You may have heard of this “fad” in which people are eating gluten-free. Although some people may eat gluten free because it’s “trending” right now, there are people who actually have to eat gluten free to remain healthy and happy. These people are people with celiac disease. You may have heard of this condition by its more common name, as a gluten allergy or gluten sensitivity. Many people worldwide live with this condition, including myself, and many people walk around not knowing that they have it.
What is celiac disease, you may ask? The Celiac Disease Foundation, or the CDF, defines celiac disease as “a serious auto-immune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.” Well, what exactly is gluten? If you didn’t already know, gluten is a protein that is found in wheat, barley, malt, and rye. Many people think that gluten is wheat itself, but it’s not, it’s the protein found in it. When a person with celiac ingests gluten, their body triggers an immune response where the body attacks the small intestine. This causes damage on the villi, which are small fingerlike projections that line the small intestine. The villi contain specialized cells that transport substances into the bloodstream and help the body absorb nutrients. When gluten is ingested, the villi lay flat on the surface of the small intestine which prevents nutrients being able to be absorbed by the body. Thomas DeLaure, a celebrity trainer, in his video “The Reason We Avoid Gluten” says that when nutrients can’t be absorbed, they can’t get into the muscles and nothing is being processed, the body goes into starvation mode because it isn’t getting the nutrients it needs. This leads to malnourishment. When you don’t get enough calories and you’re not absorbing the nutrients your body needs, your cortisol levels rise and your body starts holding onto fat because it thinks it’s starving. If you’re looking to drop a few pounds, you might want to consider eating gluten-free. I know I lost about 10 pounds when I first cut gluten out of my diet.
When I say many people are affected by this condition, I mean 1 in 10 people worldwide. That’s 1% of the world population. And according to the CDF, two and a half million Americans are undiagnosed and are at risk for long-term health complications. Some people have symptoms and some don’t. Damage is still caused to the intestine either way. Children are more likely to have digestive symptoms than adults. These digestive symptoms include but aren’t limited to abdominal bloating and pain, chronic diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, and can be accompanied by other symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue, irritability and behavioral issues, dental enamel effects on permanent teeth, delayed growth and puberty, and ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Adults more commonly have symptoms of fatigue, unexplained iron deficiency, bone or joint pain, arthritis, anxiety and or depression, seizures or migraines, peripheral neuropathy which is tingling, numbness or pain in the hands and feet, missed menstrual periods, infertility and miscarriages, dermatitis herpetiformis, or an itchy skin rash. The constant exposure of gluten to a body with celiac can even lead to intestinal cancers.
If you or your child have any of these symptoms, they may be due to celiac. The CDF has a symptom checklist on their website where you can check off your symptoms and answer a few questions and it will tell you if it’s possible that you have celiac disease. If it seems that celiac is the issue, you can either go ahead and convert to a gluten-free diet, or if you want to know for sure, there are two tests that your doctor can run. The doctor can run a blood test, or you can undergo an endoscopic intestinal biopsy where a gastroenterologist takes a piece of the small intestine and analyzes it to see if there is any damage due to celiac. The CDF says that the diagnosis can be confirmed after seeing improvement after switching to a gluten free diet. Unfortunately, these tests require you to eat gluten consistently for a period of time before the test, and they can be costly, and as of right now there are no treatments for this condition. The only way to avoid discomfort and prevent damage is to take gluten completely out of your diet. My mom didn’t want to put me through the pain and discomfort of eating gluten and didn’t want to give me any anxiety about having to get tested, so we just took gluten out of my diet and guess what! No more symptoms, no more pain, no more inflammation. So, if you have these symptoms and want to avoid the pain on your body and your wallet, I suggest trying a gluten free diet and see if your symptoms go away. It’s hard at first but it’s so worth it, trust me.
Removing gluten from your diet means no more bread, pizza, pasta, cookies, cake, etc. right? Wrong! Luckily there are many more options for people eating gluten-free now than ever. Food companies, such as Udi’s and Glutino, have come out with gluten free pizzas, pastas, breads, cookies, brownies, you name it. There are even restaurants that are catering to us gluten free people, that have gluten free menus so there are no guessing games when it comes to ordering your food. Even Domino’s Pizza is getting in on the action! Websites such as celiacrestaurantguide.com, glutenfreepassport.com, and findmeglutenfree.com, just to name a few, provide a list of restaurants that provide gluten free menus or gluten free options. This makes deciding on where to eat so much easier, as I know from experience that it can be hard sometimes.
No, not all things gluten-free taste just like normal foods, but at least it’s not causing damage to our bodies, right? I’m not saying it will be easy, as a girl who loves bread and has an Italian grandma who makes delicious gluten filled Italian meals, it was hard for me to adjust. But I would rather modify those yummy Italian meals to be gluten free than to go through so much discomfort and cause damage to my body. Gluten free foods have come a long way since they were first developed, and since I found out 8 years ago that I needed to be gluten free. Now, most of the gluten free food tastes so good you can’t even tell that it is gluten free, as it tastes just like the real thing. I hope after hearing me talk about celiac disease today you now know what celiac disease is, how it affects the body, the symptoms and diagnosis of celiac, and how to live a gluten free life on a gluten free diet.
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