Let me tell you about a few things about coeliac disease. Let’s start from the beginning.
What is gluten?
It is a complex protein that is found naturally in grain and flour from wheat, rye, barley and these cereals varieties. It is made of two proteins linked together, gliadin and glutenin. To help you understand the gluten structure better I leave you this image.
Gluten is responsible for dough made of flour from these cereals getting fluffy and elastic when you cook them, like in bread, pizza or cakes.
Before start talking about disorders related to gluten I want to clarify something. Gluten is not bad, is another nutrient, full stop. A healthy person or a person with some digestive problems (that can happen for a thousand reasons) doesn’t need to remove gluten from his or her diet.
In fact, some studies suggest that gluten-free diets are not more nutritious than diets with gluten and even, sometimes, are worse.
What is coeliac disease?
Is an immune systemic chronic disease that provokes a permanent intolerance to gluten. In other words, is a disease that affects the whole body, caused by our own defence, that remains the whole life and leads to problems every time we eat food with gluten.
What happens when people suffering from coeliac disease eat gluten is that their intestines, our guts, get damaged. Wounds (ulcers) and swelling appear in the intestines causing they can’t absorb the nutrients from food.
Symptoms:
Problems that happen in people with this disease vary between kids and adults and depend on how deep are the wounds, where they are and how big they are. Even some people develop rare symptoms or don’t have symptoms at all. That’s why is very difficult to diagnose the disease.
Here you have the more common symptoms for children and adults, but there are more. For example, headache or lactose intolerance.
People with this disease need to have a gluten-free diet to get rid of the symptoms.
Where can we find gluten?
We have to distinguish between food that contains gluten naturally and food that can get contaminated with it during its manufacturing.
Foods that always have gluten are those coming from wheat grain and its flour: hard wheat, spelt wheat, triticale (a mix between wheat and rye), barley and rye.
Some examples:
- Breakfast cereals.
- Bread.
- Pizza.
- Pasta.
- Beer.
- Bakery products: Biscuits, cakes, muffins, …
- Ice cream with biscuit, cornet or wafer.
- Breaded or battered food.
- Yogurt and milk with cereals.
- Bran and wheat germ.
WATCH OUT! Not everything is coeliac disease. There are other disorders related to gluten.
Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS):
Also called gluten intolerance. This is a disorder in which our immune system is involved and that affects our guts, but without ulcers. It happens in people that have certain symptoms that disappear when they stop eating gluten.
Is more difficult to diagnose than coeliac disease because it causes less damage in the intestine, but their symptoms are very alike (swelling and discomfort in the belly, heavy digestion, diarrhoea, constipation, etc).
Gluten allergy:
Is a very quick reaction of our immune system when we come into contact with gluten, unlike the 2 previous disorders, the symptoms take a few hours to appear. It can be respiratory, digestive or contact, that is, when gluten touches the skin.
Respiratory allergy causes rhinitis, that is, inflammation of the nose mucoses (its inner part). This leads to sneezing, itchiness, runny nose and congestion (having a blocked nose).
Digestive allergy can cause diarrhoea, vomits, rash (appearance of spots and itching on the skin) and, worst case scenario, anaphylaxis, meaning, breathing difficulties.
Contact allergy leads to rash.
Labels:
The labelling of gluten-free foods or food that must indicate if they contain gluten, is controlled by European Regulations.
Foods labeled “GLUTEN-FREE” cannot exceed 20 milligrams per every kilogram of food. These are the foods that people with coeliac disease can eat.
Some packages will have this symbol or something similar, the key is that it features a crossed-out ear of wheat. But if it doesn’t have it, it’s okay, what must be stated without fail is “GLUTEN-FREE”.
There are other foods labeled “low in gluten” or “suitable for celiacs”. These cannot be consumed by celiacs.
Remember, only if it says “GLUTEN-FREE”.
People with coeliac disease should also avoid eating bulk foods even if they are not cereals (such as nuts or candies), as they may be contaminated by having passed through the same machines as cereals.
I hope this article has clarified any doubts about celiac disease and gluten and you find it useful. Always consult healthcare professionals for further information and refer to evidence-based sources of information.
References:
https://www.celicalia.org/enfermedad-celiaca/que-es-la-enfermedad-celiaca
https://celiacos.org/tratamiento/aprende-a-leer-el-etiquetado/
https://www.seen.es/portal/preguntas-frecuentes
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/articulos-en-espanol/si-dice-sin-gluten-significa-que-no-tiene-gluten
https://celiacos.org/que-es-el-gluten/
https://www.celiacosmadrid.org/patologias-por-sensibilidad-al-gluten/alergia-al-trigogluten/
