Kayla has been living with Celiac Disease for 17 years.
Thanks to her extensive amount of time travelling, she discovered the need to find safe gluten free food. This inspired her to create her app MyMeal so others could find safe meals.
In today's episode we chat about Kayla's journey and her app.
Kayla also shares her tips for dining out with Celiac Disease.
Learn more about Ultimate Celiac System here
www.belindawhelan.com/ultimateceliacsystem
Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes
Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
HEALTH TRACKER | The Healthy Celiac (belindawhelan.com)
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
Kayla has been living with Celiac Disease for 17 years.
Thanks to her extensive amount of time travelling, she discovered the need to find safe gluten free food. This inspired her to create her app MyMeal so others could find safe meals.
In today's episode we chat about Kayla's journey and her app.
Kayla also shares her tips for dining out with Celiac Disease.
Learn more about Ultimate Celiac System here
www.belindawhelan.com/ultimateceliacsystem
Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes
Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
HEALTH TRACKER | The Healthy Celiac (belindawhelan.com)
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
All right, welcome back to this week's episode of the Healthy Celiac podcast. I'm so excited because today I have a special guest on the show, Kayla King, who has been advocating for celiac disease for 17 years now. And she has created an incredible app, which I'm so excited for her to share with us and talk about today. And Kayla's gonna share some of her top tips for dining out successfully with celiac disease. So welcome to the show. Kayla, how you going?
Speaker 2:I am do, I'm doing good. How are you doing? Yeah, thank you so much for having me on today.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're so welcome. Thank you for your time. So tell us to start with about Yeah. Uh, celiac disease diagnosis and how you, you know, came to be living with celiac disease and your diagnosis and how that came about. That would be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I have had celiac disease for many years, as you mentioned. Uh, I got diagnosed when I was nine years old and I honestly really just got super lucky with my diagnosis because my brother was actually diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was six years old. And so when I started to have symptoms naturally my parents tested me for the same thing. And because diabetes and celiac are so closely related and when they diagnosed they usually do a panel of several autoimmune diseases. That's how I found out that I did have celiac disease. And honestly, I feel like it was a blessing to be diagnosed so young because it really gave me the opportunity to learn how to integrate it into my lifestyle growing up.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. Oh, I think that's easier for young ones. My son was diagnosed with non-celiac gluten sensitivity at four and it's just so much easier than if he was a teenager or Yeah. So I, I agree with you younger the better
Speaker 2:<laugh>. Yeah, absolutely. Just cuz I talk to people that have been diagnosed as an adult and I feel like you miss things more where because it was so long ago and I can't even remember my life without being gluten free, it doesn't impact me as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool. So it's led you down this path, which is pretty incredible that has made you want to create your app. So tell us about how that came to fruition and all about your app because it is such a amazing story and I'm, yeah, I can't wait for everyone to hear about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much. So I can definitely walk through kinda like the evolution since I was a kid. So obviously I was diagnosed really young and then as I grew up you kind of have to be obsessed with food because you need to be checking every ingredient label, super diligent, diligent about what you put into your body. And so because of that I just always took up an interest in nutrition and health, uh, and understanding what I was putting into my body. And so I actually started body building in college and just kind of became a health nut. Yeah. And throughout that process I was also traveling all over the country. So I've been to about 36 countries and I was like everything with my celiac I feel like I, you know, have under my belt and is I'm super great with, the only thing that was always difficult for me was eating out and it's just because you, you don't have everything under your control at all times versus, you know, when you're reading an ingredient label at a grocery store, you have a lot more control over that situation. Yeah. And so even though I had traveled all these places and you know, figured out how to do it, I was frustrated by the lack of resources and the lack of education within the food industry for people that have not only celiac but just all different kinds of food restrictions in general. So that's when I kind of set out to create my app, my meal, um, where we basically help people that have celiac, have food allergies, eoe, whatever your food restriction is. Um, we help you find safe restaurant meals and we actually work directly with the restaurant to create resources, um, such as our filterable allergy menus so that they can be really equipped to handle um, people with food restrictions as well. Cuz I think both sides of the puzzle, um, kind of working together is really important. And right now there is not a lot of resources out there that kind of bridge that gap.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And you take it way further than most of the apps that are available. So when I look at the apps that are available for people with celiac disease, it's generally people just people going about their day, they go to a restaurant and they review it and they say yes or no basically whether they got sick. And that's about as far as it goes, but yours is so much more in depth and you are doing such incredible research and making sure that everything's safe. So tell us about that process, how you work with the chefs and how you chat with them and, and make sure that the meals are legit 100% safe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. A lot of chefs laugh because they're like, I feel like you're interrogating me<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Well
Speaker 2:I kind of am
Speaker 1:<laugh>.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so basically when we have a new restaurant that we're onboarding, we definitely first do our due diligence in terms of, you know, what options they have, what is their process. So right now we're actually rolling out a new kind of like quiz with our restaurants where we dive into like what is all the equipment that you have in your kitchen, um, how do you handle an allergy order that comes through if there is cross contact. So it's basically a bunch of hypothetical questions that we have the shaft and the gm, um, fill out so that we can understand like what is their base level knowledge of food restrictions. Yeah. And then from there we can kind of understand, you know, are they great and if they're great we just put them on the app because they're more of like a verified, um, restaurant if they're able to, you know, answer all of those quiz questions since it is so in depth. Yeah. And then if they're not quite there, then we do provide them with resources to help them get there. So, um, the biggest resource that we provide is our filterable allergy menus where essentially as a customer you can put in your food allergies or your celiac disease and then be able to filter the menu down, see exactly what you can have, and then it breaks down the modifications what might come into cross contact with your food. And so it makes not only your life easier, but the staff's life easier because a lot of times I think it's important to understand that restaurants don't always have time to train. Like especially in this day and age where turnover is super high, if I sat down and gave them like a formalized training program that might be sale in a couple months when they get, you know, three new staff members. Yeah. And so the advantage to having the allergy menu, like while trainings is important for sure, the allergy menu kind of helps train them because your, as a customer being able to read off the allergy menu and be like, Hey, can you cook this in a pan? Or can you remove the croutons from my dish? And so now that server gets to hear it over and over again, the kitchen gets to hear it over and over again. Yeah. So the menu basically helps you as a customer be able to train that restaurant over time. Um, and since we sit down and we collect that information and we work with the chef to provide that information, um, you know, it's, it's very much a collective effort between like our community, um, because I, I definitely am like the representative of our community, you know, having the disease for 17 years, um, and then also, you know, with the chef. So the chef has to be on board with it as well. Um, and something I say to my restaurants a lot during that process is, Hey look, if you are not comfortable providing this modification or providing this dish to this community, just like tell me and it will filter it off the menu and so nobody even sees it. And so like that communication is so critical. Yeah. Because like if a chef doesn't wanna do it, like, or it's going to mess up their whole entire process, I'm sure as a consumer, like I've felt this before, you don't, you don't wanna do that to them either. Yeah. And so, um, that's really my goal with my meal and with these menus is to be able to bridge that gap so everyone is on the same page.
Speaker 1:Yes. So amazing. And I know for you, you mentioned that you used to only wanna eat out very rarely. I think maybe once a month would be it for you and now you're eating out around three times a week, which you know you are doing that and you are confident and you're comfortable in yourself and you're getting fantastic results. And I think what you are doing is helping those celiacs in our community who are scared to eat out, to be able to eat out confidently. And that is a game changer because as we know, eating is life and it's so important for, you know, our mental health and our community and being with friends and family. So at the moment, where's your app available?
Speaker 2:Uh, we are just in Colorado right now, but we are definitely looking to add, um, restaurants in other cities soon. Especially because now we're really kind of focusing on this vetting process. And so the filterable allergy menus is for sure something that will always be on the app. Um, but we are putting a heavier focus on the vetting and that does allow us to be in more cities. So we are actually going to use that to scale the other cities a little bit faster. Um, where the filterable allergy menus will kind of just, you know, take some time to catch up to the cities, but at least, you know, then we can provide vetted restaurants for people with all kinds of food allergies even if that restaurant hasn't, you know, gone through the full process with us yet. But something that's really great about the app as well is even if the restaurant, you know, hasn't gone through that program with us, we give you guys the option to participate in helping us, you know, have that restaurant go through the program. So I'm super big on like community involvement and listening to all the people that are using our app. And so we do have an option where like you can, you know, vote for a restaurant to have a filterable allergy menu and then that helps us bring it to the restaurant and be like, Hey, you know, a hundred people would, you know, come to your restaurant if you had this resource, if you went through this training. Um, and so it just gives us as a community more of a voice and more leverage as a mass to be like, Hey, we really want this at your restaurant. And then that's how we're going to make, um, restaurants more accessible for people. Yeah,
Speaker 1:That's so exciting. So what's your goal for your app? Do you want to go international? Do you wanna just keep it in America? What's, what's your big plan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I obviously love traveling<laugh>. Yeah. As I prior mentioned. So I definitely think there is a huge opportunity to take it international. What I'd really love to see is have it kind of break that language barrier, uh, because not everywhere you go is going to be an English speaking country and it's so important to be able to have that clear communication with the staff. And there are really great resources right now. Like the one that I always recommend is bringing like a card that is translated into their language, whether you make it yourself or you buy one. Yes. Um, that's typically what I do. But if you could have these menus that are very detailed and explain the cross contact procedures all in, you know, the translated language that you needed in in that will just create, it'll open the door for so many people to travel and feel more comfortable. Yeah. Um, even eating outside the home. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Yeah. We'll be here in Australia one day.
Speaker 2:Australia is actually the largest country that has food allergies, so even more so than America. Um, it is like a huge problem there. And so there's a big opportunity to create these kinds of resources as well.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Well I look forward to that day<laugh>.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then I just wanted to kinda wheel back a little bit based on what you were saying about you know, the change in my behavior cuz I think what's really important to mention about that is when I was body building and not eating out at all, like maybe once a month, I had a very toxic mindset around food. And I think a lot of people can resonate with that because food anxiety is extremely prevalent amongst celiacs and people with food allergies. Yeah. And a big part of getting over my food anxiety and disordered eating patterns was challenging myself to go eat out because I had placed eating out on this pedestal as a delicacy and something that, you know, you could only get a safe meal sometimes and that can create a lot of things in our brain, um, that, you know, create this fight or flight mode. Yeah. And so by not making it a delicacy and challenging yourself to eat out multiple times a week, you're now normalizing that situation. And so when you go out to eat, you're gonna be less inclined to over-indulge or over buy because it's a normal experience for you to find something safe and so you'll be able to do it again a couple days later. Yeah. So I think that mindset shift was really, really important to me and just something that I wanted to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you. That is perfect to lead us into you sharing your tips for our listeners on eating out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to share three main tips for today that are, have been really in integral for me. So the first one is calling the restaurant in advance and not just calling but like vetting them and this is what we do for our app, but on an individual level I think it's really important to do as well. And also understanding timing within that call. So are restaurant's going to be super busy around lunchtime and dinner time? So like don't call it 12<laugh><laugh> and don't call after five if you can. Like if you have advanced notice, I would call between two or four. That is usually the best time no matter what restaurant you're going to. And what this does is it allows you to have a calm conversation with the staff in an environment that's not super stressful for either part. And so what you can do is when you get on the phone you can ask is the chef or the GM available? Typically it will be the GM that comes onto the phone. And the reason you wanna do this is because a lot of times the host is not very knowledgeable about food allergies. You may get potential misinformation like the hierarchy in which people understand food allergies is definitely host knows the least. Okay. Server is a little bit more mm-hmm.<affirmative>, GM really knows what's going on and then the chef is like the pro that you can talk to. And so understanding that hierarchy of knowledge is really important cuz you may get one response from a host and an entirely different experience and response from the general manager that's actually trained on it. And so like bypass the headache and just go straight to the person that is gonna know that information. Yeah. And so when you get on the phone and you're talking to the gm, I like to explain it as going through a hypothetical. So act as if you were ordering at the restaurant and say, Hey, you know I have celiac, do you know what that is? If they don't rephrase it and say you have a gluten allergy, like I don't love to say that because it's definitely misinformation mm-hmm<affirmative>, but you have to speak in the restaurant's language sometimes and what train I understand isn't it? Right. They train and they understand food allergies and so if you want them to take it seriously, sometimes that's the way that you need to phrase it. And so you say, Hey, I have a gluten allergy, do you understand what that is? And they'll most likely say yes. And then you'll go through, okay, what is your common procedures for somebody with a food allergy coming in? They'll explain that to you and based off of that information you can kind of steer the conversation in a direction that you need it to go. And so the best way to do this is being like, Hey, you know, I looked at your menu, I thought that these three options may be good. I was wondering if we could just go through some questions regarding those options and whether you decide to order that the day of or not, you can get a lot of information from just understanding how they respond. So you don't need to order that dish. So don't feel pressured to like make that decision, you know, two days before you're actually going there because you know, I'm a big foodie and what I want now is gonna be very different than what I want two days ago. Yeah. But if I'm asking them about a burger on the phone and they're like, oh yes, you know, we're gonna grab a separate pan, we're gonna change our gloves, we're gonna mark your allergy order in the POS system, then I understand that they know what they're talking about. So even if I order something different on the day of, I have a better understanding for how I need to steer that conversation and direction that's going to create a safe meal for me. So that's kinda my first thing that I just recommend you always do in order to save yourself a headache. Yeah. And then the second part is having patience for the staff. Yeah. This is so unbelievably important. I know in high stress situations it can be so frustrating mm-hmm.<affirmative> to have that patience. But it's important because we need to understand how to work with the staff. Yeah. They a lot of times are just as stressed as you are. Yes. Because they are worried that they're gonna kill you or send you to the hospital or make you sick and they don't want that on their plate either. That could be a potential lawsuit for the restaurant. So they are at risk a lot of times too. And something you'll commonly hear from restaurant staff is the little spiel of we can't guarantee anything, we're not dedicating free kitchen. And a while back, this used to be very triggering for me. I would be like, I don't know why you're saying that to me. Yeah. Obviously Oh they box isn't it? Now I know that that's gonna happen. And what I realized over time is they're trained to do that. Yeah. Like they literally have to say that for legal reasons sometimes or their general manager is like if somebody with a food allergy comes in, that's the first thing that you say. Yeah. And so over time you just have to understand how to work with that conversation. Yeah. And so even though they're saying I can't guarantee anything, that doesn't mean that they can't serve you. Like don't walk out, try and actually stay and have patience with them and say, Hey, totally understand I eat out all of the time. Or you know, I understand that I'm at risk coming into this restaurant, but would you be willing to talk with me and work with me so that together we can find a safe meal. And the language a around that does matter. Like if you can make it feel like a team effort, they're a lot more willing to work with you if you're trying to put everything on them. Yeah. They're gonna get really stressed out and they may potentially refuse surface. Yeah. Wow. And yeah, and like I get it. Like I've totally been refused service in the past. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean the, a classic example was I went to a pizza restaurant with my friend. I was trying to talk to the chef to ask him, you know, if he could put Parchman paper down, do all those things mm-hmm.<affirmative> And it was 7:00 PM on a Saturday night. It was super busy. Yeah. They were like, Hey, we cannot get the chef. Um, that's not something that we can do right now. We could potentially do that on a different day when it's less busy, but it's just like not gonna happen at the moment. Wow. Your tongue<laugh>. Yeah, exactly. And I was like, okay, you know, no worries. I respect that I ordered like a hot totty and then I ate when I got home<laugh>. And sometimes it happens. Yeah. And that's totally okay and that's why it is important to bring snacks and you don't be, be prepared, but for the most part I would say people are usually willing to work with you. Yes. You just keep your cool. Yeah. And you control the conversation. Yeah. Once you lose a hold of the conversation or start to get stressed or angry or anxious mm-hmm.<affirmative>, they can sense that. Yeah. And they will also become stressed and angry and anxious.
Speaker 1:I totally agree.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've noticed a difference in my confidence over the years. So the more confident I feel in asking all questions and you know, finding out all the information, I always get such a better response. Whereas in the early days I was so timid and embarrassed and I didn't wanna ask the questions and I felt like they weren't as comfortable giving me back what I needed. So yeah, that is a huge one, the confidence. And I agree with that a hundred percent
Speaker 2:<laugh> and practice makes perfect. Like you're not gonna be ultra confident the first time you do it. Like you just got diagnosed. It's really great because people do feed off of your energy, so you will start to see a difference in the way that staff is responding to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then the, the last thing that I kinda wanted to touch on was the way that you order is really important mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And so I, I kind of talked about this during the calling process, but you almost wanna ask questions as if you're breaking down how you're cooking the dish. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So you know, all of us have cooked some kind of meal at home, even if that's, you know, ramen or a sandwich. But if you take a sandwich for example, there are components to the sandwich. So like let's say you're getting a chicken sandwich with mayo, the bread is most likely going to be toasted if you're ordering gluten-free bread, are they toasting it on the flat top? Are they toasting it in the toaster? Are they toasting it in the oven? Like it is important? Where are they toasted? Mm-hmm.<affirmative> to understand if it's going to be cross contaminated. Yep. The second part is the chicken. Is the chicken going on the grill? Does bread go on the same grill as the chicken And it then if you take the other ingredients, like are you touching the bread and then touching the tomatoes? If so you're going to have to ask for separate ingredients. Um, so you kind of wanna break down like the components and think about in a kitchen, like what you would be doing if you were making it yourself. Yes. And that will help you break down the dish. So honestly, sandwiches and salads, while most people will be like, oh, that's the easiest thing to order with celiac, I would highly disagree with that. Yeah. Because most of the time those are gonna be the highest point of cross contact mm-hmm.<affirmative> because people are grabbing from a line. Yeah. So they're grabbing into several bins with the same glove that they were just touching the bread with. Yeah. So I actually try and stay away from salads and sandwiches if I can, and then instead try and order like a chicken with steamed vegetables. Because a lot of times they're gonna be cooking that maybe on a meat grill that doesn't see any bread or they're gonna be cooking the vegetables in uh, steamer or a pan. And so that's what you should think about when you're deciding what to order is like, how would I cook it at home? What are all of the places that you know it could potentially be cooked on? Yeah. And what is going to give me the least amount of cross contact? And you know, you still can order sandwiches and salads, but just understand that you're gonna probably be asking more questions. You're gonna say, Hey, on the line do you grab bread and then you grab into a bin? If so, can you take separate ingredients from the back? Because I, that's a huge source of cross contact. And a lot of restaurants will do it because you know, they're very focused on serving their customer, which is awesome. Yeah. But also it's taking more of their time, so it kind of goes back to the patients.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Understand that maybe your meal might take more time than your friends. Yeah. And that's because the in the back, what they're doing is they're having to stop everything that they're doing, go into the back fridge mm-hmm<affirmative>, grab new stuff out, grab clean utensils. Yeah. Like make that in a separate space for you. And so it's very much out of their normal practice. Yes. And so I don't mean to say this to say don't order it, but just understand Yes. By what you're ordering. Like the process that's going on in the back. Yeah. Long I've learned a lot of this because now I've worked with over 50 chefs, I've worked in restaurants, you know, I am a certified nutrition coach, so I do have like, you know, an understanding of how the kitchen practices. Yes. But I think you can also understand a lot about a kitchen just by thinking about how you're cooking at home. Yes. Because it's gonna be relatively similar practices just on more of an advanced scale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So many great tips. Fantastic. I think that's gonna help our listeners a lot. So thank you so much for that. Um, that's nearly our time for today, so thank you so much for your time and sharing your advice and your amazing app with us. So where can people find that, um, when they wanna download? It's on the app store, I believe, and on the Google Play Store.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. So if you look up my meal and then it's my meal, find safe restaurants, you will be able to find it on, uh, both the App store and the Google Play store. If you are not in Colorado, if you're in a different city where we don't serve yet, also our websites find my meals.io and we do have a wait list on there for other cities. So definitely go sign up for that so that we can notify you when we've added restaurants in your city.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Sounds great. Well thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:All right. Take care. Bye.