Tim Coda certainly wasn't.

Seven years ago, when a blood test revealed that the Sugar House resident was gluten-intolerant, he thought turkey was one of the few things he could eat during the holidays.

"Then I found out if you put the bread into the turkey, the gluten infuses the turkey," he says. "It's hard to walk into someone's home and ask, 'Did you stuff the bird?' "

Gluten intolerance, also known as celiac disease, strikes about one in 133 Americans, according to the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America. Gluten, a sticky substance found in wheat, rye and barley, causes inflammation in the intestines of people who have the disease.

They often go undernourished and are irritable and uncomfortable from the flulike symptoms that accompany the disorder.

Coda and his wife, Marcie, help run the Salt Lake chapter of the Utah Gluten Intolerance Group. After researching what gluten-intolerant people, also known as celiacs, could and could not eat, the couple decided to have their own Thanksgiving feast to share what they had learned with others.

"There is such an emotional connection between food and the holidays, it can be a trying time," says Marcie Coda, who is not gluten-intolerant but eats and bakes that way when she's at home.

The couple held the first gluten-free Thanksgiving feast in their home with two guests. Two years ago, they moved the event to a local church after attendance sprung to about 200.

It is one of the few times the Gatlin family of Riverton can enjoy a meal together outside of their own home, says Pat Gatlin, whose wife and three of their five children are celiacs.

"I've never been to a Thanksgiving dinner with my wife and kids when they could eat the pie and the dessert and the stuffing and everything on the table and not worry about where it came from or what was in it," says Gatlin, who attended the feast for the first time last year.

Even seasoned veterans like the Codas say they learn something new every year.

Tim Coda recently found out that Funyuns, the snack food is gluten-free. So he plans to use them in place of the flour-coated, crispy fried onions in one of his favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

"There's your new take on the green-bean casserole," he says. "Or you can use rice crackers."

Buying gluten-free foods is not always as inexpensive or as easy as buying a bag of chips.

The Codas say they are lucky because they have a small family and can afford to cook one version of every meal when they are cooking at home.

"A one-pound package of traditional pasta costs about a dollar and will feed a family of eight," Tim says. "Gluten-free pasta is about $7 and you can't afford to feed the whole family that way without it becoming a huge financial burden."

If you go

* The Gluten-Free Pre-Thanksgiving Feast will be Saturdayat the Wasatch Presbyterian Church Hall, 1700 South and 1700 East, in Salt Lake City.

* Dinner will be served from 3 to 5 p.m.

* Cost is $10 per person or $20 for families or groups of four. Guests are encouraged to bring a gluten-free side dish to share.

* For more information, visit the group's Web site at http://www.gfutah.org.