BEYOND CELIAC

On doing a google search on celiac disease, you will be thrown with various URLs defining what is Celiac disease. And on going through few of the top search, you will get to learn about celiac, which is an autoimmune condition in some people where eating a gluten rich food leads to damage in the small intestine. Gluten is a protein, primarily found in wheat, barley and rye. 

(A typical wheat grain anatomy)

It is estimated to affect 1 in 100 people worldwide. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging the finger-like villi of the small intestine. Left untreated, people with celiac disease are at-risk for serious health consequences.

There is currently no cure for celiac disease and the only treatment is a strict gluten-free diet.

Should I Bother?

Now the question is, I am not gluten intolerant, I have no such serious conditions, am eating Wheat flour-based Roti, paratha, bread & biscuits from my childhood. So, should I bother?

Answer is, you should not bother for celiac disease. BUT you should be aware of a condition called NCGS (Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity).

What is Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?

Gluten sensitivity meaning, individuals who cannot tolerate gluten and experience symptoms somewhat like those with celiac disease but do not end up having intestinal damage as seen in celiac disease. In other words, people experience symptoms, such as “foggy mind”, depression, children with ADHD-like behavior, abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, headaches, bone or joint pain, and chronic fatigue too often, when they have gluten in their diet, yet do not test positive for celiac disease.

What is Wheat allergy?

Wheat is one of the highly consumed food across the world. A wheat allergy is an immune response to any of the proteins present in wheat, including but not limited to gluten. It’s most common in children as well as obese & sedentary people. Allergy to wheat, due to non-gluten protein is very rare. Most of the wheat allergy in Non-celiac cases are due to NCGS condition.

What are the Symptoms of (NCGS) Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common bowel disorders, affecting the adult today. It does not have an established biomarker and is diagnosed based on symptoms such as abdominal pain, gas, bloating, and constipation or diarrhea. Though the exact cause of IBS is unclear, but most of the endocrinologist as well as nutrition & wellness experts points their finger towards the changes in the gut microbiome.

While Gut-microbiomes’ health is affected by multiple reason, one major reason could be NCGS. There’s no test that can diagnose you with NCGS. (People can either be diagnosed with Celiac disease or Wheat allergy). Therefore, to confirm your condition to be NCGS (or not be) , it is advisable to notice the below symptoms 1st.

The most common symptoms of NCGS are:

• Mental fatigue (brain fog)
• General fatigue
• Gas, Bloating and / or Abdominal pain
• Frequent Headache
• Frequent Bone or Joint pain

Finding your above symptoms, you can either want to meet your doctor and ask him/her about your suspicion of Gluten tolerance / intolerance, where the doctors will advice you for the celiac test as well as allergy test for wheat. If doctor finds you to be one of them, then he / she will advise you accordingly.

In case both the tests come out negative, and you still face the above symptoms, as a nutrition & wellness coach, my personal advice would be to monitor few things for yourself with elimination process.

As a very 1st step, stop eating Roti, Nan, paratha, bread & biscuits/ cookies made from wheat. (All the market bought bread, biscuit & cookies in India are made with wheat). Other gluten rich foods are rye, barley, and other hybrid varieties of wheat & rye, used for making various pastas & breads.

Do a detail research on grains (that’s for the grain-based carbohydrate part) that are gluten free. I am giving you below a list of Gluten free grains, which you can use for the very limited portion of Grain based carbs. Otherwise, you can very well depend on varieties of vegetables including some starchy roots (only if you are not obese or diabetics) & high & healthy quality protein (& fat) rich legumes, pulses & nuts. If you are a non-vegetarian, you can very well, incorporate that in your major meals.

 Gluten free grains:

1.    Amaranth ( Chulai or Rajgira in Hindi)

2.    Varieties of millets

• Foxtail millet
• Browntop Millet
• Kodo Millet
• Banyard Millet
• Little Millet
• Finger millet (common Ragi)
• Pearl millet (Type of Bajra)
• Sorghum (Common Jowar)

3.    Quinoa

4.    Brown Rice

5.    White rice (Not suggested for people with obesity, diabetes, pre-diabetes & insulin resistance

6.    Corn (Not suggested for people with obesity, diabetes, pre-diabetes & insulin resistance).

7.    Oats (Gluten free); some varieties of oats do have minimal gluten in them.

Brown rice as well as most of the millets can be eaten as fried rice, pulao, upma, tomato rice, biriyani etc, mixing them with healthy fat (Ghee) and other vegetables & proteins. Most of the millets can be made into a batter and then making conventional Dosa / chilla and then can be part of daily diet. Flours like Amaranth, Finger millet (common Ragi), Pearl millet (Type of Bajra) Sorghum (Common Jowar) can be used made into dough individually or by mixing proportionately and then rolled into Roti / paratha and then can be part of our major meal.

Eat this way for at least 4 weeks, preferably in consultation with your nutritionist and monitoring your condition by rating them from a 1 to 5 scale after each week. If the response to the gluten-free diet happens by 50% reduction in one to three of your main symptoms in 4-week evaluation, you should continue eating this new way of eating. At this stage, you should go for other common profile tests, which you should repeat initially alternate month, to check the improvements.

This will certainly conform your NCGS as well as will help you to address this, as well as improving your overall health markers. Hope this article will help you. Let me know, if this article helped you in addressing your NCGS, if you have.