Mind Over Platter

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the

gateway

Mind over Platter

www.gtwy.ca

November 6, 2013

Written by

Sarah Lazin illustrations by

Jessica Hong & Stefano Jun design by

Anthony Goertz

Gluten-free and paleo: the newest dietary fads

It’s Friday night.

be overlooked as nothing more than an intolerance. “When a celiac eats wheat — there’s gluten in other grains as well as wheat — it triggers the immunoglobuYou and your friends are trying to order a pizza. The first lins that basically attack your gut, so they damage (it). request, pepperoni, is quickly rejected by not only your So the surface area of your gut is basically damaged vegetarian friend, but also by your friends who have when (you) eat wheat, whereas somebody who may be renounced eating pork due to their religious orienta- gluten-sensitive can have sometimes similar reactions tions. As you work your way through the menu, every to a celiac person, but they don’t have that autoimmune flavour of pizza is rejected for one reason or another, response,” she explains. right down to your vegan friend wanting a cheese-less Pietsch admits there’s some frustration surroundpizza and your celiac friend requesting a gluten-free ing the fact that one in seven people with celiac disease crust. Yet another one of your friends sits quietly to the don’t have any symptoms, and yet, for the majority of side, claiming that since he’s on the paleo diet, he can’t cases, it’s the symptoms that drive people to the doctor eat pizza at all. to try and figure out what’s wrong. The most common This scene is a familiar one symptoms of celiac disease are to many Canadians. Within When a celiac eats wheat — there’s gastro-intestinal symptoms the past number of years, including bloating, abdomidozens of fad diets have come gluten in other grains as well as nal pain, constipation and and gone, leaving the waistwheat — it triggers the immuno- diarrhea, though Pietsch says lines of Canadians yo-yoing symptoms can include globulins that basically attack your other up and down. In the eternal joint pain, headaches, fatigue quest for happier, healthier gut, so they damage (it) ... Whereas and a general feeling of being and longer lives, people have somebody who may be gluten-sen- unwell. eaten nothing but grape“That’s sometimes what’s fruits for a week, or completely sitive can have sometimes similar hard with those symptoms, renounced carbohydrates. In that they can be the same reactions to a celiac person, but is the end, vegetarianism and symptoms for Irritable Bowel veganism have they don’t have that autoimmune (Syndrome as) for a gluten senbecome the sitivity,” Pietsch says. response. most popular of “There’s lots of overlap with alternative lifethe gastro-intestinal sympstyle choices, but people who think Debbie Pietsch toms, for both health they have celiac should obviDietician, University of Alberta and ethical reaously be tested because that’s sons. But in a lifelong commitment to eat the past 10 years or so, gluten-free and gluten-free. If you may be sensitive to gluten, it won’t paleo diets have been quietly usurp- cause the same serious effects to your gut.” ing the vegetarian and vegan domain. The Canadian Celiac Association estimates that “1 Once the most popular alternative diets, in 133 persons in Canada are affected by celiac disthey’re now falling by the wayside as celiac ease.” But Pietsch has found some different numbers disease and gluten sensitivities cause a spike in gluten- through the university’s work. free living. “Some of the newer research coming out of the U of A Debbie Pietsch, a dietician at the University of (estimates that) it may be closer to 1 in 100 people (who) Alberta, is an expert in celiac disease and gluten-free have celiac disease,” she argues. “So it is increasing … diets, and defines celiac disease as the body’s autoim- The National Institute of Health (estimates) that over mune response to wheat. While that may sound easy the last 25 years, it’s doubled.” enough to understand, there’s often confusion around Despite the hundreds of thousands of Canadians the term due to the tendency of some to confuse it with afflicted by celiac disease, the Canadian Celiac gluten sensitivities. The problem with that, Pietsch Association maintains that while there’s no cure for says, is that these terms are often used interchange- celiac disease, it can be managed through a gluten-free ably. In doing so, the serious nature of celiac disease can diet.

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