Celiac Sprue and Going G-Free - Pamcakes Post

Hi my awesome readers that are still actually taking the time to read my blog even though I have neglected the blogosphere! J

School and life are running rampant… what can I say? Since I have been really busy, I have a really interesting guest post from Pamela. She has a lot of awesome and interesting information on a gluten free diet, so that is the topic of her guest post today! You should definitely head on over to her blog sometime because of all the great posts she pumps out! This woman knows her stuff and has an amazing personality! She also has some great recipes for everything from chocolate chip cookies to pineapple casserole!

Enjoy, and THANK YOU SO MUCH, Pam!!

Celiac Sprue and Going G-Free

Hey Sweet and Savvy readers! I’m Pamela, and I blog over at Pamcakes and Coffee. I am a physician assistant student with a huge interest in health, nutrition, and coffee!

I have enjoyed following Savannah’s blog and gluten-free recipes, and I am very excited to be writing a guest post for her. Over the past year, I have been researching Celiac Disease (Sprue) due to a personal interest in going “gluten-free”. My goal is to share some useful information concerning a g-free diet. You can view my graduate project on Celiac Disease as it pertains to pregnancy here.

I dealt with stomach pains on almost a daily basis for many years. For a while, I blamed stress and anxiety from school, but decided to finally see a doctor the beginning of the year. The first step in diagnosing Celiac, which is an autoimmune digestive disorder affecting women more than men, is blood work to test for specific autoantibodies. My blood work suggested Celiac, so I scheduled an endoscopy for an intestinal biopsy. An endoscopy is an outpatient, same day procedure, and I was out within a few hours. My biopsy came back negative, but I have remained interested in this topic, even though I still eat gluten-containing foods. To make a long story short, the culprit seems to be dairy!

The only treatment for Celiac Disease is a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. The first step in making this transition is to recognize the products which contain gluten (wheat, rye, barley) and those which are gluten-free. Below are a few examples.

Gluten-Containing Products: Breads, bagels, pasta, pizza, pretzels, crackers, cookies, cakes, wheat germ. It is important to note that some of these foods can be found gluten-free.

Gluten-Free Products: Fresh fruits, vegetables, 100% meat, eggs, legumes, peanut butter, butter, margarine, herbs, sweet potatoes, jelly, jam, honey, Amaranth, buckwheat, corn, cornstarch, guar gum, quinoa, rice, xanthan gum.

For baking and cooking, g-free flour includes: Almond meal flour, coconut flour, pea flour, potato flour, sorghum flour, soy flour, white rice flour.

There are many gluten-free products available in grocery stores now. You can view a complete list of g-free products that you can buy on the web here. One of the more popular brands is Bob’s Red Mill, which sells g-free oats, pancakes, chia seeds, baking flour, and cookies/cake mix. Betty Crocker also carries a line of g-free baking mixes. Many popular brands come in a gluten-free option!

Some restaurants also offer a gluten-free menu, including Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Outback Steakhouse, Red Robin, Ruby Tuesday, and the Melting Pot. You can view the gluten-free menu for these restaurants on their website. I love my Melting Pot!

I hope that you found some of the information on Celiac Disease and going gluten-free helpful! You can read more about Celiac Disease on the NDDIC website, and in the book, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide, by Elizabeth Hasselbeck. I would love to hear your feedback! You can find me at my site here.

What are some of your favorite gluten-free products?