Celiac Disease 101: What is It?

Celiac Disease is a frustrating, confusing and elusive disease. Commonly referred to as a "Gluten Allergy" this misnomer allows the disease to be dismissed by most people, except the sufferers themselves. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune intestinal disorder that destroys the villi of the small intestine. The villi are what allow the small intestine to absorb the nutrients from food. I have allergies. I've even been hospitalized with some strange allergic reactions, but this is no allergy. An allergy causes sneezing, rashes, and watery eyes. Even deadly seafood allergies cause death because of a inflammatory response that blocks airways. Undiagnosed Celiac Disease sufferers slowly deteriorate over years and years from the side effects of the protective linings in their intestines being stripped away, their bodies starved of the vital nutrients needed to sustain a healthy life. The symptoms are so common, bloating, cramping, anemia, vitamin deficiencies, fatigue, chronic diarrhea or constipation (or both), that Celiac Disease often gets diagnosed as other less serious conditions such as IBS.

Celiac Disease is brought on by the ingestion of gluten, which is a protein in wheat, rye, barley and some oat products. The only cure to Celiac Disease is to abstain from ingesting anything containing gluten. On the surface, this sounds like an easy thing to do. Here's a small list of products that contain gluten: peanut butter, chocolate, soy sauce, sausage, potato chips, beer, and of course, anything and everything with bread or flour. Now imagine trying to build a diet around the things that you can eat. Eating out becomes nothing but a wish. There are a few restaurants that cater to Celiacs, but with each bite the Celiac knows that if the cook didn't wash their utensils just right, or made a simple mistake, they could still get a hold of the life-threatening gluten and suffer a quick and severe gastrointestinal event.