Gluten free diets: Trendy for some; a serious health matter for others

Carole Heider misses eating tasty wheat breads and pastas.

The 69-year-old Sioux City woman, who was suffering from
unexplained weight loss, had to rid her cupboards of gluten two
years ago when she was diagnosed with celiac disease, a digestive
and autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and
interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.

Heider’s body cannot tolerate the protein gluten, which is found
in wheat, rye and barley.

“I’ve gained weight back and I generally feel good,” Heider said
Tuesday by phone from Mesa, Ariz., where she lives three months out
of the year.

Wheat-free diets are a growing trend, not just among those with
sensitivities to gluten. Weight loss seekers are cutting out gluten
altogether in hopes of shedding excess pounds, but local dieticians
say that could be detrimental to their health.

Megan Cleveland, a registered dietician at Mercy Weightloss
Center, said gluten is found in numerous carbohydrates, such as
chips, rices and pastas, which have a reputation for causing weight
gain.

“Unfortunately sometimes (gluten) just gets tied to those
foods,” she said. “‘I eat a lot of carbs. I gain weight. It must be
the gluten.’ That’s not necessarily the case.”

Completely eliminating carbohydrates from your diet, Cleveland
said, could damage your body. Carbohydrates are a source of energy
that the body needs to live.

“It’s like fuel for a car, that’s what carbohydrates do to our
body,” she said.

According to Cleveland, there is a big difference between simple
carbohydrates – candies, pastries, and cookies – versus whole
grains that the body needs – whole grain breads, rices and
pastas.

“Fiber-rich carbohydrates are really the best source of carbs
for our body because we get the most benefit from them,” she said.
“A lot of those foods contain gluten, but they are a very intricate
part of the diet.”

SYMPTOMS PERSIST

Heider, a retired elementary school music teacher, said she
didn’t have any stomach issues before she learned she had celiac
disease, but she said she was losing weight and felt that she
lacked energy.

“I taught a long-term sub of several weeks for a friend before I
was diagnosed; and I was exhausted before the end of every day. I
just attributed it to being 67,” she said.

After she cut gluten out of her diet, Heider took on another
long-term substitute teaching assignment. To her surprise, she said
she felt as energetic as when she taught fulltime.

“That was quite amazing for me,” she said. “I didn’t know I felt
bad until I felt better.”

Andrea Vogel, a registered dietician at St. Luke’s Regional
Medical Center, said celiac disease isn’t a new medical condition,
but she said it is being diagnosed more often because people are
identifying its signs and symptoms, which can vary from diarrhea,
gas and bloating to a rash on the skin or unidentifiable weight
loss.

When patients with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten,
their immune system attacks the villi, small finger-like
projections, in the small intestine. The villi lay down and are
unable to allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the
walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream.

According to Vogel, the onset of celiac disease can happen at
any age from childhood to late adulthood. A family history of the
digestive and autoimmune disorder may clue in patients and their
physicians.

A blood test can identify certain antibodies in the blood
associated with celiac disease. If the test comes back positive for
the antibodies, Vogel said the small intestine will be biopsied to
confirm the diagnosis.

“That’s why it’s important if you think you have celiac disease
to get tested prior to following a gluten free diet. If you are
following gluten free and get tested, the antibodies may not be
there because you’re not eating gluten,” she said.

A gluten free diet is the only treatment available for celiac
disease and it must be followed for life, according to Vogel.

She recommends that patients begin the diet on lean meats, dairy
and simple gluten free grains.

As the patient’s body gets used to the diet and they start to
feel better, Vogel said they can search the gluten free food
sections at local supermarkets such as Hy-Vee and Fareway.

Going gluten free, Heider said, isn’t easy.

She has to be vigilant about reading labels. One wrong move
could cause her to lose weight.

The instant oatmeal she eats must be made in a gluten free
facility, which subsequently raises the cost.

She has to ask the cook to clean off the grill at a restaurant
before preparing her meal. A spec of bread left behind from a
previous order could cause problems. Some restaurants make dining
out easier for her because they offer gluten free options.

Heider was even forced to change her hair care products, after
she discovered the wheat protein in her hair spray, shampoo and
conditioner were contributing to her lackluster hair.

“It’s been a real learning experience,” she said.

STORES OFFER OPTIONS

Breads, cereals, doughnuts, pizza crusts, pastas and soups are
just some of the gluten free products on the shelf at Sunshine
Natural Foods, 13 Central Avenue NE, Le Mars,
Iowa.

“There’s more manufacturers offering gluten free because
there’s more people developing it,” said Rosemary Wibe, a
registered nurse and health consultant at the store.

Gluten free pastas are made from rice and corn. Flours are
ground from tapioca, almond meal, coconut, garbanzo beans, quinoa,
rice and corn.

“They’re wonderful flours,” Wibe said. “They are being used by
people that are not wheat-free, gluten free, because they’re really
great tastes.”

The store also sells several books that explain how to bake with
gluten-free flours, a process that Wibe said can be tricky.

“The books tell you how you can take the Xanthan gum or the
tapioca flour or the potato starch to mix with your rice flour,
because rice flour by itself will crumble,” she said. “You have to
put something with it to stick together.”

Heider said the first loaf of gluten free bread she bought
tasted like “sawdust.”

Now she bakes her own bread and cookies with Domata Living
Flour, a gluten free all-purpose flour she found at Hy-Vee.

“If I make a gravy with this, you can’t tell the difference,”
she said.

Gluten free Recipes with Bill & Sheila

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