The Gluten-Free Diet  These books are good for the gluten free diet
The gluten-free diet is a diet that eliminates one protein, gluten. It was originally developed for people with celiac disease. Although the immunological mechanisms behind celiac disease and food allergies are different, how to implement an elimination diet is the same. The principle behind both diets is to eliminate all sources of foods that cause you problems. Click here to learn about hidden sources of gluten. Gluten damages the intestinal lining in people with celiac disease. They must strictly avoid all gluten to allow their intestinal lining to heal and sometimes must also avoid other foods such as dairy products during the initial healing time. After the lining is healed, they must avoid gluten for life to maintain a healthy intestinal lining. The gluten-free diet eliminates wheat (by all of its names [1]), rye, kamut, spelt, triticale and barley. Until recently, oats were also avoided on the gluten-free diet. Now the "rules" have been liberalized to allow some patients to have 1/2 cup per day of oats processed under gluten-free conditions after a year of avoidance of gluten. All oats, including gluten-free oats, contain a protein called avenin which is very similar to gluten and may be a problem for some celiacs. [2] However, there are many grains and grain alternatives left to eat on a gluten-free diet in addition to ubiquitous rice. They include amaranth, buckwheat, corn, Job's tears, millet, montina, quinoa, sorghum, teff, and wild rice. These can be ground into flour or you can use flours and starches from other plants such as arrowroot, beans, cassava, flax, nuts, peas, potatoes, tapioca, and yucca. This is not an exhaustive list; there are other non-gluten starches and flours. [3] The former website of the Celaic Support Association had a "Grains and Flours Glossary" about additional flours and grains. I discovered a printed copy of it, which you may see by clicking here. Please pardon the line our scanner puts on some pages. I think the information is helpful although not perfectly scanned. The incidence of celiac disease in the United States has increased four-fold in the last few decades. [4] As with the recent spike in the incidence of food allergies discussed on the food allergy diet pages of this website, we might wonder why this rapid change occurred. To read about a possible cause, click here. Footnotes
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