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From Kitchen to Clinic: Addressing Cross-Contact, Dining Challenges, and Myths in Celiac Disease

Monday, October 13, 2025

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Proficiency: Intermediate knowledge/experience

Tracks: Culinary Trends, Foodservice Innovation, & School Nutrition, Gut Health, GI Disorders & the Microbiome, Medical Nutrition Therapy

CPE: 1.5

Description

The gluten-free diet is the only treatment for celiac disease, yet uncertainty surrounds key topics like shared equipment, cross-contact, dining out, dating, and certain grains. These gray areas heighten anxiety and hypervigilance in patients, impacting their quality of life. This session will offer expert insights on these controversial topics, highlighting the need for standardized nutritional assessment and education to reduce patient stress and improve outcomes. Attendees will gain practical, research-backed guidance to apply in clinical practice.

Dietary misinformation persists, with many recommendations lacking scientific basis. Online fearmongering further complicates matters, leading patients and dietitians to question trusted resources. This session will clarify inconsistencies, focusing on cross-contact concerns, including new research on shared kitchen spaces, shared fryers, and even kissing.

Panelists will explore the consensus-building process behind current diet assessment guidelines for celiac disease and provide an overview of these guidelines. They will share strategies for patient education on cross-contact in dating and dining out, while introducing a validated assessment tool under development. The session will conclude with a discussion on how these guidelines are shaping a robust framework for nutritional assessment and monitoring in celiac disease, empowering clinicians to offer consistent, evidence-based care.

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the science behind recommendations on cross contact in the gluten free diet.
  • List common myths associated with the gluten free diet.
  • Describe the components of a comprehensive nutritional assessment for an individual with celiac disease.

Performance Indicators

  • 9.1.3 Evaluates the chemical nature and composition of food quality, acceptability, and compatibility to inform product development, menu planning and food preparation techniques.
  • 11.2.8 Recommends and/or orders biochemical tests and analyzes results to provide evidence of a diagnoses and support plans of care.
  • 11.5.3 Adjusts interventions based on client/patient progress in meeting established goals and resolving nutrition diagnoses.

Speakers

  • Meghan Donnelly photo

    Meghan Donnelly

    Director of Health Communications, Celiac Disease Foundation

    Meghan Donnelly, MS, RDN, is the Director of Health Communications at the Celiac Disease Foundation. Meghan is a specialist in nutrition for digestive diseases and has years of experience in clinical dietetics, counseling, private practice, and the gluten-free food industry. She serves as a co-leader of the DIGID Gluten-Related Disorders workgroup, a co-liaison between the American Gastroenterological Association and DIGID, and a member of the DIGID Eating Disorders in GI workgroup. She is also a coauthor of the EDGI Training Project and textbook, Comprehensive Medical Nutrition Therapy for Gastrointestinal & Eating Disorders. Throughout her career as a dietitian, Meghan has made it her mission to empower people with knowledge about how food affects their bodies while acknowledging the unique emotions and challenges that come with navigating medically necessary diet changes. Her goal is to make food joyful and inclusive to help people live healthy, fulfilling lives.
  • Anne Lee photo

    Anne Lee

    Assistant Professor of Nutritional Medicine, Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University

    Anne Lee is an Assistant Professor of Nutritional Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Human Nutrition at Columbia University and the dietitian for the Celiac Disease Center. Anne is involved in patient care, and research. Her research and many publications focus on the quality-of-life issues, dietary adherence, concerns of the nutritional quality of the gluten free diet and eating patterns and behaviors. The research on eating behaviors has provided insight into the impact of the rigidity of the gluten free diet on eating patterns and behaviors and has created a paradigm shift in the education and counseling of individuals with celiac disease. Anne has been an Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics member for many years and has reviewed the chapters on celiac disease for the Academy on-line nutrition care manual. She is also a member of the Academy’s Gluten Intolerance Work Group who developed the Gluten Intolerance tool kit and the Certificate of Training for Gluten Related Disorders. Currently she is working with an international group to define standards for nutritional assessment, education, and adherence of individuals with celiac disease.
  • Amelie Therrien photo

    Amelie Therrien

    Gastroenterologist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

    Dr. Therrien received her MD in 2011 from Universite de Montreal and completed her internal medicine residency and then her Adult GI fellowship combined with a clinician scientist program in 2017. She also has a master’s in science in experimental medicine, working on granulocytes and innate immunity. Her main areas of expertise are celiac disease, other small bowel disorders, and nutrition. She completed a fellowship at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is now working as a clinician scientist there, working on celiac disease and mast cell related disorders.

Moderator

  • Melinda Dennis photo

    Melinda Dennis

    Nutrition Coordinator, Celiac Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

    Melinda Dennis, MS, RDN, LD, is a registered dietitian and Nutrition Coordinator of the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston specializing in Medical Nutrition Therapy for patients with gluten-related disorders. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Celiac Research Program at Harvard Medical School, as Program Director of BIDMC’s website: CeliacNow.org, and as a taskforce member on NIH studies. She is founder, former Chair, and current Senior Nutrition Advisor to the National Celiac Association and has recently joined the Dietitian Advisory Board of the Celiac Disease Foundation. She has written numerous articles and presented on the nutritional management of celiac disease in the U.S. and abroad. She recently co-authored a systematic review of dietary assessment in the patient with celiac disease and the Academy's Certificate in Training for Celiac Disease and Gluten Related Disorders. She is founder and owner of Delete the Wheat, LLC., offering gluten-free health and wellness retreats as well as nutrition consulting to patients, clinicians, and the gluten-free industry.

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