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Can't wait to teach this class- crunchy crust, tender insides Gluten Free Sourdough.
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Celiac Disease - Sprue - Expert Q & A - Effective Management of Celiac Disease - NY Times Health
Effective Management of Celiac Disease
Dr. Ritu Verma is the section chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition and director of the Children’s Celiac Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.Q. You have two children with celiac disease. Did that inspire your work at the center?
A. No. I have been a gastroenterologist for much longer than that. I think it is one of the most fascinating diseases. I used to say to my patients, “If God ever said you have to have a disease, I would say give me celiacs.” There is an end point to it. If you change your diet, your intestines and body are as good as someone who does not have it. There is no other condition in medicine that you can cure — and you can call it a cure — just by changing your diet. There are no needles involved. If you think about it, it is probably the easiest disease to have.
Q. How do patients with celiac disease control their condition through diet?
A. They have to go on a gluten-free diet. That means a diet that does not have any wheat, barley or rye in it. You have to read labels for anything that goes in your mouth every time, because the manufacturer may switch ingredients on you. It is not just food — it is also medicine and cosmetics and, for little children, even Play-Doh and things like that. I had one patient who couldn’t figure out why her blood tests weren’t improving. Finally, she realized her shampoo had gluten in it, and she was ingesting it when she bit her nails.
Q. What can someone with celiac disease eat?
A. There is a lot that they can eat. They can eat any fruits, vegetables or meat; also corn, potatoes, beans, lentils, soymilk and eggs. Most people will eat a lot of Indian and Mediterranean food. Spanish food is also popular, because you can have the corn tortillas. Really, it is just the regular pasta, the bread and the cookies that you can’t have.
Q. Can people with celiac disease eat out at restaurants?
A. Many restaurants now have gluten-free menus. We have done a lot of education with restaurants through the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness and their Appetite for Awareness campaign.
Q. How big of a problem is cross-contamination for people trying to maintain a gluten-free diet?
A. Keeping the diet is easy as far as reading labels, but when you go out to eat you have to talk to the chef and make sure there is no cross-contamination. For example, if you went out to eat for breakfast you would probably think that eggs were safe, but some places use flour to make an omelet. You have to quiz the chef about every ingredient. It is overwhelming, especially when you are just diagnosed.
Q. The number of gluten-free products has increased significantly over the last five years. What has changed?
A. It is an increase in awareness. Five years ago, the National Institutes of Health had this whole session on celiac disease. From there, the North American Society for Pediatric Gastrointerology, Hepatology, and Nutrition started a series of lectures for physicians. Then came the legislation last year that foods would have to be labeled. Awareness has really been building.
Q. Gluten-free and wheat-free labels seem similar, but they mean very different things. Do patients often confuse the two?
A. Yes. That is where the recent labeling became a little dangerous. Foods would say “this does not contain wheat,” but it didn’t say anything about barley and rye. And then there is a whole controversy about oats. So a lot of people would say this is wheat-free, it must be gluten-free. A lot of education is needed about this. Gluten-free is wheat-free, but not the other way around.
Q. Is it important for newly diagnosed patients to work with a dietician?
A. Yes. Patients who are diagnosed and try to figure it out by themselves have a very difficult time and often give up. It is almost impossible to get the proper training yourself. It is also an extremely expensive diet. Going to the store and seeing a loaf of bread costs $8 is enough to make some people say “forget it” or go partially gluten-free, which can make themselves feel better. Dietitians and support groups are really the key to success for people with celiac disease. It is an overwhelming condition.
Q. What happens when patients stop eating gluten?
A. When you have celiac disease, there is damage to the lining of your small intestine. There is something called the villi, these finger-like projections that you look at under the microscope. In people who have celiac disease, the gluten damages the lining of the small intestine and the villi. Once you go on a gluten-free diet, these villi actually start healing and forming back again. If you do another biopsy on someone who has been on a gluten-free diet and is doing well, the small intestine and the villi will be back to normal.
Q. How strictly do patients need to follow the diet if the small intestine and villi will heal after a few months on a gluten-free diet?
A. When you start eating the gluten again, it affects your immune system. So your intestines will heal, but your immune system gets primed. It goes haywire and starts sending out these signals to the rest of your body. Your thyroid and other parts of your body can be affected, and those don’t heal. So it is not just a matter of healing your intestine; it is also a matter of healing your body and protesting this long-term risk of lymphoma that you can develop years down the line. The commitment has to be for life. So you can imagine how tough that is for patients, especially when they start feeling better. How many of us finish a course of antibiotics and when we start feeling better say, “O.K., I am done.”
Q. Physicians used to think celiac disease occurred mostly in childhood. Is any group particularly at risk?
A. A lot of people are diagnosed when they are older now. That is because they are not presenting with the traditional symptoms that young people had. It can really be in any ethnic background. It used to be someone who is Irish or French Canadian, but that is another myth taught in medical schools. It was thought that it was seen in boys more than girls, but that is still up in the air.
Q. Are there any other ways to control celiac disease?
A. Right now, it is only diet. But there are a lot of companies coming up with pills. One of them is actually almost in Phase III trials in adults, and it is thought that it will come out in the next few years. The idea is that people who take this pill would be covered if they went out and had cross contamination. The danger to this pill, of course, is people who would go out and eat regular pizza. We have to wait and see if it is safe enough for that. Right now it is only being tested to protect against the small amount of gluten that may be in someone’s diet.
Q. Are there any efforts to make a celiac vaccine?
A. There are some people who are working on a vaccine. The problem with a vaccine is that there are many different H.L.A. (human leukocyte antigens) types associated with celiac disease, so a vaccine will not be very easy. But I know the person who is looking at the vaccine is trying to develop one for the HLA-DQ2 type, because that is the more lethal one in terms of the long-term risks of cancer.
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Celiac Disease - Nutritional Considerations Nutrition - Nutrition, Function, Side Effects - NY Times Health Information
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder passed down through families. When a person with celiac disease eats or drinks anything containing gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, or sometimes oats (including medications), the immune system responds by damaging the lining of the intestinal tract. This damage affects the body''s ability to absorb nutrients.
For specific information about the disease (including symptoms and treatment), seeceliac disease.
A gluten-free diet, when followed carefully, helps prevent symptoms of the disease.
First Dr. Oz on Oprah and now the New York Times is covering celiac disease, Wow!
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Celiac Disease - Sprue - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment of Celiac Disease - Sprue - NY Times Health Information
Back to TopCauses
The exact cause of celiac disease is unknown. The intestines contain projections (called villi) that absorb nutrients. In undiagnosed or untreated celiac disease, these villi become flattened. This affects the ability to absorb nutrients properly.
The disease can develop at any point in life, from infancy to late adulthood.
Those with a family member with celiac disease are at greater risk for developing the disease. The disorder is most common in Caucasians and those of European ancestry. Women are affected more commonly than men.
There are numerous diseases and conditions associated with celiac disease, including:
- Anemia
- Autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus
- Certain types of intestinal cancer
- Dermatitis herpetiformis
- Down syndrome
- Lactose intolerance
- Miscarriage or unexplained infertility
- Neurological conditions
- Osteoporosis or osteopenia
- Thyroid disease
- Type 1 diabetes
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Friday, December 11, 2009
Toxic Chemical Diacetyl Still Finding Its Way Into Microwave Popcorn - Sphere News
via sphere.com
Just in case popcorn is in the Christmas traditions 'round your house, do it the old fashioned way. Use a bit of oil in a pan and cook it stove top.
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Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Non-GMO Shopping Guide
1. Buy Organic - Organic producers
are not allowed to use GMOs2. Look for "Non-GMO" Labels 3. Avoid At-Risk Ingredients including
Corn, Soybeans, Canola, Cottonseed4. Buy Products Listed in our
Shopping Guide... read more
What are GMO's?
Why should I avoid GMO's?
How can I help?
The Non-GMO Shopping Guide is a co-production of The Institute for Responsible Technology & The Center for Food Safety.
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Op-Ed Columnist - Cancer From the Kitchen?(( tags:endocrine disruptors, cancer, bpa, plasticizers,Kristof))
The battle over health care focuses on access to insurance, or tempests like the one that erupted over new mammogram guidelines.
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesNicholas D. Kristof
On the Ground
In his blog, Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.
Go to Blog » Go to Columnist Page »But what about broader public health challenges? What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air -- or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens? What if the surge in asthma and childhood leukemia reflect, in part, the poisons we impose upon ourselves?
This last week I attended a fascinating symposium at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, exploring whether certain common chemicals are linked to breast cancer and other ailments.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, the chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai, said that the risk that a 50-year-old white woman will develop breast cancer has soared to 12 percent today, from 1 percent in 1975. (Some of that is probably a result of better detection.) Younger people also seem to be developing breast cancer: This year a 10-year-old in California, Hannah, is fighting breast cancer and recording her struggle on a blog.
Likewise, asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years, Dr. Landrigan said. Childhood leukemia is increasing by 1 percent per year. Obesity has surged. One factor may be lifestyle changes — like less physical exercise and more stress and fast food — but some chemicals may also play a role.
Take breast cancer. One puzzle has been that most women living in Asia have low rates of breast cancer, but ethnic Asian women born and raised in the United States don’t enjoy that benefit. At the symposium, Dr. Alisan Goldfarb, a surgeon specializing in breast cancer, pointed to a chart showing breast cancer rates by ethnicity.
“If an Asian woman moves to New York, her daughters will be in this column,” she said, pointing to “whites.” “It is something to do with the environment.”
What’s happening? One theory starts with the well-known fact that women with more lifetime menstrual cycles are at greater risk for breast cancer, because they’re exposed to more estrogen. For example, a woman who began menstruating before 12 has a 30 percent greater risk of breast cancer than one who began at 15 or later.
It’s also well established that Western women are beginning puberty earlier, and going through menopause later. Dr. Maida Galvez, a pediatrician who runs Mount Sinai’s pediatric environmental health specialty unit, told the symposium that American girls in the year 1800 had their first period, on average, at about age 17. By 1900 that had dropped to 14. Now it is 12.
A number of studies, mostly in animals, have linked early puberty to exposure to pesticides, P.C.B.’s and other chemicals. One class of chemicals that creates concern — although the evidence is not definitive — is endocrine disruptors, which are often similar to estrogen and may fool the body into setting off hormonal changes. This used to be a fringe theory, but it is now being treated with great seriousness by the Endocrine Society, the professional association of hormone specialists in the United States.
These endocrine disruptors are found in everything from certain plastics to various cosmetics. “There’s a ton of stuff around that has estrogenic material in it,” Dr. Goldfarb said. “There’s makeup that you rub into your skin for a youthful appearance that is really estrogen.”
More than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed since World War II, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai. Even of the major chemicals, fewer than 20 percent have been tested for toxicity to children, the center says.
Representative Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in the House of Representatives, introduced legislation this month that would establish a comprehensive program to monitor endocrine disruptors. That’s an excellent idea, because as long as we’re examining our medical system, there’s a remarkable precedent for a public health effort against a toxic substance. The removal of lead from gasoline resulted in an 80 percent decline in lead levels in our blood since 1976 — along with a six-point gain in children’s I.Q.’s, Dr. Landrigan said.
I asked these doctors what they do in their own homes to reduce risks. They said that they avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. And the symposium handed out a reminder card listing “safer plastics” as those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.
It suggests that the “plastics to avoid” are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 (unless they are also marked “BPA-free”). Yes, the evidence is uncertain, but my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.
I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.
Recommend Next Article in Opinion (4 of 30) » A version of this article appeared in print on December 6, 2009, on page WK11 of the New York edition.
via nytimes.com
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
The Buenos Aires Legislature passed a law for celiacs | Momento 24
The Buenos Aires Legislature passed a law for celiacs
Posted on04 December 2009 at 20:39. Tags: bill, celiac, gluten, marta, parliament, varela
The Buenos Aires Parliament passed a bill to protect people with celiac disease, which promotes research into the causes of the illness and the marketing of gluten-free food.
PRO lawmaker Marta Varela was pushed the bill which intensifies the prevention, treatment and study of the disease, as well as the publication of all gluten-free food.
In turn, the law also proposes a record to keep a statistical monitoring of the people who suffer from celiac disease in the country, and an identification ID to educate the people before an emergency.
Restaurants, bars and cafes must have at least one option in its menu suitable for coeliacs, as well as economic menus.
Today, over 400 thousand Argentines are celiacs, although there are another 25 thousand who are unaware of the disease.
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Now we all know at least one place to travel with a bit of ease.
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
American Grassfed—a New Standard and Label | Organic Connections Magazine
American Grassfed—a New Standard and Label
-->Many consumers these days are in search of products from grassfed animals—and for good reason. Animals raised free range and fed on grass, as nature intended, are healthier, more nutritious and provide better-tasting food. Modern “factory farm” methods have removed animal breeding and raising a long distance from natural methods in an effort to produce marketable products as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Many shoppers today are concerned about the health impact of added hormones and antibiotics, along with the extremely close quarters and inhumane treatment of animals.
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- Natural Skin Care Begins in the Soil
- Food, Inc., The High Cost of Cheap Food
Technorati Tags: grassfed beef, organic farming, organic foods
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American Grassfed—a New Standard and Label | Organic Connections Magazine
American Grassfed—a New Standard and Label
-->Many consumers these days are in search of products from grassfed animals—and for good reason. Animals raised free range and fed on grass, as nature intended, are healthier, more nutritious and provide better-tasting food. Modern “factory farm” methods have removed animal breeding and raising a long distance from natural methods in an effort to produce marketable products as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Many shoppers today are concerned about the health impact of added hormones and antibiotics, along with the extremely close quarters and inhumane treatment of animals.
related post
- ADHD, Is drugging our children the answer?
- Terra Burger: Organic Food for Fast Times
- Healthcare: The High Cost of the American Diet
- Natural Skin Care Begins in the Soil
- Food, Inc., The High Cost of Cheap Food
Technorati Tags: grassfed beef, organic farming, organic foods
No Comments
Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this article!
Leave a Reply
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Gluten-Free Cookie Exchange tonight
Bellingham Gluten Intolerance Group...Annual Cookie ExchangeDecember 1, 2009
7 -9 pm
St. Luke's Community Health Education Center
3333 Squalicum Pkwy.
BellinghamYou are invited to bring 2 dozen GF cookies, either homemade (with ingredient list) or store bought (with ingredient list). We will exchange our cookies with everyone there. (Plates and wrap will be provided.) Too busy to cook or shop? Come anyway! Cookies are not required to attend!Questions??360-223-7437
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