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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend February 28, 2007 Gluten-free diet can make a world of difference to celiacs By JAN ROBERTS-DOMINGUEZ for the Mail Tribune For as long as I'd known her my friend Joanne was a vibrant, energetic and fun-loving woman. Then a few years ago she became alarmingly thin and edgy. We were all concerned. She must be traversing a rough emotional patch, we thought, or a too-challenging workload, perhaps. But Jo knew differently. So when a new acquaintance suggested she might have celiac disease, she sought help. It involved a slew of tests, but eventually the diagnosis was indeed CD, a chronic, inherited digestive disease that can lead to malnutrition or cancer if untreated. Advertisement A person with CD can't tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Eating even the smallest amount of gluten assaults the small intestine, and a damaged small intestine can't do one of its main jobs, which is to absorb nutrients from food. Think about all the foods we love that had become poison to Joanne: all those fabulous bakery goods we treat ourselves to while sipping a mug of coffee or tea, pizza (and beer!), pasta, pancakes, waffles, bread, gin and tonics, ice cream cones, even soy sauce and some mustards and ketchups. This explained Joanne's frightening weight loss. The other symptoms of someone with CD — diarrhea, bloating, anemia, chronic fatigue, weakness, bone pain and muscle cramps — explained her rather miserable disposition. When she eliminated gluten from her diet, the turnaround was dramatic. Within weeks, the light was back in her eyes, the bounce was back in her step, and she was able to maintain a healthy weight. Some people with CD aren't as lucky. They can go a lifetime without knowing what's wrong because they're misdiagnosed as having irritable bowel syndrome, spastic colon, spastic bowel or Crohn's disease. And then there are the people who don't have CD but, for a variety of reasons, are gluten intolerant. They experience the above-mentioned physical distress when eating gluten-containing products but are not damaging their small intestine in the process. Unfortunately, the symptoms generally worsen over time, however, so both groups of people are very serious about eliminating gluten from their diets. For now, there is no "cure" for CD or gluten intolerance. But treatment is successful as long as you're committed. It is, quite simply (and not so simply), maintaining a strict adherence to a gluten-free diet for life. This involves the elimination of wheat, rye, barley and foods made with these grains from your diet. If you suspect you may have celiac disease or be gluten-intolerant, specialists encourage testing. Starting a gluten-free diet without complete testing makes later diagnosis difficult because the tests that confirm CD would require a person to reintroduce gluten into their diet for several weeks. And as any gluten-intolerant person will tell you, "That just ain't gonna happen!" Life is too good to go back. Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis food writer, cookbook author and artist. Readers can contact her by e-mail at [email protected]. Retail sources for gluten-free products: Check your local health-food stores, which always seem to stock supplies of gluten-free flours, bread mixes, cookie mixes and prepared foods. The health-food section at Fred Meyer is worth a look, too. Some of the products found at these stores are listed below. u Bob's Red Mill ( www.bobsredmill.com ) has an entire line of gluten-free products, including bread mix, baking flour, garbanzo-fava flour, sorghum flour and potato flour. u Namaste Foods ( www.namastefoods.com ) has gluten-free pizza crust mix, waffle and pancake mix, cakes and brownie mixes. u Amazing Grains Growers Cooperative in Ronan, Mont. ( www.montina.com ). u Pamela's Products ( www.pamelasproducts.com ) in Ukiah, Calif. has gluten-free baking mixes. u Breads from Anna ( www.glutenevolution.com ) has gluten-free bread and pie crust mixes. Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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