Celiac Disease Diet
Those individuals who are inflicted with celiac disease must follow a lifelong celiac disease diet.
Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that causes damage to the small intestine and also interferes with the body’s absorption of nutrients from food.
More than two million people in the U.S. have this condition. People who suffer from celiac disease have the inability to tolerate gluten, which is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Although gluten is found mainly in food products, it can also be found in products like lip balm, vitamins, and medicines. When a person suffering from celiac disease consumes or uses products that contain gluten, their immune system will respond by inflicting damage or destroying the villi of the small intestine. The villi are tiny protrusions found in the lining of the small intestine that allow nutrients to be absorbed through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream.
If the villi are unhealthy or damaged, the body becomes malnourished despite the fact that the person is eating normally. Thus celiac disease is a disease that is characterized by malabsorption and abnormal immune reactions to gluten. Celiac disease has no known causes other than genetic predisposition to the condition, although its onset is often thought to be triggered or become active initially following surgery, severe emotional distress, childbirth, or viral infection.
Celiac Disease Symptoms
The symptoms of celiac disease vary widely from person to person, and may occur in the digestive tract or elsewhere throughout the body. When celiac disease occurs in children, intestinal symptoms may be prevalent, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, as well as a failure to thrive, delayed growth, delayed puberty, and short stature – due to the body’s malabsorption of nutrients needed for growth. Adults may have no digestive symptoms, but may complain of fatigue, bone or joint pain, arthritis, tingling or numbness in the extremities, among other symptoms. People with celiac disease may be asymptomatic but still develop complications of the condition over time.
Celiac Disease Diet is Only Treatment
The only current treatment for celiac disease is a diet that is free from gluten. When a person is first diagnosed with celiac disease, their treating physician or healthcare professional may schedule a consultation with a nutrition who can advise them on the proper food choices that must be made with celiac disease, including how to read lists of ingredients in order to identify foods and other products that contain gluten – both at the grocery store and when eating out in restaurants. A gluten-free celiac disease diet, fortunately, will halt all symptoms of the disease, work to heal existing damage to the intestinal lining, and prevent the occurrence of further damage. Most people with celiac disease who begin a celiac disease diet will show improvement in just days after starting the diet. In children, a celiac disease gluten-free diet will usually cause the small intestine to heal within six months; in adults, the damage is more severe and may take several years to heal. When the intestine heals, the celiac disease sufferer will have villi that are capable of absorbing nutrients from the food they eat, which leads to better nutrition.
Lifelong Celiac Disease Diet
For those with celiac disease, the gluten-free celiac disease diet must be followed for their entire lifetime. Even a small amount of gluten can damage the small intestine. A number of people who have celiac disease that does not improve after following a celiac disease diet are typically still consuming hidden gluten without realizing it, such as gluten that is contained in food additives life stabilizers, modified food starch and preservative – or by eating rice and corn products that are manufactured in factories that also manufacture wheat products, when cross-contamination occurs. For the rare person afflicted with celiac disease that does not respond favorably to a celiac disease diet, the damage to the intestines is too severe to be healed; these people have refractory celiac disease and may need to receive intravenous nutrients directly into their bloodstream.
Gluten-Free Celiac Diet
Those afflicted with celiac disease must read the food ingredient lists on all products to make sure that they do not contain gluten. Since 2006, all food manufacturers are required to indicate on a package’s label if the food inside contains known allergens, such as wheat or gluten. Below is a partial list of some of the foods that are not allowed in a celiac disease diet:
- wheat
- barley
- rye
- triticale (a cross between rye and wheat)
flours including bromated, durum, enriched, farina, graham, phosphate, plain, self-rising, white and semolina - bouillon cubes
- brown rice syrup
- candy
- potato chips
- cold cuts like processed meats and hotdogs
- French fries
- self-basting turkey
- soups
- soy sauce
This is just a partial list of the foods that must be avoided; a nutritionist can provide a complete list of gluten-free foods and also help the celiac sufferer determine which foods to avoid as part of a gluten-free celiac diet.
