Living the "Gluten Free Diet"

When you walk through the aisles of your favorite drugstore or health food store, you'll find a wide variety of foods, including finding cereals, breads, crackers and desserts touting themselves as gluten-free.

However, what does this statement exactly mean? Free of precisely what? Gluten--scientifically, it's a protein that is very often confused with wheat. Basically, its comparable to freeing your diet of sugar, fat and starchy carbs, you might start to wonder whether you should even try eliminate it from your diet. Before you decide, know this: A true gluten-free diet (GFD) is extremely hard and difficult to follow, but it can provide tremendous help to people with certain health conditions, but is not recommended for most. Read on to see whether a gluten-free existence should be in your future and, if so, how to make the leap healthfully.

What is gluten and why avoid it?

Gluten refers to protein components, called peptides, in wheat, rye and barley. These peptides--gliadin (in wheat), secalin (in rye) and hordein (in barley)--are problematic for gluten-sensitive individuals and cause severe damage to the small intestine in those with celiac disease (CD), also known as gluten-sensitive enteropathy. More than just a marketing ploy, gluten-free foods can help people with CD and various other conditions feel better.

Cerliacal disease, often referred to as CD, is an immune disorder that is often misdiagnosed. About 1 in every 124 people in the United States are estimated to have CD, but the actual number is unclear since a true diagnosis requires a biopsy of intestinal tissue. When people with CD ingest gluten, their immune system responds as if gluten were an enemy to be destroyed. Repeated attacks can compromise the intestinal villi (fingerlike protrusions along the intestinal walls needed for proper nutrient absorption), leading to malnutrition from reduced nutrient absorption. Currently, the only treatment for CD is to eliminate gluten from the diet for life.