You feel awful most of the time. You’re tired, achy, and it seems like you’ve either got diarrhea or constipation almost constantly. Maybe your skin itches and flakes, or you get unexplained rashes or hives. You may even throw up occasionally, for no obvious reason.

If you’ve sought medical help for your problems, you might have left the doctor’s office frustrated– feeling as if you weren’t being taken seriously. Perhaps the doctor threw out terms like irritable bowel syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome, leaving you just as confused as when you came in. So you started looking online, and you found something interesting. Is it possible that you suffer from a food allergy or intolerance?

In short– yes. It’s very possible.

There are many types of food intolerance and allergies, and wheat intolerance is one of the most common. But all wheat sensitivity is not created equal. Broadly speaking, health problems related to wheat consumption fall into three categories:

1) Celiac (or Coeliac) Disease

Celiac disease is an immunological (allergic) response in the intestinal tract to a very specific protein contained in wheat and several other grains, called gliadin– a gluten protein. It has many other names, including gluten allergy, gluten enteropathy, gluten intolerance, and coeliac sprue. Over time, it can cause damage to the intestinal tract, but it can be effectively treated with a gluten-free diet. The bad news is, people with celiac disease have it for life. There’s no cure, and they don’t “grow out of it”. The good news is that much of the damage done to the body can repair itself after gluten is removed from the diet.

2) Wheat Allergy

Wheat allergy is also an immunological response to wheat. Unlike celiac disease, however, it includes allergic reactions to many different proteins found in wheat and related cereal grains. It can be gastrointestinal, but it can also be similar to hay fever, causing asthma-like respiratory symptoms, hives, rashes, contact dermatitis, cough, runny nose, and itchy eyes. Sometimes called “baker’s allergy”, wheat allergy may be exacerbated by exercising or taking aspirin, causing a very violent and dangerous– even life-threatening– allergic condition called anaphylaxis. Once again, avoidance is the key, though some wheat allergy sufferers are able to tolerate alternative gluten-containing grains such as barley and rye.

3) Wheat Intolerance

Confusingly, celiac disease is sometimes called “gluten intolerance”. However, wheat intolerance generally refers to a non-allergic negative reaction to eating wheat. Wheat intolerance is not usually as violent or acute as wheat allergy, and can be a lot harder to diagnose because the symptoms may manifest many hours after the consumption of wheat; even up to a couple of days later. Though poorly understood, it’s still an immune-related response, but one which affects a totally different part of the immune system than that which causes a ragweed sufferer to sneeze or someone with a peanut allergy to go into anaphylactic shock. Avoidance is still the main approach to solving the existing problem in individuals with wheat sensitivity, but there’s good news– with careful management, some people may be able to build up a tolerance for small amounts of wheat over time.

If you think you may have a form of wheat sensitivity, there are a range of testing and treatment options, which we will cover in future articles– along with some great tips and recipes for living gluten-free… with style.

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Salmon is an excellent source of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids

These days, it’s trendy to eat foods high in PUFAs (poly unsaturated fatty acids), but PUFAs are only beneficial when the ratio of inflammation-causing omega-6 fatty acids to inflammation-reducing omega-3 fatty acids is about 4:1, or even lower. Unfortunately, the average American’s ratio of these essential fatty acids is close to 10:1, due to high intake of omega-6 rich grain-fed meat, poultry, and grain- or seed-based oils (soybean oil, corn oil), versus a relatively low consumption of omega-3 rich fatty fish, flax, and walnuts.

Even then, not all omega-6 fatty acids are created equal. Because most meat sold and consumed today is factory-farmed, it relies heavily on grain-based, concentrated feeds. Grain-fed ruminants produce lower levels of the beneficial omega-6 variety called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than grass-fed ruminants. Cage-raised hens produce eggs with lower CLA levels than pastured hens.

This is particularly important to people with wheat intolerance or celiac disease. A recent Italian study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research indicates that CLA protects the small intestine of celiac sufferers from damage subsequent to gluten exposure. The head of the research team noted that both CLA and omega-3 fatty acids are shown to have beneficial effects on inflammation and auto-immune disorders in animal studies.

So what’s the takeaway? If your diet is low in fatty fish and other omega-3 sources, but high in grain-fed meat and grain or seed oils, consider switching to grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, and taking a commercial commercial fish oil supplement to correct your omega-3,6 imbalance. Try it for a month and see if you notice any change in your intestinal health and comfort.

Going gluten-free is still the best way to treat wheat intolerance symptoms, but changing your fat intake can help your body deal more effectively with gluten.

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Because of the difficulty in diagnosing microscopic colitis during regular colonoscopies, women in the risk group who also have the symptoms should consider undergoing colonic biopsies, which can be used to detect the condition more reliably. The good news is that microscopic colitis is considered a relatively benign condition, and most sufferers recover with treatment.

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The answer is diet. Early farmers replaced the hunter gatherer diet of meat, wild-growing vegetables, fruit and nuts with the agricultural diet of grains, legumes, and later, dairy. Unfortunately, while human culture can change on a dime, historically speaking, human physiology and genetics cannot. The beans, wheat, and dairy produced by farmers all contain chemical components that are difficult for the human digestive tract to process, causing irritation, chronic inflammation, and even allergic reactions in many individuals, which today is familiar to us as IBS, lactose intolerance, and wheat intolerance. In addition, grains are not nutrient dense foods– ever wondered why most bread and flour is “enriched”?– so the intake of several important vitamins and minerals was drastically reduced when people switched from hunting and gathering to sowing and reaping.
Today, there is a movement to improve individual health by returning to a diet that more closely resembles what our paleolithic ancestors ate. Called the Paleo or Primal Diet by various practitioners, it involves cutting out all grain, sugar, dairy, and legumes in a bid to heal the digestive tract and provide a rich variety of nutrients from meat, seafood, vegetables, nuts, and fruits to help the body rebuild itself.
I have been on this diet for about two months now, and I am convinced that, for me, this is the way forward to lifelong health after more than a decade of illness and misery. After starting this diet and stopping the birth control pill, I have completely eliminated all digestive discomfort and now consider myself symptom-free and “normal” after more than ten years of IBS.
If you would like to join me on this journey, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat by Dr. Loren Cordain (This is the book I read when I started the diet.)
• Mark’s Daily Apple (The blog of Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy)
• Healthy Meal Plans (A blog with weekly meal plan suggestions for people following a Paleo or Primal Diet.)

I hope that everyone who tries this diet has the same level of success with it that I have had. I can honestly say that right now, I can’t imagine ever eating any other way again.

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People with wheat intolerance symptoms who don’t have celiac disease may want to investigate some of the other tests used to obtain a diagnosis of IBS. These include tests for lactose intolerance, parasitic infections, and fructose malabsorption. The last test, in particular, may be of interest to those who can’t tolerate wheat. Because wheat contains high levels of fructan, it is often a problem for people with fructose malabsorption. However, fructose malabsorption cannot be effectively treated by simply removing wheat from the diet; there are other high-fructose and -fructan foods that also trigger symptoms.

So, if a person knows they can’t tolerate wheat, but also has symptoms after eating a variety of other foods, fructose malabsorption is a possibility that should be checked. If that test comes up negative, further testing may eventually result in a diagnosis of IBS. Unfortunately IBS, like fructose malabsorptin, cannot be cured, only managed. And that management includes avoiding foods which trigger symptoms… like wheat.

With that in mind, are you really any further ahead with a diagnosis than you would have been just cutting out any foods that bother you and cause symptoms? The answer is yes– probably. Because IBS involves eliminating curable and treatable conditions, you will know that there isn’t a simple solution to your digestive issues. How bad would you feel, for instance, finding out years later that all of your problems could have been permanently solved with a round of anti-parasitics?

This must be balanced against the medical costs involved in testing. It may not be practical for someone with poor– or no– medical insurance to pay for all the tests and office visits involved in an IBS diagnosis. In that case, if symptoms can be managed with control of the diet, even with no diagnosis, that’s certainly better than nothing.

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Celiac.com has put together a resource list of wheat free recipes, free of foods containing gluten, just in time for Easter and Passover. Need a recipe for gluten-free matzoh? This is your place. Gluten and dairy-free challah? They’ve got it. Delicious desserts safe for people with wheat intolerance? Check.

Read more here…

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The chain already employs 135 in-store dietitians, but in some areas, that means there may be only one in an entire county. By utilizing a sharing program between larger and smaller outlets, Hy-Vee hopes to remedy that situation, and position itself as a valuable source of diet-based medical information.

A recent trip inside a Hy-Vee store in Columbia, Missouri revealed a well-stocked selection of gluten-free and dairy-free foods– especially for a store in a mid-sized midwestern college town. A large circular binder hung by a chain nearby for customers to use, clearly labeled “Gluten-Free Product List”. In addition to gluten-free offerings, several spelt products were also available on a shelf one aisle over.

If you live in an area with a Hy-Vee store, it’s worth checking them out; this is a company who is very obviously trying to get things right. By patronizing businesses like Hy-Vee, we can reward them for their efforts to help us, and encourage other companies to follow in their footsteps.

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Food is such a huge part of our culture that a serious problem with foods containing gluten can seem like a jail sentence. What do you say when your friends, family, or co-workers want to go out to a restaurant? True, in some major cities you can find a handful of restaurants which specifically cater to people with wheat intolerance or celiac disease, but in a lot of places, that isn’t the case.

First off, don’t be ashamed or hesitant to tell your friends and co-workers the reason for your reluctance. More and more people are becoming aware of food allergies and intolerance these days. If someone replies insensitively, just keep it light. Explain that accidental exposure makes you sick enough that it’s just not worth it to you to take the chance. Such people aren’t generally trying to be hurtful; they simply don’t understand.

When it comes to choosing restaurants, call ahead. Clearly state your problem with  . Ask if they have a gluten-free menu. If not, ask if they can accommodate you with some simple gluten or wheat free recipes. If your sensitivity is very high, ask if they will clean pans and utensils before cooking your meal, to avoid cross-contamination. Most places will find it easier if you offer specific suggestions: vegetables steamed and drizzled with olive oil and herbs; a baked potato; a plain steak or chicken breast, un-marinated, with salt and pepper. Many places will have ingredients like these on hand, and will be willing to work with you, especially if you give them some warning by calling ahead.

It’s more common for large chains to have dedicated gluten-free menus, but if you can’t find such a chain and need to ask for special dishes, your best bet is usually locally owned Mom and Pop restaurants. This is because most chains get their food pre-prepared, meaning that the gluten-contaminated breading or marinade or whatever is already on the food. Mom and Pop shops are more likely to cook from scratch, giving them more flexibility for special food requests.

Take notes. If a place is rude about your requests, don’t spend your money there. If they say they’ll accommodate you and you end up getting sick because they goofed, don’t spend your money there a second time. Eventually, you will find a selection of places where you can eat safely and happily. It may not be a huge selection, but there’s something to be said for eating where you have a bit of a personal relationship with the staff because you’re a regular customer.

You’ll feel good because you’re spending money with people that you know, who value you enough to go the extra mile for your health and safety. They’ll feel good because they’ve gained a customer for life by giving exceptional customer service– and will possibly gain many more customers when word gets around that they are food-allergy friendly.

Win, win!

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Now, with the family facing financial ruin and after significant pressure from media and government, they have reversed their decision. But does this sort of thing go on all the time?

Read more here…

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One source that you may not have thought of is– of all things– fingerpaints. Yes, fingerpaints generally contain gluten, and with children of a certain age, you can bet that fingers, and the paint on them, will end up in little mouths at some point. While it just kills us to see children excluded from normal childhood activities, their safety and health has to come first, right?

Fortunately, one company has taken steps to put the messy fun of fingerpainting back in the lives of children with gluten intolerance. Bluedominoes now produces safe, certified gluten free and lead-free fingerpaints, as well as Play Dough, another commonly gluten-contaminated childhood staple. Both use food grade ingredients, all of which are listed on the packaging. They have also been approved by the Celiac Sprue Association.

If you have children who can’t tolerate gluten, consider supporting this innovative company by visiting http://www.bluedominoes.com.

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