Gluten, celiac disease & wheat allergy

Posted on September 15, 2010 by customchoicecereal

We all know that things change, and the pace of these changes is constantly increasing. With awareness for celiac disease constantly on the rise – September 13th was Celiac Awareness Day – confusion about the various terms mentioned in the context of “gluten” also increases.

I understand my work at Custom Choice Cereal to quite a large degree as educating about celiac disease and making gluten-free life easier. That’s why I was very excited to see a detailed article by registered, licensed dietitian Pam Stuppy explaining the difference between celiac disease, a wheat allergy, and gluten intolerance. She gives the following – and I think outstanding – definitions:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, which means that even a trace of gluten causes a flattening of the villi — little fingerlike projections in the intestinal lining that absorb nutrients and energy sources from the foods we eat. People with celiac disease are more likely to acquire one or more other autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis.
A wheat allergy is an allergic response by the body that triggers symptoms such as rashes, asthma, or even anaphylactic shock but unlike celiac disease, it does not involve self-destruction of body tissues.
Recent studies suggest that there may be a third category of conditions related to gluten that is not specifically autoimmune or allergy-based. This gluten sensitivity may be because of changes in the lining of the intestinal tract and how it controls what gets into the blood stream. This may also be the connection with autism. More work needs to be done in this area.

These are the three basic cases that need to be distinguished. If you would like to know more you can read Pam’s entire article at Seacoastonline.com.

Why you are living gluten-free

Posted on September 7, 2010 by customchoicecereal

It is both fun and interesting for us at Custom Choice Cereal – and hopefully for you as well – to see the results of our 3-second-polls here on our blog. A big thanks to the 69 of you who answered our last question

What’s your main reason for being gluten-free?

We are pretty thrilled about this best participation rate in any of our 3-second-polls so far because it helps all of us get more representative results. So please help us promote our newest poll (How long after going gluten-free did you feel/see first results?) to get even more answers. Here are the detailed results of what you said:

52.9% (36 out of 69) responded that they have celiac disease
27.9% (19 people) of you said that you are intolerant to gluten
10.3% (7 out of 69) of you just feel better on a gluten-free diet
7.4% (5 of you) are gluten-free because of a family member
1.5% (one person) replied that they have a wheat allergy and want to be on the safe side
No participant was an athlete following a gluten-free diet

The results make sense, but the Custom Choice Cereal team was still impressed that more than 3/4 of all respondents had either celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity. This show that eating gluten-free might after all not be the fad diet that many make it out to be. Or our readers are the people who understand why they should be gluten-free.

Since Hajo insists on a graphical depiction of our 3-second-poll results you can find an easy-to-read chart below:

What would you like our next 3-second-poll to be? Let us know in the comment section!

1st Wednesday = Gluten-free Q&A day

Posted on September 1, 2010 by customchoicecereal

It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, and that means that Custom Choice Cereal in cooperation with our advisor Dr. Stephen Wangen offers you another Q&A session.

You are encouraged to ask this renown expert who has celiac disease himself anything you always wanted to know about following a gluten- or wheat-free diet. Feel free to have a look at the Gluten Free Doctor’s impressive resume and expertise on our Custom Choice Cereal people page.

But now to the important things, here is how it works:

1. Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
2. We’ll send all questions to Dr. Wangen
3. Dr. Wangen’s answers will be published in reply to your comments
4. Key: First come – first serve. And we have to keep it to 5 questions

We at Custom Choice Cereal are excited that Dr. Stephen Wangen agrees to provide this great service to you. Please understand that he has a busy schedule that we therefore have to limit each session to 5 questions. Thank you very much!

WSJ on who needs a gluten-free diet

Posted on August 24, 2010 by customchoicecereal

A significant part of my work at Custom Choice Cereal includes staying up to date on research around celiac disease and the gluten-free lifestyle. Just yesterday we wrote about why we think that those who have to eat gluten-free can benefit from the recent developments of the gluten-free “fad” diet.

The Wall Street Journal’s Health Journal columnist Melinda Beck wrote a great article on who has to stick to a gluten-free diet (celiacs, people with a wheat allergy, and those with a sensitivity to gluten). I was pretty impressed by the thoroughness of the research that was done and wanted to share it with you as part of our customer service. It particularly struck me that

gluten can be found in lip gloss (but not in envelope adhesives)
Melinda described many of the most common symptoms that ‘glutened’ celiacs experience
it is not well understood how gluten can cause psychiatric and behavioral changes (keyword: leaky-gut)
7% of the population has anti-gliadin antibodies (‘AGA’), as do 18% of people with autism, and 20% of those with schizophrenia

The article also points out that much more research is needed to understand why the various conditions that benefit from a gluten-free diet are so much more prevalent today than several decades ago. While celiac disease was initially believed to begin only during childhood, it is now know that it can start at any time during the life of a person with the genetic predisposition.

In a little video, Melinda Beck also explains that the gluten-free diet is not a weight-loss diet, and that one should not embark lightly on a gluten-free diet.

http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf

Gluten-free diet on the Today Show

Posted on August 12, 2010 by customchoicecereal

Say what you want, but Chelsea Clinton’s by now famous gluten-free wedding cake has further increased awareness for celiac disease.

Though some regard it as a “fad diet”, a higher demand for gluten-free foods results in more choices for celiacs and those who have a gluten intolerance. That’s exactly our mission at Custom Choice Cereal, making the gluten-free life an enjoyable experience by bringing taste and variety to the gluten-free cereal bowl!

Though they define ‘celiac disease’ somewhat loosely we still highly recommend that you watch this video from yesterday’s Today Show! Great job to the Today Show for covering this important topic in such depth!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

Q&A on celiac disease, gluten-free diet

Posted on August 4, 2010 by customchoicecereal

We at Custom Choice Cereal are happy to offer you another Q&A session on celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and living gluten-free or wheat-free with a renown expert in the field, Dr. Stephen Wangen.

Suffering from celiac disease himself, Stephen has devoted his life to educating and providing help to people effected with digestive issues of various kinds. You can read about The Gluten Free Doctor’s impressive credentials on our page about our advisors.

The whole thing is pretty simple and works in 4 easy steps:

1. Post your question as a comment to this blog entry
2. We send all questions to Dr. Wangen
3. Dr. Wangen’s answers will be published in reply to your comments
4. Key: First come – first serve. 5 question limit per session

This great service could not be provided to you without Dr. Wangen’s goodwill. We at Custom Choice Cereal are very thankful that Stephen continues to offer these monthly Q&A session on our blog. At the same time, we’d like to thank you for understanding that out of respect for Dr. Wangen and his time we have to limit each session to 5 questions.

UFC's Dennis Hallman has celiac disease

Posted on July 19, 2010 by customchoicecereal

You might or might not like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). We at Custom Choice Cereal are certainly not going to take any sides… However, we came across a story about a UFC fighter with celiac disease (please ignore that they call it a wheat allergy) and wanted to share his story with you.

Dennis Hallman said in an interview with MMA Junkie Radio that he never understood why he was so exhausted after training or why his cardio failed him in the octagon. When doctors diagnosed him with celiac disease they found out that for him it meant that his body was unable to produce testosterone and cartisol because of the gluten in his diet. Both these hormones are essential to the performance and recovery of an athlete.

Since going off wheat (and we might add: hopefully going off gluten alltogether!) in May, Dennis has immediately noticed the difference, most strikingly in his recovery after training and fights. He now feels like a “new man”. Here is what struck us at Custom Choice Cereal most about this story: when the Garmin-Transitions pro cycling team went on a gluten-free diet they noticed the exact same effect – better recovery – even though none of them have celiac disease or are intolerant to gluten.

Even though we are not qualified to give medical advice these stories seem to indicate that reducing the gluten intake cannot be bad. And what better way to start than with a tasty gluten-free cereal with exactly the ingredients you love?

Gluten-free vs. wheat-free: what it means

Posted on July 15, 2010 by customchoicecereal

We at Custom Choice Cereal have blogged before about the terms gluten-free and wheat-free not being the same and pointed out that a wheat-free diet is not enough for celiacs.

This is an extremely important distinction that needs to be understood because not understanding it can result in serious (and very unpleasant) responses from the autoimmune system if a person suffers from celiac disease or gluten intolerance. In order to avoid this misunderstanding, education about and raising awareness for celiac disease are essentials components of the Custom Choice Cereal mission.

Custom Choice Cereal saw an article on suite101.com (which proves that their tagline is exactly true!) entitled Gluten Free Diet Foods – What Does Gluten Free & Wheat Free Mean? Author Vickie Ewell describes how the definition of the term ‘gluten-free’ is interpreted differently by different manufacturers and points out that measures to prevent cross-contamination can differ significantly as well. Her conclusion?

“Wheat free and gluten free is not the same thing. While all wheat free food is gluten free, a gluten free diet also requires the celiac to refrain from eating rye, barley, and contaminated oats. This needs to be clearly understood by the individual with celiac disease, or gluten intolerance, so that adequate questions can be placed to company representatives regarding their definition of gluten free foods and cross contamination practices.”

Thank you, Vickie! We would only like to add that everyone also needs to be aware that these different ‘in-house interpretations’ for the terms ‘gluten-free’ and ‘wheat-free’ exist. Or has Hajo’s Dad would say: “Every gluten-free food is wheat-free but not every wheat-free food is gluten-free”.

Celiac & gluten-free Q&A for you

Posted on July 7, 2010 by customchoicecereal

We at Custom Choice Cereal receive plenty of questions about celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and the gluten-free or wheat-free diets. Unfortunately, we are not qualified to give medical advice. That’s why we are super-excited to offer you another Q&A session with celiac expert Dr. Stephen Wangen. You can see The Gluten Free Doctor’s impressive credentials by visiting the page with our advisors.

Here is how it works, just follow these simple steps and you’re fine:

The Custom Choice Cereal team is very happy that Dr. Stephen Wangen agrees to provide this great service to you. Thank you for understanding that out of respect for Stephen we have to limit each session to 5 questions!

Frozen yogurt. Local. Gluten-free!

Posted on July 2, 2010 by customchoicecereal

The entrepreneurial spirit in the Triangle is very alive, and rarely does a week pass since having started Custom Choice Cereal where I don’t meet at least one other local entrepreneur. Being located in the Research Triangle Park, many of these entrepreneurs operate in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or IT.

That’s why I am very excited to have met the people behind Local Yogurt, “Durham’s first independently owned frozen yogurt shop!” They offer delicious frozen yogurt in four flavors and plenty of toppings. The best part: the yogurt is gluten-free! How awesome is that??

With the heat hitting North Carolina and the 4th of July weekend ahead, this is the perfect treat for anyone, but especially for those with celiac disease and everyone on a gluten-free or wheat-free diet. Go ahead and visit LoYo this weekend at one of their three locations in Durham, Raleigh or Greenville!

Custom Choice Cereal

Your Gluten Freedom

Tag Archives: Wheat-free