ElseB

Someone tried to tell me last week that pregnancy was a cure for Celiac Disease. This person supposedly had a friend who had Celiac, and then she got pregnant, had a baby and now she can eat gluten with no problems at all! So she suggested I should try getting pregnant "because you never know, it just might work". Had I been thinking faster, I should have asked her if pregnancy was also a cure for stupidity in which case she should perhaps give it a try!

Gastroenterologist walks into the room, looks at my chart and says: "You have Celiac Disease. Go look it up on the internet. Come back in 6 months". Then walks out. That was the appointment where I was given the diagnosis.

Another doctor: "since the Celiac came on so quickly, I'm sure it will disappear just as quickly."

I think the thing is that people who have no problems with gluten (i.e. not celiac, no wheat allergy, not non-celiac gluten intolerant) who normally eat poorly (i.e. a lot of processed foods, fast food) see gluten free as the answer to loose weight because they view it as less carbs, cooking from scratch, etc. But I bet they could just as easily lose the weight by eating whole grain (with wheat bread), cutting out fast food, exercising, etc. My mom eats super healthy, but she still eats gluten! A gluten free chocolate brownie is still a chocolate brownie!

I've always joked that someone should do a study on the oral health of the partners of celiacs and others with food allergies. My husband is always brushing his teeth so that he doesn't gluten me. Last year he even brought a little travel toothbrush with to a New Year's Eve party just so he could kiss me at midnight! It was so sweet!

It is interesting that he suggests that essentially all grains are bad.
Recent research from Italy indicates that several gluten-free grains are in fact safe. Researchers in Italy noted that several cereals and pseudocereals (such as tef, millet, amaranth and quinoa), have long been thought to be safe for celiacs simply because they are not classified botanically in the same family as wheat,barley or rye. In other words, their safety was assumed, based on their lack of relationship to wheat, not because they had actually been tested to ensure that they were safe. But their research found that the grains were in fact safe, in that they caused no immune reactivity.
Here's a link to the article:
http://onlinelibrary...100132/abstract

Another thing to always keep in mind is that there is a high level of contamination of inherently gluten free grains. So people can react to rice, but its actually because of contamination with wheat. Here's a study about these high levels of contamination:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/20497786

President Obama is giving a speech in our Parliament (Canberra, Australia) as I post just now. He is a great public speaker. He fits our laid back style very well!
Will be glad when all the helicopters and fighters clear out of the airspace though

At least it brings some excitement to Canberra......

Don't get me wrong, I love Australia and absolutely loved the architecture in Canberra and the way the city was so perfectly planned and laid out. But Canberra was sooooooo quiet. The city was dead after 5:00 and on weekends. But, I admit, I was only there for a week....

When you travel, you pack more food than clothes!

My sister and I both have autoimmune diseases (Crohn's and Celiac, respectively) and we were both born via vaginal births. And I know lots of people born via c-section and none of them have any autoimmune diseases. I also call bs.

Well, I guess I'm just one of those "negative" people who doesn't buy the stories of people being "cured" of Celiac. But then again, I'm also someone who doesn't find the gluten free difficult (and I follow the diet very strictly and never cheat). If they developed a pill for us to take everyday, I wouldn't take it.

What do I think? That you need a new accupuncturist. Or that she should stop dispensing advice about something she isn't qualified for. If you are diagnosed as celiac, eat gluten at your peril. Celiac Disease doesn't go away. Our bodies react differently at different times. Just because you feel fine doesn't mean the internal damage isn't taking place.

For me, constipation is what happens when I eat gluten. If I've been glutened, I take magnesium oxide pills and self massage my abdomen area (its supposed to stimulate peristalsis). Even when I'm 100% gluten free I still have some problems and the only thing that keeps me "regular" is about a litre of vegetable smoothie a day.

Look at the bright side - living gluten free and being healthly requires being able to cook from scratch. So many people have no idea how to cook so you've already got a leg up! Remember that there is a lot of food that is naturally gluten free. Learn about what foods do and don't contain gluten; learn about gluten free cooking; learn about gluten free baking. Then market yourself to restaurants as being a chef that can cater to diner's dietary needs.

Her dad presented a testimonial to this case and she ate a subway sandwich and felt fine afterwards whereas previous to the therapy she got extremely sick.

Also remember that just because someone feels fine after eating gluten doesn't mean that internal damage isn't being done. What matters is the effect on the villi and not how someone feels.

You definitely must go to Des Si et Des Mets in Paris. Its a completely gluten free restaurant and its delicious! If you google it, you'll be able to find the website. My only struggle in France was that while they understood what I was saying, just the concept of not being able to eat bread was astounding to them. Pas du baguette? C'est Dommage! I would get such pitiful looks because they felt sorry for me! I ate a lot of omlettes and ham & cheese salads. It is difficult to find things like gluten-free bread, crackers, snack food, etc so stock up when you find it. Health stores are best. There's a big one with a large selection of gluten-free food at the south end of Rue Mouffetard in the 5th Arr. If you go to the website for Schaer (a European gluten-free manufacturer) you can type in cities and it gives you a list of places that sell their products. You could also write to the Celiac associations of the countries you are visiting. I always do that when I travel and they always send me lots of good info.

It is also entirely possible that the product was contaminated with gluten.