Gluten Free Diet
Guest article by Shwetha Bhatia
Diagnosis & Management:
Your physician would first rule out celiac disease through celiac disease blood tests. If those are negative, then you would participate in a gluten challenge, first eliminating gluten from your diet to see if your symptoms cleared up, and then “challenging” it, or reinstating it in your diet, to see if symptoms return.
In theory, if you experience symptoms when your diet contains gluten, but those symptoms clear up when you’re following the gluten-free diet, you would be diagnosed with gluten sensitivity. In order to be tested for celiac disease YOU MUST BE EATING GLUTEN! Please do not initiate a gluten free diet until you have been tested for both celiac disease and wheat allergy.
There is no diagnostic test for NCGS, this means that your gastroenterologist will only diagnose you with NCGS if both celiac disease and wheat allergy have been ruled out. A gluten-free diet is the treatment for all the 3 wheat-related disorders. There is no need to go gluten free if you do not have symptoms. Some may have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and may consider going gluten free for some time to see if symptoms get better. A registered dietician can plan these diets as they are very restrictive and can cause deficiencies if done incorrectly; besides not providing the desired result.
Gluten free food:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Meat and poultry
- Fish and seafood
- Dairy
- Beans, legumes, and nuts
- Alcohol types: Alcoholic beverages, including wines and hard liquor/distilled liquors/ hard ciders are also gluten-free. However, beers, ales, lagers, malt beverages and malt vinegars that are made from gluten-containing grains are not distilled and therefore are not gluten-free.
Read food labels: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/ GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/Allergens/ucm362510.htm Foods to watch out for: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/wheat-allergy/basics/causes/ con-20031834
Shwetha Bhatia is a registered dietician with the Indian Dietetic Association. She runs her practice under the brand name “Metamorphosis’ in Mumbai. She is also a competitive fitness athlete (IBBF Bronze winner at the State & National Level 2015). She has also set up her own gym and nutrition counselling centre in Goa called Gym & Tonic. She’s also a columnist for the fitness magazine Krunch Today.