Association of Celiac and Sensitive to Gluten from El Salvador

“Association of Celiac and Sensitive to Gluten from El Salvador”  (ACELYSES for its acronym in Spanish, Asociación de Celíacos y Sensibles al Gluten de El Salvador), is a group of people, celiac and gluten sensitive, that voluntary work since 2010 for the benefit of persons in El Salvador who, for reasons of health and quality of life, follow a gluten-free diet for life.

The main goals of ACELYSES is the dissemination, education and awareness of disorders associated with gluten, addressed to the following actors:

1. Health professionals to foster suspicion, early diagnosis as well as the adequate nutritional orientation to successfully manage these disorders.
2. Health officials, institutions of consumer protection and other public entities to promote compliance to the law in force and lead to the formulation and implementation of policies for the benefit of people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.
3. Managers of the sector of food and medicines so that they become aware and comply with the laws and apply good manufacturing practices
4. Celiacs and gluten sensitive people who need to be aware of the absolute need to have a strict gluten-free diet for life. These people must learn to be assertive consumers because almost 90% of manufactured products contain gluten and not all products offered as gluten-free are comply with the proper guidelines. We and others prefer to refer to a gluten-free life and not to refer only to a gluten-free diet, because being gluten-free is part of our essence, “it is a way of being” as a pediatrician from La Plata, Argentina, Dr. Eduardo Cueto Rúa describes the condition.