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Boston College Business School Team Seeks Special Dietary Needs Information

A team of business school students from Boston College invites the gluten-free community to participate in an important market research survey. The goal is to learn more about consumers with specific dietary needs. The results of the survey will be used to assist in offering detailed recommendations about how to better support the community with unique, high-quality, gluten-free foods. This survey is intended for market research purposes only. Your opinion will be kept confidential. All results will be reported in the aggregate and not as individual entries.

“Gluten-free” named #3 top food trend predicted for 2010

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Liz_Schau

It’s the beginning of a new year and writers, websites, and magazines are compiling their top trends lists, as predictions for the upcoming year. After all, it’s 2010 now, and seems the best time to reflect on all of last year’s most notable food fads in order to foresee what the upcoming year will bring us in food pop culture and consumerism.

Gluten_free_labelGluten-free eating has become more and more popular and mainstream over the last few years, as more people are being diagnosed with Celiac disease and gluten intolerance/allergies (either by medical professionals or via simple elimination diets). So it’s not surprising that among the many predictions for 2010’s favorite edibles, The Daily Beast has named gluten-free food as number three on their Ten Food Trends For 2010 list. As the website says,

Gluten Intolerance Validated by this Popular Doctor and Author

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As common at they are, gluten allergies and elimination diets are still, many times, viewed as fringe alternative health practices and often don’t receive the mainstream validation they deserve. When some estimates show that nearly 1 in 30 people suffer at the hands of gluten, one would think the intolerance to this protein would finally gain more acceptance in mainstream medicine and media. One man, doctor and author Mark Hyman, is working to do just that.

HymanHyman, an M.D. in the field of functional medicine, pioneers techniques that aide the chronically-ill in improving their health and quality of life by determining the underlying causes of illness and treating according to those causes, as opposed to much mainstream medicine that focuses on treatments that champion subsistence and reliance on a medication. Doctor Hyman is a blogger for The Huffington Post and in a recent article, cites gluten allergies and Celiac Disease (even latent Celiac) as the cause for many ailments and conditions never previously associated with the grain protein.

Is the Media Fueling the Gluten free, Casein Free Autism Controversy?

The debate about autism and the effectiveness of the gluten-free, casein-free diet continues – this time due to irresponsible reporting of the mainstream news media who seem to have chosen sensationalism over objective journalism when covering an important medical paper on gastrointestinal disorders in autism.

This week, a panel of medical experts led by Timothy Buie, MD at Harvard Medical School published a consensus statement on the Evaluation, Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders in Individuals with ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorders) in the medical journal Pediatrics. You can find the full paper here.

The panel covered 23 topics in a document that is 20 pages in length, dealing with the diagnosis and care of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and gastrointestinal issues. The panel based its conclusions on available information which they agreed was limited and incomplete.

The Key Topic

“Individuals with autism spectrum disorders who present with gastrointestinal symptoms warrant a thorough evaluation, as would be undertaken for individuals without autism spectrum disorders who have the same symptoms or signs. Evidence based algorithms for the assessment of abdominal pain, constipation, chronic diarrhea, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) should be developed.”

Some of the other topics include recommendations for the banking of DNA samples, the complexity of diagnostic evaluation when ASD and gastrointestinal disorders present, the need for studies to determine the prevalence of intestinal permeability in neuropsychiatric manifestions of ASD, and the need for large studies to determine the effectiveness of the gluten-free, casein-free diet.

Celiac Disease Physician Education Program Goes Nationwide

The Celiac Sprue Association – USA (CSA) recently ran the article below in Lifeline, CSA’s quarterly newsletter. The CSA-PEP refers to the CSA Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity Physician Education Program. CSA-PEP Goes Nationwide: Buffalo… 

Celiac Disease Alert: Six Ways Gluten Can Kill You

“I only cheat once in awhile. You know, like twice a week…”

Photo: Suite101.com

If you have celiac disease, you damage your body EVERY TIME you ingest gluten. That may sound bad, but it gets worse.

You can DIE from celiac disease in a variety of ways. None of them are fun. Some take longer than others. Some may not kill you per se, but rather they may stop you from enjoying life, make you suffer from chronic pain or limit your potential.

Celiac disease is a deadly serious condition caused by eating what is essentially a poison to susceptible people – gluten proteins in wheat, barley, rye and oats.

Here are just 6 examples how celiac disease from gluten ingestion can kill you:

Mark your calenders for September 13th

September 13th marks Celiac Sprue Association’s (CSA) Celiac Awareness Day. This provides a great time for people suffering with Celiac Disease to spread awareness to their friends, family, and doctors. The CSA has an awareness…