Gluten Allergy and a Gluten Free Diet
A gluten free diet is something that you’ve probably never heard of, but it refers to a diet that many Americans are finding that they have to eat, due to an allergic reaction to a protein found in some grains, called gluten.
A gluten allergy is much like a wheat allergy, but it is specific to the gluten protein that is found in several grains: wheat, obviously, but also rye, barley, oats and a couple more. If you have a gluten allergy, you will have to cut out all of the grains that contain gluten until your body stops reacting to the protein. As with a wheat allergy, you may be able to eat small amounts of gluten, but this varies from case to case. Learn to gauge how your body feels after eating gluten (start small!) and you’ll begin to notice how much gluten causes a reaction. You may be able to eat small amounts on occasion with no problem, or you may have to eliminate it completely from your diet.
Celiac disease is fundamentally different than wheat and gluten allergies in that it is an autoimmune disease and not an allergy at all. The digestive system of a celiac does not handle or digest gluten in the proper way. Instead of breaking the protein down like it should, the tissue in the digestive system undergoes a reaction to the gluten, leading to an inflammation of the small intestine. This inflammation can damage the villi in the intestine, which is bad news because the villi are responsible for absorbing nutrients from food. If the villi are damaged too much, they can permanently lose their ability to process food and absorb the nutrients from it, thereby leading to severe malnutrition for the person involved.
If you find out that you need to start eating a gluten free diet, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the unwieldy task of not eating anything that has gluten in it. The good news is that there are plenty of delicious gluten free recipes available online like this recipe for gluten free pizza. With just a little bit of cooking skills, you can eat as well gluten free as you did before.
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