Gluten Free Tips

Gluten Allergy Gluten Intolerance
Although the treatment for Gluten Allergies and Gluten Intolerance is the same ? a diet completely eliminating gluten-containing foods, the symptoms and diagnosis do differ. I will attempt to describe each, as it is important to be able to differentiate these. It is believed that more than 1 out of every 200 people (children and adults) has a gluten allergy or intolerance. Despite this large number however, most are unaware of the conditions because their symptoms are not severe, and hence they associate the symptoms to other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, stress, depression, iron deficiency, etc.

A gluten allergy can be a temporary condition, and children may grow out of it, especially during periods of rapid growth or significant changes (i.e. puberty). Adults may develop the allergy later in life, as the gut grow older or during the onset of the menopause. Symptoms of a gluten allergy include hives, bloating, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting. The symptoms vary according to the degree of sensitivity of the patient to the gluten ? in extreme causes the symptoms may be life threatening. Diagnosis of a gluten allergy can be done by way of a skin prick test or a blood test. Treatment of the gluten allergy varies from medication or injection for the mild cases, to gluten-free diet for the more severe cases.

Gluten intolerance is a hereditary condition that affects the immune system. The immune system regards gluten as ?an invader? and starts to produce anti-bodies to attack this unfamiliar gluten matter. The body also cannot produce the enzyme that breaks down the gluten. If gluten is continually ingested, the villi (tiny hair-like structures in the lining of the small intestine) are eroded away and the small intestine is unable to absorb nutrients and nourishment from the food. The un-absorbed, partially digested food then enters the large intestine; it is unable to deal with this and expels it via the anus out of the body. This leads to the symptoms of gluten intolerance: diarrhea, swollen abdomen, cramps in the abdomen, constipation and foul-smelling stools. Weight loss and anemia are also symptoms of a patient with gluten intolerance.

Diagnosis of a gluten intolerance is via a blood test ? the anti-gliadine test. The blood is cultured during 2 weeks and the results awaited, it does take a while for the test results to come back to be communicated to the patient. If the blood test comes back positive for gluten intolerance, then another follow-up test is performed ? and endoscopy ? where a small piece of the small intestine (the jujenum) is extracted and analysed to confirm the diagnosis. This extra test is necessary, as the gluten intolerance is a life-long condition ? and before prescribing a life-long gluten-free diet it is important to have confirmation of the diagnosis.

Wheat Free Diet
If you have been advised to follow a wheat free diet you will probably start to question whether there is anything in the normal Western diets that you can eat! Relax, people with coeliac condition who need to follow a gluten free diet have, by default, been following a wheat free diet for years. Gluten, the protein which they need to avoid, is commonly found in several grains including rye, oats, barley and wheat.

The main problem shared by people who need to have a wheat free diet is food labeling. Unfortunately the manufacturers use a variety of terms to describe the same products and food ingredients, you will also come to learn that some terms can be ambiguous.

Modified starch can be a good guy or a bad guy for the wheat free diet. Starch can be made from several different products and is only to be avoided if the underlying component is extracted from wheat.

Mono sodium glutinate (MSG) contains gluten and something as innocent as soy sauce can contain wheat as a thickener. Some varieties of oven chips are coated in wheat to ensure that they have a golden appearance on cooking.

To truly exclude wheat from your diet you need to scrutinise the food labels to check what food products they contain. Also make sure that you regularly inspect the labels as manufacturers have a habit of changing ingredients due to seasonality or lower-priced components becoming available. The fact that your TV dinner was wheat free last week is no guarantee that it will be wheat free in one months time.

To be successful and follow a wheat free diet you will also need to be prepared to include some different staple foods in your diet. Rice is safe and comes in many varieties and textures. Supermarkets are now stocking many gluten-free flours and prepared packages for making speciality breads and cakes.

Wheat and gluten free meals can be healthy if you adopt the right approach. Fruit and vegetables contain no wheat at all so stock up on these, there should be no problem in meeting your five and day target if you apply your mind to it.

At first you will feel that excluding wheat from your diet is a real challenge, after a while you will wonder what all the fuss was about. After all you’re trying to exclude wheat because it made you feel unwell so persevere and prosper on on a wheat free diet.

Wheat Allergies
Wheat Allergies result from the body’s intollerance of wheat and more specifically a protein called gluten. In the past, wheat allergies were very rare with only a small percentage of the population being diagnosed. In recent times this number has increased significantly to perhaps one in 300 of the population in certain countries. This is partly due to the improved awareness of wheat allergies and coeliac condition in the medical fraternity, and perhaps also comes from the increased use of wheat products in pre-processed foods.

Gluten is found in oats, rye, barley and wheat and is a sticky type of protein which binds other proteins together. This stickiness is one of the reasons why gluten often finds its way into preprocessed foods and in particular the sauces. It is also directly present in bread and confectionery products where, in the western world, wheat is the main flour used by the bakers.

Some people find themselves having a reaction to wheat but not to the other grains, oats, rye and barley. Wheat allergies can produce mood swings and feelings of depression. Common symptoms also include a feeling of bloatedness, nausea and perhaps an overwhelming feeling of tiredness. In addition to a general flu like feeling wheat allergies can often cause swelling of the abdomen and result in frequent rumbling noises.

Diagnosis of a wheat allergy is often difficult. One way you can test for this yourself is to remove wheat from your diet. This requires discipline as, on first sight, wheat is contained in most of the pleasurable foods and treats. In modern times the supermarkets have come to carry extensive ranges of gluten free foods and whilst these were targeted at people with a full-blown coeliac condition they are also available for anyone who feels that they have some form of wheat intollerance.

Gluten and wheat are very secretive and often try to sneak into your meal. You can find them hidden in the most unexpected places under terms such as modified starch. Who would think that the ordinary bag of oven ready chips would also contain wheat. Chips I ask you say, aren’t they made of potato, many manufacturers now seem to apply a wheat based coating to the product perhaps to enhance its golden colour when cooked.

If you find that removal of wheat from your diet produces an improvement in your health the next step is to visit your doctor. There are a range of tests they can perform to confirm the diagnosis and existence of wheat allergies.

Inedible Gluten Food Products
Having coeliac condition means that you need to avoid ingesting gluten. Gluten of course is that nasty little substance which is often hidden in food and is contained in wheat, rye, oats and barley. Whilst it can quickly be understood that these grains need to be excluded from your diet often the question is asked concerning inedible gluten food products. By inedible food products we mean, other household items such as soaps, and shampoo, suntan lotions, and cleaning products and cosmetics.

The guiding principle is that you wanted to exclude gluten from your diet. This means that anything containing gluten which has the chance to become part of your meal or get into your mouth, say from licking your fingers, must be treated with caution. Remember gluten can get into your system not only through eating foodstuffs which contain gluten as an underlying part of the meal but also from foods which have become contaminated with the substance. Contamination can result from gluten containing foods and accidentally being included in your food preparation but also by transference from other items which contain gluten.

Working in a kitchen where someone else is using flour could mean that some of the fine particles drift on the air and enter the food that you are preparing. Sharing knives or spoons could also lead to cross contamination of your foodstuffs and mean that you are preparing a gluten based meal for yourself. Eating the evening meal can lead to cross contamination if some foods in one dish contain gluten and, unknowingly, one of your guests uses a spoon which has touched these items to dispense other foods which were previously gluten free!

One real life example away from the dinner table to consider is creating a letter and posting this with a postal stamp. If you lick the envelope to seal the letter or if you lick the stamp before applying it to the letter you may find that you have activated the glue which contains gluten. In these circumstances there is a good chance that you will now have gluten on your tongue. Some people are very sensitive to gluten and this will be recognized immediately with some form of reaction. Other people are less sensitive and may not exhibit any symptoms although of course they have now ingested gluten and this could lead to a stomach upset or feeling unwell.

Another source of hidden gluten in foodstuffs is in shampoo. As there are many shampoos available in the shops it is best to remove the small risk that some of this will get in your mouth by buying a gluten free shampoo in the first place.

Don’t get too hung up with these examples. They merely illustrate hidden pitfalls and areas of the your daily life that you should consider for review to make sure that gluten is not entering your system. Once you have developed your daily habits you will find at things come naturally and you do not need to become neurotic about inedible gluten food products causing you problems.