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"Even in a perfect life, dating would come loaded with challenges. But none of us have a perfect life, which means we&amp;#x27;ve all got our own issues that complicate the process even further.For Jules Shepard, learning to deal with a health issue while dating was a challenge. Jules (along with about three million other Americans), has celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that means she must follow a gluten-free diet. Even though gluten-free diets are becoming more common even for people without celiac disease, explaining a disease and a super strict diet isn&amp;#x27;t the easiest or most romantic thing to do on a first date. Unrelated to the story: Doesn&amp;#x27;t Jules have the prettiest eyes? Rather than let the disease get in her way, Jules developed an all purpose gluten-free flour and writes a blog filled with yummy recipes. She was also sweet enough to share some of her experience and expert advice for dating while dealing with this issue. Here&amp;#x27;s what she had to say: Why it&amp;amp;#8217;s an issue: &amp;amp;#8220;Anything social involves food. Anything. A business lunch, meeting for coffee, holidays, first dates, BBQs, parties &amp;amp;#133;. Everyone handles their food allergy, sensitivity or celiac disease differently (some people are very shy about it, others use it as a conversation starter). It&amp;amp;#8217;s not like you want to tell a guy, &amp;#x27;Hey, I have this disease,&amp;amp;#8221; so you have to handle it in a way that makes you personally comfortable and confident.&amp;#x27; &amp;quot; How to be honest about it: &amp;quot;For me, I haven&amp;amp;#8217;t gone out with anyone who didn&amp;amp;#8217;t already know that I couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t eat gluten - it&amp;amp;#8217;s part of their getting to know me. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t start with the term &amp;amp;#8220;disease&amp;amp;#8221; though - at least not right off. For someone who isn&amp;amp;#8217;t familiar with celiac disease, they could easily draw the wrong conclusion! It&amp;amp;#8217;s not contagious, it&amp;amp;#8217;s not sexual, and it&amp;amp;#8217;s not my fault. But when I&amp;amp;#8217;m just getting to know someone, I usually just tell them that I can&amp;amp;#8217;t eat anything with gluten in it. With new acquaintances and wait staff, alike, it&amp;amp;#8217;s usually easier to just say you have an allergy to gluten, even though that&amp;amp;#8217;s not at all what it is - people know what an allergy is, and they tend to respect it. The issues that come in are just finding a safe place to eat, or being tactful if the guy wants to have you over to his place to cook for you. Cross-contamination is such a concern, that I always try to be the one to cook or to pick the restaurant.&amp;quot; Guys will get it (and if they don&amp;amp;#8217;t, they aren&amp;amp;#8217;t worth your time): &amp;amp;#8220;People have generally been quite accepting of it. The one guy who wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t, I divorced! It&amp;amp;#8217;s so much a part of my life and how I can interact with other people on a social basis, that whoever I&amp;amp;#8217;m with (friend or date) had better understand and accept it, or there&amp;amp;#8217;s no need in us socializing further. If it becomes a burden to the other person, I don&amp;amp;#8217;t want to be responsible for that, so my friends and dates tend to be the kind of people who are curious to know more and want to accommodate me.&amp;quot; How to deal with any problems while maintaining your cool: &amp;amp;#8220;The easiest things to do are behind the scenes. Picking the restaurant by being the one to say you have a great idea for a place to try, means you&amp;amp;#8217;re relieving the other person of the problem of picking a place. Most people are happy to have someone else choose the restaurant. Calling ahead to the restaurant before you go and inquiring about the gluten-free foods available there ensures your confidence that the food they deliver to the table will not be contaminated. Familiarizing yourself with the menu on-line before you go alleviates the need to ask a lot of questions of the wait staff or chef when you are with your date. The more things you can do to make your night out feel &amp;amp;#8220;normal&amp;amp;#8221; to the other person, the less focus is on you, your disease or allergy, and your &amp;amp;#8220;pickiness.&amp;amp;#8221; Your date doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t have to know all the things you&amp;amp;#8217;ve done before dinner to make it a success - he should just relax and enjoy getting to know you during the meal. You can still talk about gluten-free foods and the lifestyle if you like, but with this kind of preparation, you don&amp;amp;#8217;t have to.&amp;quot; For more information from Jules, including recipes and gluten-free products, visit her blog! Thanks for sharing with us Jules! Any fellow ladies out there dealing with Celiac Disease like Jules? Has it been a problem in your dating life, and how do you deal with it? What other issues, health or otherwise, interfere with your dating lives, ladies? Other dating issues: *Dating with Anxiety and Depression Issues (or: That Time I Felt Like I Was Dating My Therapist, Too) *Breaking Up: One Guy Shares His Big-Issue Dealbreaker *&amp;amp;#8220;I&amp;amp;#8217;m Bisexual&amp;amp;#8212;Is That an Issue for Dating Guys?&amp;amp;#8221; Photo: Jules Shepard"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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