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Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat
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At the suggestion of WeRide, I thought I'd start a gluten-free thread. I'm curious to see how many of us have gluten issues, what symptoms you've had, and what improvements you've noticed. Also, any ideas for fast, healthy meals?

For myself, I was diagnosed in early November with a gluten and casein (milk protein) intolerance. I know now that I carry the genes for gluten intolerance as well as celiac disease. I've had weirdo health issues for the last 3-4 years, which have been increasing in severity and weirdness. What eventually led me to insist on being tested was an abnormally low bone density with a history of stress fractures going back to when I was 15 (I'm 28 now).

As for food, I usually stay away from the products that are wheat-substitutes and just try to eat stuff that is normally wheat-free like Indian or Mexican food. However, I really like Tinkyada rice pasta and Pamela's Pancake Mix, which I use for muffins.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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Hey Lauren:

I've been attempting to stick to a gluten free diet for about four years and haven't done a very good job of it until the last few months. I just feel so much better if I don't eat wheat products. I love rice pasta and Asian food, which sits really well with me. Pamela's mixes are great as are Bob's Red Mill products. I don't really miss bread unless I'm in a restaurant and starving and a basket of warm rolls or a baguette is put on the table. That's hard. The other thing I need to be more conscious of is sauces, that contain wheat, like soy sauce.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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I am interested in the connection to stress fractures and wheat. I have had 4 in the last 4 years and 2 of them were very unusual. I have been toying with the idea of trying to go wheat free.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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My oldest daughter (29) was diagnosed with Celiac's about 3 years ago. She is very cautious because with Celiac's, the repercussions are not just immediate symptoms, but a high risk of stomach cancer. For family celebrations Merritt has her own untinsils, pans, her own butter so that we don't cross contaiminate, etc. There are excellent gluten free products and many restaurants have gluten free menus (but you must ask for them).

Once on the diet, her main symptoms cleared immediately. She was losing weight, constant tummy pain, headaches - many signs up malnutrition. She's cool now. We read every lable for every product.

Good luck!

B

"the only normal people are the ones you don't know"
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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Pamela's mixes, Chebe bread, Risotto...those are our mainstays. Yes, I think this is a great thread. Will add more after the kids go to school.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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I'm curious -- does anyone know whether there is a higher propensity for gluten intolerance in woman? Two women in my family seem to have developed issues that appear to be gluten intolerance, but, it does not appear to have affected any of the men (myself included -- I have no issues).

Blue corn tortilla chips have become a mainstay as they do not seem to present any problem. Breakfast usually consists of eggs and tortilla chips (in place of toast). I am curious to see other suggestions of easy dishes as meal time creates some challenges.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [trimama] [ In reply to ]
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I'd think of it more like this gluten intolerance --> malnutrition --> decreased bone density --> osteopenia/osteoporosis --> stress fractures. I started by getting my bone density tested, and when I found out it was abnormal, I went looking for a reason. If your bone density is OK, I don't see any reason to suspect a gluten intolerance being the cause of your stress fractures. My OBGYN helped me get the DEXA bone scan. It was really easy - like getting an x-ray.

And to someone else's question, I think that I did read that women are more likely to be sensitive to gluten. I don't know any specific numbers on the male/female thing, though. However, most of the books and celiac sites I've seen recently are saying that around 30% of the US population may have gluten issues (and very few of that 30% ever gets diagnosed).
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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Wow really - more women? I actually wonder if it's more women who have it -- or more women who seek help, because men might not mind the bothersome GI symptoms of gluten sensitivity , and women simply will not tolerate this. That's my hypothesis ;-)

For those who are on GF diets -- do you get the Scott Free newsletter? Our issue just came, and it is full of some interesting stuff. Basically, Scott Free (which is distributed by celiac.com's Scott Adams), stands behind the new wave of antigliadin (antibody) testing.

this is huge -- it could really blow the roof off of general perception of who should and shoudn't be eating gluten. I'd copy it and mail it to any member who's interested. Pretty fascinating, because what it means is...the more awareness of GF living, the more we can expect to find products, competetively priced and more readily available.
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pamela's [ In reply to ]
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I have been a celiac caregiver for almost 10 years, but I just found out that Amazon.com sells a bunch of GF products in bulk with free shipping. Quite a lot of the Pamela's stuff, priced much lower than what I find at retail, if I can even find it. Thought I'd pass that on.

I've seen some frozen baguettes at nicer HFS's...personally I can always taste the egg in it.
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Re: pamela's [WeRide] [ In reply to ]
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I actually find that I have a harder time substituting for dairy than I do for wheat. Butter in particular is hard to swap for in recipes. And cheese.... there is just no substitute for cheese.

I don't get the newsletter you mentioned, but I do belong to a 'Defensive Dining' listserve for the Austin area. They are quite active, and it's been interesting to see which restaurants in Austin are adding GF options.

I would be interested to see what new criteria warrant testing. I know I read recently that short stature in children is now rather highly-linked to celiac. Is this info something you can post on this thread?
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Re: pamela's [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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Hi I'm a long-time lurker but wanted to post once I saw this thread.
I have had Celiac Disease since birth. My mother was diagnosed around age 40. My sister was recently diagnosed at age 31. Both my mother and sister have Type 1 Diabetes in addition; they sense there is a connection somewhere (both auto-immune diseases). I actually don't even have the antibodies for Type 1 Diabetes, I got tested (again) just a few months ago - which they find really interesting.

Anyway, I love all of the new products I've seen recently, even in my regular grocery store. I don't live near a Whole Foods, but when I go to one I stock up on all kinds of stuff from their gluten-free bakery section. Some of my favorites are Pamela's brownies, Amy's cheese pizza with rice crust, Amy's soups, Enjoy Life bagels, Van's waffles, Kinnikinnick(sp) english muffins, I could go on and on.

My issue is that after 28 years of this, I do not immediately show symptoms anymore. I can drink a wheat beer, or even eat a sandwich with regular bread, and have no effects. If I do this more than a few days in a row, yes I will. But having no symptoms when I "cheat" every once in awhile makes it very tempting. I would be interested to see some of the research on stomach cancer that someone mentioned earlier. I have yet to see any conclusive evidence that "cheating" on a gluten free diet will result in, or is related to cancer, but that's why I'm curious.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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I had lunch at PF Changs today and they have a gluten free menu. You have to ask for it, but I was impressed that
A. they had it and
B. there were some nice choices.

Their lettuce wraps are gluten free. I'm not a big chain restaurant fan, but PF's is pretty OK.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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I was tested for celiac and don't have it but I did have elevated blood markers for wheat intolerance. If I eat wheat, I start to itch - hands and feet only. It is very strange. Itching and bathroom problems go away when I stop eating bread/pasta and come back immediately when I cheat.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [Ironmom1] [ In reply to ]
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ahhh - now that was what the article in Scott Free (the one I said was huge) was about. People who don't exactly test (+) for celiac..meaning they have not had villous atrophy (yet), but there is some evidence that a pre-celiac state (elevated antibodies but no CD) exists. This theory is gaining acceptance.

Regardless of whether or not this antibody theory is true (because this has been debated on more message forums than slowtwitch), the bottome line is: the very existance of this language, these theories, the articles, the discussions...points to mainstream acceptance of gluten issues. And with the acceptance will come more options, more products, and more freedom for someone like Ironmom1 whose villi might look fine, but get symptoms are nonetheless compelled to avoid gluten.

Further -- since a small bag of nasty GF pretzels costs $7 (comparable mainstream product is 99 cents) and a box of pasta costs about $5, and so on.....there may be some hope of insurance policies or govt subsidies to help out with the fact that simply staying alive, for a celiac, is measurably more expensive than a regular person.

So, it looks like quality of life is on the uptrend.
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Re: pamela's [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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LOL "defensive dining". :-) Are there a lot of options in Austin? Always good to know!

Scott Free does mention the short stature, it is an article by Kathleen LaPoint. I guess it cites a Brazilian and Indian study? It says that in some cases short stature is the only "obvious" symptom that presents, and that they tested some group and found CD to be the cause in 15.3% of the patients.

Then they go on to say these short people had GI symptoms...so I don't really get it. I'd say GI symptoms are pretty compelling. But whatever. In any case, they were going by biopsy, not just the IgA anti tissue transgutaminase (anti tTG) antibodies.

I bet that article is circulating a lot on celiac newsgroups. it did say that those who went GF had a significant increase in growth, so that's good news at least.

Austin if you want me to snail mail you a copy of the newsletter, I can do that, PM me.
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Re: pamela's [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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Is a garden gnome considered to be a person of sort stature or just a short statue? ;-)
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Re: pamela's [QRgirl] [ In reply to ]
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This is a great blog for gluten free people. I don't have her book yet, but I love the blog.

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/
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Re: pamela's [WeRide] [ In reply to ]
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I think someone posted this research on the austin celiac listserve because I remember see the 15% number. They were recommending celiac testing for any kids that were 'short.' Unfortunately, I think it's too late for me... :)
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Re: pamela's [QRgirl] [ In reply to ]
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LOL... that was genius!
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [trimama] [ In reply to ]
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I did a quick pubmed search and nothing popped up for wheat and stress fractures or for gluten and stress fractures. I think Austin79 is correct in that eating gluten if your intolerant leads to malnutrition which if prolonged can lead to stress fractures.


"Lady, people aren't chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard fillings." -Dr. Cox
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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I have celiac as well and have learned that is an absorption issue in celiacs that cause the problems such as stress fractures, anemia, etc. A celiac who is ingesting wheat is destroying the vili in his or her stomach lining, causing malabsorption of nutrients such as calcium. By maintaining a wheat free diet and allowing the vili to heal, you will once again begin to absorb the proper nutrients.

I have been experimenting a lot with gluten free baking and am thinking about starting my own line of products as so many of then taste like crap! There is a great place here in Austin that I recently discovered will cook up gluten free pasta if you call ahead of time. They can make you a dish with marinara and it will be delicious....Gypsy Cafe right near Jack and Adam's.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [desfick] [ In reply to ]
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Ahhh... awesome. I haven't been there yet!

There definitely seems to be a market and demand for great-tasting, non-crumbly GF foods. Let me know if you need an official taste-tester!

Here are a couple others that I cannot vouch for, but the Austin-TX-Celiac Dining listserve people really like:

http://www.craigospizzaandpasta.com/ --> will make pizza with GF crusts (but they were out of crusts as of yesterday, awaiting new shipment)
http://austin.citysearch.com/profile/46308045/austin_tx/the_grove_wine_bar_kitchen.html --> has been getting rave reviews
http://www.mcgovernsorganics.com/index.html --> sisters in Cedar Park who run a GF meal service. Can make/deliver dishes for a variety of food allergies.
http://www.ciao-chow.com/ --> catering business run by a co-worker's husband

I also have a KILLER recipe for Butternut Squash and Gruyere lasagna that I got from a GF cooking class at Whole Foods a few months ago (unfortunately, I cannot eat the cheese, but I did cheat a little just to try this. It's really rich). I will post it when I get home tonight.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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So, here's the killer recipe I got at a recent cooking class. Just a warning, it's really rich, but it would be something you could freeze and eat later.

5-6 thin slices of imported pancetta
1 large onion, chopped
2T olive oil
3lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 tsp fresh sage, chopped
6-7 Swiss chard leaves
1 package gluten-free lasagna sheets (recommend De Boles rice noodles)

GF Bechamel Sauce
3-5 T butter
3-5 T Mochiko sweet rice flour from Koda Farms
1-2 c milk
1 bay leaf
salt and white pepper

2-3 c gruyere cheese
1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.

Saute pancetta until crisp and remove from pan. Pour off all but one Tbsp of the grease. Add 1 T of olive oil and saute onion. When soft, about 10 min, add diced butternut squash, sage, and garlic and saute with lid on until squash is soft.

Steam whole Swiss chard leaves until limp and put aside.

Make bechamel sauce by melting butter in skillet. Slowly add flour and whisk. Add milk in a stream, whisking. Add bay leaf and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Then reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, 10 min. Whisk in salt and white pepper and remove from heat. Discard bay leaf.

Assemble lasagna by buttering casserole dish or lasagna pan and pouring enough bechamel sauce to just cover the bottom. Top with lasagna noodles then squash mixture. Spread out Swiss chard leaves to cover and top with grated gruyere cheese. Sprinkle crumbled pancetta atop that. Continue to layer ending with the bechamel on top. Sprinkle a little more gruyere with the parmesan.

Bake according to the 'no boil' instructions on the lasagna box. Before serving, top with chopped parsley.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [austin79] [ In reply to ]
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wow, butternut squash and gruyere are pretty much my two favorite animals :-) so I am sure this recipe is divine.

I don't know that i have the wherewithall to make this one...but it seems great. As I mentioned in the "housework" thread, i buy my butternut squash already peeled and cubed. That way, I get to enjoy it at least once a week instead of once in a while. And I can use the extra time to bake GF bread.
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Re: Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease - living without wheat [WeRide] [ In reply to ]
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It looked easy when I watched the professional chef make it. hahaha

It might be good for a fancy dinner or a holiday. I wouldn't come home and whip this up, either. But, it sure would be great to pull some out of the freezer and chow down!
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