Celiac Disease Awareness Month
I first learned about Celiac Disease when I was studying to be a dietitian in college. I’d never actually heard of this disease before that. I actually still remember doing a project on different restaurant options that could be considered gluten-free (except that they weren’t made in a gluten-free kitchen, but I was young and naive) at various establishments and making it into a little pocket guide so that people could carry it with them as a resource. I actually took that guide and presented a poster session at the NYSDA conference on it—- and I received a lot of feedback about how helpful and needed the information was.
Fast forward (a lot of) years later, and Celiac Disease awareness has grown significantly. Gluten-free products are at pretty much every grocery store you go to, restaurants have all sorts of items available, and people actually know what you’re talking about when you say you follow a gluten-free diet. Or at least, for the most part.
May is Celiac Awareness Month. A whole month dedicated to a disease that a little over a decade ago I didn’t even know existed. That’s pretty amazing if you think about it, right? What’s more amazing is that even with all of the awareness about this disease, there is still a lot that most people don’t know. And since I’m on a personal mission now to raise awareness about this disease since my daughter has this along with her type 1 diabetes, I’ll share some of those facts that you may not know yet.
Celiac Disease is an autoimmune condition where a person can’t tolerate gluten, which ultimately means they cannot consume it. You keep hearing about gluten, and gluten-free diets. It’d probably help to understand what gluten actually is in, right? Gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye, barley and triticale. It’s what gives bread it’s spongy texture. It’s kind of like the glue in baked products, but it’s also added to many products as that glue that you may not think of. Also, wheat is a general term for a whole lot of other things that could be included, like durum, semolina, spelt, farina, and farro…just to name a few.
Easy enough, right? Nah——now you have to understand what wheat, rye and barley are used in to know some other items that are off limits. Baked goods are pretty obvious, but then there’s things like certain food coloring, malt, soups, beer, etc. You literally have to look at every food label to ensure that an additive that contains gluten wasn’t added. Certain medications contain gluten. Hell…the glue on the back of an envelope contains gluten.
I do know a handful of individuals who are so sensitive to gluten that even if they come into contact with it, they may experience uncomfortable symptoms. It’s not an allergy, but it causes some signficiant damage in your body if ingested. Your small intestine is the main site of absorption in your digestive track. It’s lined with these tiny, finger-like projections called villi. I can’t help myself when describing what villi are to others but to make jazz hands every time. Now these little fingers are reaching out and grabbing nutrients as they pass on by, so that your body can absorb them and use them appropriately. In someone with Celiac Disease, these villi essentially flatten out. They don’t reach out and grab anything…so now things are passing by that would’ve normally been absorbed. Which leads to malabsorption of nutrients, and is associated long term with a lot of diseases like thyroid issues, osteoporosis, cancer. Short-term, many people can experience some significant discomfort——gassiness, nausea, skin rashes, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, anemia, fatigue…along with plenty of others. Celiac.org actually states that there are over 300 symptoms associated with untreated Celiac Disease (which, by the way, the only treatment is to completely eliminate gluten from your diet). However, if you’re like my daughter, you may not have any outward and obvious symptoms or maybe realize that you’re having symptoms associated with it.
Why do we care? Well, studies tell us that 1 in 133 people have Celiac Disease. It runs in families too—so far everyone else in our immediate family has tested negative, but we’ll see what the future holds. There are blood tests that can be checked, but the only true way to know if someone has Celiac Disease is for an endoscopic biopsy to be done in order to take a tissue sample from the intestine.
So that’s where awareness and education come into play. I’m so happy to see all the certified gluten-free products out there. They’ve come a long way in terms of taste and quality, too. And the more people that understand what a gluten-free diet entails, the safer it keeps my child. So I’ll keep spreading awareness as much as I can.
