Gluten-Free Diets: Latest Fad?

I'm not a doctor, but this info contradicts what my doctor tells me. For one, you can be allergic to wheat and grain (and therefore follow a gluten-free diet) without having celiac disease. Also, the blood test for celiac disease isn't reliable. The only trustworthy test for celiac disease is for a doctor to take a biopsy of your intestines after eating gluten.

My personal story: I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and was too ill to work. I'm not just saying this - I was seriously sick. I was bed-ridden and could only hold a book for a few minutes at a time. Under doctor's supervision I went on a gluten-free diet (even though my blood work for celiac disease came back negative). I was able to return to work within a month.

I've been on a gluten-free diet for 3 years now and I still don't know if I have celiac or not. I have a biopsy scheduled at Stanford Medical Center in June. That should tell me for sure. But if it comes out negative, it just means I'm allergic, not celiac.

I do understand the fear that gluten-free diets will become a fad. I've talked to people who aren't sick who think they should try a gluten-free diet just becuase they heard about it on NPR. But on the flip side, there is a bit of a stigma attached to this diet. I hope no one who reads this blog will look donwn their nose at people like me.

Thanks for bringing some excellent balance to this post. Your story serves as a great encouragement for people with similar health problems.
-Jim

Hey Deborah - I just wanted to mention that if you have been gluten free for the last three years your biopsy will be negative even if you have celiac disease.

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All of the products created by Carbs A Weigh Inc. are wheat/gluten free, and have no sugar added. More importantly is how delicious all the food is. Muscarello explained, ? There is nothing worse than being on a restricted diet due to illness or an allergy and the constant daily reminder you have of that illness or allergy, due to poor tasting food!? Carbs A Weigh Inc. sells under two brand names, Comfy Cuisine ? and Comfy Carbs ?. Both brands are similar in product attributes; wheat/gluten free, no sugar added, low carb and delicious tasting. The Comfy Cuisine ? line is made with all natural ingredients with no additives or preservatives.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
John Muscarello
Carbs A Weigh Inc.
100 Nancy Street
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John@carbsaweigh.com
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I struggle with obesity and I have heard that a gluten free diet can reduce cravings that cause me to binge.

Has anybody ever heard of Gluten free for weight loss or food addiction???

I can't tell you how glad I am that gluten-free food is the latest trend- my 12yo son has just been tentatively diagnosed with coeliac disease following a gastroscopy (the surgeon saw damage consistent with coeliac disease looking down the scope, but until we get the histology results tomorrow he has to keep eating normally, in case he needs more tests). It's good to know that he will be able to eat many of the foods he likes, even if that's just because silly people think they've found another easy way to lose weight without exercise and dietary restraint! Of course, it would be interesting to let those people spend a day with my son's condition and see how "cool" this trend really is- he enjoys a range of symptoms including vomiting, pain, nausea, constipation, halitosis and rectal bleeding- all great topics for discussion at your favorite inner city cafe, assuming you're well enough to get there! Oh yes, and his risk of intestinal cancer is greatly increased unless he faithfully adheres to the diet for the rest of his life, even if his syptoms disappear forever.
BTW Deborah, you are confusing the words "allergic" and "intolerant". An allergic reaction involves the realease of histamines and can be fatal (like a peanut allergy).

Amber, from what I hear it is worth giving it a try. The theory behind it is that if you are gluten-sensitive in any level (and that celiac would be just the extreme end of the spectrum, and there would be several levels of sensitivy), that eating gluten would lead to malabsorption, and your body in this undernourished state would cause you to overeat and have cravings.

I belong to several autoimmune disease groups, and this same theory also says that people who have autoimmune diseases are more prone to this sensitivity. Several members of the group tried the gluten-free diet and the majority of them felt better and had no cravings and allergies. So it is worth a try. Do it for 2 weeks and see how you feel.

I found out I had celiac two years ago and have been gluten-free ever since.

Yes, there may be health benefits to a gluten-free diet unrelated to celiac disease. Regarding the comment in the original post that "Other than [having Celiac disease], there is no special reason to follow a gluten-free diet." Not necessarily. Grains are only edible once they have been cooked, but even then, not all of thier toxins have been eliminated. For a very clear explanation of the toxicity in grains, I recommend the following website:

http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html

While it is an explanation of the Paleolithic diet, a much stricter regime tailored to eat only those foods we are genetically predisposed to digest, the support for diminishing grain consumption is also covered. Also interesting are various stories of how following this diet helped cure Multiple Sclerosis. One example can be found here: http://www.paleodiet.com/ms/ What we put in our bodies undoubtedly affects our health, and although nothing has been proven with regards to the benefits of eliminating gluten (or more), nothing has been disproven either.

Finally, thank you so much for your comment, Kath. I defy those who are interested in this as a "new craze" to actually stick to a gluten-free diet for more than a few weeks!! This isn't just a question of buying "gluten-free pasta" instead. To truly eliminate gluten from your diet, be ready to stop eating at all but a few restaurants (Outback Steakhouse, PF Chang's, and Don Pablo's), to check the ingredients of everything you buy, to constantly call company 800 numbers to check the gluten-content of its products, and to make long trips to specialized grocery stores to buy the products you need.

I would be ecstatic if gluten-free became a diet craze. The more gluten awareness (and general allergy/intolerance awareness) there is in the world, the easier it will be for actual gluten-intolerant people to live a normal life and stop receiving annoyed looks and perfunctory answers at restaurants. Chefs able to accomodate a gluten-free diet? Grocery stores with gluten-free products, instead of my 40-minute drive to Trader Joe's or Wild Oats? Clear labeling as to the gluten content of products? Count me in! I couldn't be happier.

I am fairly certain no one needs to fear a true "gluten-free craze," since I doubt anyone without symptoms would have the tenacity to follow the diet.

To Jan and Amber:
Please be aware that eliminating gluten from your diet initially causes a detoxification reaction, just as smokers or drug addicts experience after quitting. For several weeks, I experienced migraines, fatigue, irritability, and various other symptoms, but once these stopped, the improvement in my well-being was dramatic.

I am 17 years old and have been diagnosed with coeliacs disease. As a child was always skinny, but in the last year I put on a lot of weight due to my allergy to gluten. I have lost nearly a stone since sticking to the diet, but it only applies to sufferers of the disease, so really people shouldn't be cutting out gluten, you will become low on folic acid which is vital for concentration and a healthy neurological state. Oh and the no the blood test is not at all conclusive, only the endoscopy and a biopsy from the small intestine will determine if you have coeliacs or not.

Would you only lower the cholesterol and fat in your diet after having a heart attack? It is only once you have the attack that the tissue in your heart is damaged, scarred, and can be thus examined by a biopsy. If you said "I'm at risk for a heart attack." and he said "well, I'll take a biopsy if you have one to see if that is indeed the case," you'd change doctors. But this is the logic currently applied to people at risk for celiac disease - only do the diet once the damage is done.

The intestinal damage, which is the actual definition of Celiac Disease, is the final stage of gluten intolerance. At this point, a litany of other problems is unavoidable, though different in each case: osteoporosis, lactose intolerance, high risk of lymphoma, and universally, the various issues arising from malabsorption. For a biopsy to give a positive result, the doctors must find a flattening of the intestinal walls ("decreased villous height") and a "hypertrophy of the crypts" (basically, if your intestine has somewhat disappeared) in the small sample of tissue they examined. But the auto-immune reaction can be going on even if this is not detected, perhaps because it is in a different part of your digestive track (did the doctor perform a jejunal and duodenal biopsy?) or even somewhere else in the body. But worst of all, by the time your intestines have gotten to that point, it's not always possible to fully repair the harm! Again, doctors are relying on a method that can only give a positive result once the problem has become serious, instead of using preventative ways of ensuring the problem never arises. (however, fewer doctors are requiring the biopsy to prescribe a gluten-free diet now than a few years ago).

Finally, many celiacs can be symptom-free their entire lives. Wait, then what's the point of giving up delicious cookies, cakes, hoagies and soft pretzels, if you feel no consequences when you eat them? Because unfortunately, you can have a completely asymptomatic gluten intolerance, never seeing any direct effects from eating gluten, but you're just as much in danger of nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, and intestinal lymphoma (cancer) as any other gluten intolerant individual.

My concern is that many doctors are not up to date on this disease. First, it is far more common than originally thought. Estimates are from 1 in every 120 to 1 in every 500 people for Western populations, the Irish and Italians being particularly affected. Second, new information is being discovered every year. My personal story involves showing my doctor a study in a medical journal involving celiac disease and the IgA / IgG ratio in the blood tests after he wouldn't believe me that my test results *did* point to having celiac disease. And third, because the risk that this is a "fad" (much like ADD) could cause doctors to dismiss a patient inquiring about gluten intolerence instead of seriously looking into the problem. I changed doctors three times and went to a gastroenterologist (who still didn't catch on to what I had) before I finally found a doctor who specialized in celiac disease that properly diagnosed my condition and allowed me to finally regain my health. Due to all this, and because this disease is grossly underdiagnosed today, it would be preferable that the public be oversensitive to gluten intolerance, even if it means a little dose of mass hypochondria. :)

P.S. My apologies for the long posts. There's just too much confusion out there on this topic.

Celiac disease is definitely something that most doctors aren't very educated about. I wonder if there are tests being developed that could diagnose celiac disease in the early phases, before intestinal lining is destroyed. It seems to me like that would make the most sense. Once scientists find the genetic marker for celiac disease, they will probably be able to test for it more definitively and accurately. As far as following a gluten-free diet just to "make sure", I think that's unrealistic. Gluten is in so many products that for the general public to start avoiding them is just not going to happen. But I think anyone who has symptoms of a gluten intolerance should definitely start avoiding gluten ASAP to avoid damaging the intestines.

i have a friend who has celiac and my wife has ibs.both of them have tried atkins and told me that when following atkins they had no symptoms of their disease/syndrome.
my friend told me that the disease is very prevalent in ppl of irish and/or italian lineage.he is both.

Wow! What qualifies someone to discourage a person from a diet that could be very helpful to them? It is not true that a GF diet will not help someone that doesn't have celiac disease. I wish someone had advised me about these possible dangers and symptoms before I developed an auto-immune disorder. Chronic fatigue, hives, headaches, edema, weight gain, nausea--to name a few symptoms. My health has deteriorated tremendously during my search for the cause of my disease. These symptoms can come on slowly, so slowly you may have no idea they are coming from a food eaten. Please, be careful and not give advice unless you are certain you know the facts. There are many that do not. I do not want another person to go through the agony I have endured with this illness.

Spectra, I don't think it is unrealistic as long as the person actually finds a cure for their symptoms. You are talking about a perfectly healthy person who would cut out gluten just in case - then yes, it is not worth it. I'm talking about people who don't feel ok, and have strange and previously unexplained symptoms, that will try a gluten-free diet and find the solution to all these symptoms. If that had happened to me when I tried it, I'd be gluten-free for life. Not eating gluten is a small price to pay if my symptoms had been resolved or improved.

Eva, I didn't have any negative reactions in my gluten-free month. Maybe it is because I don't eat much carb or much gluten for starters, at most 4x a week. I eat mostly brown rice, yams, and fruit for carb already. So no detox. Unfortunately I also didn't have any change in my symptoms, so not worth sticking to it.

I went to a doc yesterday. Have bad Crohn's (IBS)disease for 20 years. Am scheduled for celiac testing biopsy tomorrow. He suggested I look up Paratuberculosis on-line. This is very compelling information to consider if you have the symptoms of IBS or Celiac Disease especially if you have not been able to obstain a definitive diagnosis.