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Does the Gluten-Free Diet Help Migraines?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Over the past two years, I’ve spent a lot more time researching Celiac Disease and probably the most surprising thing I’ve found is the number of other problems that can possibly be or are attributed to having untreated Celiac Disease.

Whenever I see these types of posts, I do my best to feature them here to help get the word out to everything. Today I read this post over at The Daily Headache where Karen Yesowich Schmucker shares her experiences battling migraines:

Does maintaining a gluten-free diet help migraine? There is some evidence to suggest that some migraineurs are helped by it. Some report the total disappearance of migraine while others have fewer and less severe attacks. I fall into the latter category. I found out (by accident) a little over a year ago that I am gluten intolerant and I have followed a gluten-free diet since December 2006. Do I still get migraines? Yes, but not as many and not as severe. I have not had a classic migraine (with aura) in about a year. Does my neurologist think that gluten caused my migraines? No, but it could have created a situation where migraine was more likely to occur, especially since I had evidence of malabsorption and was deficient in several important minerals like magnesium, even though I was supplementing at 400 mg per day!

As a direct result of my experience, my neurologist now tests his patients who show gastrointestinal symptoms for gluten sensitivity. But he doesn¹t test all his patients. He (incorrectly, according to experts on celiac) believes that one must have these types of symptoms before testing makes sense. However, with celiac, symptoms often do not appear until the disease has progressed and a patient is not absorbing nutrients. Here are some of the symptoms noted in celiac literature: fatigue, anemia, migraine, eczema, psoriasis, mineral deficiencies, as well as gastrointestinal complaints such as bloating, gas, constipation and/or diarrhea. So the bottom line is: finding out you have gluten intolerance may or may not help your migraine, but the health benefits of discovery and treatment by themselves are compelling. I went gluten-free hoping to rid myself of debilitating headaches, but knowing what I know now makes me glad I did it regardless of the effect on my headaches.

Bloggers and people sharing their experiences go a long way toward helping others with similar problems, so I really appreciate Karen sharing her story with us!

Glucose Syrup is Gluten-Free

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 8 Comments

Is glucose syrup considered to be gluten-free? If you aren’t familiar with it, glucose syrup is a liquid sweetener found in many candies and other desserts that contains wheat starch. Obviously, anything with “wheat” in the name throws up some red flags to anyone following a gluten-free diet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it contains wheat.

As a result, over the past year or so there has been some debate over whether glucose syrup is considered to be gluten-free or not, so Sure Foods Living recently spoke with a dietitian to find out some additional information. In their post, they shared their findings, and I thought our readers would probably find this information useful, so I am providing a small excerpt:

Glucose syrup can be derived from a variety of starches including wheat. Corn is the most common however Europe uses wheat more frequently. The glucose syrups are highly processed and purified and R5 elisa tests have found the majority to contain very little residual gluten if any. The European Food Safety put out a report on the safety of glucose syrups. Here is the link for more info:

wheat-based glucose syrups

Based on the FDA proposed gluten-free labeling regulation a product can be derived from a gluten-containing grain such as wheat based glucose syrup and be labeled gluten-free yet the ingredients could say glucose syrup (wheat) provided it is under 20 parts per million (ppm). This will be very confusing for patients as we teach them to avoid wheat and yet a product like glucose syrup may have no or very little residual gluten and be labeled gluten-free.”

Click over to read the entire post!

Gluten-Free Diet: Do You Eat Oats?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

I’m sure most if not all of our readers are following a gluten-free diet, so I’d like to get your thoughts. Do you eat oats?

There has been a lot of discussion about oats and where they fit into the gluten-free diet over the last few years, so the only real safe thing to do is to avoid oats when you start out and later introduce them once you’re comfortably on the gluten-free diet.

According to What to Feed Your Kids:

Whether to include oats on a gluten-free diet is controversial. Many oats are not gluten-free because of crop rotation – the same soil is used to grow wheat one season and oats the next. There are oats which are specially grown to be gluten-free, but according to Wikipedia even the gluten-free oats contain avenin (a protein very similar in molecular structure to gluten) that is “toxic to the intestinal submucosa and can trigger a reaction in some celiacs.”

Studies regarding people with celiac and their ability to tolerate oats are mixed. Some studies show celiac sufferers can tolerate oats which are free from contamination, but a possible reason for this conclusion is that those who can’t tolerate oats end up dropping out (biasing the sample) midway through the study.

There is also new research indicating a molecular basis for oat intolerance in patients with celiac disease. People with celiac who have the DQ8 gene seem to tolerate oats better than those with the DQ2 gene. I have the DQ2 gene so I don’t include any oats in my gluten-free diet. The Celiac Sprue Association tends to have zero tolerance risk profile and “recommends that excluding oats is the only risk free choice for those on a gluten-free diet.”

Click over to check out the rest of this post! Also, we’d love for you to share your experiences. Are you able to eat oats?

Infant Recipe: Gluten-Free Ground Rice with Apples

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

Hunting for some homemade infant baby food recipes? Here at Celiac-Disease.com, we’ve managed to locate a few recipes that can help parents who are looking for gluten-free baby foods they can make for their child at home. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Ground Rice with Apples Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 small eating apple
  • 2 tablespoons ground rice
  • 4 fl oz (110ml) milk or milk substitute
  • 1 tsp reduced sugar jam

Directions:

  1. You can use a microwave to prepare this meal, but allow time for cooling as you could burn your baby’s mouth if you feed it to him too soon.
  2. Core, peel, and slice the apple.
  3. Place it in a small bowl and microwave on high power until soft.
  4. Mash with a fork or pop in the food mill or processor.
  5. Meanwhile, place the ground rice and half the milk into another bowl and mix to form a paste.
  6. Add the remaining milk and microwave on high power for around 4 minutes.
  7. Mix the apple pulp and jam into the rice, cool then serve.

Looking for more baby food recipes?  Check out our Gluten-Free Baby Foods Category!

Infant Recipe: Gluten-Free Coconut Raisin Pudding

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff Leave a Comment

In the market for some homemade infant baby food recipes? Here at Celiac-Disease.com, we’ve managed to locate a few recipes that can help parents who are looking for gluten-free baby foods they can make for their child at home. Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Coconut Raisin Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 small apple
  • 1 oz raisins
  • 4 tbsp unsweetened apple or orange juice
  • 1/2 oz desiccated coconut

Directions:

  1. Peel, core, and slice the apple.
  2. Put into a small saucepan with the juice and raisins and cook on a low ring for around 10 minutes or until the apple is soft.
  3. Take off the heat and stir in the coconut.
  4. Liquidise, cool, and serve.

Looking for more baby food recipes?  Check out our Gluten-Free Baby Foods Category!