Celiac Disease: It's More Than Just The Trots

Let's say that someone in your family had a history of breast or testicular cancer. Then one morning you are in the shower and you feel a lump in your breast or testicle. What would you do? Would you go see your doctor to be evaluated? Of course you would, right?! You wouldn't sit at home and try to ignore the lump. You wouldn't say, "my breast/teste is too important to me so I don't want to find out what this lump is because that may mean losing it." That could possibly be suicidal, right? Well, Celiac Disease is no different. Untreated Celiac Disease can cause conditions that can be fatal. It should not be ignored. Good nutrition is the basis of health and Celiac Disease prevents good nutrition. In CD, even minute amounts of gluten (which is found in more than just "flour") will destroy your small intestine. It will cause damage even if you are not having symptoms. Your small intestine is where all the vitamins, minerals, protein, etc is absorbed. They are absorbed by tiny little finger like projections called villi. Celiac Disease flattens and destroys those villi making it impossible to absorb the nutrition you need to stay healthy and fight disease. Gluten will eventually cause disease, debility and yes, even death in a person with CD. CD is an auto immune disease. It is not an allergy, a sensitivity or an intolerance. It needs to be taken as seriously as cancer. It is more than just the inconvenience of a few extra trips to the bathroom.

I talked to a woman a couple of weeks ago and she was saying that her friend has a daughter with CD. "But she (the young girl) has so many other health issues that (the mother) just lets it (the CD) go." She said that the diet was just too hard and the child's symptoms weren't that bad so they just don't worry about it. I could not believe what I was hearing. Clearly it isn't completely the mothers fault that there is a Grand Canyon's worth of education missing in this family. That mother has no idea that most, if not all, of the child's other issues are a result of her Celiac Disease and just because she wasn't having diarrhea did not mean that it wasn't an enormous problem. The woman told me that this poor little kid has crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is so bad she can't even walk up stairs. It is heartbreaking to me that the mother doesn't know that RA is also an autoimmune disease and that it was likely triggered by untreated CD. Why didn't the girl's doctor educate the mother? Maybe it was because he didn't know. When my husband was diagnosed they weren't looking for CD so we had no idea what was coming. We were completely unprepared. The day he got that diagnosis the doctor handed him his biopsy results and said "you need to go on a gluten free diet, permanently." That was it. No further education. Done. He just got instructions to follow up for another biopsy in one year. When my friend was diagnosed this March, her GI doctor told her that "at least you can still have Mexican food." (I can't even count the number of ways that this is wrong.) Again, no education, no referral to someone who could educate.

The newest research says that 1 in 100 people have CD and that if you have a blood relative that has CD, you have a 1 in 22 chance of having it. Mark my words here and now: those numbers are inaccurate and the true number is much, much higher. Of all the people I know that have CD, they are not the only one in their family who has it. If you have a family member that has CD you NEED to be screened. Saying that the diet is just too difficult or you don't have the time to do it or that you love your bread or pasta or whatever too much, isn't a good enough reason to not get screened. You need to ask your doctor to have the appropriate blood work done. If he/she refuses then find another doctor. Some doctors still believe that CD is rare. You need to be screened even if you don't have diarrhea. Some people have constipation. Some people have both and some people don't have a single symptom and do not feel sick. That doesn't mean that they don't have the disease or that the gluten that they are ingesting is not damaging their body. It may just mean they don't have symptoms yet. When you do get your blood drawn keep in mind that a negative result does not mean that you don't have CD and are free and clear forever. It just means that you don't have enough antibodies in your blood on that day. That could change in a month or a year or never. The point is, you won't know if you aren't screened. There is a grey area or continuum in CD diagnosis, meaning that there is a period of time from when the disease starts to when antibodies can be detected in your blood. That period of time is different for everyone. So, if you have symptoms or if you have a family member who has it, you should be screened regularly. If you have any autoimmune diseases (Type 1 diabetes, Arthritis, thyroid disorders etc) know that autoimmune diseases tend to come in groups. Meaning, if you have one you are at greater risk to have another.

I wonder about the number of kids that are on the autism spectrum (Aspergers, ADD, ADHD etc). There was a recent study just released about about the incidence of autism. Turns out it is much more prevalent that previously thought. I bring this up because I am absolutely positive that had we not had the diagnosis for my husband; my oldest daughter would be diagnosed with ADHD. When she ingests gluten she has more behavioral symptoms than GI (although she does have those too depending on dose). She gets hyperactive, defiant, belligerent, aggressive, angry, sad and volatile. It is horrible to see and our hearts break for her when this happens. I wonder if we would ever have gotten a diagnosis of CD if it weren't for her daddy's diagnosis since she doesn't present with "typical" symptoms. Prior to eliminating gluten from her diet her only other symptom aside from the behavioral stuff was that she was small.

The previous mentioned friend had both her daughters tested and one was positive. Other than just being small, she had no symptoms. My friend encouraged her family to get tested. They did. Both her father and her only other sibling both have it. Now, I am no statistician but that does not work out to 1 in 22. It's the same in my immediate family. 2 of our 3 kids have it. There are many in my husbands family that likely have it too. His mother and her father, though not diagnosed, in retrospect likely had it too. They both died in nursing homes with atypical Alzheimer dementia with a long history of bowel issues and depression. My husband is one of seven children. One other has an "assumed celiac" diagnosis and others report symptoms but have not yet been screened. That's not 1 in 22 either. That is only a few examples of many I could site.

Here is a list of possible symptoms of CD. Here is a list of conditions that are associated with CD. Here is a list of conditions that are probably associated with CD. Yes, it's a huge list and like I said, some people have no symptoms at all because the damage has just started. Don't wait until you have a laundry list of those ailments and don't wait until you have cancer. If you have a family member who has CD you must be screened and your children must be screened. Screen now and screen often. And pass on the message!


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GF, Grain Free, Doughnut - Muffins

I am on several Celiac message boards where people exchange all sorts of information about CD. A subject that has come up several times is fiber. Apparently a common complaint among people with CD is that they just can't seem to get enough fiber in their diet. I can't say that I understand that. I think others must eat a lot of processed prepackaged premade food. Of course the complaint that always accompanies the fiber complaint is that GF foods cost more. I don't get that either. Ron and I were talking the other day and we were trying to figure out if there are any items that cost us more now that we eat GF. We could only come up with one thing that costs more. Pasta. We like one particular brand - Tinkinyada and it is the most expensive (but it is worth it). Other than that we couldn't come up with a single thing that costs us more. We kill these two "birds" with one stone by buying almost no processed foods. We buy a bunch of different flours/whole grains (and then grind into flour) and we buy them in bulk. Yes they are more expensive than wheat but because I make all our bread, muffins, pizza crusts, cookies, cakes etc etc that more than evens out. And thanks to CD we now eat so much better than we ever did before. We routinely eat grains that I had previously had never heard of but are real powerhouses of nutrition. Along with better nutrition comes more fiber. Lack of fiber is NEVER an issue in my house. In this past week I made two different baked items that were grain free, gluten free and sugar free and oh ya super high in fiber. Yesterday I made these "Doughnut - Muffins." They were so good. We ate 12 in less than a day. Even 2 of the 3 kids liked them. Here is the original recipe. I didn't make many changes but I will post what I did change.

Doughnut - Muffins

1 cup flax meal
1 cup almond meal (I processed 1 cup raw almonds in my coffee grinder)
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 1/4 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
4 packets Truvia (stevia)
2 T agave nectar
2 T honey
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water
.
Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1 t cinnamon
2 T melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin.
Mix dry ingredients well (exclude those used for topping). Add beaten eggs, melted butter, water, and sweeteners to the dry mixture. Mix well. Divide batter into 12 muffins. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Then (for the kids of course) melt butter in a small bowl. Dip a muffin top into the butter then dip it into the cinnamon sugar bowl. Tastes just like a cinnamon sugar cake doughnut.

New Picture

Life has been too busy to blog much. So for now, for my family, here is a recent pic. The kids love riding on their wiggle cars. Often they will all ride on the same one (always with Justus driving). It is hard to get a good picture of all of them at once. I so wish Justus and Rori had had clothes on. It's just too hot here to bother though.

Low Carb Chocolate Cupcakes

I was craving something sweet again today. Like I said before I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I figure I am only craving this because I am trying not to eat sugar. I went to one of my favorite food bloggers; Elana's Pantry. Sure enough she has a recipe for chocolate cupcakes using coconut flour and agave nectar. Perfect! Here is what I did as I made a few changes based on what I had in the house. I used some Truvia in place of some agave to help lower the carb count. These were AWESOME. I know what I will be having for birthday parties now!!!! Please check out the original recipe and Elana's site. She has some wonderful recipes that are lower carb, dairy and gluten free and organic. As always I do this blog to keep track of what I do in the kitchen so I can repeat recipes we like. I am not trying to take credit for someone else's recipes.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup agave nectar

2 packets Truvia

Not so eloquently I dumped it all in a bowl and whisked until smooth. I lined and filled 6 muffin tins. Baked at 375 for 13 minutes. They look identical to any other wheat filled chocolate cupcake and tasted just as good. Elana has a recipe for a vegan chocolate frosting. I used that idea but used butter, agave and cocoa powder. It was better than frosting with icing sugar. I didn't measure anything precisely but I guesstimate that I used 5 TBSP softened butter, 1 T cocoa powder and 2 T agave nectar and whipped it all together. I put it in the freezer for a few minutes to help it harden a bit before frosting the cupcakes. Seriously, these are fantastic!

Cookie Failure

Today I was craving a cookie. I don't normally have a sweet tooth but because I am trying to watch my carbs I was craving sugar. You know how that goes. I started out with a recipe and was actually going to follow the recipe, which I seldom do. But I barely got started and just knew it had to be wrong. Way to dry. Seriously dry. Like the flours wouldn't even mix in. So the changes began. I ended up with a chocolate peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. It was the usual: gluten free, dairy free and it sugar free (sweetened with agave). I hear so often from friends and family, "your such a good cook" etc. But really it is just about lots of practice and many failures. Today is a great example. FAILURE. These cookies were so bad. I gave one to Sage and she popped a bite into her mouth and started to chew. She then stopped chewing and just stared at me. It was written all over her face. "These are disgusting." I bust out laughing. I delayed chucking them in the garbage so that Ron could sample. At first he said they were okay. Then he took another bite and he says, "dry wall compound would go down better than these." Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Blueberry Muffins (Coconut Flour)

Like I said, I am loving coconut flour. Here is another winner. Grain free, gluten, dairy and sugar free. Probably relatively low carb although I haven't calculated it out. I have already made these 3 times in the last week. They go fast. Again, they get the kid stamp of approval.

Blueberry Muffins

3 eggs, room temperature

2 T coconut oil, melted

2 T milk of choice (I used coconut milk)

1/4 cup agave nectar (honey would work fine)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if frozen, defrost them and dry them in paper towels)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin tin with paper or oil. Whisk together eggs, oil, milk, and agave. Add salt, vanilla, nutmeg, coconut flour and baking powder. Whisk until smooth. Gently fold in blueberries. Try not to mix too much or your batter will be blue. Spoon into 6 muffin tins and bake for 15 minutes.

Italian Sausage and Garden Veggies

This is what I made tonight. We loved it enough to have 2 bowls and then be uncomfortably full. I hate it when I do that. The dishes were not even done and I had to sit to write the recipe down so that I could do it again. My garden is doing pretty well and I had lots of herbs and veggies that I needed to use up. Then I added the olives because Ron thinks everything is better with olives. Anyway, it was really good.

Italian Sausage and Garden Veggies

6 Italian sausages cut into pieces

1-2 T olive oil

1 large onion coarsely chopped

5 cloves garlic minced

10-12 small chopped fresh tomatoes or 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 carrot sliced

1 green pepper coarsely chopped

1 zucchini sliced and halved

1 yellow squash sliced and halved

1 cup coarsely chopped green olives with pimentos

1 large sprig fresh rosemary finely chopped

6-7 sprigs fresh thyme stems removed

3 TBSP fresh oregano

1 cup fresh chopped basil

1 14 oz can tomato sauce

In a large pot heat olive oil. Add sausages and brown the outside. Add onions and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add next 5 veggies. Cook until veggies are nearly soft. Then add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 20 or 30 minutes and serve with pasta. Or for a low carb meal sub roasted spaghetti squash for the pasta.