How a Halifax student is helping others with celiac disease

A Saint Mary’s University student uses her celiac disease diagnosis to provide support to others.

A student at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax has taken her celiac disease diagnosis and transformed it into a platform to help others.

Emma McGill created “Gluten Free Living” while majoring in astrophysics, minoring in anthropology, working, and keeping up with friends and family.

“It’s supposed to act as a hub for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerances to find health information, tax resources, just things to help their everyday health and financial life,” said McGill.

She was diagnosed with celiac disease when she was 12. After getting confirmation, she said she was referred to a gastroenterologist and a dietician.

“I just had one appointment with each of them, and that was pretty much it. I just was then kind of on my own with my parents trying to figure out the diet every day,” said the now-22-year-old.

According to a recent report from Celiac Canada, the cost of gluten-free food is 150 to 500 per cent more expensive than a normal gluten-containing diet in Canada.

“My parents immediately just had to spend thousands of dollars and completely swap my diet.”

McGill said at the time, a doctor – who was “trying to make her feel better” – told her of any of the diseases to be diagnosed with, this was the “best one.”

“I don’t have to inject myself daily. There are no surgeries that I have to do, so it is easy relative to most diseases, but it isn’t necessarily easy to deal with everyday,” she said. “There’s a lot of exclusion from the food community in general. Work lunches, going out to dinner with friends, you just can’t always find a safe option to eat.”

Gluten Free Living

The idea of McGill’s “Gluten Free Living” has been in the works for years. She initially came up with the idea when she was still in high school, but only put the wheels in motion in the last couple of years.

The entrepreneur said she’s just getting started.

“Pretty soon I’m also looking to talk to restaurant owners about how they can make their spaces more safe for people in the celiac community so there’s less cross-contamination,” she said.

Eventually, she hopes to develop “Gluten Free Living” into an app.

“I’m just in the initial stages of starting to plan out what the app is going to look like. The app is the main business idea. In the meantime, I’m trying to help people in as many ways as I can.”

Recently, McGill hosted two gluten-free markets. Her first market last May had about 100 attendees. Her second market just before Christmas saw 100 people lined up before the doors even opened.

“We had 600 people show up in one hour and the room was completely packed. We had over 1,000 people show up over the course of two to three hours, and we had to close two hours early,” she said.

McGill plans to host another four to six markets this year.

“It really showed the demand that is needed for future markets and how much this can grow and evolve into something that could be potentially a regular thing and help people.”

Celiac disease

According to Health Canada, as many as 400,000 Canadians live with celiac disease. It’s a condition that causes adverse reactions and damage to the small intestine whenever gluten is consumed.

“It’s so much more intense than a lot of people realize because some people think, ‘Oh, you just don’t eat that one thing. Not that big of a deal,’ or they treat it as an allergy or intolerance, but actually, even just a crumb can do significant damage to your body,” said McGill.

Currently, the only treatment for celiac disease it to follow a strict gluten-free diet.

“It’s not something that comes up every once in a while. Eating is all the time. Every day. Everybody has to do it. It sucks that it’s kind of a medical necessity for so many people, and it’s a really common illness as well.”

While celiac disease is hereditary, McGill said she is the only person in her family with it.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page