Health

Whether due to malabsorption from an undiagnosed syndrome like celiac disease, poor diet or defective activation of nutrients, many people are not receiving or utilizing the nutrients their bodies need to thrive.

The human body is tough. You can operate at sub-optimal levels for years or decades before a clinical symptom becomes apparent or is recognized as resulting from a deficiency.

Unfortunately, this recognition frequently comes only after symptoms have become so severe as to significantly impact your health.  Until that point, medications and surgeries are more likely to be used as treatments, neither of which correct the underlying cause of the deficiency.

In fact, many drugs exacerbate nutrient depletion.  So, while they may improve your symptoms in the short term, they can cause more harm than good in the long term.

Many prescription and non-prescription medications can deplete nutrients by any of these ways:

1. Preventing normal digestion and/or absorption, so nutrients cannot get into the body.

2. Interfering with nutrient transport and/or use in the body, so nutrients cannot Read More »

The following questions and answers were developed by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School:

Q. What is it like for a person you see who is newly diagnosed with Celiac Disease?
A. The gluten-free diet requires more preparation, taking food with you when you travel, making sure that you are safe in dining-out situations or when you are visiting with family or friends. So for some, it is very simple and straight forward and they are already experimenting with new grains like amaranth, buckwheat, millet, sorghum, and teff. But some people are Read More »

When you have a child diagnosed with a severe food allergy it can be extremely challenging to help them feel comfortable and safe in social situations.  While living with food allergies may always present challenges there are a few things you can do as a parent to help your child manage their fears and anxieties.

First and foremost…you must try and remain as calm as you can, while still watching out for them.  When you get very worked up  and anxious in front of your child, they feel this and it passes on to them.  Teach them to be cautious and what to watch out for, but Read More »

Ever get tired of cooking? Or maybe you live alone and don’t enjoy cooking for one?

One of the best lessons I’ve learned while being gluten-free is that in order to eat the best you possibly can, you’ve got to cook it yourself. You know that gluten-free doesn’t necessarily mean healthy, so you can’t count on just purchasing products to meet the nutritional needs of your body. But I think you already know that, right? (If you don’t, consider one of these options for learning more about being gluten-free AND healthy!)

Though you know you need to cook, I’ve heard the full spectrum of why people get into a rut and feel like they just can’t make cooking a priority. Whether you Read More »

Celiac Disease (CD) is not curable, but it is manageable by eating a strict gluten free diet.  That may not be enough.

Many suffering from CD still feel ill even after being faithful to a gluten free diet.  Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease which causes your body to attack and destroy the microvilli and villi in your small intestines.  These are key to the absorption of nutrients from food and are also where many enzymes used in digestion are made.  When these are destroyed, the ability to absorb nutrients decreases and can lead to malnutrition.

This is not all that happens in a damaged intestine.  Gluten can cause the tight junctions, spaces between cells lining the intestines, to be damaged or destroyed allowing larger molecules such as proteins and even microorganisms to pass into the blood stream.

Under normal circumstances, the intestinal wall only permits small particles to pass through the intestinal wall and into the blood stream. When these larger molecules make it through into the blood stream our bodies do not recognize these  larger molecules and an autoimmune response begins.  It is these autoimmune responses that may be the cause of you still feeling ill.  What needs to happen to feel well again, is to heal the gut.

Is your kitchen a gathering place?

The kitchen is a natural place for people of all ages and backgrounds to share stories and flavors.

When transitioning to eating gluten-free, cooking and meeting in the kitchen will probably change.

It means double checking each addition to a dish or scrambling to make sure there is no cross-contamination. Read More »

I first became introduced to coconut oil when I purchased the BabycakesNYC cookbook. Not only does coconut have a great flavor, but it’s a great substitute to make egg-free french toast and easily substitutes in exchange for canola oil when baking.

While I am no nutrition expert, I’m a nutrition guru, who loves to learn about the health benefits of different foods.  After all, you are what you eat, right?

Read More »

Hello to everyone! I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you what I’ve learned about baking gluten-free quick breads, such as Pumpkin Cornbread Squares, after 10 challenging months of adapting wheat flour recipes and experimenting with gluten-free flours, starches, and gums.  Here are some of the questions I asked myself and the answers that I found.

Q: Why would I bake gluten-free when I can now buy a variety of gluten-free products at a grocery store?

A: You may enjoy baking and want to continue.  Or you may want to save money and not buy packaged foods.  Perhaps, you’re not happy with the quality or taste of what’s available.

Or perhaps you’re like me.  I’m not only gluten-sensitive (recently diagnosed), but also lactose-intolerant and on a forever diet to keep Type 2 diabetes at bay. The result is that Read More »

Gluten Free is heard everywhere nowadays.  It’s seems to be as popular as the vegan diet years ago.

Unfortunately gluten free is not a fad, or a diet, it is a way of life for those with Celiac Disease and gluten sensitivity.

Those of us, including myself, need to check everything that we eat which can honestly be a royal pain, but the good news is that most places are gluten aware.  There are those hole in the wall places in the middle of nowhere that we can never find anything to eat, but we can always pack a snack.

The first time that you go grocery shopping or out to eat can be overwhelming after being told that you Read More »

RLS from low iron in celiac disease responds to a gluten-free diet

Low iron levels have been associated with increased severity of restless leg syndrome. The following medical case report discusses four patients with low iron and restless leg syndrome who were tested positive for celiac disease and placed on a gluten free diet. All four had improvement on the gluten free diet.

“Celiac disease as a Possible Cause for Low Serum Ferritin in Patients with Restless Legs Syndrome.”

Manchanda S, Davies CR, Picchietti D.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Medicine, 506 S. Mathews Avenue, Suite 190, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To describe celiac disease as a possible cause for low serum ferritin in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS). BACKGROUND: Low iron stores have been found to be a risk factor for RLS with serum ferritin levels less than 45-50ng/mL associated with increased severity of RLS. It has become routine clinical practice to test serum ferritin in the initial assessment of RLS. Celiac disease is a common genetic disorder that can cause iron deficiency.

METHODS: Consecutive case series of four patients with RLS and serum ferritin below 25ng/mL, who had positive screening tests for celiac disease. RESULTS: We report four patients who had serum ferritin <12ng/mL and positive screening tests for celiac disease. All had celiac disease confirmed by duodenal biopsy and response to a gluten-free diet. RLS symptoms improved in all four, with two able to discontinue RLS medication and two responding without medication.

CONCLUSIONS: In patients with RLS and low serum ferritin who do not have an obvious cause for iron deficiency, we suggest looking for celiac disease by simple, inexpensive serologic testing. Diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease is likely to improve the outcome for RLS, as well as identify individuals who are at risk for the significant long-term complications of celiac disease.

Source: Sleep Med. 2009 Jan 10. [Epub ahead of print]
url: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19138881