What is Gluten Free?

I remember my one friend talking about how his father has celiac disease. He said that his father dropped a lot of weight and it took a while for the doctors to figure it out. He needs a toaster for his gluten-free bread. None of his food can have touched anything wheat.

If I suddenly got celiac disease, I would probably be found dead with bags of doritos.

No pasta, No bread , No beer, No donuts, No soy sauce.....

Man, thats a difficult lifestyle change!

The closest I have come to a "gluten free lifestyle" was when I tried to order a beer once and the bartender told me that it was a gluten free beer and I should probably pick a different one. This was a few years ago and I wasn't even sure what exactly Gluten-Free entailed.

Since then I have heard about gluten free a lot more frequently. I wonder if this is just due to better public awareness or if it is due to an increase in the number of people who are gluten intolerant?

Next time I think I will try one of those gluten-free beers to see how big of a difference there is.

My wife has arthritis in her back and, a few years ago, it took ten minutes for her to get out of bed in the morning. I was fearing a wheelchair was next and she'd be a cripple before she was 60. Then she read a book called "Eat for your Blood Type," by Dr A'damo (sp?), where it told her that people with Type O+ blood (the most common type) should not eat bread, because it makes arthritis worse. So she went gluten free, the arthritis shrunk up, and she's OK now. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself.

Doctors pooh-pooh the whole theory, but I think it's because the doctors can't make any money if people go gluten free and cure themselves--no drug kickbacks, no chiropractors, no regular doctor visits, no expensive treatments. No wonder doctors don't like it.

We were at a restaurant today, and two elderly ladies came in, all bent over with walkers, in pain, and obviously suffering from severe arthritis. I wanted to run over there and yell, "stop eating bread!"

The great thing about a gluten-free diet is IT CAN'T HURT YOU!! Hey, if it doesn't cure your arthritis, what have you lost? The only bad thing about it: There are some really awful-tasting gluten-free products out there, especially pasta. But if you hunt around and try this and that, you'll find some tasty stuff. Typically, the more you pay, the better it is. Really good pasta costs at least twice what the normal stuff costs.

Mr. S.O. Poop

My wife has arthritis in her back and, a few years ago, it took ten minutes for her to get out of bed in the morning. I was fearing a wheelchair was next and she'd be a cripple before she was 60.

Diet plays a huge part.My dad is 84 yo, and he had arithristis...neck, arms hip. He stop..or reduced eating (his intake of process sugar. But his doctors agreed with him..what ever works for him.

The other thing that I admire him is when I was 12 we were logging and a Elm spun on its trunk when he sawed it down an landed on him. Thats where he got the arthritis in the neck. On days when it flared up, in stead of taking it easy, he forced himself to move and work. I beleive this help him greatly. He did say after moving and working it did fee better.

I wanted to run over there and yell, "stop eating bread!"

Yes you have to control your presentation.

p911

Couldn't agree more, had the same results, plus a drop in 15 Kg and 4 times the energy. O+ and dairy is also a no no.

One thing that people tend to overlook is that celiac disease occurs in families, and is inheritable.

i was working for a flour mill in India and we were producing Gluten free flour known as ATTA and is used extensively through out India its interesting this fraction of flour is extracted keeping commercial reasons .as the first fraction rich in Gluten is sold at higher cost and used by bread manufacturers,and for Indian Bread Known as Paratha which is a most liked dish in Indian cuisine,The second fraction extracted is somalina with left over gluten and comes gluten free flour ATTA which is cheaper and used extencively by comman man.in fact you can prepare all kinds of indian bread using ATTA isnt it interesting.

crm

Raknruin, that's a great point about celiac being inheritable. My husband's diagnosis was confirmed with a blood test, and after his diagnosis his family members were strongly encouraged to get tested. It turned out that some members of his family had different levels of gluten intolerance - not a full-blown celiac autoimmune response, but their lives are much better now that they've eliminated gluten from their diet.

We've found a lot of great "replacement foods", typically with rice, corn and potato flours.

The August 2009 issue of Scientific American included this article discussing insights into Celiac Disease and its mechanisms.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=celiac-disease-insights

My sister suffers from celiac disease. We always just thought she was a difficult person, but guess what - her stomach really was hurting,

She has a gluten free blog:

http://www.gluten-free-chocolate.com/

My neighbor across the street also has celiac. I've learned to accommodate her and my sister with certain things - a flour free chocolate torte, or meringues. And being careful to segregate the grains when I cook other things.

The interesting thing here is if one is allergic to cats, one can't have cats around. However, if one is not allergic to cats, it's OK to have a cat, and there isn't any real gain from not having a cat (if you want one) when we're not allergic.

If we are not allergic to gluten, then what is to be gained by going gluten-free?

It keeps cats away?

There have been studies on allergies, and they have found that eliminating types of food can make you more sensitive to it; i.e. peanut allergy. The final response will most likely come to eating a little of everything. Moderation. I'm sure a lot of the people who go to gluten free bread end up eating less bread in the end and that will affect their health more the what that bread contains. Wonder bread and others like it are not anything healthy. These breads stay fresh for weeks or more, and if bacteria and fungus can't eat it, why should I. But a good artisan bakery using slow fermentation is a much healthier choice; a good sourdough, or french baguette. As a final note, gluten doesn't occur in high quantities in wheat grown in warm climates. Here in Mexico you need to import high gluten flour for many recipes because the flour here is low in gluten (and over processed as well.)

>The final response will most likely come to eating a little of everything.

When we travel in Yurp--France and Italy, especially--my wife (the one with arthiritis in her back, described above) succumbs to the temptation to eat bread and pasta. It's easy to avoid bread in the USA because it's so awful, but when they put a baguette on the table, temptation rules. Same with pasta in Italy.

She knows how much she can eat, though, because if she eats too much bread or pasta, she feels it the next day. Sometimes the sacrifice is worth the pain.

Good thing that French wine doesn't cause back pain, or I would be a cripple.

thanks for the witty answer, just made my day