This site is here to help people with Gluten related diseases. It is not ad supported, nor do I receive any compensation from the manufacturers of the products I have mentioned. Through trial and error, I have tried many products that "should" have been Gluten Free, but weren't because of cross contamination in the manufacturing and packaging processes. I am extremely Gluten sensitive and have had no reaction to any of these products.
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Support from family members
It is very important as you begin your Gluten Free Life to thoroughly discuss and educate other members of your family who don't have to follow a Gluten Free diet that just a small amount of gluten could make you very ill. They need to know that by dipping a utensil back into a jar of jelly after spreading some on their wheat toast that they have contaminated the whole jar. If you unknowingly use the jelly on your Gluten Free toast, your safe Gluten Free food is no longer safe for you to eat. The same goes for butter, mayonnaise and any other product that could be contaminated in this manner.
What causes Celiac Disease?
Certain grains, mainly wheat, barley, rye and oats contain a substance called gluten. There is a molecule in gluten that can not be fully broken down by the digestive systems of some people. Those of us with this disease have an allergic reaction to this molecule. Our immune system sees gluten as an enemy and sends out antibodies to attack it. This is similar to how our body fights a cold or the flu.
Gluten is sticky. It's the part of flour that makes pizza and bread dough stretchy. When gluten passes through our digestive system it coats the lining of the intestine. The antibodies that our auto immune system sends out to attack the gluten also attack the lining of our intestines. This causes inflammation. This can cause various symptoms from mild gas and indigestion to extremely painful stomach cramps. The symptoms can be similar to and often mistaken for irritable bowel syndrome. The longer you are exposed to this auto immune reaction, the worse the symptoms will get. The villi, a hairlike part of the intestine will eventually become damaged and flattened. The function of the villi is to provide digestive enzymes and to absorb nutrients. When they are damaged, our digestion becomes compromised.
Most people with Celiac Disease are affected to some degree from early childhood, but the longer the disease goes untreated, the more the intestinal lining becomes inflamed and the more the villi is damaged. You may experience flu like symptoms, fatigue, depression, anxiety, dermatitis, sensitivity to light, diarrhea, flatulence, mucous discharge and bleeding. In extreme cases, untreated Celiac Disease can lead to a life threatening situation such as a twisted or ruptured bowel or lymphoma. If you have been plagued with digestive problems for years, it is very possible that you have Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease.
Why hasn't my doctor diagnosed this disease?
Most doctors know very little about the disease. It's not a new disease but up until recently, research efforts have been minimal. If you're lucky, you may find a doctor who is knowledgeable about the disease. I have found as a general rule, that younger doctors are more up to date on the subject. A good source of information is from people who have the disease. There are internet forums and in some cities, there are support groups where people who have the disease get together and share their personal experiences as well as gluten free recipes, safe restaurants to eat in and a lot more.
Most doctors practice Western Medicine
Doctors in general treat symptoms by prescribing medications. Most general practitioners are not trained to find the cause of many of the less common diseases. Doctors seldom recommend a change of diet unless you have diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.
If you have Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease, a doctor may assume that you have IBS and tell you to eat a diet high in grains and natural fiber. If you are not comfortable with the diagnosis, let your doctor know that you don't agree. Ask your doctor to reconsider based on your symptoms or to refer you to a specialist.
There is reason to believe that Autism and Fibromyalgia are gluten related. Again, do some research and see a specialist. Prescription drugs do not cure any of these diseases. They are only a bandaid, and even though they may make you feel better for a short while, they are only allowing more damage to occur to your body.
How can I be sure I have this disease?
There are two types of tests a doctor can use to "possibly" diagnose whether you are gluten intolerant or not. One is a blood test that specifically looks for gliadin antibodies. For this test to work properly, you must be eating gluten containing foods at the time of the testing. If you have already started a gluten free diet and it is making you feel better, chances are that you won't want to start eating gluten again.
The other test is a biopsy of a small piece of intestinal tissue. Both tests have been known to produce a high percentage of false negative results. Biopsies are extremely expensive.
The best test for me was to simply quit eating gluten containing foods for a week . After only a few days, I was feeling much better. After a week of eating Gluten Free, I gave myself a gluten challenge by eating gluten one more time. That was the last time I intentionally ate gluten. When you quit eating Gluten, the antibodies are still there just waiting for something to attack. That will even make you more sensitive to Gluten. This is also why cross contamination becomes more of an issue when you have started a Gluten Free diet.
I am not saying that you shouldn't be tested. I am somewhat biased from many years of being misdiagnosed. If there is a doctor in your area who specializes in autoimmune disorders, it would be a good idea to be tested. For me, that wasn't an option.
Denial
Denial is an automatic reaction to being diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease. One reason is that we have been eating grains all of our lives. Wheat, Barley and Rye are good for us......or are they? I believe that such grains were created for wildlife to eat rather than humans. Even the digestive system of a healthy person has a difficult time digesting these grains. If we look at other cultures, for example, the Asians. The ones who stick to traditional Asian foods are in general very healthy people. They eat very little wheat if any at all. They have a lot of energy and don't age as quickly as people who eat a diet of wheat. If you think about it, we eat a lot of wheat! The second reason for denial is due to the desire to eat the foods we are used to eating and the feeling of panic about what will we eat if we don't eat wheat. Getting over denial is a big stepping stone, but once you go Gluten Free, you will find that there are many interesting foods that will satisfy your hunger and make you feel better at the same time.
How long will it take for me to get well?
Now that you have eliminated the gluten containing grains from your diet and are feeling better you will need six months to a year to heal, possibly longer depending on how much damage was done. If the damage has gone on for many years you may never feel 100% better, but you will feel much better.
At times you may not feel that the healing process is progressing fast enough. This will be especially the case if you accidentally eat something that contains gluten. It will be a minor setback but no matter how careful you are, IT WILL HAPPEN! You will learn from your experiences. You just have to take it in stride and learn from your mistakes. Be patient! Even though you won't immediately feel 100% better, you will feel better than when you were eating gluten.
Where can I find more information about this disease
There is a lot of information available on the internet. The disease is still being studied, so no one knows all of the answers, and there is a lot of argument on the subject. You need to read everything you can find and then make your own decisions. There are a number of Celiac forums where people share their views and experiences. Some of them accept alternative therapies and some don't. In the end, you must do what it takes to make YOU feel good. If after beginning a gluten free diet you are feeling better, it is a sign of getting well.
Alternative Diets
I was recently introduced to a very informative non commercial website called Gluten Free Eugene. The main focus of this site is is staying gluten free by using natural whole foods. This is a good way to avoid cross contamination. No more label reading or contacting manufacturers to find out if their products are safe for a person with Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease.
There are links to a lot of other informative sites, including places to buy gluten free foods, sources for books on various related subjects and lots of delicious looking gluten free recipes with color photographs.
I just can't say enough about all of the great information contained within. I have spent hours at this website and will be going back to read more. Don't miss this great site!
Fibromyalgia or Celiac Disease?
Many people have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. The symptoms of Fibromyalgia and Celiac Disease are the very similar. Celiac Disease has been called "The great pretender." It can cause symptoms mimicking irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, muscle and joint pain, depression, anxiety, dermatitis, brain fog and a number of other symptoms. Many doctors treat people for Fibromyalgia and never take into consideration that they should be looking for the possibility of a food allergy. If your doctor diagnoses you with Fibromyalgia, he may prescribe Lyrica. Lyrica is an anticonvulsant meant to keep epileptics from having seizures. It comes with a number of negative side effects, including the possibilities of suicidal thoughts. The success record for the drug to help someone diagnosed with Fibromyalgia is that half of the people who use it have about a 30% improvement. That isn't very good odds, especially when taking a drug meant for an entirely different purpose and having many negative side effects. One interesting common side effect is that it may cause is muscle pain! Aren't we trying to eliminate muscle pain? You may also get a prescription for muscle relaxants, a prescription for antidepressants and possibly a prescription for pain relievers, but more than likely your doctor will recommend that you take aspirin or ibuprufin.
When you make a doctors appointment, you are hoping for something that will make you well. You tell the doctor your symptoms. He takes your blood pressure, your temperature, looks at your eyes, ears, nose and throat. What does he see? Nothing unusual, but he needs to make a diagnosis or tell you there is nothing wrong with you. All of his observations show him that there is nothing wrong with you. Why? Because he is looking in the wrong place! The common practice is to diagnose these symptoms as Fibromyalgia, write you a few prescriptions and tell you to come back in a couple of months. Has anyone ever been cured of Fibromyalgia by taking medications? Not that I have ever heard of or read about. Why? Simply because Fibromyalgia is a name someone gave to a group of symptoms that are most likely caused by food allergies and very possibly leaky gut syndrome. The allergy that is causing these symptoms is most likely gluten related, but could possibly be an allergy to something else such as milk, corn, nuts or even fungus overgrowth in the intestines. I had all of the symptoms of Fibromyalgia since childhood, but they all went away shortly after I went on a Gluten Free diet five years ago and began taking probiotics to get rid of the fungus growth.
What is the common link between Fibromyalgia and Celiac Disease?
Over time, Celiac Disease can cause Leaky Gut Syndrome. This happens because the antibodies that have been attacking the intestinal lining have weakened it enough that the permeability of the gut has been compromised and is allowing larger particles to be absorbed into the bloodstream. This can cause a variety of ailments including muscle and joint pain. If you have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia you might want to try a Gluten Free diet to see if you begin to feel better. It takes time for a leaky gut to heal, so your symptoms may not immediately go away but you should feel some results within weeks and your energy level should come back as your other symptoms improve. Here is an interesting account of someone who got their life back by going on a Gluten Free diet.
Connecting The Dots
There is evidence that people with Autism, IBS and Fibromyalgia often do better on a Gluten Free diet. It could be very possible that these diseases are really symptoms of Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease.
Anxiety And Depression
Many people suffer anxieties and depression. Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease could be major contributors to these afflictions. When there is any allergic reaction in the body, the system is at war. It is working overtime to combat the allergens. This is overworking the adrenal glands and can cause adrenal fatigue. As the available adrenal fluids are used up, the person becomes fatigued, spacey feeling and can develop anxieties or depression. Cross Contamination
When you decide to live a Gluten Free Life, cross contamination needs to be of major concern to you. You may become so sensitive to gluten that only a crumb from another persons wheat toast in the butter dish could make you ill for days.
The methods of food processing and packaging are always changing, so you need to keep up on news of current manufacturing processes. If you feel that you are doing everything right, but still feel sick, there is probably a good reason for it. In other words, you are still getting gluten from something you are eating. It's a good idea to keep a journal or good mental notes of what you eat at each meal, and whether you have changed brands of any of the ingredients you are using. You won't always get an immediate reaction to gluten. You may not feel anything until the next day as the food passes through your system. This could make you think that what you ate for breakfast made you sick when it was really something you ate the day before.
If you keep notes of what you eat and note when you feel badly, you can soon decide which foods are making you sick and eliminate others as the possible cause. Even though the labelon a product doesn't show any gluten containing ingredients, many manufacturers process a number of products on the same equipment. Tomato products are a good example. When a plant makes one product in a large vat, they rinse out the vat. A lot of manufacturers don't thoroughly clean their vats before they make a similar product. This saves them time and money.
Remember, gluten is sticky. It requires soap, hot water and scrubbing to completely remove it. It takes very little gluten to contaminate a whole batch of the next product that is being made. A good example would be a tomato processing plant where they are making a batch of pizza sauce. They might use a small quantity of wheat flour to thicken the sauce. Next, they rinse the vat and start making tomato sauce, tomato paste or some other item you wouldn't suspect of containing gluten. Reading the label on the can tells you that the ingredients are tomatoes and salt. The heat from the cooking process and the acids from the tomatoes can dissolve the residual gluten from the vat.
Even though the label doesn't say the tomato sauce contains wheat, it probably contains enough to make a gluten intolerant person sick. I personally had problems with two of the major brands of tomato products. I found that Contadina brand worked well for me, but the stores in our area quit stocking it. It is probably still safe, but it would be best to check the forums or contact the manufacturer for the current status on their products. I have been using Muir Glen tomato products for about two years with no problems. They have a large variety of products and all of them are made from organically grown tomatoes that are grown in their own fields.
Products that share the same equipment to package glutenous and non gluten products can transfer gluten to a product that would normally be safe for you to eat. The more educated you become about manufacturing procedures of the products you eat, the better the chances are that you will choose safe products to eat.
More on Cross Contamination
Cross contamination can happen anywhere. Just by setting your food on a counter where someone else has previously made a sandwich can transfer enough gluten to your food to give you a reaction. How about kissing someone who has recently eaten food containing gluten? Eventually you will lick your lips or eat something and you have just eaten gluten without being aware of it.
In a restaurant, explain to your server that you have an allergy to wheat. Most staff members will go out of their way to make sure your food isn't contaminated. It may seem awkward or even embarrassing at first, but they are dealing with more people all of the time that have the same needs as you.
Ask questions about how the food is prepared and what the ingredients are. If your server doesn't know, most of them will be glad to ask the cook or chef. It's far better to ask questions than to end up sick. If they make a mistake and put onion rings on top of your steak as a garnish, or put croutons on your salad, don't take them off and eat the food anyway. Ask them nicely to prepare you a new serving.
Thank your server for the special attention, and make sure to tip them well. It's worth a few extra dollars to keep from getting sick.
Don't order the French Fries!
Most restaurants serve a variety of deep fried food. Many of them are dipped in a wheat flour batter. Some also use beer in their batter. Beer also contains gluten. Even though some french fries are gluten free, the oil in the deep fryer is contaminated by other foods previously cooked in it. Potatoes absorb a lot of oil when they are fried. This probably seems like common knowledge, but you would be surprised how many people order french fries thinking they are safe to eat and not thinking about what else was previously cooked in the oil.
When is 100% ground beef not Gluten Free?
100% ground beef should be gluten free, right? This is not always the case. Many meat cases that display unpackaged meats on trays have other items in them that contain wheat. A lot of them display items such as stuffed pork chops, stuffed cornish game hens or stuffed chicken breasts. This could be a source of cross contamination. When ground beef is prepackaged, you may have a reaction to it too. Many processing facilities use a mixer to evenly distribute the meat to fat content. Often, these mixers are also used to mix pork sausage, which contains a seasoning consisting of spices, sugar and wheat flour. If there is any residue of wheat left in the mixer, the ground beef will contain a small amount of gluten, most likely enough to make you sick. The way to beat this is to buy an inexpensive cut of meat like chuck steak and grind it yourself at home with a food processor. Chuck steak works well, because it is fairly lean, yet has enough fat content to make good steak burger. Your other option is that most butchers will gladly grind and package it for you at no extra charge without putting it into a mixer. The quality and flavor of the ground chuck steak is much better anyway. If you buy a family pack, it usually won't cost you any more than buying lean ground beef.
Wash Your Hands! When you touch a shared object such as a doorknob, a computer keyboard or anything another person touches, there is a good chance that someone else touched it before you. If they were eating a sandwich, a pastry, a slice of pizza or anything else that contains gluten, it will transfer onto your hands when you touch it. If you handle food that you are going to eat or for some reason put your fingers in your mouth or on your lips, you are transferring gluten into your body. Wash often!
When is soy Sauce not Soy Sauce?
Most soy sauce is not made from soy beans at all. Read the labels. Most of them are actually made from wheat. I have found two products that are gluten free and taste delicious. One of my favorites isEden Organic Tamari. It is not as salty as traditional soy sauce and is slightly sweeter. Another one that is really good is San-J Organics. It tastes more like traditional soy sauce but still has a distinctive flavor that will make you glad you tried it.
Dairy Products
You may or may not experience problems from eating dairy products. It depends on how much damage has been done to the villi. The villi secreteslactase, which helps digest lactose, the milk sugars in dairy products. If the villi is severely damaged, you may become lactose intolerant. Butter shouldn't be a problem since it is mostly milk fat. As cheese ages, the lactose is digested by the enzymes that makes milk into cheese. The more well aged the cheese, the less lactose it will contain. Milk has more lactose than butter or cheese, so it is more likely to upset your stomach if you are lactose intolerant. There are a number of products available to help digest lactose. The longer you heal, the more healthy the villi will become. After you have healed, you may have fewer problems digesting lactose. You will have to gauge how much you can tolerate as the healing progresses. Just try a small amount and increase it a little at a time.
Fungus
You may find that eating mushrooms, yeast and taking some antibiotics will give you symptoms similar to eating gluten.
If your doctor is going to prescribe antibiotics, this might be something for you to discuss with him. Some antibiotics are more tolerable than others. Some of these more tolerable antibiotics are considerably more expensive than the common ones. If you don't have a prescription plan, ask your doctor to look up the cost of the drug before he writes the prescription. He can help you choose an antibiotic that is tolerable to your system at a cost that suits your budget.
You need to be careful with yeast. Some yeast is grown using wheat for it's source of nutrition and is contaminated. All Red Star Yeast products are gluten free.
As you heal, you will have a desire to reintroduce some of the non gluten foods that at first didn't agree with you. Go slowly! Try to add small amounts of one food ingredient at a time . That way, if something doesn't agree with you, you won't have to play a guessing game to figure out which one is causing problems for you.
Do oats really contain Gluten?
The answer to this question is yes and no. There is a lot of controversy on this subject. Oats themselves do not contain gluten, but most oats you buy most likely will. There are two reasons for this. One reason is that a lot of growers alternate crops between oats and wheat, barley or rye. When these volunteer grains come up among the oats, they end up being milled along with the oats.
The other cause is cross contamination. Most grain mills use the same equipment to process many grains. It is much more cost effective for a granary to use the same machinery to process many products rather than to have a different facility for each grain they process. A good safe source for gluten free oats and other gluten free products is Bob's Red Mill. Their oats are grown in dedicated fields where no other glutenous grains are grown. The oats are thoroughly inspected before they are processed. They are processed in a dedicated facility and every batch is tested using the R5 Elisa testing method as are all of their products bearing the gluten free logo.
With any milled products, don't assume that just because it is a gluten free grain that it is safe to eat. I have found that it is worth the extra cost to buy certified gluten free products. I have never had any problems with products that are milled, tested and packaged in a dedicated plant.
Rice is Nice.......Gluten Free Too!
There are many varieties of rice. Most of us think of white rice, brown rice and wild rice, but there is much more available. A few that we really enjoy are Basmati rice and Jasmin rice. All varieties of rice have their own distinctive flavor and aroma. A good source for rice as well as rice cakes that come in many varieties is Lundberg Family Farms. Their products are gluten free and the rice is grown at their own farm in the United States.
A warning about rice. Make sure you aren't buying "enriched" rice. Enriched rice has added supplements that could possibly contain gluten. If you choose to use these products, check first with the manufacturer to see if they can verify that all of the added ingredients are gluten free.
Pasta
Better than wheat pasta by far is Tinkyada brown rice pasta. It comes in just about any variety you can think of from spaghetti to elbow macaroni and lasagna just to name a few. Rice is a harder grain than wheat, so it takes longer to cook, but worth the extra effort. Rice pasta holds up better as leftovers too. It doesn't turn to mush when you reheat it.
Insurance
Our bodies make their own digestive enzymes and raw foods contain enzymes that will aid in the digestion of our foods. However, since we cook much of our food, the enzymes in the foods are destroyed. As we age, our bodies production of enzymes slow down or we are using the enzymes our body makes faster than they are being produced. Our systems become enzyme "poor". We may need assistance from a supplement.
I have used some digestive aids since shortly after I started my gluten free diet. I always carry some of them in a pill box and take a few for insurance after eating a meal in a restaurant. Recently, a company named Enzymedica came out with a new product called GlutenEase. This product offers the best protection when you suspect or know that you have eaten foods that have more gluten than just a little cross contamination. The day I bought my first bottle of GlutenEase, I unknowingly ate some food in a restaurant that contained enough wheat to make me very sick. I found out during the meal that I was eating something that had a lot of hidden wheat in it. I immediately quit eating the contaminated food, but it was too late, or was it? Before dinner I had put two capsules of GlutenEase in my pill box in case of an emergency like this. I immediately took the two GlutenEase that were in my pill box and then took two more when I got home. The next morning, I had very minor symptoms from the wheat. By that afternoon, all symptoms were gone. Without GlutenEase, I would have been sick for three days.
I have personally found Enzymedica's product Acid Soothe to be my everyday favorite digestive aid. If you have Celiac Disease, your digestion is probably not working as well as it should. After five years on a strict gluten free diet, I still find my digestion to be slower than normal due to damaged villi that have not completely come back to their normal healthy state, and probably never will. The enzymes in Acid Soothe help speed up my digestion and get rid of that full feeling and also help stop acid reflux which is a common symptom of celiac disease. When I eat in a restaurant I automatically take two capsules after the meal to avoid any possible problems from cross contamination. My meal digests more quickly and I don't get sick. However, if you accidentally eat a large quantity of gluten, GlutenEase is a better choice.
Enzymedica has a variety of different enzyme formulas. See their website for more details. You can also call or email for help in choosing the right enzyme combination for you.
I want to make it very clear that I would not recommend taking GlutenEase and intentionally eating gluten, but it is very good insurance when you accidentally do. I am not recommending that anyone who knows they have gluten intolerance or celiac disease use these enzymes as a license to intentionally eat gluten. That was never the intention of any of the enzyme manufacturers. It can still do more damage to your system even if you don't feel bad.
Avoid gluten and only use the enzymes for additional digestive help or additional support if you suspect accidental ingestion of gluten through cross contamination or unknown safe sources of foods. Don't wait until you feel gluten sick to take the enzymes. That would be like buying insurance on your car after you are involved in an auto accident. It just doesn't work! Take them if you are eating out or eating at a friend or relative's house. People who don't have this disease don't understand how a minute amount of gluten can make you sick. Chew your food well and make sure that it mixes well with your saliva. There are enzymes in saliva that help break down the food you eat.
There are other brands of enzymes on the market that have similar formulas and many people have reported positive results in using these enzymes as a general digestive aid and for protection against accidental cross contamination.
