In a healthy child with no other symptoms of Celiac Disease, the problem of “short stature” would more often be overlooked by most family physicians.  The doctor would call this small percentage of otherwise healthy children as “petite or short”.  The physician would also reassure the parents telling them that the child will catch up.  Research has shown that these children will show a deficiency of zinc, iron, and foliate, all necessary for normal growth.  According to recent research, if the child is diagnosis in the early years for Celiac Disease and put on a gluten-free diet a complete catch-up in growth will occur in two to three years.  However, if the diagnosis does not happen until the adult years then there are increasing risks of Celiac Disease complications.  These complications are: Osteopenia or Osteoporosis, headaches and other white matter diseases, spontaneous miscarriages, early menopause, and absence of a menstrual period.  While most problems seem to indicate mostly female problems research has associated fertility problems in males with Celiac Disease.

Gluten-free food products are newest explosion of food products on the market.  Every time you turn around there is a new product that is gluten-free.  After tasting some of these product here are some thoughts:

Breads, rolls,crackers, and breakfast foods: Udi’s has the many breads on the market.  My husband thinks the slice is too small, but other than that it is better than most.  He does like the bagels and uses bagels mainly for his sandwiches.  Udi’s also has a pre- made pizza.  It is thin crust; I always put a little olive oil and crushed rosemary on the crust before adding toppings.  My husband did not care for the muffins. Udi’s has hamburger and hot dogs but again my husband did not like them.  His favorite right now is rolls and baguettes product called Against the Grain out of Vermont.  He feels that it is the lightest bread product he has tried so far.  Be aware that Against the Grain has cheese and milk in it.  Rudi is another bread product on the market,it’s bread slice is slightly larger than Udi’s brand.  It works very well for breading meats.  Another brand call Kinnikinnick has bread products.  The only product we have tried so far is the cinnamon sugar donuts.  My husband thought it was good even though it was dense.  He thought it really filled him up. Kinnikinnick has other products that my husband and I have not tried yet such as:waffles, cookies, breads, buns, bagels, and pizza crust.  Blue Diamond Nut-Thins and Glutino are the most popular crackers on the market.  My husband love the Glutino Vegetable crackers.  Glutino also makes bagel chips, and pretzels covered with either chocolate or yogurt.    Lastly, my favorite is Ivory Teff Wraps.  They are made by La Tortilla Factory located in Santa Rosa, California.  These wraps made from gluten-free teff flour (from Africa).  It is a very nice soft wrap.  I made some great wraps filled with toffutti(soy based cream cheese), gluten-free taco mix, grated cheese, and chopped cooked chicken.  I mix these together placed the mixture on the wraps and sliced them as appetizers last Super Bowl.  People loved them. 

 Obviously, I missed some products and need to do more research.  Let me know about your favorites.

A great deal has been written about Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease, connected to the protein gluten in wheat and associated with a high prevalence of antigliadin antibodies.  Less information is available about the non autoimmune “Gluten Intolerance”.  What is interesting is some of the same symptoms of Celiac Disease are popping up for “Gluten Intolerance”.  These symptoms are: Gastric distress such as IBS, and other associated digestive diseases.  But the interesting ones are: migraines, fatigue, skin rashes,and mouth sores. Most of the time these symptoms are ignored by the individual’s physician  or tests are non conclusive and the individual is forced to figure it out themselves.   By putting themselves on elimination diets they figure out what the problem is.  It is usually gluten.  We have gluten on almost every process food we eat.  Is it any wonder?  One individual who figured out it was gluten causing his/her skin rash, told me that everytime he/she cheated and ate gluten, the rash on the individual’s leg would come back.

We are in a grey area with “Gluten Intolerance” when it comes to the medical profession.  The physicians refuse to give a diagnosis without a test to back them up, while the individual involved are proclaiming a healthy difference without the gluten/wheat .  Only time will tell who is right.

It is no surprise to anyone that the population is getting fatter, sicker, and it is getting worse everyday.  CDC  notes that Americans are 25 pounds heavier and their body mass index (BMI) has increase 3 points since 1960.  The average weight for males rose from 166.3 pounds to 191 pounds, for women it rose anywhere from 29 pounds to 17.5 pounds.  What is so alarming is the increase of weight in children.  The changes since 1960 and today for both girls and boys is about a 11 pounds increase.  These children and teens now have serious risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes  at an early age. What are the causes of this trend?  What can we as individual do?

Causes:

1. Fast food restaurants:  McDonald’s was one of the first fast restaurants becoming very popular in the early 1960′s.  Their 25 cent hamburger with 15 cent fries was embraced by college students and many middle class families as a cheap family meal.  By the 1970′s the fast food restaurants were grossing 6 billion dollars per year.  Today 2012 these restaurants gross over 110 billion dollars.  That means that instead of once a month treat, fast food restaurants are a daily to weekly food stop.    A hamburger in 1960 with one meat patty, two (soft flour) buns, one slice tomato, and one piece of lettuce was calculated as 333 calories.  Today most hamburgers are two meat patties, two to three buns,same tomato and lettuce. The calorie count is 590.  The fat involved with the food served in 1970 as compared with today has increased 63% according to research.  Add the soda that comes with a meal.  The soda contains acid and sugar(or corn syrup).  The sugar increases the risk of diabetes and dental caries; the acid messes up your stomach (IBS and heartburn) and also promotes dental caries.  Lastly, the amount of acid total in this meal will cause your body to go into crisis with the body looking for ways to neutralize the acid in the blood.                                                                                      

2. Sugar and Corn syrup:  There has been a 400 % increase in the amount of sugar and corn syrup in our food.  There is hardly any processed food that does not have either sugar or corn syrup in it.  These worthless carbohydrate have become this nation’s favorite food.

3. Lack of exercise:  Computers, ipods, phones with texting, have replace meeting with friends for a friendly game of baseball, basketball, and soccer.  Yes, children do have sports games after school that are organized, but what about the free-time.  What are kids of America doing when they have free-time?  Are parents using the television and computer as the new nanny?  It seems the only thing kids are exercising these days are their thumbs. 

4.  Loss of family time and traditions:  When was the last time your family had a nice dinner together without the ipods, cell phones, and texting interrupting.  What does this teach your children?  That technical equipment is more important than family time together?  That their views and thoughts are unimportant?  So where are your children eating and who are they listening to?  Who is teaching them to chew their food at least 20 times so they will not have stomach problems?  Who is teaching your children about proper food choices?  Who is showing your children that sugar products is not a good choice all the time.  Who is giving your children their morals and ethics?  If you are not, then what ethics and food information is your child learning?

Race and poverty:  The highest rate of obesity is found in the South.  Ten states in the south are the highest in the United States with Mississippi ranking the highest.  Statistics show that 35 percent of individuals earning less than $15,000 a year are obese against 25 % individuals earning over $50,000 a year.  Still none of these statistics are good.  Education and loss of the family unit in the poverty groups can be one of the causes.  Individuals getting food stamps load up with pasta, rice, and other carbohydrate foods that are cheap but not healthy. 

So we have a population that eats cheap unhealthy food, does not exercise, doesn’t know how to eat or chew, and is gaining weight at a rapid rate.  What is the answer?  Everything the government has promoted has resulted with no results.  Maybe it is time for another approach.  This author welcomes all and any ideas that might help reverse this troubling trend.

Society has forgotten the purpose of eating.  Besides decreasing the hunger message, it is also a time to get together as a family and reflect on the day’s experiences.  It is a time for family values to be aired and discussed.  It is not the time to text, use your ipod, read your Kindle (or Nook) or watch television.  Turn off all  technical equipment that will led to mindless and fast eating.  Studies in Japan, England, and New Zealand have shown that eating fast will cause obesity.  Eating too fast will override the messages that go to the brain when we are full.  It takes 20 minutes for the signal that we are full to get to our brain.  By eating and not chewing we will fill our stomachs twice as much as is needed in the 20 minutes.  Plus we are bypassing the importance of chewing as a precedent needed in digestion.  We are suppose to chew 20 to 30 times prior to swallowing.  Most individuals do it in less than 10.  Thus setting themselves up for obesity and other digestive problems.

Acid Reflux (or heartburn) is another problem caused by eating too fast.  Studies in England and the United States have verified this to be true.  We all have a valve in the lower part of our esophagus call the Lower Esophageal Sphincter(LES). LES works like a flap between the esophagus and the stomach.  The flap opens and closes every 25 to 27 seconds.  If we are loading too much food on the flap before it opens then it will weaken the valve.  The LES will open when it shouldn’t causing the acid from the stomach to enter back into the esophagus.  The result being discomfort, burning of the esophageal lining, with multiple episodes of pain possibly leading to Barrett’s Disease.  To prevent this we need to chew at least 20 to 30 times prior to swallowing.  Chew 10 times on one side and 10 times on the other side of your mouth.  Do not drink liquids on top of swallowing.  The liquids add weight on top of the Low Esophageal Sphincter flap and will weaken it.  The effects of this problem leads to medication or a operation.  Unfortunately all medications for acid reflux (or heartburn) have been shown to cause Osteoporosis.

Lastly, eating too fast can cause choking.  Hopefully someone that knows the Heimlich Maneuver will be around when it happens.  I’ve used the Heimlich Maneuver twice in restaurants.  Choking seems to be happening more often.  However, if no one is around when you are eating too fast then choking, the result could be Death!  Something to think about.

Alzheimer’s Disease is the heartbreaking incurable disease that results in aggressive memory loss and dementia.  Alzheimer’s Disease ends in death approximately 8 years after diagnosis.  It is estimated to triple over the next forty years.  At this time the greatest number of institutional patients in the United States are Alzheimer’s patients.  This horrid disease doesn’t stop at memory loss.  Symptoms include physical coordination loss, bowel, urinary control loss, and personality changes.  Alzheimer’s Disease is more common in Western societies than everywhere else.  I see many of these individuals in my professional capacity.  It breaks my heart to see these bright vibrant individuals decline to an empty shell.

At this point, it is theorized that our diet is the main cause.  The Western Diet with it’s high sugar, highly refined carbohydrates,and high amount of animal fats compounded with low intake of alkaline vegetables and fruits, not only puts the body completely out of balance but it also places toxins in the body.  These toxins cause a constant crisis within the body.  It is little wonder that the United States has so many Alzheimer’s patients.

With the cause supposedly known, doing the reverse should theoretically stop or postpone the onset of Alzheimer’s.  Simple healthy diet changes should stop or prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.  The hard part in this society is stick to a well-balanced healthy diet with so many temptations out there.

Profits drive many industries in the United States.  The food industry is a profit industry.  This industry at times have ignored health concerns over profit margin.  One example is the use of partial-hydrogenated vegetable oils, another is the way packaged cereals are produced.  Many dry cereals are produced by a process called “extrusion”.  Grains are put into a machine call an “extruder”.  This machine forces the grains out of a hole at high temperature and pressure.  This process turns the grains into different shapes.  Then a blade slices off each shape.  The shapes are then sprayed with a coating of oil and sugar to make the cereal milk proof.  Most of the nutrients are destroyed during this process, so the cereal has to be fortified.  This is a cost cutting process.

Prior to the 1940′s ,most wheat that was used was a hard wheat or “red” wheat.  In the late 1930s a different type of wheat was introduced into the United States.  This wheat was considered as a “soft” variety.  This wheat originating from Europe, had a higher protein (gluten) content.  This type of wheat caused the breads to rise higher, the biscuits were fluffier, etc.  At first it was harder and more expensive to obtain this flour.  But as time went on this flour became the norm.  After WWII, the consumption of wheat increased.  With fast food restaurants industry emerging, by the 1970′s wheat in the form of hamburgers, muffins, donuts, and hot dogs was the single most food consumed.

Gluten problems started increasing by the 1990′s.  In a study done with service men, the difference in the amount of gluten-intolerance cases increased 4 fold between 1954 and 2008.  Diseases such as diabetes, obesity, mental health, and vascular problems have all increased proportionately with the amount of wheat being consumed.  In the 1940s wheat and grains were 20% of a meal, now wheat is about 80% of the meal.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests that we eat bread only from whole grains.  But with only the ”soft” wheat the major flour available, how is that possible? 

One final note, the food industry is finally understanding the need for gluten-free foods and cereals.  It is of course making a good profit.

After the wheat is put through screens it is either enriched or fortified.  Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding essential trace elements, vitamins and minerals to food.  In fortification the content of the vitamins, minerals, and vitamins are increased and added whether the nutrients are originally in the food or not.  Enrichment is the additions of micro nutrients which were lost during processing.  Safety worries concerning these additions have lead some countries such as Denmark to restricting certain exports that were fortified with extra minerals or vitamins.  These foods include: Kelloggs Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Special K, Shreddies and Ovaltine.  The types of nutrients added to flour are: Folic Acid, this nutrients prevents anemic cardiovascular diseases and some cancers; Niacin which prevents pellgra, vascular and GI track Diseases; Iodized Salt, a deficiency in this will result in goiters and iodine deficiency disorder; and lastly,Fluoride, not enough fluoride in the body results in dental decay and osteoporosis.  There is still some discussion on whether consuming extra vitamins and minerals will cause toxicity. 

Once the wheat is fortified, it is sold as flour and used as the major ingredient in most breads, rolls,crackers, cookies, biscuits, cakes, muffins, pancakes, waffles, noodles, pie crusts, ice creams, pastas, pizzas and prepared breakfast foods.  Studies have noted in the past that whole grain flours when compared to low-fiber refined flours have a positive effect on bowel health and metabolic markers of insulin and glucose. The studies further show that increased consumption of low-fiber refined flours increase the risk of type 2 Diabetes. However,the problem is those high-fiber flours are not used for hardly any food that is prepared in the United States.  Little wonder that epidemic of type 2 diabetes is ever increasing.

To be continued…

Wheat as been around since the beginning of man.  In 8000 BC the “Natufians” became the 1st farmers.  They were the first to cultivate modern wheat.  The Natufians harvested the wheat and each time they did the wild wheat grain was replaced with a mutated form of the grain.  Now jump to 1492.  After Columbus discovered America he brought wheat to America on his second voyage.  Wheat was grown in the early colonial years.  It wasn’t until the 19th century about 1850′s that a new form of wheat was brought to the United States.  Russian immigrants brought a hardy strain of wheat known a “Turkey Red Wheat”.  This wheat was used until the middle of the 20th century.  It was in the early 1940′s when things changed.  A new type of wheat was introduced.  This was a “soft wheat”.

When wheat is made into flour, air currents blow the outer layer of the kernel away from the rest of the wheat.  The wheat bran and germ are removed leaving only the endosperm.  The wheat bran is the protective coating of the kernel which is rich in nutrients and fiber.  The wheat germ is the nutrient-rich inner part of the grain.  Most of the minerals taken out are chelated (wrapped in protein) minerals.  Minerals in this chelated form are easily absorbed into the body.  The amount of B Vitamins taken out when both the wheat bran and germ are removed is approximately 66%, 70% of all minerals (chelated),79% of fiber, and 19% of protein.  This leaves a product that is carbohydate high and nutrient poor.

When the wheat is made into flour, it is shifted through many screens.  Sometimes as many times as 25.  After screening the flour is aged and whitened.  the flour is then Enriched or Fortified. 

To be continued….

Celebrate the Holidays with Gluten-free appetizers.  Some of the obvious choices are Shrimp with cocktail sauce, veggies with dip, cheese ball with gluten-free crackers like Glutino.  Other ideas include: mini-meatballs(using gluten-free bread crumbs) with sauce; wrapped melon and prosciutto; toothpicks each with a cube of mozzarella, 1//2 salami slice, basil and grape tomatoes; stuffed mushrooms; endive leaves with a blue cheese mix; toast points with toppings such: as smoked salmon, bruschetta, or cheese mix.  That seems easy but now try and make the appetizer so they are not all acid.  Most holiday parties have nothing but acid food.  This sets up an acid reflux later in the evening for the party goers.  So give your guests the gift of balanced foods so their night is a pleasant one instead of a painful one.  This takes a little more thinking on your part.  Let’s go back to our list of appetizers.  The shrimp is acid.  The sauce can be a little alkaline but barely.  The veggies are alkaline, but if you use cream cheese that is acid.  Instead make a dip out of organic yogurt which is alkaline.  The cheese ball with the crackers are both acids only way to even it out is to use sliced apples or pears instead of crackers.  The mini-meatballs are acid, but you could make a sauce that is alkaline.  The melon is alkaline, the prosciutto is acid.  The toothpick appetizer is half acid and half alkaline as are the mushrooms and endive with cheese.  The toast points are acid as are the smoked salmon and cheese topping, the bruschetta can be alkaline if you make it yourself.  Serving mulled Apple Cider will help neutralize the alcohol served.  Making these changes, you have done your best to present a Gluten-free and balanced appetizer party. Happy Holidays!