Enrico’s story: “Due to celiac disease I gave up my military career”

Panaro (Aic): "At 1 year old I risked dying from malabsorption. My son also has celiac disease, we live our condition with serenity"

ROME – “I had a dream: to become a pilot in the Air Force but this was denied to me due to my celiac condition. I was an 18-year-old boy years and I had to put my greatest desire in a drawer. I truly felt great disappointment and profound sadness in discovering that I would not be able to join the Air Force precisely because of my pathology we celiacs can aspire to a career in the Fire Brigade and the Penitentiary Police, but not in the Police, Carabinieri and Army“. Speaking to the Dire agency’s microphones is 43-year-old Enrico Panaro, vice-president of the Italian Celiac Association since last year.
If he didn’t manage to become a military pilot, the number two of the >Aic however found its professional fulfillment in another area. “I managed to become a firefighter myself, a great satisfaction that I still carry with me today and that fills my heart with emotions every day, because giving to others is always an added value and an objective truly fundamental in the life of each of us”.
Let’s take a step back in time. We are in 1981, Enrico Panaro is 1 year old when he is diagnosed as celiac. “I was very young and I risked dying precisely because of malabsorption of food, because in those years this pathology was not known. At that time I didn’t even weigh a kilo, I could no longer assimilate any food , I was malnourished“.
“Fortunately – he continues – after several hospitalizations my mother and father managed to understand what the disease was and solved the problem with a gluten-free diet strong> To help me regain my ideal weight and strength, my mother prepared me up to 6 meals a day“.
Today her condition as a celiac patient has changed for the better. /strong>. “I must say that now my life is absolutely normal, it is made up of socializing and being together with other people without having any difficulty and without any difference compared to those who do not have to deal with this type of pathology. Undoubtedly up to 20 years ago the condition was very different, because all those rights acquired thanks to the work of the Association did not exist.
Yet there is no shortage of problems. “I still have some difficulties when I have to travel abroad for work. In France, for example, I find it difficult to make people understand what being celiac means and what the good methods are for being able to eat safely. They really don’t have the conception of contamination. If eating in France is really difficult for us celiacs, Spain and Great Britain instead have a really good level of knowledge“.
And Italy ? “Our country is truly at the forefront, it is an excellence to be copied and which other states should take as a model. In Italy, where there are more than 4,100 establishments informed directly by the Association and which manage to provide a suitable and safe meal to all celiacs, it would still be appropriate to increasingly implement information on the right and good practices to improve quality of life”.
In case of difficulty, however, Enrico Panaro brings with him what he ironically defines as “a real ‘safety kit’, consisting of a few snacks, even if by talking to people, doing a real training job and by explaining to them the nature of the problem, I am able to eat with my colleagues and be with them in peace”.
Then, smiling, he tells us a little secret. “Today the level of gluten-free products is very high, comparable to that of traditional products and there are many artisan laboratories that work really well but if I were to go astray, I would honestly like to eat a nice pizza< /strong>“.
The vice-president of the Italian Celiac Association then specifies that “those suffering from celiac disease can count on a voucher provided monthly by public health health cardand is called upon to compensate for the price difference between a normal product and a product for celiacs. This procedure has led to a significant saving on public spending, because the part that is not spent does not remain in the following month. The voucher is in fact canceled out and the amount due for that month is remitted. As an Association we are fighting to ensure that all regions adopt this type of payment”.
This is, however, a great achievement achieved by the AIC, also if “this voucher can only be used in the region of residence. A non-resident student, unless he takes up residence, is therefore forced to have a package sent from home with the products he can eat. As an Association we are working hard to allow national circularity of the voucher dedicated to celiac disease”.

Enrico Panaro is married and has two children, Melissa, 8, and Gabriele, 16, also diagnosed with celiac disease at the age of four, after chickenpox. “My son Gabriele, however, has an advantage, for him celiac disease is normal. Having me as a point of reference he has never had any difficulty even in declaring himself celiac. Let’s say that my presence in the house makes him it helped and he copes with his condition very well. On the other hand, when he was diagnosed with celiac disease, precisely because he had already experienced this type of problem at home, he told me “Dad, I’m finally like you”, demonstrating that sometimes the simplicity of children simplifies the lives of us adults. At home, however, my son knows how to behave and when he goes out to eat he is always very careful and socializes in complete serenity with friends”.
If the young Gabriele lives his condition well, this is above all thanks to a lot of information provided in these 45 years by the Italian Celiac Association. “We have focused a lot on the dissemination of truthful news and on contrasting the many, too many, fake news regarding celiac disease – says Enrico Panaro – and which we try to dispel precisely to provide correct information and avoid confusion One above all is the claim that a gluten-free diet helps you lose weight. It is fake news also dictated by the fact that some time ago several actors and actresses, especially American ones, promoted this type of diet to achieve goals. of weight and linked to aesthetics. All this, for us true celiacs, is a type of harmful information”.
But then, if we wanted to summarize it in a few words, what gluten-free life is like. >? “Thanks to the work of the Association it is a normal life. However, it is clear – he concludes – that we still need to work hard to increase information, because only through information can we aspire to have a fair and inclusive for all”.