Gluten is a combination of proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. For some Americans gluten is a problem.
One reason is an autoimmune condition called celiac disease. In this condition, the body reacts to proteins in gluten as though they were harmful. The immune responds by producing inflammation within the small intestine.
Inflammation is normally a healthful mechanism for fighting off harmful invaders. With celiac disease, the response is misdirected. Celiac disease can lead to diarrhea, gas, bloating, constipation, or any of more than 300 other symptoms—and possibly to more serious problems such as anemia, infertility, or cancer.
Getting Diagnosed:
If your physician suspects you might have celiac disease, diagnosis typically takes place in three steps. The first is usually a blood analysis that tests for high levels of certain antibodies typical of celiac. If the blood test results warrant further examination, your doctor may recommend an intestinal biopsy, an outpatient procedure that removes a small amount of intestinal tissue for evaluation. Should the biopsy reveal damaged villi in your small intestine, then the last and conclusive test is undertaken: the gluten-free diet.
A celiac patient who follows a gluten-free diet—and stays away from wheat, rye, and barley in all their forms—stands an excellent chance of preventing further damage to the intestine wall. The villi will heal or grow back and nutritional deficiencies can be corrected.
Gluten Sensitivity:
What if the diagnosis is negative, yet you still feel uncomfortable after eating bread, cereals, or pasta? As many as one person in seven experiences what’s called a wheat intolerance. Unlike celiac disease, the symptoms of wheat intolerance may not appear for two or three days after ingestion, and that makes the condition hard to diagnose.
Symptoms may include bloating, cramping, diarrhea, flatulence, or constipation. Skin rashes are a possibility, as well as food cravings, tiredness, chronic fatigue, or just feeling generally unwell. Even depression can stem from wheat intolerance. But remember: Other food allergies can also produce uncomfortable symptoms. Its not hard to see how difficult it can be to detect. Often your doctor will recommend an elimination diet.
Where to Start:
If you decide to go gluten free, the best way to begin is to remove from your diet all protein deriving in any way from wheat, barley, rye, or the hybrids of those grains. All other foods are safe, with the possible exception of oats, about which there is some difference of opinion among researchers. Some believe that moderate consumption of oats is allowable on a gluten-free diet, although there does remain the issue of cross-contamination—that is, gluten finding its way into oats during harvesting, shipment, or processing. (For that reason, several producers of oats certify their products to be ìgluten free.î)
But giving up wheat leaves does not mean the end of wonderful eating. There are a lot of tasty alternatives. Consider, for example, millet, rice, sorghum, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, and wild rice.
Food labels are your friends. If a food product contains wheat or wheat protein, the word ìwheatî must be on its label. You will also want to look out for the following ingredients, which may contain traces of wheat: modified food starch, dextrin, maltodextrin, caramel, and glucose syrup. Wheat can pop up in such products as beer, bouillon cubes, candy, sauces, seasoned tofu, and soy products.
For myself, I am allergic to wheat, yeast, and gluten, but I am not a celiac patient. The inflammation I experience occurs in my lungs and esophagus. Think breathing and you’ll understand why I eat very little wheat. My blood test came back positive for allergies to those three items. Why do I share that with you? Being proactive with your health is giving yourself a fighting chance. Until I pushed hard enough to get a blood test done to test for allergies, I was put on steroids and an inhaler to control the inflammation so I could breath properly. If you are experiencing any of the issues mentioned please seek your doctor’s help but you don’t have to wait for a prescription to try a wheat (gluten free diet). Go without for 30 days if you notice a difference, then viola you’ve got some relief and a few answers.
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