R-1-2

The Gluten Conundrum

When I was little, all I would eat was bread and pasta. I was a very picky eater. Then

about a year ago my father found out that he had celiac disease. He could no longer eat gluten;

no more bread, pasta or donuts or all the things that we loved to eat. Unless it was gluten free, it

was off the table. If youve ever had gluten free anything, you know that it does not taste as good

as the real stuff. A little after his diagnosis, I was having issues and became gluten free as well.

I've gotten used to the taste of gluten free bread and pasta, but I've always found myself missing

normal foods, especially baked goods.

I love baking. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of watching Cake Boss and

baking. I can still hear Buddy plotting his cakes with the smell of everything but the kitchen sink

cookies wafting through the air. As a consequence, everything but the kitchen sink cookies were

an invention of my best friend at the time. Basically we took every sweet thing we could find,

chocolate chips, coconut, butterscotch chips, walnuts, etc., and we threw all of it into a normal

chocolate chip cookie recipe. We would pretend to be on a cooking show, just like Buddy and

wanted to make our own creations. The kitchen would be a complete mess by the time we were

done. We used to get cookie dough everywhere, including the ceiling. As impatient kids, we

would run the mixer too fast and end up spraying flour through the air.

Those cookies were my first attempts at an original recipe. I always loved tweaking

recipes to see what would happen. I loved messing with cookie recipes especially, as they were

the easiest to goof around with and cookies have always been my favorite baked good. A lot of

gluten free baked goods are not up to par. I have yet to find a delicious gluten free donut, and

scrumptious gluten free pastries rarely exist. This is why for my mentor project, I am going to

create some original gluten free recipes. Throughout the past year, Ive noticed more and more

1
 R-1-2

people I know are also becoming gluten free. It has started to make me curious as to what causes

celiac and why so many people are suddenly getting it. My love for baking despite not being able

to eat everything that I want, along with all the cooking shows I watched as a child, have led me

to the question: Why is celiac disease becoming more prevalent today?

It was really hard for me at first to adjust to becoming gluten free because I had to

completely change my diet. I can still remember right after I became gluten free and how hard it

was to find food to eat. Theres one memory that always sticks out in my head. It was after water

polo practice one day. We were all freezing and tired after a particularly hard practice, but the

team pushed through to the end with the knowledge that parents were bringing us dinner

afterwards. Our coach, Jim, finally let us out and we all ran through the piercing cold, grabbed

our towels, and headed to where the food was set up. A long table was covered in steaming plates

of food from Panda Express. One look and I was immediately disappointed. All of the food was

breaded or covered in soy sauce meaning I could not eat any of it. I politely skipped the food,

grabbed a Gatorade and sat down with my team while I watched them shove food into their

mouths with satisfied sighs. I made idle chat with them for a few minutes before slipping away to

go home and feed my growling stomach. It was really upsetting though, that I could not bond

with my teammates over food and join in on the fun. Ive noticed that I am not alone in this

experience. More and more people in my life getting diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten

intolerance. Celiac disease is becoming more relevant in our society today for a number of

different factors.

Celiac disease is very misunderstood. Many people do not know what it is. In the medical

world, Celiac disease is a serious genetic autoimmune disorder where the ingestion of gluten

leads to damage in the small intestine (Celiac Disease Foundation). Damage to the small

2
 R-1-2

intestine means damage to the villi, which are little finger shaped bumps that line the small

intestine and help absorb nutrition. In some cases eating gluten prompts an attack of these villi

and damages them so they cannot properly absorb nutrition (Celiac Disease Foundation). This

can lead to hundreds of symptoms, making it hard to diagnose. Symptoms are also different in

children and adults. Children with celiac will commonly get symptoms such as vomiting, fatigue,

abdominal pain, or weight loss. On the other hand, adults will experience joint pain, depression,

anxiety, migraines, or osteoporosis. Celiac sufferers who experience symptoms are considered to

have classic celiac disease. This means they experience the symptoms and signs of

malabsorption, but many may have celiac and do not even know it. Malabsorption is when the

body cannot properly absorb all the nutrients from food. For example, a person with celiac who

experiences malabsorption will not be gaining all the nutrition from glutinous foods such as

carbohydrates (that give the body energy). Silent celiac disease can be just as harmful to the

small intestine, though symptoms of the disease may not be present. Celiac disease can show

itself in many different ways and while there is currently no cure, it is managed easily by taking

gluten out of one's diet.

For a person with celiac disease, a gluten free diet can be life changing. Taking gluten

from a celiac sufferers diet allows their villi to heal and many of their symptoms to disappear.

However patients must make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. Victoria Brandt, a

registered dietitian at Kaiser told me a little bit about the downsides of the gluten free diet. She

explained, The downside to being GF is that is does limit your food choices a bit more. You

have to find new flours to bake with, new pastas, new breads etc. Many GF products are low in

fiber so a person would need to get their fiber from vegetables, fruits, quinoa, oatmeal, beans. A

Gf diet can be constipating since it can be low in fiber. And not all GF products on the market are

3
 R-1-2

healthy. A GF cake is no healthier than a regular cake! Basically, if one is careful about what

they eat, they can live a symptoms-free life.

It can be intimidating walking into the gluten free aisle of the grocery store for the first

time. I remember the first time I went to Nob Hill after I became gluten free. I was with some of

my friends and we were grabbing snacks before heading to see a drive-in movie. They were all

heading for the candy and sweets aisle when we passed by one that caught my eye. There were

big green signs that read gluten free protruding from a section at the end of an aisle. It was

exciting seeing so many things that I could eat without having to worry, but there was also an

overwhelming amount of products that I did not know what to do with. I had no idea what most

of them were: sorghum flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, brown rice flour, almond flour, white

rice flour. It was all very confusing. I got excited at a box of what appeared to be gluten free

Oreos, but they did not taste the same and looked different with a funny pattern pressed into each

cookie instead of the normal Oreo one.

It is very curious that a disease that is manageable just by removing gluten has become so

widespread with little explanation. One study found that It is estimated to affect 1 in 100 people

worldwide. Two and one-half million Americans are undiagnosed and are at risk for long-term

health complications (Celiac Disease Foundation). First a person needs to have the gene for

celiac, but there is still the mystery of how and why these genes sometimes activate. New York

Times writer Moises Velasquez-Nanoff, wrote about the differences in bacteria in the stomachs of

people with celiac versus people without it. In his article, Velasquez-Nanoff follows a study

conducted that compared the bacteria of patients with the gene in Finland and Karelia, a small

province on the Finno-Russian border. Analysis of house dust and portable water suggests that

the Russian Karelias encounter a greater variety and quantity of microbes, including many that

4
 R-1-2

were absent in Finland (Velasquez-Nanoff). All of the extra bacteria Russian Karelias have

helps protect them from autoimmune diseases and many allergies. This study found that many

children with celiac disease lacked bacteria that belong in the small intestine known as

Bifidobacterium and had an abundance of other microbes such as a native E. coli strains. These

E. coli strains cause inflammation when introduced to gluten in the stomach and are a factor of

setting off the celiac gene. In a healthy body, Bifidobacterium helps lower the levels of the E.

coli strain, but in celiac patients the high E. coli levels and low Bifidobacterium count creates

inflammation and other symptoms. Some scientist believe the lack of Bifidobacterium is not due

to the environment a child grows up in, but that the problem lies in breastfeeding babies.

Around 30 years ago there was an epidemic of celiac disease in Sweden. They tried

everything to prevent the disease. Parents were instructed to delay the introduction of gluten

until their babies were six months old (Velasquez-Nanoff). This backfired however, as celiac

disease tripled and a new discovery was made. The longer children breastfeed after their first

exposure to gluten, the more protected they were (Velasquez-Nanoff). Babies with celiac

disease gene have less Bifidobacterium than those without the gene and breastfeeding can help

stabilize the bacteria in babies. Curiously, unstable communities of bacteria in the gut and

stomach can lead to many other types of autoimmune diseases.

Some think that these other autoimmune diseases are directly linked to a person getting

celiac disease. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who spent years struggle with health issues before finally

being diagnosed with celiac disease, talks about this theory in her novel The G Free Diet:

People suffering from other autoimmune disorders- type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, Down

syndrome, sjgrens syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and many others- have higher incidences of

celiac disease (Hasselbeck 15). These other autoimmune diseases are more likely to get

5
 R-1-2

diagnosed then celiac so it can lay in the background unnoticed, further worsening a persons

symptoms or conditions.

Later in Hasselbecks book, she talks about how the celiac gene can be triggered. You

undergo some sort of physical or emotional trauma that activates or switches on the condition

(Hasselbeck 15). The recent spike of young people being diagnosed with celiac disease could be

due to the higher stress rates placed on them. High stress or other emotional trauma could cause

the gene to activate. Thinking back to when I was first diagnosed, it was the beginning of a new

school year and I was very stressed and overworked. Could that be what triggered the start of my

celiac disease?

Or maybe its not my fault at all, but the fault of my family's previous generations? I got

to meet with Kathryn Larrowe, who has a degree in nutrition dietetics and a Masters in Public

Health, and learned an interesting theory on the causes of celiac disease. The reason, I think, so

many people can be allergic to things or have intolerances is over time we eat more and more of

these things, not necessarily that you did it but your parents or family members down the line

did, and it ends up building an intolerance or allergen to that thing cause weve eaten it

overtime, explained Larrowe. Larrowe believes that besides genetics, celiac disease can be

caused from past family generations eating too much gluten. Their bodies started to gain an

intolerance that turned into celiac disease when it was passed on. Its really interesting that

there's a whole world of epigenetics and that what your grandma did when she was pregnant with

your family can impact what genes are turned on or off in you and how you're affected. So it's

very linear, Larrowe stated.

On the other hand, some theories explore the idea that it is not what is in our genes, but

what we feed our genes that causes celiac disease. Sayer Ji talks about this theory in an article

6
 R-1-2

they wrote, discussing different diseases that can be caused in our genes, or diseases that need

more than that to surface in a patient. Perhaps only 1% of all diseases fall within this category

[disease that are strictly due to errors in genes], and Celiac disease is not one of them (Ji). Ji

explains that while errors in genes can help cause certain diseases such as celiac, it is no longer

accurate to say that our genes cause disease, any more than it is accurate to say that DNA alone

is sufficient to account for all the proteins in our body (Ji). For celiac disease to present itself in

a patient, they must have the gene and an external factor that turns this genetic error into the

disease. The external factor could be a physical or emotional trauma, as Hasselbeck believes or it

could have something to do with the way we produce our wheat. It is possible that celiac

disease represents both an extreme reaction to a global, species-specific intolerance to wheat that

we all share in varying degrees. CD symptoms may reflect the bodys innate intelligence when

faced with the consumption of a substance that is inherently toxic (Ji). New methods for

producing wheat change the way our stomachs process it.

New pesticides and additives have changed the wheat that humans eat. One article

suggests, The use of glyphosate on wheat crops has risen in tandem with the rise in celiac

disease. In fact, it correlates to a greater degree than glyphosate usage on corn and soy

(Mercola). Glyphosate is a pesticide that is used to kill weeds, but it might be going too far.

The glyphosate also kills ryegrass, a major weed problem for wheat growers that is resistant to

many other herbicides. What they're not taking into consideration is the fact that ryegrass helps

rebalance the soil, and from that perspective is a beneficial plant (Mercola). Ryegrass helps the

wheat grow to become the most beneficial by helping the soil. Killing it with glyphosate ruins

the nutrients in the soil that the wheat need.

7
 R-1-2

Glyphosate along with other parts of wheat are also harmful to consume and hurt the

intestines. The villi in your gut get destroyed by the glyphosate, which reduces your ability to

absorb vitamins and minerals (Mercola). Gliadin, a protein in wheat, is already hard to digest,

but becomes very challenging when combined with pesticides such as glyphosate. Normally, a

reaction takes place that builds connections between different proteins in the wheat. But

glyphosate gets right in the middle of that process too, resulting in wheat that is highly

indigestible (Mercola). This can mess with the villi in the small intestine and cause celiac

disease.

Celiac Disease is a very complex yet simple disease. While nobody can say for sure how

it is caused, treating it is very easy. Some theories for the cause come from genetics while others

come from problems in diet and wheat production. Either way, a gluten free diet can make the

symptoms of celiac almost completely disappear.

Throughout my journey of researching celiac disease I have discovered a few very

interesting things. First, I have finally come to grips with seriousness of disease I have to live

with. Facing down pages of information about the terrible causes of not sticking to a gluten free

diet have made me determined to try to not eat gluten. I have also found it almost funny when I

looked through pages of symptoms to find something that I have that I did not know was due to

my celiac disease.

Its also shocking and eye opening to realize that for all the people who suffer from

celiac, there is no evidence that tells for sure how this disease is caused. Everyone seems to agree

that there is a certain genetic component at play, but beyond that theories vary from trauma to

bad pesticides and everything in between. I hope that one day the truth is found and I hope I

could contribute to the discovery.

8
 R-1-2

Works Cited

Electronic

"Celiac Disease and Reproductive Problems | NIDDK." National Institutes of Health. U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services, Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

<https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/celiac-disease-

reproductive-problems>.

Celiac Disease Foundation. Celiac Disease Foundation, < https://celiac.org/>, Accessed 6 Mar

2017

Ji, Sayer. The Dark Side of Wheat GreenMed Info, 28 June 2013.

<http://www.greenmedinfo.com/page/dark-side-wheat-new-perspectives-celiac-disease-

wheat-intolerance-sayer-ji> Accessed 14 March 2017

Mercola, Dr., Why the Use of Glyphosate in Wheat Has Radically Increased Celiac

Disease. Mercola: Take care of your health, 14 sept. 2014.

<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/14/glyphosate-celiac-disease-

connection.aspx> Accessed 14 March 2017

Velasquez-Nanoff, Moises. "Who Has the Guts for Gluten?" The New York Times. The New York

Times, 23 Feb. 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/what-really-causes-celiac-

disease.html>.

9
 R-1-2

Primary

Brandt, Victoria. Re: Senior Project Interview. Received by Kristen Berardi, 30 Mar 2017

Larrowe, Kathryn. Personal Interview. 12 March 2017.

Print

Hasselbeck, Elisabeth. The G Free Diet: A Gluten-free survival guide. Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Enterprises, May 2009.

Lowell, Jax P. The Gluten Free Revolution. Holt Paperbacks, 2015

10