Tag: Celiac Disease Patients

Cooking For Celiac Disease

Celiac disease patients experience a digestive disorder that forces them to follow a specific diet. Celiac disease patients show digestive problem with food that has gluten in it, like wheat, barley and rye. Therefore cooking for patients with celiac disease patients can be a challenge.

A gluten- free diet means avoiding food that contains gluten like bread, pasta, cereal, cookies and a lot of processed food that has wheat, barley or rye. If that is your staple food then you have change your lifestyle or find alternative ingredients. To keep diversity in their diet, celiac patients can still enjoy bread and pasta made out of potato, rice, soy, or bean floor. Nowadays, it is easier since there are already manufacturers who sell gluten free bread, pasta and other food. Meat, fish, rice, fruits and vegetables does not contain gluten so these will be okay to include in your diet.

The disadvantage of having celiac disease is the difficulties of eating out. Following a strict diet makes it more difficult for celiac patients to buy lunch or food in the school cafeteria or food stalls near your work. The best way, therefore, is to prepare your own food to bring along with you. You could contact the manufacturers or restaurants that make gluten free food, but that can be quite troublesome if the location is quite far from you school or work.

Consulting a dietician or a health care professional specializing in food and nutrition can help people learn about the new diet. There are also support groups made of celiac patients and their families that can help the patients to establish their new life.

Some people may think that cooking food for celiac patients is very much boring and routine. This just means that youve been cooking the same food over and over again and have not actually expanded on your repertoire. There are many ways of cooking a great meal without risking the persons health. Look at it this way, now is the time to explore other dishes.

Some celiac patients still cook the food that they eat before they were diagnosed, but they replaced some ingredients with gluten content with ingredients that are pure, uncontaminated and gluten free. Celiac patients come up with different ways to make up an eventful meal without violating their diets. One example would be cooking a Blueberrry cake. Replacing the ingredients with Nearly Normal All Purpose Flour and gluten-free baking powder will be enough for persons with celiac disease.

So the rest of the ingredients like granulated cane sugar, eggs, milk, fresh blueberries, unsalted butter, and cinnamon will be fine. Celiac disease wont be triggered by these ingredients.

Preparation would still be the same. Preheating the oven to 375 degrees or 350 degrees for convection an oiling a 9 inch springform pan and putting any extra in a small oiled 6 inch square baking pan or casserole would, of course be necessary. You need to combine Nearly Normal All Purpose Flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Toss the berries, pour the batter into the prepared pans, and set aside. Bake the small pan for approximately 40 minutes and the springform for 50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of each pan comes out clean. You get the point.

The trick is to determine which alternative ingredients to use and which food do not contain gluten. Cooking for persons with celiac disease can be challenging, but with enough research, trials, and imagination, you can come up with a meal that is enjoyed by everyone in the family.

Celiac Disease And Other Digestive Disorders

Celiac disease is also known as sprue, nontropical sprue or gluten- sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease occurs to people who cannot tolerate gluten, a protein substance present in barley, wheat and rye. Celiac disease is a digestive disorder. There are also other digestive disorders that are often confused with celiac disease like the irritable bowel syndrome.

Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is often confused with celiac disease. IBS is considered to be the most common disorder. In North America, there is about 20 percent of Americans believed to have some form of IBS. Unfortunately, the treatment for IBS is not the same for celiac disease patients. There are times when celiac disease patients would not receive the appropriate treatment and can take a long time before the correct diagnosis is made.

Patients with IBS should ask their physician to make sure that they dont have any celiac disease. Medical researches in Britain have found a high rate of celiac disease with patients with IBS. The British study found that the chance of having celiac disease was seven times higher for patients with IBS.

IBS causes however, are not well understood. There are several studies saying that it has something to do with the central nervous system. There are changes in the nerves that control sensation or muscle contractions in the bowel. The bowels of the intestines contract irregularly, meaning that food is pushed too quickly or slowly.

IBF effects are more likely to be emotional than physical. Some IBS patients find it hard to lead a normal, happy life while experiencing the digestive disorder. But people with IBS have been found to have a lower chance to develop more serious or life-threatening bowel diseases. Although this is reassuring, this does not mean that serious diseases cannot occur separately.

Another digestive disorder is the inflammatory bowel disease. This is the name of a group of disorders that cause the intestine to become inflamed or red and swollen. The inflammation lasts a long time and usually comes back over and over again.

A germ or by immune system problem may cause the disease. The disease is not contagious however, inflammatory bowel disease, like celiac disease, does seem to be hereditary.

Celiac disease is also misdiagnoses, sometimes, as Crohns disease. Crohns disease is an inflammatory bowel disease. It causes ulcers to form in the gastrointestinal tract anywhere from the mouth to the anus. Symptoms may include stomach cramps and pains that comes and goes and blood in the stool. Similar to celiac disease, Crohns disease patients also experience diarrhea, sick feeling in the stomach, unexplained weight loss and tiredness.

Crohns disease gets treated depending on the status of the gastrointestinal tract. When the disease is mild, medicines may still help. But for sever cases, steroids are generally used. There are times that even surgery may be necessary, but it cannot cure the disease.

There are about 95 million people affected by digestive problems every day. Digestive disorders are one of the primary reasons for physician visits. It is important to get medical attention for digestive disorders since digestive diseases are very complex. They may have subtle symptoms and their causes may be unknown. Identifying or reaching a diagnosis need a thorough and accurate medical history and physical background since some digestive disorders can be hereditary.

If we re what we eat then we should take care of our digestive system. A digestive disorder or digestive disease like celiac disease is impossible to ignore. Undermining celiac disease and other digestive disorders means undermining our total health and would eventually threaten our lives.

Oats And Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a condition brought about by the accumulation of gluten. Gluten is protein preset in bread, pasta, cookies, crust and other food that is made out of wheat, barley or rye. Oats also contain the protein gluten. There are many controversies surrounding oats and celiac disease.

A person with celiac disease experiences vitamin deficiencies with the brain, nervous system, bones, liver and other vital organs and other illnesses. What happens is that the person with celiac disease who eats foods with the protein gluten experiences an immune reaction in the small intestine. This may lead to small intestine damage and malabsoption of certain vitamins and nutrients from the food. There is no cure for celiac disease but people inflicted with this manage their disease by removing gluten from their diet.

It is believed that celiac disease is a relatively rare disorder, it is now through to affect about one in 250 people worldwide. To manage their disease, patients with celiac disorder is advised to have a gluten-free diet, oats is one of the food that they take out of their list.

But there has been debates if it is acceptable for celiac disease patients to eat oats, since oat proteins are not the same as those in wheat, barley and rye. Even so, oats were believed to have toxic effects with people who are inflicted with this disorder that is why they are advised to avoid them.

Now, there are some celiac disease societies and medical centers who are advising their patients to eat limited amounts of oats which is said to even provide beneficial effects to them. There are studies with adults and children citing majority of patients with celiac disease who could tolerated limited amounts of oats. When they consumed no more than about half to three quarters of a cup of rolled dry oats per day for adults and a quarter of a cup per day for children, there were no abdominal symptoms. (Lapid, Nancy; Are Oats Safe for Patients with Celiac Disease?)

In an article written by Jefferson Adams entitled Effects of Various Kinds of Oats on Celiac Disease, he cited different kinds of study conducted by different groups of scientists and doctors about the relation of oats to celiac disease.

According to Adams, there were a team of Italian and Australian doctors who conducted tests on three kinds of oats: the avenins of the Italian variety Astra , the Australian variety Mortlook and the Austrlian Lampton variety. In the study conducted it showed that Lampton is much safer than either the Astra or Mortlock.

However, even if the Lampton variety is still safer it still has to be processes in a contamination free facility that tests oats if they are gluten free. For oat products to be considered gluten-free, they may show less than 220ppm of gliadin.

Even if there are patients who respond well to oats, there are still a small number of patients who could not tolerate oats. Even oats with low gluten content like the Lampton variety. With these patients, a protein in oats called avenin triggered an immune response similar to gluten. There was no way to tell in advance which patients would be sensitive to avenins.

Including oats in the diet of a celiac disease patient is of course a physicians call. Including oats in the diet should always be done under doctors supervision. Oats can provide the necessary nutrients, fiber and diversity much needed to a celiac patients diet. But it should not compromise the overall well being of the patient.

New celiac disease patients are not advised to eat oats until their symptoms or disease in under control. Patients who are eating oats are still advised to see their doctor regularly to monitor any abnormalities or symptoms. Besides, patients with celiac disease are still to consume oats that are pure, uncontaminated and gluten-free. Oats and celiac disease can still dance together.