Gluten Free Diet

February 19, 2009 by  
Filed under Gluten Free Diet

Gluten Free Diet – Go on It to Combat Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a disease of an autoimmune disorder. This disease is usually of genetic origin. This disease escalates as a reaction to gliadin, a common protein found in wheat. With the exposure to such, our immune system reacts violently triggering an inflammatory action. Because of this, absorption in the intestines is greatly affected and may result in disturbing bowel movement. Persons with celiac disease must therefore practice a gluten free diet to prevent the occurrence of such disease.

A life long gluten free diet is the only sure way to prevent the manifestations of the Celiac disease. Changing eating habits and diet towards more preventive gluten free recipes will help the person with the disease greatly. There is no apparent treatment for the disease as of the moment, however, practicing preventive ways will ensure survivability for the person having Celiac disease.

Gluten, mostly found in wheat, rye, barley and some other grains, should be avoided by the person as much as possible. And although wheat and these grains are very advantageous foods which contain several important nutrients specifically protein, fats and carbohydrates, there are still other alternatives that can be taken in to answer this deficit.

The grains stated above are very hard to avoid since much of the food prepared nowadays contains such ingredients. The most common alternative gluten free food is oats. Dramatically, this is safe for persons having the disease since it doesn’t contain any gluten, unlike other grain products. Several considerations therefore must be noted by the person in a gluten-free diet.

First and foremost as stated above, wheat, rye, and barley must be avoided at all cost if you want to be gluten free. However, the rest of these products can be eaten by the patient – corn, potato, rice, soybeans, carob, millet, quinoa, and arrowroot. In terms of other fermented products such as vinegar, follow this rule of thumb – distilled white vinegar doesn’t contain gluten while malt vinegar has gluten. There are a lot of things we must take note in finding a suitable gluten free diet and these are further stated below.

In terms of milk, malted drinks contain gluten and so must be avoided. Sour cream commercial chocolate milk and drinks may contain it so you have to be careful.. In meat and meat substitutes, one must avoid croquettes, breaded fish, floured meatloaf, pizza, chicken loaves with bread crumbs and the like.

In bread and grain products – breads, buns, crackers, muffins, cereal containing wheat, regular noodles, spaghetti, macaroni and other pasta, pretzels, dumplings and many more are to be avoided as much as possible. Fruits are gluten free, so feel free to take those in. Gravy and sauces with cream and thickened with flour must also be avoided.

Vegetables which are creamed and breaded are not advisable for a person with Celiac disease. Cakes and cookies are a big no-no for a person with the disease too.

Well, basically there are a lot of foods you must look out for when following a strict gluten free diet. It may be a bit tempting but it’s better to have a strict diet rather than suffer a truckload of complications.