gluten free familyA mum's blog about gluten-free living in Australia

Sydney gluten free expo

Is gluten intolerance a real condition?

This was one of the topics debated at the gluten free expo in Sydney, and Dr Robert Anderson, the man leading development of the coeliac vaccine, took to the stage to address this sensitive issue.

The gluten intolerant now far outnumber those with coeliac disease, but according to Dr Anderson finding a true diagnosis for either condition is far from straightforward.

I won’t go into too much of the science here, suffice it to say that he believes coeliac disease is being underdiagnosed by the medical communiy owing to over-reliance on things like preliminary blood tests which may give false negatives – as well as the less common issue of biopsies that can miss damage in the small intestines.

He says a gene, blood test and biopsy (where evidence of coeliac disease exists) are all required to build up an accurate diagnosis. (The coeliac society now has a diagnostic flow chart that is designed to steer prospective sufferers on a path of investigation that will prevent such misdiagnoses and I will write more on this at a later date).

This brings us to the other side of the equation – gluten intolerance. Dr Anderson believes that most cases of gluten intolerance in the wider society have been confused with fructose malabsorbtion. Read the rest of this entry »

is glucose syrup gluten free?

Have you ever noticed that all of the truly delicious stuff has glucose syrup in it? Of course you have because the treat makers usually flag that it is derived from wheat on the label.

This declaration alone has kept me safe from thousands of calories in recent years.

Most lollies and a lot of dessert products like icecream have glucose syrup on their ingredients lists.

Then my co-blogger Lucy casually asked a few weeks ago: “So what’s the deal with glucose syrup?” And I said: “I don’t really know”.

So here we are again, finding out together.

For those who like the sciency angle, glucose syrup is a liquid sweetener that is made through the “enzymatic hydrolysis” of starch. It can be made from any type of starch including corn or potato though wheat seems to be pretty common.

The Coeliac Society of Australia says that glucose syrups are so highly processed that no gluten can be detected in them (that means they have less than 20mg/kg). That means for official purposes glucose syrup is gluten free even though, confusingly, manufacturers who use it declare gluten on the label.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled Finnish study a couple of years ago found that starch hydrolysate products (ie glucose syrup, dextrose and maltodextrins) were safe for coeliac sufferers to consume on a daily basis.

Some still choose to avoid trace gluten.

And me? Ignorance was bliss.

MB

Comment

gluten free labels

How much gluten is too much? Standards bodies around the world have been mulling that one over in recent years.

When it comes to trace quantities of gluten in food products, Europe decided two years ago that 20 milligrams or less (20 parts per million) is safe, down from 200 parts per million. The US looks set to embrace similar standards.

To be labeled gluten free in Australia, though, products must have no “detectable gluten” which at present means 5 milligrams or less per kilo (5 parts per million).

Some local coeliac sufferers are concerned. They say that overly tough standards inhibit local manufacturers and of course it also means many gluten free products made overseas cannot be sold here.

As a result, the gluten free among us could missing out on heaps of choice and paying higher prices for our goods thanks to a lack of competition.

For this reason the Coeliac Society of Australia late last year lobbied the ACCC to pull the standards back into in line with the rest of the world.

However some coeliac sufferers in other countries would like to see the same tight standards applied to manufacturers in their part of the world. Especially those who find they suffer after eating goods labeled gluten free.

Of course that could also be attributed to non-compliance to the standards. A survey conducted by the NSW Food Authority in 2007, for example, found that of 211 gluten free retail food products it tested, 4.7 did not meet the Australian standard.

One product, prawn crackers, had 160 parts per million though only 2.8% of the products exceeded the internationally recognised levels of 20ppm.

So there seems to be a trade-off: choice and price versus higher trace levels of gluten. I guess your level of gluten sensitivity would determine which side of the fence you sit on this one.

MB

Comment

Are oats gluten free?

We have been avoiding traditional porridge and all things oaty for a good while now.

But recently I read that oats do not actually contain gluten, despite their usual inclusion in the list of foods to avoid for the gluten intolerant.

Having scraped into the bin the soggy, uneaten remains of every single gluten free cereal on the market, I am more than keen to put porridge back on the family breakfast menu. So what’s the score?

I’ve done some digging and this is what I found out:

Studies conflict on the topic but the upshot is that oats are okay for some people with ceoliac disease and not for others. The problem is there is no way at present to predict who will and who won’t react. And that is why oats appear on all of those lists.

The reason for the reaction to oats in some people is that while oat protein, called avenin, is different, it does have a similar sequence to the toxic protein sequences found in wheat, barley and rye.

And then there is the other problem of contamination. Oats are often grown in rotation with wheat which means a percentage slips through. There is also the potential for contamination in storage, transport and processing. Because of this, most oats can’t be labelled gluten free.

People newly diagnosed with ceoliac disease are therefore advised to stay off oats for at least the first year of being on a gluten free diet.

Those who are gluten intolerant have a little more leeway to experiment. And given oats are considered one of the most nutritious grains, that is what I now plan to do.

[UPDATE: experiment was a spectacular failure. For the record, it seems to have the same effect as gluten on us]

MB

Comment

gluten free pets

Honeysuckle was an excellent cat. Before she passed on last week, though, she had her struggles with processed food just like the rest of the family.

The expensive stuff you buy at the vets gave her a rash which cleared up when we switched to a supermarket brand but then her kidneys started to play up. Sadly kidney failure was the most like culprit of her sudden demise.

It got me thinking about gluten and pets.  According to Celiac.com, some vets say that though it is the main component of most dry food, cats shouldn’t eat carbohyrdrates.

And apparently you can’t avoid the problem by switching to soft food like I did with my puss as wheat gluten is a big component of these foods too.

The trouble is cats and dogs have not traditionally had to digest plant proteins and this leaves some people questionning if all this could be causing chronic illness and degenerative diseases in our pets.

Vets like John B. Symes (aka Dogtor J) in the US point to gluten and other proteins as a cause of chronic and acute kidney failure in our fluffy friends.

He is a proponent of home prepared pet meals but you can also google gluten free commercial brands – which I will do once I can bring myself to get a new little furry buddy.

MB

Comment

My son and I discovered gluten didn’t agree with us at the wrong end of a lengthy elimination diet. It was the last thing we tested for of course because we were pretty sure we could never be sensitive to something so delicious.

My son’s attention problems in class drove us to it and inconveniently, gluten was the only thing that eased the problem. It was an added bonus that the eczema that had plagued me since having children also vanished.

But we have never had any medical tests to confirm our suspicions because the Coeliac tests for gut damage are not applicable to us. However there is an antibody test – though it’s hard to find – that can indicate a sensitivity to gluten.

I am curious about it so I have done a bit of digging and will share my findings here:

What is the test? The IgG-gliadin antibody blood test. There is also an IgA-gliadin antibody test but most gluten sensitive folk test positive to the former.

What does it tell you? It measures your immune reaction – the antibodies you produce – to gliadin, a protein that is part of the gluten molecule. This is different to the blood tests that diagnose Coeliac, the tTG test and a new test called Deamidated Gliadin Peptide (DGP), which both measure gut damage.

Do you need to be eating gluten to have the test? No, but after a few months of being off gluten, the results become progressively less accurate.

Can my GP order it? Non-Coeliac gluten intolerance is not widely acknowledged by the mainstream medical community. Most GPs therefore consider it an outdated test because it does not measure gut damage and is therefore an unreliable indicator of Coeliac disease.

Who does it? Most labs don’t do it anymore for the same reason. You will need to ask around or check out the website of gluten expert Dr Rodney Ford.

Who can interpret it? As most GPs no longer order this test, they are not accustomed to interpreting it so you may have to swat up on the results yourself or, again, consult Dr Ford’s site.

MB

Comment