Learning to accurately define gluten is an important step in mastering the gluten free lifestyle. When you first try to tackle gluten intolerance, you must first learn to answer, what is gluten?
Note: If you’re already pretty sure you or your loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, I strongly recommend: The Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit
Despite what you may have read on many misinformed, vague or just plain inaccurate websites out there, gluten is not a protein itself and it is possible to have a poor response to consuming gluten and yet still test negative for celiac disease. Gluten is rather a protein composite — that is, it is made up of many different proteins — and non-celiac gluten sensitivity is even more common than celiac disease.
Celiac disease symptoms occur as a result of the proteins gliadin and glutenin in gluten. And gluten allergy symptoms may occur as a result of either consuming wheat or consuming any food containing even a trace of a gluten-containing grain.
Understanding these things helps you to better identify and isolate the foods containing gluten and to better adapt an effective and healthful gluten free diet. These are all important steps towards treating your gluten intolerance and developing a more healthy and happy life for you and your loved ones.
So read on to develop a clear, accurate and comprehensive understanding for what exactly gluten is.
Read What Is Gluten?
Note: If you’re already pretty sure you or your loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, I strongly recommend: The Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit
First you must separate gluten intolerance into three distinct categories: Celiac Disease, Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and a Wheat Allergy. You must also understand what is gluten.
Celiac disease symptoms occur when the proteins in gluten (glutenin and gliadin) trigger your immune system to overeact with strong and unusual anitbodies. Over time, such antibodies wear down the little hairs called villi which line the walls of your intestine (a process called villous atrophy). These finger-like tiny hairs grab and absorb nutrients as foods pass through your lower digestive tract. As celiac disease symptoms slowly destroy these villi, you become less and less able to process any nutrition from your food. This sets off a domino-effect of increasingly serious health problems.
To better understand exactly what constitutes gluten and why it is such a unique substance, I recommend reading my comprehensive gluten guide: What Is Gluten?
In a vast majority of cases, gluten intolerance symptoms will be systemic and will be a result of consuming gluten over a period of time. But symptoms of wheat intolerance will instead manifest themselves more like you perceive a typical allergy: quickly and with single exposure.
For example, if you eat a large, dense piece of gluten-rich bread and have immediate reactions, you are more likely experiencing wheat intolerance symptoms or a wheat allergy rather than symptoms of gluten intolerance which specifically represent celiac disease symptoms.
Read Gluten Intolerance Symptoms
When you consider gluten intolerance statistics, you may be startled to recognize how many more people around you probably suffer from some degree of gluten intolerance. Part of the problem is a lack of awareness and part of the problem may be the changing nature of the grains grown and processed in modern cultures. But part of the problem is also that celiac disease symptoms can include both silent and atypical symptoms. This means sufferers may experience symptoms most don’t associate with celiac disease or they may not experience any evident symptoms at all. Understanding more about what is gluten and how it can impact health is becoming more and more important.
Note: If you’re already pretty sure you or your loved one suffers from gluten intolerance, I strongly recommend: The Complete Gluten Free Survival Kit
To further complicate the matter, now researchers are realizing that there may be a gluten sensitivity that is not just a degree of celiac disease but rather a completely different medical manifestation. And gluten allergy symptoms further obfuscate the matter by blurring the lines between gluten intolerance and a wheat allergy.
Read on to learn current specific statistics associated with the gluten phenomenon and what it means for those people who are diagnosed with celiac disease.
Read Gluten Intolerance Statistics
Note: Want to embark on your gluten-free journey with greater confidence and clarity? I strongly recommend: The Gluten-Free Survival Kit.
As you venture into the world of food allergies and specialized diets, you may find it daunting to research and learn everything you need to know to secure your health or the health of someone close to you. You may find researching and learning about a wheat allergy especially difficult because of all the confusing or simply misinformed websites on today’s cluttered Internet.
To learn the difference between a wheat allergy and a gluten intolerance, you have to not only see a list of symptoms, but you have to understand the context and mechanism of those symptoms as well. I will try to do this for you in my comprehensive wheat allergy guide.
Remember, whether you have a wheat allergy or you are suffering from celiac disease symptoms, it is important you have your condition, or your loved one’s condition, properly and accurately diagnosed so you may soon embark on your new, better and healthier life free of the consequences of your allergic reaction or your autoimmune disease.
Read on to discover the fundamental difference between a wheat allergy and a gluten intolerance, understand how the awkward term gluten allergy symptoms works into this discussion, and learn exactly how a wheat allergy happens and what wheat allergy symptoms occur as a result.
Read Wheat Allergy
Persevering a condition where celiac disease symptoms are triggered by a staple of the western diet is difficult for people of any age, but identifying and diagnosing celiac disease symptoms in children can be particularly difficult and troubling. We will distinguish celiac disease symptoms in children as symptoms that manifest more often in individuals of adolescent age or younger and that occur in individuals who ultimately test positive for celiac sprue disease.
Read Gluten Intolerance for a comprehensive overview of this often puzzling health phenomenon.
While I’ve tried to place each of these symptoms of celiac disease in children in the most appropriate age group, the truth is all of these symptoms can occur at any age. For that reason, here is a more conclusive single list for your reference. You should should also check the lists in my silent celiac disease symptoms and celiac disease symptoms articles.
Read Celiac Disease Symptoms In Children
While the claim made in the title of my post may seem a bit bold, I do have a serious point about gluten intolerance symptoms, whether they derive from celiac disease (coeliac disease) or non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS).
Believe or not, there is some truth to the statement in this gluten blog post’s title. While we know celiac disease can easily lead to constipation if not treated through a rigorous gluten-elimination diet, many studies now seem to indicate that celiac disease can also lead to depression. And furthermore, this celiac constipation may be what leads to this kind of celiac depression.
Read Celiac Disease Constipation Leads to Celiac Depression?
