Celiac disease and a gluten-free diet
About 1% of people in the world are gluten-intolerant or have celiac disease. That means they can’t eat any products containing wheat (also rye, barley, and sometimes oats), or their intestines’ ability to extract nutrients from foods can be destroyed. That leaves the sufferer open to the possibility of malnutrition, anemia, osteoporosis or cancer. Nice, huh?
I found out I was gluten-intolerant a few years ago, when the KC Star ran a full-page story about the condition. Before that, I had been eliminating various foods from my diet, one by one, trying to detect which was the baddie causing my intestinal problems. It never occurred to me that my favorite foods — pasta, bread, crackers, cookies and bagels — could be the culprits. I eliminated wheat products from my diet, and wonder of wonders, the symptoms disappeared.
Hey! Rice Chex and some other Chex products are now gluten-free!
How did I go all my life without symptoms and have them suddenly appear? That’s a mystery to me. It’s a hereditary condition, but maybe, like cancer, you can have the “X factor” for it but not get symptoms unless stress sets them off. I can tell you, being a freelancer has its share of stressors.
Now I buy gluten-free bread (though I have made some in my breadmaker), pizza, cookies and crackers, as well as gluten-free frozen dinners. But lately, I’ve been cooking more because of the high cost of gluten-free foods.
Actually, it’s not too hard or expensive to cook gluten-free. You just have to avoid the middle aisles in the grocery store (where processed foods, most of which contain wheat, barley or rye, are shelved) and learn to read the mouse print on food packages.
The items around the perimeter of the store — fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken and beef — are gluten-free. So is tofu, which is a good protein source. Rice and potatoes are gluten-free and cheap. You still have to buy expensive gluten-free pasta, though, and there is no such thing as a good gluten-free bagel, darn it. But with a little extra effort in planning and cooking, you can eat well and healthily without smashing your piggy bank.
As it turns out, you may get a tax deduction for the extra amount you have to pay for gluten-free products versus non-gluten-free products. And if you have a cafeteria plan at work, you may be able to sock money away in it to pay the difference.
Truly, I believe more than 1% of the population is gluten-intolerant; they just don’t know what is wrong with them. As this article points out, there are no medications to treat celiac disease, so doctors, who receive most of their information from pharma reps, don’t know much about it. Gluten intolerance often goes undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed as irritable bowel symptom, Crohn’s or other disorder.
If you suspect wheat may be causing you problems, find out more here, even more here. And everything you can imagine wanting to know about the disease and its symptoms at Celiac.com.
All that’s needed to diagnose celiac disease is an inexpensive blood test. So if you suspect you may have it, get thee to a doctor for the test.
Or, if you want to try gluten-free living first and see if it makes a difference, you can find loads of gluten-free recipes online. Just Google. And good luck and good health to you.
