The gluten-free diet is very important to a person who has been diagnosed with Celiac disease, or even one that has good reason to believe that he/she has it. This disease can be very harmful and toxic to the small intestine, and also impedes nutrient absorption. All can be blamed on gluten-a protein that exists in many grains, especially wheat, barley and rye.
The Celiac disease, because glutens are insoluble and indigestible, is a disease afflicting millions of people. Barley, wheat, and rye can be very harmful to anyone with the disease, as well as a large number of products that are derived from the former. Typical symptoms are irritable or inflamed bowels; chronic weakness; mental/behavior problems; very dry skin; bone density loss and a prolonged, increased appetite. While that is not an exhaustive list, it contains most of the more-common symptoms.
Many people are even unaware that they have Celiac for many years, and they-unknowingly-continue to dump toxic proteins into their small intestine. With enough time, it becomes more and more inflamed and can lead to a significant loss in the quality of their lives-not to mention a host of complications that commonly arise from it.
The rule of thumb is to stay away from highly-processed, highly-unnatural foods and go towards things like gluten free flour and other organic foods. For obvious reasons, don’t even let -fast food- enter your mind-as that can be a one-way ticket to a very unpleasant life, to put it mildly. Think of it like this: you not only improve your chances of your intestines becoming inflamed, you also get to lose weight (if you happen to be overweight, that is).
Chinese spinach, Indian spinach and African spinach contain Amaranth. Amaranth flour is another wonderful gluten free flour. It’s used to thicken foods and make sauces. In addition, corn, white and brown rice, and potatoes are typically safe-as long as no other unapproved item is applied to them.
Other kinds of gluten free flours include Almond meal flour, black/red bean, white cornmeal and -blue- cornmeal. Even more of these special flours include: brown flax-seed meal, millet flour, potato and potato starch flour. You didn’t know so many wheat-free flours existed, did you?
The Amaranth plant gives amaranth flour (AKA Chinese or Indian spinach) its flavor and is a completely gluten free flour. Corn flour is a gluten free flour and used mainly in sauces and thickening agents, and is also called cornstarch. Also, potato starch flour and potato flour (two distinct products) are gluten/wheat free cooking supplies.
Many peoples’ taste buds have had years to become accustomed to tasting the gluten protein-which is implemented in grains-such as wheat and rye-to hold the doughy material together and give it a firm structure as to where it can stably expand. If you have to switch to non-gluten grains, and are accustomed the former, then your taste buds will most likely reject the flavor as bland and even unsavory. However, with time and learning new recipes, this will diminish or even completely dissipate.
There is a lot of hope for those suffering from Celiac disease. New procedures are being adopted, like capsule endoscopy (for early diagnosis), and the NIDDKD organization is constantly researching and learning more about the disease to help people live a better life. There are also prescription drugs that are in the testing-phase, and promising studies of detoxifying enzymes before glutens even come in contact with the small intestine.
