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The Truth About Celiac Disease and Oats

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 1 Comment

There is a big question about whether people diagnosed with Celiac Disease can eat oats. Some studies suggest they cannot and others say they can. So who is right? The short answer is, they both are.

Oats do not contain the protein gluten the way wheat, barley, and rye do. So, if oats do not contain gluten, why should a person with Celiac Disease need to avoid oats? There are two reasons.

First, oats are often grown in close proximity to wheat and barley, both of which contain gluten. In addition, farmers rotate their fields so oats are often grown in the same soil wheat and barely have been grown on. Farmers also use the same equipment for the oat, wheat, and barley crops. This creates cross-contamination. So even though gluten is not found within the oat, it is on it and this can be just as harmful to a person with Celiac Disease. If oats were grown completely away from wheat and barley and farmers dedicated their equipment to only the oat fields, they should be gluten-free. It is possible to buy “uncontaminated’ oats from vendors who ensure their oats have not come into contact with gluten. But that does not mean that every person with Celiac Disease can start eating “uncontaminated” oats.

The second reason a person with Celiac Disease may need to avoid oats is that they may also have a sensitivity to avenin, the protein found in oats. Numerous studies have shown that a number of people with a sensitivity to gluten also have a sensitivity to avenin. Thus, when pure oats are consumed, they still exhibit the same symptoms as if they had eaten gluten. One study done in Norway found that even people who ate “uncontaminated” oats and didn’t show physical symptoms, still showed inflammation in their intestines. This study was done with a small number, 9, individuals, so the results are not 100% conclusive.

The bottom line, talk to your healthcare professionals if you think you might want to add oats to your diet. Most healthcare professionals recommend having your Celiac Disease under control before even attempting to add oats. Even then, they recommend eating just a small amount. The key is to make sure you are closely monitored.

You can read more about the Norway Study on WebMD.com.

Is Being Partially Gluten-Free Beneficial?

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

Definitely, the hardest part of being on a strict gluten-free diet is the adjustment period you go through as you get used to your new diet. Now, obviously, the gluten-free diet is 100% zero tolerance and even the smallest hint of gluten can cause extreme problems for many Celiacs but could be partially gluten-free be beneficial at all?

At least one person with Celiac disease doesn’t think so:

The answer is a little complicated. You won’t be able to tell if gluten is a problem for you unless you give up gluten 100% for 3 months. This is because it takes a while for gluten to get out of your system. By incorporating some gluten-free food into your diet– cereals, pasta, breads, snacks–you might realize being gluten-free is not only do-able it is is fun. Being partially gluten-free would allow you to change your eating habits gradually and to learn about living gluten-free. But you wouldn’t get the huge benefit of feeling better and having chronic problems potentially disappear.

Dr. Nancy O’Hara, who is an integrated doctor says if you can’t be 100% off gluten (or dairy) then she would rather see you on a different type of healing diet (The Body Ecology Diet, Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet, Specific Carbohydrate Diet or a low oxalate diet.) People often go on a 85% gluten-free diet and don’t get better and so they decide the GF diet doesn’t work for them, when they might get completely better by removing gluten completely. A gluten-free diet is tricky because so much food contains hidden gluten. Oats, for instant, are not gluten-free unless specially labelled because they rotate crops and often grow oats in the old wheat fields. And soy sauce, rice crispies and Twizzlers all contain gluten. So unless you are reading every label and researching how to do a gluten-free diet, you might think you are doing a gluten-free diet but you really aren’t.

I’d love to hear what our readers think.   If you are 100% gluten-free and accidentally get a hint of gluten in your diet, how does your body respond?

Urinary Stone Disease in Adults with Celiac Disease

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

For adults with Celiac Disease or other intestinal diseases, one of the things that you are at high risk for is Urinary Stone Disease (USD). I just noticed that recently a study was done on adults with USD and Celiac Disease, which was documented over at Jurology.

For their study, they took patients who were 18 years or older, untreated, and also newly diagnosed with celiac disease by serum markers and jejunal biopsy.  Clinical presentation of celiac disease was assessed focusing on 5 disorders of diarrhea, and deficiency of calories (low body mass index or weight loss), lipid (low prothrombin time or low serum lipids), iron (low hemoglobin or low serum ferritin), and calcium (low serum calcium or low bone densitometry). Urinary stone disease history was also assessed via questionnaire (imaging, stone excretion, stone disruption/removal), and urinary variables were measured in a 24-hour collection in a subgroup of patients.

Here is an excerpt of their findings:

Study Results

Under untreated conditions (baseline) urinary stone disease was independent of celiac disease presentation and more prevalent in patients with celiac disease than in a population sample used as a control (608 and 3,540, 7.9% and 5.0%, sex and age adjusted odds ratio 4.0, 95% CI 2.7–5.9). Excluding from analysis individuals with baseline urinary stone disease, the incidence of urinary stone disease history was not significantly different between the treated celiac disease (gluten-free diet) and control population (458 and 3,003, 2.4% vs 3.9%). The urine of untreated patients with celiac disease differed from that of healthy volunteers with 120% higher oxalate and 43% lower calcium (in 45 and 45, p <0.001). A gluten-free diet corrected urinary abnormalities (p <0.01).

If you’d like to learn more, click over to read the rest of their post!

What Does Gluten-Free Mean?

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff

Have you ever heard of someone mentioning they were on a gluten-free diet, but it didn’t look like they needed to lose weight? Or maybe you know someone who rarely eats in public? Even if neither of these applies to you, each day the odds improve that you will come across the term gluten-free Diet.

So, what exactly does it mean to be on a gluten-free diet? Typically this diet is associated with treating people that have Celiac Disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small bowel that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy.  While difficult to diagnose, each day doctors are correctly diagnosing more people with the disease based on their Celiac symptoms.  Treatment of the disease typically involves being on a gluten-free diet.

What foods contain gluten?

A gluten-free diet is a diet completely free of ingredients derived from gluten-containing foods: wheat (including Kamut and spelt), barley, rye, oats, and triticale, as well as the use of gluten as a food additive in the form of a flavoring, stabilizing or thickening agent. Although most patients can tolerate oat products, there is a controversy about including them in a gluten-free diet: some medical practitioners say they may be permitted, but the Celiac Society advises against them.

What foods are gluten-free?

Several grains and starch sources are considered acceptable for a gluten-free diet. The most frequently used are maize (corn), potatoes, rice, and tapioca (derived from cassava). Other grains and starch sources generally considered suitable for gluten-free diets include amaranth, arrowroot, millet, montina, lupine, quinoa, sorghum (jowar), sweet potato, taro, teff, and yam. Various types of bean, soybean, and nut flours are sometimes used in gluten-free products to add protein and dietary fiber. In spite of its name, buckwheat is not related to wheat; pure buckwheat is considered acceptable for a gluten-free diet, although many commercial buckwheat products are actually mixtures of wheat and buckwheat flours, and thus not acceptable. Gram flour, derived from chickpeas, is also gluten-free.

Gluten is also used in foods in some unexpected ways, for example as a stabilizing agent or thickener in products like ice cream and ketchup

People wishing to follow a completely gluten-free diet must also take into consideration the ingredients of any over-the-counter or prescription medications and vitamins. Also, cosmetics such as lipstick, lip balms, and lip chap may contain gluten and need to be investigated before use.

Living on a gluten-free diet

People diagnosed with Celiac Disease will often become anti-social, preferring the comfort of their own cooking over the hassle of trying to find gluten-free foods out in the world. This also reduces the risk of cross-contamination, which is always something people on the diet need to be wary of.

As more people are either diagnosed with Celiac Disease or know someone who is, things have steadily been improving for people who want to become more social.

If you would like to find tasty and affordable gluten-free products online, Gluten-Free Resource recommends the products available at Gluten-Free Mall. I’ve purchased from all three and really enjoy the foods and products they offer.