Ever wondered why some people can happily munch on a bagel while others crumble at the very thought of gluten?
Are our bodies that varied or is there something more to the humble grain that we need to understand? Join me as I discuss glutens impact on those with and without celiac disease, and draw some personal insights from my own family's experience.
I also discuss who should and shouldn't be avoiding gluten - it's about understanding and managing. So, before you decide to purge your pantry of pasta and pizza, listen to our segment on the significance of testing for celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. We'll explore why you don't necessarily have to banish the baguette if you don't have to and how getting tested can help you fashion a diet that's perfect for you.
Remember, it's not one-size-fits-all when it comes to dietary needs. So, whether you're celiac, have non celica gluten sensitivity, or just gluten-curious, this episode is for you. Tune in!
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
Speaker 1:
Hi there and welcome back to this week's episode. Now, something that I'm finding more and more is, the more that I speak about celiac disease and talk about gluten, the more I'm getting asked from people that don't have celiac disease. Is it okay for me to eat gluten? And this is something that's been coming up more and more recently. I don't know why, whether it's more of my content getting out there, but more and more people are reaching out to me and asking this question. So I thought it would be good to talk about this, because you might have someone in your family that perhaps you're thinking that you just want them to eat gluten free, or perhaps you're wondering whether you should keep them on a diet full of gluten, or perhaps people are asking you this question as well. So I wanted to shed some light on this topic, because it is something that can have a bit of an impact on people if they don't know what they're doing as such. So when we talk about gluten, gluten is really only harmful to those of us that have a reaction to gluten. So there's many people that react to gluten. It's not just us with celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. There are other people that also struggle with consuming gluten. So if you have no intolerance or no autoimmune disease that means you cannot consume gluten, then if you don't react to it, then generally it is safe. What people need to think about, though, is what type of gluten they are having. So when I say what type, rather, where are they getting their gluten from? So if they're getting their gluten from a lot of refined grains, that's a very different eating whole grains. So I would recommend that people, if they can tolerate gluten, that they stick to eating those whole grains rather than those refined grains, which you'll find in many, many products. So when we look at whole grains, these are full of all the goodness. So you're going to get the nutrients, you're going to get the fiber, and it's good for your body. It does actually help with lowering your blood cholesterol. It helps with reducing the risk of diabetes. It is beneficial for the majority of people to eat whole grains.
Speaker 1:
Now, people on paleo diets are dead set against grains, and, again, it's just what your body reacts to. So some people find that grains just don't work for them at all, and this is a subject that I do want to talk about on another episode soon, where even people with celiac disease cannot have any grains. So some people react to all grains. So for me personally, I do eat rice, but I cannot eat brown rice. My body reacts as if I've actually eaten gluten. So I know for me that brown rice is a big no-no. Well, we've all heard that brown rice is so healthy for us and it's a wonderful whole grain, but my body personally does not like it. So it's about learning what works for your unique body.
Speaker 1:
Now, if you have children in your household so let's just say, for example, you have celiac disease, like I do, and you have children it depends on their age you may wish to keep them consuming gluten so that you can keep an eye on their reaction to see whether celiac disease develops for them over time. Because the thing is, if they are not eating any gluten whatsoever, it is hard to see if they've got celiac disease based on symptoms. So for many people they do like to keep their children on either a small amount of gluten or just enough gluten so that if they did develop celiac disease, they could see that reaction. So when my youngest two were really little, I would just give them mostly gluten-free food, particularly once my son got diagnosed with non-celiac gluten sensitivity when he was four. My youngest was two and she had no concept of not touching her brother's food, not getting crumbs everywhere. So I did just give her gluten-free food so that she wasn't spreading her crumbs everywhere and contaminating my food or my son's food or a dining table, spreading it throughout the house. We did do that, but as she's got a little bit older and she's much more switched on, we have taught her what she needs to do with her hands, with her plate, with her crumbs, washing her face, not drinking out of our drink bottles, things like that.
Speaker 1:
So I am actually getting her tested for celiac disease in the coming week. She's getting a blood test because she does have some behavioral issues and you may or may not know, behavioral issues can be linked to celiac disease. She shows no other symptoms apart from that. So I just want to rule it out or get a response that you know maybe she does have celiac disease, but to do that she needs to be in gluten. So she does eat gluten. She does have a, you know, not heaps, but she has enough that if she did have celiac disease it would show up on the test. So that is something to consider if you do have young ones and you're wondering whether you should cut it out of their diet.
Speaker 1:
But it's not like it's this evil thing that no one should consume gluten. It's not that we have to think about it in that way if that makes sense. So it's not, like, you know, hydrogenated oils that we should not be having. That's a complete no, no, no, that no one should be consuming hydrogenated oils. Gluten's not like that. It's not like we just go no, no one should be eating gluten whatsoever. It's not that at all. So it does. It does agree with a lot of people, but again, it disagrees with so many people as well.
Speaker 1:
So it's about figuring out what is right for you, what's right for your family, what's right for your loved ones and what works in your household. And you may find that as your children get older, they may like the gluten-free food more than its counterparts, but there are benefits to eating gluten whole grains. So it's about that balance and knowing what works. So, yeah, I hope that kind of covers that off and explains that, because it is something that does get asked a lot and, like I said, more and more people are reaching out to me and asking this question. So I did want to cover it off because I figured there's probably a lot more people out there wondering the same thing. So do what's right for you and your family and do some research. Do some figuring out what's going on for you in your body. If you are concerned, maybe gluten is reacting.
Speaker 1:
For you, I do recommend grabbing one of my health trackers over on Amazon. Just type in daily health tracker for women with celiac disease or just type in Belinda Whelan Check the spelling of my podcast for Whelan. It's a bit of a confusing one. So if you just type in Belinda Whelan on Amazon, you'll find my health trackers and that way what you can do is you can write down what you are eating and how you are feeling and you'll start to see a pattern. If you're finding that you're getting bloating or diarrhea or even constipation, and you can track it back to what you've eaten, then you might go for a period of time without gluten, you might feel amazing and then you can start to see that there is something going on for you.
Speaker 1:
So again, it's that personalizing for you and working out what works for you. But if you do think you have celiac disease or non celiac gluten sensitivity, please get tested. Please don't take it into your own hands and just cut out gluten for like good, for completely cutting it out. Please make sure you get tested so that you can get the right support and the right guidance on this journey, because it's not just as simple as cutting out gluten when you have celiac diseases so much more that goes with it. So thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope that answers that question for you and I look forward to talking with you again next week on the show. Have a great week, take care Bye.