Gluten, Celiac Disease, and Sensitivity Gluten and Celiac Disease

For most, gluten con­tain­ing foods like rye, wheat, and bar­ley can be a deli­cious and nutri­tious addi­tion to one’s diet. These whole grains can pro­vide B vit­a­mins, iron, zinc, and fiber. For a small seg­ment of the pop­u­la­tion though, gluten can be dan­ger­ous. Accord­ing to the Celi­ac Dis­ease Foun­da­tion, rough­ly 1.4% of the glob­al pop­u­la­tion has Celi­ac disease.

What is Celi­ac Disease?

Celi­ac dis­ease is an autoim­mune dis­ease that seems to often run in fam­i­lies, mean­ing there is like­ly a genet­ic com­po­nent. When some­one with celi­ac dis­ease eats any food con­tain­ing gluten the body reacts inap­pro­pri­ate­ly. Instead of let­ting the food pass on through, the immune sys­tem is trig­gered by gluten and in the process can dam­age the intesti­nal lin­ing. Addi­tion­al­ly, each time the intesti­nal lin­ing is dam­aged it is hard­er and hard­er for your body to absorb nutri­ents out of food.

Signs and symp­toms of celi­ac dis­ease can be very broad. Any­one who sus­pects they may have celi­ac dis­ease should see a gas­troen­terol­o­gist, which is a doc­tor who spe­cial­izes in diges­tive dis­or­ders. Some pos­si­ble symp­toms include mal­nu­tri­tion, unex­plained weight loss, ane­mia, diar­rhea, and fatigue. If your doc­tor believes you may have celi­ac dis­ease they can order a blood test or they may sched­ule a tis­sue biopsy.

How Can I Man­age Celi­ac Disease?

For those diag­nosed with celi­ac dis­ease, the rec­om­men­da­tion is com­plete avoid­ance of gluten con­tain­ing grains. This includes rye, wheat, bar­ley, and any foods that are derived from them. Typ­i­cal­ly oats share the same equip­ment as the gluten con­tain­ing grains men­tioned and there­fore should also be pur­chased as gluten-free. Gluten can be found in the strangest places such as some bouil­lon cubes, gravies, and even soy sauce. Because some­one with celi­ac dis­ease like­ly already has some symp­toms at the time of diag­no­sis, and because they must avoid cer­tain foods it is rec­om­mend­ed to meet with a Reg­is­tered Dietit­ian after diag­no­sis. A Reg­is­tered Dietit­ian can assist in label read­ing, menu plan­ning, and man­ag­ing celi­ac disease.

What About Gluten Sensitivity?

What is intol­er­ance or sen­si­tiv­i­ty? While this is not the same as celi­ac dis­ease, some peo­ple do have real symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with eat­ing gluten con­tain­ing foods. Some­one who is gluten sen­si­tive may not have the same immune response in the pres­ence of gluten, but may have some symp­toms asso­ci­at­ed with inges­tion. For any­one who sus­pects this, it is ben­e­fi­cial to speak with your doc­tor to rule out any oth­er med­ical con­di­tions or food aller­gies that may be caus­ing these symptoms.