Donabee.com Health & Wellness
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July 2009 - Celiac Sprue is becoming very widespread A report was released in July 2009 from the Star Tribune(1) in Minneapolis that contradicted the assumption that the increase in people with Celiac Sprue is due to better testing methods. Frozen samples of blood taken in the 50's from Air Force recruits during a study of Hepatitis C were tested for Celiac Sprue and the results were compared to a current sampling of people. The study showed the condition has increased 400% in the population since the 50's. The question is why the huge increase in people who cannot tolerate gluten in their diets. Dr. Joseph Murray, the Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist who led the study, said "Fifty years is way too fast for human genetics to have changed. Which tells us it has to be a pervasive environmental influence." The study also found that the Air Force recruits that were not diagnosed with Celiac Sprue and therefore did not know they had it and did not take steps to deal with it had a 400% increase in the "risks of death." The blood test of Celiac Sprue has been available for only short time. Based on the Air Force blood samples only 1 in 400 recruits had Celiac Sprue. Today's results show one in hundred have it. So what is causing this increase in what had been determined to be an inherited condition passed down through genetics?
Before we talk about what
might be causing this, Josephine
Marcotty the reporter for the Star
Tribune, makes an pointed definition of
Celiac Sprue. "The
disease occurs in people whose bodies
cannot digest gluten, a protein found in
wheat, rye and barley. The undigested
protein triggers the body's immune
system to attack the lining of the small
intestine, causing diarrhea, nausea and
abdominal pain. Though people live with
it for many years, over time it destroys
the lining of the small intestine,
leading to an inability to absorb
nutrients such as iron and calcium.
That, in turn, causes serious problems,
including anemia, osteoporosis and even
infertility. The only treatment is a
gluten-free diet -- no wheat, rye or
barley." This is a potentially,
serious health situation.
Could something in our environment be causing an increase in Celiac Sprue? If so, what could it be? According to Dr. Joseph Mercola(2), the likely cause is our food. High gluten flour is very prevalent in our diet, more than you can imagine. Wheat has not always been a staple food to human beings. In fact our ancestors did not eat grains until animals were domesticated. Research shows that adding grains to the diet of humans set the health and longevity back 100's of years, maybe 1,000's. In fact, former FDA head Dr. David A. Kessler, whose book “The End of Overeating”, says that our race has just recovered or adjusted to grains in our diets. And now we have made such such dramatic changes to our food (are allowed big companies to do so) that our race is again going to suffer from bad health and shortened life spans. The wheat we eat today is NOT the wheat our ancestors consumed. Until fairly recently in our history, wheat flour meant you were eating the whole grain, hull and all. But whole grain wheat bread would spoil pretty quickly, in days. In the 1870's it was learned that if you removed parts of the wheat grain and used what was left to make bread and such, it wouldn't spoil so quickly. So things like the wheat germ, wheat germ oil, the bran and the middlings were removed. What was left over is a white substance that is almost devoid of any nutritional value. To add insult to injury, hybrid varieties of wheat were developed to make the flour contain more gluten. Gluten is a Greek word that means "glue". Gluten is what holds bread together. It also makes it rise. But those same adhesive properties make "wheat" flour difficult to digest and to absorb any nutrients left from the stripping out the bran and wheat germ. And to make this even more disheartening, genetically modified wheat could be exposing us consumers to even more potentially harmful effects from consuming wheat products. So sensitivity to gluten is on the rise in the US. It has increased 400% in the last 50 years. At least one in 100 people have it. Less than 2.5% of those people know it. Celiac Sprue causes damage to the small intestine making it difficult to get nutrition from eating food. Studies show that a high percentage of people people with autoimmune diseases, as high as 40%, are intolerant to gluten. If you are discovered to have Celiac Sprue after age 20 you have a 34% chance of getting an autoimmune disease, compared to the normal average of 3.4%. Celiac Sprue is often referred to as the "silent disease" because so few people know they have it. Just because you don't know doesn't mean you health is not being affected by it. The Many Symptoms of Gluten-Intolerance(2)In addition to nausea, diarrhea, constipation and abdominal pain, celiac disease may manifest clinically with an array of non-gastrointestinal symptoms, such as:
Hidden Sources of Gluten (2) In order to combat gluten intolerance, it’s not enough to simply avoid grains. You must also pay attention to the quality of all the other foods you eat. Remember, 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed foods. When you choose foods like this, not only are you bound to experience physical complications in one way or another, but if you have celiac disease it’s even more imperative you avoid processed foods due to hidden gluten. Unfortunately, food manufacturers are not required by law to identify all possible sources of gluten on their product labels, so reading the label may not be enough. Gluten may still be hiding in processed foods like ready-made soups, soy sauce, candies, cold cuts, and various low- and no-fat products, just to name a few, under labels such:
Celiac.com has a long list of label ingredients that typically contain hidden gluten.For helpful tips and guidelines on how to approach food companies for more detailed information about their ingredients, see The Gluten Solution site. They also offer more detailed information about the current state of gluten-free labeling legislation.That said, your best bet is to stick to a diet of fresh, whole foods (preferably organic whenever possible). Not only will you keep your celiac disease under control, but you will also experience numerous other benefits such as increased energy, enhanced mood, and a lower risk of chronic illness. (2)Editor Note: Eating in a restaurant is a dangerous thing to do for someone with Gluten Intolerance. When in doubt DO NOT EAT a food you suspect of containing gluten. Asking the waitress if the food contains gluten will not guarantee you it doesn't. More and more people know what you are talking about, but beware. Even if the server talks to the cook or reads the package does not mean you will get the right answer. What I have found is most Asian & Indian food tends to be gluten free. American type food very likely contains some form of gluten in the breadings, sauces, gravies, etc. I have even asked for a plain, grilled chicken breast and end up getting it coated in flour. I pretty much avoid most American type restaurants. Asian & Indian food seems to do best by me anyway. Better yet cook it yourself then you know unless you cook from a box. A friend suggested recently to only get things from the grocery that you find on the outside ring, and avoid all the products in the middle in those boxes. Links:
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