Diet & Health Guide
In this section you will learn about the Gluten Free Diet, food composition, alternatives to familiar foods that contain gluten, and recipes to get you started. The tough part about this diet is identifying which foods…
How Digestion Works & The Impact of Gluten on the Digestive System
PART 1: Our Digestive System
Our digestive system consists of many organs and parts. Each performs its own function while interacting in harmony with others every time we eat. These interesting and complex organs and parts turn the food we eat into specific components we need to fuel, build, maintain, repair, regulate, and protect our bodies.
Muscles, nerves, reflexes, enzymes, and hormones of the digestive tract all work together to change our food into nutrients that can be absorbed into our main transport systems: our bloodstream and our lymph system. These two transport systems then carry fresh supplies of nutrients throughout our body to nourish every individual cell.
Our brain monitors our nutritional needs and employs a hunger mechanism to alert us when fresh food is needed. Hunger causes appetite which is the desire for food. The tempting sight, smell, taste and expectation of food stimulate involuntary sensory nerves. By reflex action, these nerves cause muscle and sensory activity in various digestive organs. Salivary glands begin to secrete saliva as stomach glands and muscles become active.
How Digestion Works – A Walk Through…
First we chew our food. After we chew it, our throat swallows it, and our esophagus transports it to our stomach. Our stomach dissolves and sends it on to our small intestine, where it is digested and absorbed into our blood and lymph systems. Our small intestine then sends the undigestible substances to our large intestine where water is absorbed. Normal bacteria living there go to work on the residue to extract more nutrients, while producing nourishment for our colon and substances for our body. The waste is then sent on to our rectum, which forms it. Finally, our anus expels it.
Now, that we have the basics of digestion, let’s take a closer look. The following is based in part on an excerpt from the The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.
Movement of Food Through the System
The first major muscle movement occurs when food or liquid is swallowed. Although we are able to start swallowing by choice, once the swallow begins, it becomes involuntary and proceeds under the control of the nerves.
The large, hollow organs of the digestive system contain muscle that enables their walls to move. The movement of organ walls can propel food and liquid and also can mix the contents within each organ. Typical movement of the esophagus, stomach, and intestine is called peristalsis.
The action of peristalsis looks like an ocean wave moving through the muscle. The muscle of the organ produces a narrowing and then propels the narrowed portion slowly down the length of the organ. These waves of narrowing push the food and fluid in front of them through each hollow organ.
The esophagus is the organ into which the swallowed food is pushed. It connects the throat above with the stomach below. At the junction of the esophagus and stomach, there is a ringlike valve closing the passage between the two organs. However, as the food approaches the closed ring, the surrounding muscles relax and allow the food to pass.
Diagnosis and Testing
How Is Celiac Disease Diagnosed?
Diagnosing Celiac Disease can be difficult and frustrating for both the patient and the doctor because each person is affected individually. With no definite set of symptoms to cause suspicion, the single most important step in getting a diagnosis of Celiac Disease is to recognize its myriad features.1
People who have any of the following situations should be evaluated for Celiac Disease:
- Symptoms indicating nutritional deficiencies.
- Unexplained digestive problems such as IBS, acid reflux, diarrhea/constipation, bloating, chronic abdominal pain.
- Chronic skin disorders, especially when itchy.
- Unexplained visual problems including poor night vision, dry eye, or cataracts.
- An auto-immune disease like Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus or Sjogrens Syndrome.
- A chronic disease like arthritis, migraine headache, or polyneuritis.
- A relative who has Celiac Disease.
- A relative who has Dermatitis Herpetiformis.
- Frequent or long bouts of colds, bronchitis, and other respiratory infections.
- Long recuperation from illness or surgery.
- A history of tuberculosis. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
- Cancer, especially of the digestive tract.
Very good diagnostic tests are available, but no one test can definitively diagnose or exclude Celiac Disease in every individual.2 And, because all diagnostic tests look for harmful effects of gluten, you must be eating gluten in your diet when any diagnostic test is performed. Tests may be inconclusive if you strictly eliminate gluten for longer than two weeks. So if you think you may have Celiac Disease or feel better going without gluten for a week to 10 days, go get tested before continuing.
Steps to Celiac Disease Diagnosis
Sources:Treatment
The management of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity is a gluten-free diet for life1 that meets the nutritional needs of the individual.This diet is highly effective for regaining health because it eliminates the cause of health problems originated by contact with gluten.
Treatment for celiac disease should begin only after a complete diagnostic evaluation including serology (blood test to detect antibodies) and biopsy of small intestine tissue. The institution of a gluten-free diet should result in prompt and often dramatic improvement.
Individual symptoms frequently require more than the gluten-free diet in order to resolve. The Health Guide lays out a 6 Step Plan for each symptom listed on the website that is individualized to that symptom or condition.
Complete healing of the intestines may take up to 5 years or even longer in some individuals, especially in the elderly. Recovery is more rapid and complete in children than in adults.2
There is no cure for celiac disease. Since research is ongoing and much is yet unknown, it is prudent to treat any gluten sensitivity reaction as if it was celiac disease.
The following are six key elements in the management of individuals affected by celiac disease as advanced by the National Institutes of Health:
Sources:Gluten
The Grains That Contain Dietary Gluten
Although few in number, the gluten-containing grains, called toxic or unsafe grains, are widely used in food preparation. The excessively high use of unsafe grains in the Western diet makes avoiding consumption difficult. The chart below highlights the four gluten-containing grains, popular strains of wheat, and triticale. Triticale does not naturally occur but is hybidized by crossing wheat with rye.
- Wheat and these wheat strains: Durum, Kamut, Spelt, Einkorn, Emmer, Farro.
- Barley.
- Rye.
- Triticale (wheat / rye hybrid).
- Oat.
Anatomy Of Gluten-Containing Grains
Gluten that is the cause of immune responses in susceptible individuals is a formless storage protein in wheat, rye, barley and oat grains. These grains belong to the grass family of seed plants, called cereal grains. Gluten is called a “storage protein” because it is stored, or inactive, until the seed begins to grow.
Featured Gluten Free Products!
Glutenfreeworks.com is pleased to bring you the hottest gluten free products out there! New Featured Gluten Free Products are coming soon! Attention Gluten Free Companies! Feature your new company or products on this page and reach…
BioLineRX’s BL-7010 Treatment of Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity Presented
BioLineRx Ltd, a biopharmaceutical development company, was invited to deliver an oral presentation at the recent 2013 National Education Conference & Gluten-Free Expo, the Celiac Disease Foundation’s annual conference, in Pasadena, California.
Leah Klapper, Ph.D., General Manager, BioLine Innovations Jerusalem, presented BioLineRx’s therapy, BL-7010, for the treatment of celiac, as part of a session entitled Breaking Therapies Beyond the Gluten-Free Diet.
BL-7010 will be presented at
Good Nutrition: It’s What You Eat AND Absorb
“You are what you eat.”
We teach children this common thinking almost from the time they can speak. It makes sense. The food that you put in your mouth, chew and swallow becomes the person you are.
Most people believe it. So do most doctors.
Well, it may sound logical but it is only partially correct and based on a very iffy assumption.
The assumption is that your body absorbs what you eat.
Glutenfreeworks.com has pressed the truth, namely that you are actually what you eat and absorb. If something like celiac disease is stopping you from absorbing properly, then you are NOT what you eat.
In this important three minute video, Neil Raff, MD concisely explains how what you absorb is just as important as what you put in your mouth. Dr Raff covers the various ways nutrient absorption can be affected and limited. He also touches on a related topic – foods today do not contain the nutrients they provided in the past.
Kudos to Dr. Raff for covering this important topic in this quick and easy-to-understand must-see presentation.
Over 3 million people in the United States have undiagnosed
Gluten Disorders
Gluten – Not a Friendly Protein Gluten is a protein found in grains. Research has shown that the gluten that is in grains of wheat, barley, rye, and oats (to a lesser degree) is toxic to many individuals. While gluten…
Urgent-Heartland Gourmet, LLC issues Allergy Alert on Undeclared Milk in Gluten Free Baking Mixes
[Editor’s Note – This article was published in 2013. The recall is over.]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – March 28, 2013 – Heartland Gourmet, LLC of Lincoln, NE is voluntarily recalling the following items because they may contain undeclared Milk. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to Milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix: Item # 2017 UPC Code 7376967020171 16 oz. Lot #0023065, best buy date of 12/2014 and distributed in March of 2013, and Lot # 0023007, best buy date of