In 2001, my mom broke out in a mysterious rash that lasted for months. It was as if tiny bubbles of blood rose and lay just beneath the surface of her skin, pressuring her nerves with an uncontrollable itch. She could not sleep with the blistering pain of the fluid filled rash.
Several months went by and various tests were conducted to find a cause to the sudden rash. My mom was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease that damages the small intestine caused by intolerance to gluten—a protein found in barley, wheat, rye and by contamination, oats.
She joined the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America for support and guidance after her diagnosis. She became vice president of board of trustees for GIG. She helped found The West End Gluten Intolerance Group in Richmond, Virginia and became the co-manager.
Doctors had conflicting ideas on non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Some researchers believe that humans are not developed biologically to digest gluten. Some say that gluten sensitivity is genetic.
After my mom’s experiences and the chance that her intolerance was genetic, she decided to test all four of her children, including me. In my opinion, the tests were inconclusive. My siblings and I had various tests, each with different results. The results were negative and positive in different tests and different for each child. She put the whole family on the diet from 2002 to 2007.
My mom believes a tremor in my brother’s hand had disappeared after the diet, but he believes he grew out of it. My siblings and I agree that we felt no different being besides being skinnier, because did not have many food options.
Back then gluten wasn’t labeled on food products and it was hard to make out the gibberish in “ingredients”. ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR was a dead giveaway, but other ingredients were not as obvious. We could eat Spicy Nacho Doritos, but not Nacho Cheese Doritos. We could eat a Snickers, but not a Milky Way. Since the ingredients in food products were so vague, we would tediously call each company and ask if what products contained gluten.
It took several years to get wheat labeled on food products. I went with my mom to speak about labeling allergens with Eric Cantor, Former House Majority Leader, but back then he was a represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Allergens are now labeled on food, but gluten has become a misconception. It seems like companies are marketing off the labelling law. In big bold words a products say, “gluten-free!” giving anything without the protein a positive persona.
Eating a gluten-free pizza is not healthier than eating a pizza with gluten. Gluten-free substitutions are made so people like my mom can enjoy more food options and digest them properly. A gluten-free substitute does not mean it is more nutritious.
“People can definitely lose weight if they eat a lot of bagels and pasta and muffins, and they just remove those from their diet. But it’s not because they’re gluten-free; it’s because they removed a lot of calories,” said Suzanne Simpson, a dietitian at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University, quoted by Valerie Ross of Men’s Health. “If they replace those with gluten-free muffins and pasta and bagels, they’re not going to lose weight, because that stuff has the same – if not more – calories than the gluten-containing products.”
