like a
story, so many people are like,oh my gosh, I deal with the same
(16:47):
thing.
It's so annoying.
Or when people like reply,that's so annoying.
Oh, I hate when that happens.
It's honestly like, I know it'snegative words, but it reassures
me so much to know like, yes.
This is life and like it can beannoying.
Like it's not like it's everyday that you're complaining
about it, but.
was something that became reallytough because I always wanna
portray, obviously, you know, onsocial media, this positive
(17:09):
light, in reality I'm like,that's not what celiac disease
is.
So this whole community, I thinkis amazing.
The whole gluten-free communityon how they balance everything.
I mean, it's, there's a widerange of like.
All the emotions when you likelook on gluten-free community or
hashtag gluten-free.
So it's very cool to see thatbecause I feel like a lot of
other communities in socialmedia, you know, you have to be
(17:30):
a certain way, have to do acertain thing, but that's the
one thing.
It's not just gluten-freeeither.
It's like, I, food allergiesanybody with, you know,
autoimmune diseases, it's reallynice to see and like have that
openness.
'cause I didn't feel that in thebeginning where I felt like so
much pressure.
But then.
You know, that's what like thecool thing about this community
growing so much too, and likegluten-free in general, growing
so much I feel like at thispoint now, You are gluten-free
(17:53):
or there's somebody in your lifethat you know, everyone's
starting to understand a littlebit more, which makes it nice,
but it's still, it's still canbe a struggle sometimes.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (18:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and like you said there,there's so many layers of it.
When I think about you, youmentioned it starting during
COVID and there just was so muchuncertainty and fear about that.
And then, another layer of itthat I think for you is so tough
to be diagnosed as an adult isso different than if you're a
child diagnosed with Celiac orother food allergies.
Both hard in different ways.
But can you talk about thatpiece of it and what you think
(18:22):
that's like for adults now youhave to change the entire way
that you live, that you're usedto living life.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (18:28):
Yeah.
Honestly, that is the toughestthing.
'cause again, 22 years of doingwhatever, it's like aside from
just the diet change, it's fromdoing whatever I want.
Whenever I wanted, I think backall the time to my college years
right before I got diagnosed,and I remember I was always
working 40 hours a week.
I went to school, I didfull-time school for those four
years, and I remember.
(18:49):
Eating so much fast food duringthat time, or just eating frozen
food.
And obviously it's not healthy.
I always say it's a good thing Igot diagnosed with celiac
disease with how bad I waseating, so I can't complain
about that too much, but I domiss how convenient it was where
now I'm either not eating, whichis not good, or I'll just like
(19:10):
pack a little granola bar andnot eating enough, which is not
good.
Or you know, just having thatstress of like.
Where's my next safe meal?
Asking that question, I neverthought I would ask that.
Which is funny too, because likeI said, my sister was diagnosed
three or four years before Iwas.
When she was first diagnosed, Iwas like, I should try the
gluten-free diet.
Let's see what that's like.
And all I did was buygluten-free bread and it for one
(19:33):
lunch and I thought, oh my gosh,I can never do this.
This is awful.
I was the people that like, makethose mean comments.
I'm like, I was that person.
I think that's the biggestthing.
It's not even the food itself.
I mean, there's a lot of foodthat I miss too, but I also am
very happy to be diagnosed as anadult to like love and explore
the gluten foods.
(19:53):
That's like the one thing that Ihave positive to say about it, I
would Is, oh, at least I got totry everything.
And I knew what it tastes likeso it's easy for me to recreate
it or some of that naturecompared to somebody who's
diagnosed, you know, at twoyears old and never knew
anything about it.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (20:09):
great.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabb (20:10):
but I guess another part that really
gets me is being 22 years old,getting diagnosed, and then like
I said, over the last few years,I've just been looking back at
my childhood growing up.
Maybe that was celiac.
Maybe that was celiac, becauseI, I played lacrosse growing up
and I was literally known as theace wrap girl because my bones
would break so easily.
Fractures, I would go to the er,so many things with concussions,
(20:34):
broken noses, broken arms, legs.
There was always something likeevery season, it was one or two
times I'd be in the hospital.
Looking back, I was like, oh mygosh.
Like Women's of Celiac was moreknown back then.
Maybe I would've been fine.
And like not dealing with allthese weird symptoms as an adult
too, because I know a lot oftimes like it can untreated
celiac disease.
The longer you do that, thelonger or the more susceptible
(20:57):
you are to other diseases orother just issues that you could
have and or other foodallergies.
And so that's always myunderlying fear because I'm
wondering when did it triggerfor me?
Because you, I also, you neverknow that,'cause you can't get
that answer either.
I just wish there was more onceliac disease that we could
figure out more.
But it's still so new, like evenwith all the studies that are
(21:18):
going on.
I still feel so unknown withceliac disease and I think as
being an adult, that's even morefrustrating.
I mean, I was, as a kid, you'rejust kind of like, I do what my
parents say, like they'refeeding me.
It's so whatever.
I just know this is what I haveto do.
But as an adult, I'm like, oh, Ihave one health issue.
And I'm like, okay, so is thatceliac?
Did I get gluten?
Is it this?
You know, you go down the wholelist.
(21:40):
And then I'm like, is thisbecause I was eating gluten for
22 years when I shouldn't havebeen or whatever the case may
be.
So that's always my biggestthing.
And obviously I went throughwaves and I love my parents, but
we're still learning aboutceliac disease to this day, and
so there's no way back in 2001my parents would ever have
understood.
Why I feel like this or looklike this.
But I even look back at threeyears old and above and every
(22:03):
picture I had huge bellies.
Like I always had like this hugebelly.
It just looked bloated.
And I remember in like middleschool and high school being
very insecure about it.
No matter what I did.
I remember like especially goingthrough puberty and going to
these pool parties, I rememberlike looking at other girls and
being like, wow.
They have flat stomachs.
I was like, why am I not likeI'm small, like I'm only, you
know, five one.
(22:23):
I only weigh like at that pointtoo, I was like only a hundred
pounds less than that, and I waslike, I shouldn't have a belly
when I'm this small.
Like, it just doesn't makesense.
It never did to me.
Getting diagnosed such an at anolder age, I just look back at
like, oh my gosh.
Is that why?
And then I get insecure you gothrough all of the emotions
every single time.
(22:43):
But you know, that's the onething where I'm like, well, at
least I got eat everything Iwanted for a little bit.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (22:49):
Yeah.
All that you're describing is sonormal to go through.
You talked about like kind ofthe stages of it, and I'm sure
you're familiar with this, butlike anything.
Any loss, any diagnosis, any bigchange like that, it's common
for people to go through.
The stages of grief?
Which people have themisconception that they're in
order, but they're not.
You can bounce all aroundbetween those and, and that like
thought to your parents thatlike, you know, there's a little
(23:11):
bit of bargaining of like, oh,if my parents would've known,
it's not'cause you think their,your parents are awful.
It's just that like, almostlike, can I think my way out of
this?
You know what I mean?
If I go back and find thesolution, our brain plays those
tricks.
So it's all very normal, butThat doesn't make it easier, but
that's the kind of stuff that,it sounds like it's nice to
connect with people online aboutRight.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (23:29):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's where I love thiscommunity.
'cause there's been again, somany times of course, where I'm
like, do I just stop posting?
And then I've realized when I dotake my breaks, I'm like, I
love, you know, obviously havingthe social media break, but then
I get.
A weird feeling of like, I feellike I'm losing like my people,
like I'm losing my community bynot being active.
And it's not for like me to getpost out.
(23:50):
I'm like, I just wanna look tosee what everybody else is
talking about or what's going onin the world, or things like
that.
And that's it.
It shows how powerful even anonline community can be and.
Again, what inspired me onceCOVID lifted the shutdown and
everything to start doing likemore in-person events, like I've
done a couple brunches so far.
And I do like an online supportgroup for teens right now at the
(24:10):
Celiac Foundation, I'm glad thatthey're figuring out so young,
but when I hear what they arestruggling with, I'm like, I'm
also very happy I got diagnosedas an adult because it's aside
from even.
The easiness of being likeeating whatever you want, but
it's the bullying that I get.
I could not handle that as achild.
I know I was bullied for otherthings.
I'm like, on top of that, likekids said that they have gotten
bread thrown at them thatthey'll, like kids will go up
(24:33):
and just rub food over their,like stuff like gluten over
their food and.
Things like that.
And it just makes me so sad torealize how much negativity goes
in the world just because you'regluten free or because you have
a food allergy or what it is.
And that's always like so sad.
But I, it's interesting to hearthose things too.
And in a selfishly reassuringway, I am like, okay.
(24:54):
not the only one dealing withthis.
I have it a lot better than alot of people too.
At the same time, like it couldbe a lot worse.
At least I have a family that'ssupportive versus somebody who
think, or like a family thatthinks I'm faking it.
Vice versa.
so it's very interesting just tohear all the different
demographics of dealing withceliac disease.
'cause celiac disease, I mean,that's multi-generational, but
(25:15):
it's very interesting to see howlike a teenager deals with it
versus somebody.
I was just on the celiac cruisea month ago, and there's a woman
on there who was.
In her late seventies withceliac disease, and she's known
about it for like 30 years.
And it was very interesting justhearing how the last 30 years
for her were, you know, havingceliac disease going from
probably no gluten-free brandswhen she first was diagnosed to
(25:39):
on a, being able to go on acruise now with that, with a
hundred percent gluten-freefood.
But yeah, it's very interestingto have such like a wide variety
of people.
this, in this community too, isjust hearing all these stories
and whether or not you canrelate to that specific story,
you can kind of relate to likethe overall, like I'm dealing
with somebody who doesn'tbelieve me.
And it's hard because you, youreally, especially when you have
(26:00):
somebody so close to you tellingyou like they don't believe you,
basically it's, it's, I mean,it's gaslighting you into
thinking like, maybe this isn'treal or whatever.
And I've had that happen to metoo, like I said.
I shouldn't have been as sad asI was.
Or maybe it's not that seriousor cross contamination's not
that serious or whateversomebody else in your mind or
(26:20):
somebody else on the outsidewants to put into your mind.
It's, that's always the toughestpart.
And that's like another thing Ialways like to do with how I'm
posting too, is try to all ofthose feelings on top of com.
Like complaining, validating,but like, here's how I look at
it on the brighter side type ofthing.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (26:38):
Can you give us a couple of those?
Do you have favorite ways thatyou kind of reframe that or give
a different perspective?
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (26:43):
Yeah, like one, well, one, I just
like, I've had this a coupletimes just at like parties,
buffets, not buffet, but likeparties that have the buffets
and things like that.
And people will be like, oh no,you can eat that.
That's totally fine.
Or just, you know, very
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (26:57):
Right.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (26:57):
with me and.
We've had conversation, it'sfine, but like I'll go to the
internet then'cause I'm like,oh, you know what?
This is like something I knoweverybody struggles with and I
always like to go about it.
Like a lot of times, like myranting videos that I post are
just from me sitting theregoing.
I could complain about thisonline probably, and I'll prop
my phone out.
And I posted this, this is likelast over Christmas time, I
(27:18):
think it was, where I was like,I love when people just like
tell me like what I can andcan't eat and, you know, make it
very dramatic.
I try, you know, add the humorto where I'm like, oh, I didn't
know, like everybody else knewwhat they were doing besides me.
And you know, just try to makeit lighthearted.
I can definitely have like alittle bit of that anger in My
dad even text me.
He is like, you're a littleangry in that video.
And he's like, and he's like,alright, I'm never gonna mess
(27:39):
with you.
But I always try to laugh it offand saying like, oh, okay.
Well, like whenever people tellme that, I'm just like.
Okay.
And then I'll just not just putit right over my head and that's
what I, yeah, I always try tosay that like, oh, just I don't
listen.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (27:54):
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (27:54):
it's okay to not listen to these
people and what they're sayingor just, servers and dealing
with like stuff in restaurantsthere was one time I did get
glued in and I shared thatentire experience'cause I
recorded the entire thing.
I was so excited to eat at thisplace.
And I noted that I had celiac, Idid everything I possibly could
and I shared about it.
But then I also realized.
Okay.
One thing I could have donedifferently, which I shared in
(28:15):
the video itself, was I noticedanother person had a food
allergy, you know, a coupletables down, and they had flags
in their meals where I didn't,and I was like, oh, I should
have asked or said, because itwas just a runner that brought
our food out too.
I'm like, here's what I couldhave done differently.
Like, yes, this sucks.
And yes, even though I did mycomplete due diligence or what I
thought was my complete duediligence of explaining that I
have celiac doing all of this, Ihad, once I saw the runner like
(28:38):
a.
Random runner come out to myfood.
That should have been myindicator of, okay, well I
should have asked like, is thisgluten-free?
Instead of just assuming andgoing in and eating it where I
was like, tried to share likelike yes, it was not a hundred
percent my fault, but it was99.9% could have not been my
fault.
You know,
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (28:56):
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluteng (28:57):
figure out the balance of is what I can
do to be the better and
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:01):
Right.
What can I take away from thisfor the future?
Yeah.
Gabby Hemond (@nogluten (29:05):
Because my platform's about my journey,
and sometimes I'm gonna havevideos on there where I made a
complete mistake, but I'm notpromoting that mistake.
I'm just saying I made thatmistake.
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:14):
It's just something unfortunately
that you have to learn along theway.
You have to learn it as you go.
You can't start out with allthat information already in your
head, even if there's all thesegreat resources out there, which
there are more of now.
You can't take it all in all atonce.
It's unfortunate
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (29:28):
much.
And
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (29:29):
too.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (29:29):
That reminds me of another video that
I posted about miss Vicky'schips a while ago.
I was just randomly on theinternet searching.
I'm like, what potato chips aregluten-free, whatnot, you know,
just having fun on the internet.
And I saw that Miss Vicky's.
Said has a statement on theirwebsite.
Larry said they can't confirm ordeny like it's gluten-free or
not.
And I thought, oh, I get those alot, so I'm gonna make a video
real quick.
(29:50):
And so I made a video justexplaining like I had no clue
that Ms.
Vicks weren't gluten-free orthat they had this statement on
their website, showed it.
And I had a lot of commentssaying like, how could you not
know how, like you have celiacdisease, you should be knowing
this stuff.
And was like, first of all, Iwas like, okay, well I'm not
supposed to know everything allthe time.
This is very
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (30:09):
I Guru anymore.
Gabby Hemond (@noglute (30:11):
Exactly, and so then after I saw a lot of
those comments, I was like, thisis a perfect opportunity to make
another video just about.
How you are not gonna knoweverything.
And that's again, a learningexperience.
But that's also like, that'slife.
That's celiac disease or that'slife with celiac disease, it's,
you're gonna have mess ups.
And I think that's what's sohard because you know, as I love
(30:32):
the community, there's alsoextremists on both ends where
some are like, I still eatgluten and though even though I
have celiac disease, I'm like, Idon't relate to that.
And then there's people who arelike, I can't even step inside
of a restaurant or I'll getsick.
Also cannot relate to that.
Like I love to travel and go outand do all of that.
I also know that comes with therisk of like getting sick and I
never wanna promote, know,getting sick.
(30:53):
But I wanna promote being ableto live your life with celiac
disease because prior to mehaving celiac disease, I was
like, I love traveling.
I love going out, I love tryingnew restaurants, I love going
all of that.
And that took a complete stop.
For two and a half years, COVIDplayed a role, but also my fear
of going out played a huge rolewhere I was like, I can't do
this.
(31:13):
And then finally had a moment.
This was the beginning of 2023.
I finally moved into my firstapartment by myself, like my
living by myself for the firsttime, feeling so confident, and
I was like.
Now I have to like live, I haveto go back.
In 2022 that's where I washaving like a lot of mental
breakdowns and not understandingwhat to do because I was like, I
don't feel like I'm Gabbyanymore.
(31:33):
Like I'm no gluten Gabby.
Like I'm always on thisgluten-free mindset.
I'm always posting about it.
I was like a huge reason.
I didn't wanna make this myfull-time gig at first because I
was like, I can't.
Make my entire career already,like my entire disease.
Like this is so, like, this isso overwhelming.
And this is like my entirepersonality because those were,
that was some of the comments Igot too.
Like, is this your entirepersonality?
(31:54):
I'm like, no, but it is my,almost my entire life.
So that's 90% of my personalityis this.
And it became really like hardbecause I was like, who am I
anymore?
Like.
I miss who I was.
And I remember saying that, Iwas like, I just miss who I was
in 2019.
I was like, okay, well I'm notthat girl anymore'cause I'm have
Celiac.
But then that made me actuallysit down with myself and go.
(32:14):
Okay, you still wanna travel,you still wanna do all this
stuff.
How do you do that with celiacdisease now?
Like here's your huge obstacle.
Like I'm not, it's not like atiny little obstacle.
It's, this is like a big brickwall in front of your face.
How are you gonna like tear itdown or at least get around it
or sit on top of it and take iton?
So that's when I was like, youknow what, I booked a trip to
the Philippines with my friends.
(32:35):
I highly recommend not doingthat as your first trip out of
the country with celiac disease.
'cause I got very sick.
I went to the hospital, it wasalso from, I got gluten and then
on top of like bad fish,brushing my teeth with the
water, you know, a pile ofthings that got me to the point
where I had to go to thehospital.
But I thought.
my gosh, it can't get worse thanthis.
It honestly gave me moreconfidence to travel because
(32:57):
then I went to Italy for amonth, only a few, months after
that.
And so I started getting backinto my travels.
'cause I was like, I just wannaget out there.
Like maybe that's where I'msupposed to be.
'cause I'm unhappy.
Like I'm very unhappy right now.
Like, I love posting, I lovebeing able to have my community
and everything, but I don't feellike I have anything else.
And so that's when I was like,okay.
(33:19):
go on some trips, let's startdoing this.
And after that it started tofinally like, I feel like my
ball started rolling again whereI was like, okay.
And then I finally, I got a newjob at that point too, where I
was a marketing director for aproperty management company.
So it was in my realm and I feltreally good'cause I was like,
okay.
That was kind of my outlet atthat time.
And then it was a startupcompany.
I was there for about two yearsand it was.
(33:40):
they shut down.
And that's when I was like,okay, like I'll just do this
full time.
And I honestly started to fallin love with it all over again
because I was like, okay, now Iget to get really in, in like
involved in recipes or workingwith companies that I can do
travel and stuff with and nowlike working with the celiac
crew.
So it kind of all worked out.
Just took like two or threeyears to get there.
I accepted it first and then Iwent back back on everything of
(34:03):
the other stages.
'cause I was just feeling sodown.
Bargaining, trying to do all ofthis.
And then finally I was like, Igotta live my life, make my
mistakes.
And now like when I do get sickand make my mistakes, trust me,
it still is the worst thing thatcould possibly happen.
And it makes me reevaluate mylife every time.
But each time I'm like, okay,it's not the end of the world.
It could be, but you know, it'snot like right now I'm still
(34:26):
here.
Like everything's fine.
I'm still wanna like try to keepgoing out because I've noticed
I'm like so much happier tryingto live my life with celiac
disease and just trying to livethe life of celiac disease, if
that makes sense.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (34:39):
It does.
And I think that's a really gooddistinction that hopefully
people will catch because yeah,that, that loss of self, that
loss of identity, it just kindof can consume people.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (34:48):
yeah.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (34:49):
I'm curious what else has helped
you, you know, once you startedtraveling again, that was a big
shift, but what else do you findhelps you to keep that balance,
especially now that it's yourfull time?
Work as well.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (34:58):
Yeah, now it's a lot of finding
external hobbies.
I love camping, hiking, doinglike the things that I love to
do I try to find a balancebetween all my food related
activities.
Like when I go see my friends, alot of times we will grab a
coffee and go for a walk orwe'll do something like, there's
a lot of cool things that go onin Grand Rapids, like art based
stuff, like building your owncandles or there's thrift like
(35:21):
markets that go around.
So we always try to find theselike non-food activities to go
see each other and go do thingsthat's not just like, oh, let's
go eat at a restaurant, becauseas fun as that can be, like,
catch up and have that.
I'm like, okay.
Every time we go out to arestaurant, though, I'm
explaining my disease and I'mdoing this.
So it's kind of an extra stepand a little bit stressful do
that every single time.
So finding other ways that hashelped me so much and just
(35:44):
finding like, again, I know thisis my full-time career now, but
even when I do a lot of stuffwith my.
Job, like a lot of it's contentcreation, video recording, even
though it's all based aroundfood in a sense, like I try not
to think of it that way anymore.
'cause at first I was alwayslike, okay, here's a gluten free
food.
Gluten free, gluten free.
And I'm like, no, this is justlike a recipe.
(36:04):
Because my favorite thing now isto make a food or make a meal
and have my friends.
Eat it and go, oh, I can't eventell this is gluten-free.
Like that quote is my favoritething to hear.
So I'm like, oh, it's kinda likea little game now and just like
working on building a recipe outor like trying to build
something out.
Like I know it's gluten-free inthe back of my mind, but kind of
keeping that mentality out of itwhen I'm in the kitchen of like
(36:26):
I'm just making a meal.
Like I'm doing something sonormal.
At least alone in my own mentalstate, like making it feel like
it's not stressful as it needsto be.
And that comes with time too,for like anybody who's dealing
with this, it's not like you'regonna wake up and go, oh, it's
no big deal.
I'm five years and now I'm like,the last year is when I'm
finally like, okay, like.
think it's not like as stressfulas it needs to be and with more
(36:50):
studies coming out.
I'm becoming a lot lessstressed, like the kissing study
of just showing like how muchgluten can get like
cross-contaminated and thingslike that I feel so much less
stressed, knowing it's a lotharder to get gluten than it is,
if that makes sense in the senseof like those little things.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (37:07):
Right.
Especially in your own homewhere, you know, people are
informed and, and understanding.
Yeah.
Let's talk about, I did a seriesearlier in the spring.
For IgE mediated food allergiesabout kissing.
But I haven't talked a lot aboutthat kissing study that came out
about Celiac.
And so I think that would be ahelpful distinction to make.
'cause I haven't reallyaddressed it on the show yet.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (37:25):
Yeah.
Yeah, so the Celiac DiseaseFoundation came out with a
study, basically what they didis they had couples eat, 10,
saltine crackers, like thereally powdery, creamy, like,
you know, no water in betweenany of those either.
So we just have to eat allthose.
Then they had to heavily makeout, however you wanna picture
that heavily make out with theirpartner.
(37:46):
And then 18 came back less than20 ppms.
So the amount that is actuallygoing in and out with saltine
crack.
'cause I think of this studytoo,'cause I'm like, no one is
ever gonna kiss their partnerafter eating that
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (37:58):
Right.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (37:58):
Even a burger like you drink water
and you are fine.
So after hearing about that, Iwas like, okay.
So basically what they say is.
Wash your mouth out with somewater and a mint for good
measure.
So beforehand too, I thought,oh, I can't kiss somebody I
remember I'm making a post aboutthat when I first started my
platform of, oh my gosh, I can'tkiss anybody who's ate gluten.
Like I'll get sick.
(38:19):
But I'm like, you have toactually have the crumb.
to a summit last year, the FAACTsummit, and it was really
interesting had the greatestanalogy and I don't know why.
It never really clicked in mymind until that is like you have
to have like a physical crumbgoing in your mouth, like a
physical thing going in yourmouth, ingesting it to actually
feel it.
So when people get nervous abouttopical products, which I was at
(38:41):
the time, or just like littlethings actually visualizing
like, oh, I would have to put itin my mouth for me to feel
anything.
That for some reason made mefeel so much better.
Going to like summits or goingto these talks, or even just
being a part of support groups.
Hearing what people have to say.
Every single time I go to oneI'd feel a little bit lighter
because I'm like, oh, I've neverthought about it that way.
(39:02):
Or, oh, I could have done thatone extra step when I'm ordering
at a restaurant and I feel likea lot safer, whatever.
It could be as simple as likethe way you were to question or
anything that, you know, it'svery interesting to see after
everyone.
I'm like, oh, I feel a lotbetter about my disease.
And I think that's just a goodway of saying, this is how
important community is.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (39:23):
Exactly.
I think even just at at summitsand gatherings, it's kind of
cool to look around the room andEven if you're not talking to
all of them, like, all thesepeople know how we feel.
All these people are doing okay.
Like, okay, enough to be at thissummit and or at this
conference, right.
And, and managing what's goingon.
And so you reminded me before wewrap up you, are you gonna be
speaking at the Fact conferencethis year?
I believe.
(39:43):
Okay.
Tell us what you're talkingabout at FAACT this year, or.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengab (39:46):
Mine I'm gonna be speaking with a few
other content creators justabout content creation, how to
stay authentic in the socialmedia world.
You know, talking about adisease, but also not trying to
make it seem like it's the endof the world.
Like how do you show your lifewithout feeling like you're
telling people what to do?
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:02):
Doom and gloom.
Right.
It sounds like you've got a lotof things that you, you wanna
get rolling.
So tell people how they can makesure that they don't miss out on
that.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (40:09):
Yeah, I'm always posting on TikTok and
Instagram.
TikTok is where I feel like alot of my own personality goes
down there.
'cause that's where I just likeopen up my camera and I'll just
talk sometimes.
But TikTok and Instagram, slowlygetting into YouTube.
I have some videos up that I'vehad for a while, but rolling out
a lot more of gluten-freeMichigan Eats too.
So, over this next year, or?
End of this year, I should sayonly, only have like five months
(40:32):
left.
But those are the threeplatforms that I'm always gonna
be on..
Just no gluten, Gabby.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:36):
Awesome.
Gabby Hemond (@noluten (40:38):
Awesome.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (40:38):
well thank you so much for taking the
time to talk.
What else didn't we touch on?
What do you wanna leave peoplewith as a final wrap up thought?
Gabby Hemond (@noglutengabby) (40:46):
I guess to anybody who's has
celiac or just gluten-free orfood allergy in general, just
know that it's a roller coaster,but it's a fun roller coaster if
you make it one.
Always give yourself patience orlike allow yourself that
patience that you need,especially when you're sick and
when you do get sick.
Rest and recharge because that'sthe one thing I need to do
better about.
One, I do get sick, but alwaysbe patient with yourselves
(41:08):
because you are, as much as we'dlike to think we're not, we're
different from the normaleveryday person.
So we have a couple extra thingsthat we always have to look out
for, but that should give yousome more grace.
Amanda Whitehouse, PhD (41:19):
Aw, thank you.
Yeah, I think it's veryencouraging.
As much as you worry that you'recoming across, you know that
you've come across angry ordiscouraging, I think I really
enjoy everything that I see, andobviously a lot of other people
do too.
You.
So thank you for sharing it witheveryone.
Gabby Hemond (@noglutenga (41:31):
Yeah.
Thank you so much again forhaving me on.
I loved this.
Gabby's been so much fun to talkto and I really appreciate her
coming here on the show to talkabout Celiac connection and
community.
So before we wrap up, here arethree action steps that you can
take.
Number one, follow Gabby onsocial media@noglutengabby, to
continue learning from herjourney and to be part of the
supportive community that she'screating.
(41:53):
Number two, we've talked aboutthis already this month.
Seek out other connections inyour own life, whether online or
in person.
Sharing experiences with otherpeople who understand you can be
very validating for youremotional experience, as well as
just give you so many tips andinformation that other people
have learned through theirexperiences and are happy to
share with you.
Number three, join us.
(42:14):
Gabby will be speaking at theFAACT Allergy Summit in
Oakbrook, Illinois, October 3rdthrough fifth, 2025, You can
find all the details about theFAACT
summit@foodallergyawareness.org.
As always, thank you so much forlistening and if you enjoyed the
episode, I would appreciate itso much.
If you can give me a rating or areview and share it with anybody
(42:34):
else who might enjoy it too.
the content of this podcast isfor informational and
educational purposes only, andis not a substitute for
professional medical or mentalhealth advice, diagnosis, or
treatment.
If you have any questions aboutyour own medical experience or
mental health needs, pleaseconsult a professional.
I'm Dr.
Amanda Whitehouse.
Thanks for joining me.
(42:54):
And until we chat again,remember don't feed the fear.
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