Gluten-Free Foods The Focus At Celiac Awareness Event

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia cruise terminal will be the site of Sunday's 7th annual Appetite for Awareness, to help fight a disease where food is both the cause and the cure. 

About 3 million Americans have celiac disease, says Alice Bast, founder and president of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.  She learned the hard way herself how little everyday people and even doctors know about an ailment in which gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley sets the body to attacking itself.  The cure is don't eat gluten and one of the points of this gathering is to show that's not as much of a sacrifice as it might sound.  In fact, you'll probably come away with a goody bag.

Bast says, "products from the nation's best gluten-free vendors.  There are vendors flying in from California,  from Boston, Canada, all with products for everybody to sample."

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio