"Gluten" Morgen - Celiac Disease

My mom has Celiac Disease, and I have recently discovered that I know more than just 1 person with this condition. Celiac Disease effects about 1 person every 133 people; it is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. When people with celiac disease eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi—the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats. Celiac disease is both a disease of malabsorption—meaning nutrients are not absorbed properly—and an abnormal immune reaction to gluten. Celiac disease is also known as celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, and gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Celiac disease is genetic, meaning it runs in families. Sometimes the disease is triggered—or becomes active for the first time—after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection, or severe emotional stress.

I didn't know a lot about this condition until we learned that my mom suffers from it. I also never realized how many food items have some form of gluten in them before I started reading labels to see what my mom can and cannot eat. It is nice when she comes to visit in LA because there are many restaurants here that offer an abundance of Gluten Free options on their menus, so we can still enjoy eating out. Although mom's experience with eating out reconfirmed what she already knew, that preparing her own food at home is really the best way to ensure that you don't get any wheat or gluten in your meals.

With the presence of wheat and gluten in so many things, I think that this disease will continue to grow in number of people suffering from it. It is possible that less and less people will be able to digest wheat and gluten easily because there is such an abundance of it in our daily diets -genetic or not - but that is my opinion. The lesson here is everything in moderation!