The Custom Choice Cereal crew had the pleasure to meet with Tony Cervati earlier this week. Tony was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes – that’s the form of diabetes where the body does not produce any insulin – 32 years ago. Only 5-10% of all diabetics are Type 1.
Despite having tested his blood glucose over 75,000 times and have taken almost 52,000 injections, Tony does not let his condition slow him down. Quite the contrary! An avid mountain biker, Tony started Type1Rider.org to promote awareness and education of diabetes, and to “provide support and encouragement for all diabetic cyclists”. He competes in various races and is as energetic a person as one can possible imagine!
It was just great fun for us at Custom Choice Cereal to meet and talk with Tony. We wrote about the link between Type 1 Diabetes and celiac disease before (in our 100th blog post, yay!). The American Diabetes Association states on its website that
“about 1 in 20 people with type 1 diabetes has celiac disease”.
Since we just met Tony and were (and still are!) so impressed by what he does, we took the opportunity to refresh our own and our readers’ memory. The connection between celiac disease and Type 1 Diabetes is why Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center tests all of their Type 1 diabetics for celiac disease.
Interesting enough for Tony, we could tell him that the Garmin-Transitions professional cycling team went on a gluten-free diet and saw significant improvements in their digestion, sleep, recovery and, ultimately, in their performance. What a great coincidence that we offer a great solution to start your gluten-free day on the right foot!
