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Celiac.com 10/24/2020 - Antioxidants, anthocyanins, phytochemicals, carotenoids, tocopherols, polyphenols, enzymes with antioxidant activity—do those food-related words sound a bit esoteric to you? Like maybe you need to be part of an enlightened inner-circle of scientists to understand what they mean? We’ve made eating rather complicated, haven’t we? Forget the fancy words. If you focus on fresh whole foods, the semantics don’t really matter. Bringing healthy, nourishing food to the table is what is important, especially if you have an autoimmune disorder like celiac disease. But sometimes we get so focused on the individual nutrients and the complicated words that we forget about the big picture. The benefit of these individual ingredients might not be the same without consuming the whole food and letting them work their magic together. Autoimmune diseases are systemic in nature, so healthy nutrition is a vital piece of the wellness puzzle. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is rather dreadful in many ways, so food-industry scientists have come up with substitutions for the real thing and clever ways to fortify processed foods. Nutrients are being added to packaged foods as a marketing tool. Food that is reengineered to come in a box isn’t natural, but to make it more appealing to the consumer, manufacturers add something special like vitamin D, fiber, iron, or omega-3s and boldly announce it on the package. Something to catch your eye and make you wonder if you can live without it. While I’m not totally against boxed and fortified foods, it’s much better to limit your intake and stick with the real thing. That way you don’t get all the junk that often accompanies those food choices—additives, preservatives, chemicals, dyes, artificial flavors, and fillers that often contain gluten. Rather than a food product, enjoy the pleasure and health benefits of eating whole foods. And contrary to what it may sound like from my first couple of paragraphs, I’m actually quite fond of the science behind the food, but we don’t have to get neurotic about all the details, especially if we’re more thoughtful with our food choices to begin with. Back to the complicated science terms and the first word of this article—antioxidants. What are antioxidants and why is it important for us to have plenty of them in our diets? Antioxidants are molecules, or substances in foods, that are protective to normal physiological functions in the human body. They slow or prevent oxidation, which is a chemical reaction that produces free radicals that cause cell damage. Foods high in antioxidants protect the body from oxidation and boost the immune system. Here’s where antioxidants are important to those of us with celiac disease, which is a disorder of the immune system. We want to enhance healthy immune function and reduce cell damage and inflammation. Foods rich in antioxidants help us do that. Selenium, lutein, lycopene, glutathione, beta-carotene, and the vitamins A, C, and E are all antioxidants. Where do we find foods rich in antioxidants? According to a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers analyzed 1,113 food samples and identified the following 15 foods as having the highest antioxidant content per serving. From number #1 to 15: blackberries, walnuts, strawberries, artichokes (prepared), cranberries, coffee, raspberries, pecans, blueberries, ground cloves, grape juice, dark chocolate, cranberry juice, cherries, and red wine. The food groups with the highest overall antioxidant levels were spices and herbs, nuts and seeds, berries, fruits, and vegetables. In general, plants and plant products have much higher antioxidant levels than animal products, so add these foods to your shopping list and enjoy a daily dose of antioxidant protection!

Celiac.com 06/15/2010 - A clinical team conducted a functional analysis of celiac risk loci, and found that SH2B3 offers protection against bacterial infection. The team included Alexandra Zhernakova, Clara C. Elbers, Bart Ferwerda, Jihane Romanos, Gosia Trynka, Patrick C. Dubois, Carolien G.F. de Kovel, Lude Franke, Marije Oosting, Donatella Barisani, Maria Teresa Bardella, the Finnish Celiac Disease Study Group, Leo A.B. Joosten, Paivi Saavalainen, David A. van Heel, Carlo Catassi, Mihai G. Netea, and Cisca Wijmenga. Celiac disease has a fairly high morbidity, yet it is prevalent in Western populations at rates of of 1%–2%. So far, scientists don't understand why the celiac disease phenotype is so common despite its obvious negative impact on human health. This is especially true when one considers that doctors only developed a gluten-free diet to treat celiac disease in the 1950's. The research team scientists hypothesize that the high prevalence of celiac disease might suggest that the process of natural selection favors genes that trigger celiac disease, and thus, that the gene may convey some evolutionary advantage to those who inherit them. The study group included 8,154 controls from four European populations, and 195 individuals from a North African population. By examining haplotype lengths using the integrated haplotype score (iHS) method, the team looked at selection signatures for ten confirmed celiac-associated loci in several genome-wide data sets. They found consistent indications of positive selection for celiac-associated derived alleles in three loci: IL12A, IL18RAP, and SH2B3. For the SH2B3 risk allele, they also found a variation in allele frequency distribution (Fst) between HapMapphase II populations. Functional investigation of the effect of the SH2B3 genotype in response to lipopolysaccharide and muramyl dipeptide showed that carriers of the SH2B3 rs3184504*A risk allele provided more robust triggering of the NOD2 recognition pathway. This suggests that SH2B3 plays a role in protection against bacteria infection, and it provides a possible explanation for the selective sweep on SH2B3, which occurred sometime between 1,200 and 1,700 years ago. Source: AJHG - 2010, 04 May. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.05.004

Celiac.com 03/15/2011 - For celiacs, it's not really the cinnamon bun that's the enemy. Nor the pizza crust, nor the ravioli. It's the gliadin in these foods - the alcohol-soluble portion of the gluten protein - that's the real culprit. Gliadin is the "gladiator" of the human digestive tract. When we ingest gliadin, enzymes try to break it down into a form that can be absorbed by the small intestine. But gliadin resists, fighting hard to remain intact. A regular small intestine has, like any good fortress, a protective wall: the mucosal lining of the intestine. This layer of mucus normally acts as a barrier against gliadin's assaults. But in a celiac intestine, the mucosal lining is permeable. With gliadin's destructive power enhanced by its enzyme sidekick, tissue Transglutaminase (tTG), it quickly gets past this poorly-guarded layer. Scientists are working to put their finger on exactly what makes the mucosal lining of a celiac's small intestine so permeable. Now a January study by Czech researchers found at least one thing that affects the permeability of the intestinal mucosa: gut bacteria. In this study, called "Role of Intestinal Bacteria in Gliadin-Induced Changes in Intestinal Mucosa: Study in Germ-Free Rats", researchers tied off sections of rats' intestines and introduced various kinds of bacteria to each section. They wanted to measure the effect that these bacteria had on the intestinal mucus - or more specifically, on the goblet cells that produce the intestinal mucus. To ensure that the kinds of bacteria in the rats' intestines were under experimental control, the rats had been raised from birth in germ-free conditions. They found that introducing gliadin to the intestines had the effect of decreasing the mucus-producing cells, thereby eroding the intestines' protective layer. No big surprises there - gliadin is a fighter, a digestive "gladiator", after all. But when they added strains of so-called harmful bacteria, Escherichia coli (otherwise known as E coli) or Shigella, the mucus-producing cells decreased even more. The cells first secreted massive amounts of mucus, then promptly exhausted themselves and gave up. This left the intestine looking very similar to that of a person in the early stages of celiac disease, say the researchers. But the tale did indeed have a happy ending. Along came the good bacteria, Bifidobacterium bifidum (or "Biff" for short). The mucus-producing cells in the small intestine increased when Biff was present. In fact, Biff was able to partially reverse the mucus-decreasing effects of E coli and Shigella. The researchers concluded that the composition of gut bacteria has an effect on the protective mucus of the intestines: an overgrowth of bad bacteria decreases the protective layer, while the addition of good bacteria increases the protective layer. Their study may eventually lead to treatment options for human celiacs, by finding ways to protect tender intestines from the harmful effects of gliadin. Source: PLoS One. 2011 Jan 13;6(1):e16169