Welcome to Sure Foods Living – a place for people living with food sensitivities.

What this website is about:
I started Sure Foods Living to help people who are living with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, and/or other food allergies or intolerances. I hope to educate and increase awareness about food sensitivities while maintaining a positive attitude (but I do cry sometimes!)

This is both a website with pages of information and a weblog (blog) with current medical news, product information and my thoughts. Please leave a comment anywhere you like — your opinions are valuable and can help others. You can subscribe to the website so that you are updated when new information has been added. This website is here to help you, so let me know if there is something you would like to see added to the site.

Who I am:
My name is Alison St. Sure and I have celiac disease and other food sensitivities. My 4 year old daughter is gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free, and is allergic to eggs, cashews, shellfish, some fish and avocado. Oh, and I think she may have a problem with chocolate. But I don’t. I have another daughter who is 2 who will be tested for food allergies soon. She currently eats the same diet as her sister because it is easier that way, plus no citrus (causes rash and bowel problems). My mother, father (a retired pediatrician) and husband are all living 100% gluten-free, and other family members are living both gluten-free and dairy-free. Before Sure Foods Living, I had Sure Foods Market (now closed), an online market for allergen-free foods. I closed the online store so that I could spend more time on my original goals - educating and raising awareness about celiac disease and food sensitivities. I live in northern California, so if you are in the area, let me know! To find out about my road to diagnosis, read my celiac story.

People who have had a big influence on this site:

Lynn
Lynn is my mom. The day I was diagnosed with celiac disease and went to the grocery store to find gluten-free food, I called my mom crying on the phone. She told me that she was going to go gluten-free with me, and she did that very day. We have been on this journey together since the beginning and that has made it so much easier. She never expected that the gluten-free diet would change her life as much as it did. She encourages me (and nudges me as only a mom can) to continue writing and speaking and making this website better. To see how her life changed, read Lynn’s Story.

Lan-Ping
Lan-Ping was my colleague when I worked at a startup tech company (I never realized this tech stuff would come in so handy!) She was there during my agonizing months before my celiac diagnosis, and also during my recovery. She realized that her husband’s health problems might also be due to gluten… she was right. Lan-Ping felt that my idea of starting a website and online store was a good one and so she became my partner in Sure Foods Market. She and her husband now are living gluten-free in Melbourne, Australia, where she says “gluten-free” is no big deal – they can find a big selection of gluten-free foods everywhere. She is happy that the spirit of the original website lives on with Sure Foods Living. (And she also helps with my taxes!) To find out how she and her husband became gluten-free, read Lan-Ping’s story.

Leslie
Leslie is my sister. She is also a registered dietitian and the mother of 2 boys, one who is allergic to dairy and one who is gluten-intolerant, and a new baby girl. She enjoys cooking and art and giving me feedback on my writing (and every once in a while writing something herself). We learn a lot from each other as we are navigating the world of being allergy moms. Leslie lives in northern California but will be moving to Washington D.C. To find out how Leslie discovered her son’s dairy allergy, read Leslie’s story.