what you need to know about gluten and, gluten free diet plan
Gluten Intolerance: Prohibited Foods and gluten free diet plan
Today, the only treatment for celiac disease is the gluten-free diet. But difficult to avoid any trace of wheat, barley, rye. Because these cereals are hidden in almost all foods, from beer to cold meats to pastries. Some explanations and tips to eat safely.
Definition: What is gluten?
Gluten is a protein found in some grains, such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye. It is at the base of celiac disease, but also of allergies or hypersensitivity.
What is gluten intolerance?
Also known as celiac disease, gluten intolerance is a chronic intestinal autoimmune disease related to gluten ingestion. In fact, people with this disease are intolerant to gliadin, a protein contained in gluten. More present in women than in men, this intolerance can occur at any age. In Europe, the United States, North Africa, the Middle East, and India, celiac disease affects between 0.7 and 2% of the population.
Intolerance or allergy to gluten, Crohn’s disease: the differences
Some people, who are not gluten-intolerant, may be allergic to gluten. Gluten ingestion then causes an immediate reaction, such as angioedema. Finally, some people develop a hypersensitivity to gluten: they are better if they no longer eat gluten. This hypersensitivity is due to intestinal hyperpermeability.
In the case of Crohn’s disease, things are more complex. “When one suffers from this disease, one can know three phases: a phase of thrust / one during which the patient is better / a phase of remission.The exclusion of gluten can have a beneficial effect during the first two phases, but this is not certain, which is certain that during these phases, the patient is offered a diet without residues, without lactose, “says Florence Thorez, Dietician Nutritionist, member of the AFDN.
Summary
How to recognize gluten-free products?
Prohibited foods in the gluten-free diet
Where to find gluten-free products?
This regime excluding wheat, barley, oats, and rye is not very easy to implement because it often involves changing eating habits well anchored. You have to cook simply with natural foods (not prepared industrially) and highlight what is allowed instead of reasoning in terms of prohibited foods. Wheat flour is used not only in the composition of all bread and pastries but also in that of many prepared dishes (as a binder for sauces).
How to recognize gluten-free products?
There is currently no legal requirement to mention gluten intake on foods and the actual composition of prepared foods varies over time, some may at some point not contain gluten and then later to be contained in it. Nevertheless, there is more and more often a barbed ear on gluten-free products: this symbol is the property of the French association of gluten intolerant (afdiag). It guarantees an “uncontaminated” finished product whose gluten content does not exceed 20 mg/kg, the threshold of European Regulation N ° 41/2009.
The list of authorized foods, therefore, varies with time and regular updating is essential. It is available in specialized hospital services and at the French Gluten Intolerance Association.
Prohibited foods in the gluten-free diet
In general, breads, pastries, pasta and semolina are forbidden.
Dairy products are not a problem except cheeses and some gel creams; caution is required with chocolate flavored yogurts.
Cold cuts are to be avoided with the exception of ham.
The fruits can be eaten without problem (except dried figs often floured).
Meat and fresh fish are allowed but cooked dishes (fresh, canned or frozen) are excluded because they contain flour as a binder.
All fresh vegetables, canned or frozen are possible, but the so-called “parboiled” can contain flour.
Many treats contain gluten and only “pure sugar” or “pure fruit” sweets and sour candies never contain them and can be eaten.
Finally, beer too is to be banned, but today there are beers without gluten.
Where to find gluten-free products?
If the diet principle is simple, it is not very easy to put into practice. Cereals, as we know, are the basis of food in Europe and the exclusion of bread, pasta, semolina, pastries and sweets is not easy especially in school canteens and communities.
Besides current foods, products guaranteed gluten-free exist (gluten-free meals Apoglut, Rice-diet, Riesal etc) but their cost can be difficult to support in modest environments.
Asian products that are often rice-based are relatively inexpensive and can be recommended.
On the other hand, the flour can be replaced in the preparation of dishes cooked with cornflour or potato starch.
It is often necessary at the beginning of the diet to also exclude lactose from the diet. Indeed, lesions of the intestinal mucosa (villous atrophy) are responsible for a decrease in the activity of lactase, an enzyme essential for the digestion of lactose and which is located on the surface of the mucosa. The duration of this scheme is theoretically for life.
Gluten-free diet plan: what foods to eat?
Present in a multitude of foods, gluten can, however, cause a real intolerance in some people. For health reasons, they must adopt a gluten-free diet. Definition, menu, dangers, or list of forbidden foods … The point with Florence Thorez, dietician-nutritionist.
Benefits of a gluten-free diet
Celiac patients who do not follow a gluten-free diet may experience complications, including poor absorption of nutrients in the intestine, such as proteins, vitamins, minerals (such as iron), and lipids.
This mal-absorption can itself lead to:
- A great fatigue
- Muscle weakness
- Slimming
- Nutritional deficiencies
It is therefore essential for them to flee the gluten to find better health and a better quality of life without abdominal pains, slimming, diarrhea, bloating, and fatigue. The disappearance of the manifestations is observed between 6 months and a year. For people without allergies or intolerances, there is no benefit in following a gluten-free diet.
For people without allergies or intolerances, there is no benefit in following a gluten-free diet.
Alternatives to gluten
• Cereals: the alternatives
In addition to fresh products (meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables), legumes, or starchy foods, gluten intolerant people can also continue to eat certain cereals such as rice, buckwheat, quinoa, corn, and millet. Indeed, not all cereals contain gluten!
• White pasta, bread, cakes: alternatives
Rather than wheat pasta, they can eat pasta based on pulses or corn. Rather than traditional bread, based on wheat flour, they can opt for breads made from corn flour or breads with multiple flours sold especially in organic stores. As for flours, to make cakes for example, it is better to take those of chestnut, corn, quinoa, buckwheat…
• Reimbursement of gluten-free products
In addition, in the store shelves are more and more products labeled “gluten-free“, with the logo showing a wheat eared barrel that celiac patients can eat without worry. However, these products may cost more than conventional products. This is why the Social Security pays part of the extra cost of the products bought without gluten, in case of a celiac disease diagnosed precisely. To be entitled to these reimbursements, the diagnosis of gluten intolerance must be made by biopsy of the small intestine showing villous atrophy. It is then necessary to advance the expenses at the time of the purchase, then to return to social security the vignettes present on products without gluten.
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