<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> This is my response. I plan to submit - so if you have editing suggestions let me know. Will follow with summaries. As someone with celiac disease who has spent the last five years trying to educate the general public about the need for gluten-free foods, the title of an article in Sunday’s health and fitness section caught my eye. It read, "Going Gluten-Free: Even those with no medical need are modifying their diets. But is it healthy?" The article reads "We see some self diagnosers who have read about celiac disease on the Internet or heard about it from a friend and have made a kind-of self-diagnosis. This can cause unnecessary worry, dietary restrictions, and expense." In the last paragraph "gluten-free" is referred to as a quirky health kick. "If you just google the silly thing, there's all sorts of dieticians and medical professionals against it. They're just not organized yet to [band together and] say, 'You know what? This is ridiculous.'” If I eat at a restaurant and my meal is not “gluten-free” I get a whopping migraine and severe intestinal cramps within 20 minutes. I won’t tell you what the rest of the night is like, and hopefully it won’t involve an IV in the ER. Reactions range in severity and others who have celiac disease react differently, just as two people with multiple sclerosis will show very different symptoms. The article targets folks who go on the gluten-free diet for no apparent reason. This affects me, and my ability to eat safely outside of my home. Think about my dilemma. Usually my server will have no idea what gluten is, so I have to explain that I cannot eat wheat, rye, or barley, and that these are in a lot of sauces and flavoring agents. The routine gets old, but every time I must explain that I’ll get very, very sick if my food is contaminated with these ingredients. This time is different, however. I no sooner say, “I need my food to be gluten-free,” and he replies, okay, yeah, I’ve heard of that – I just read an article in the paper about it. At this point I want to welcome the opportunity to sit back and retire the old song and dance. But no. Now I must work even harder to convey to the chef that I will get very ill if I eat any gluten, because I have to dispel this myth that is growing among the general public that I am part of some “quirky” group of hypochondriacs, or that I am taking a ride on the gluten-free bandwagon. American doctors have managed to diagnose 3% of people with celiac disease. It is 97% undiagnosed. Where are all of those celiacs? One out of every 133 people has celiac disease, but at least one out of every 20 people has an adverse reaction to wheat and related grains. Are these people “self-diagnosers?” just because they have learned that going gluten-free has improved their health? Put together an educated doctor who has the wrong story and a journalist looking to blow a big “fad” out of the water – and you get a population of ignorant nose-thumbers. I already know too many people who raise a brow when I say that I have celiac disease. It is hereditary, so we have had several family members tested. My son’s specialist asked me, “but are you biopsy diagnosed?” Translation, “did you qualify as one of three percent of celiacs in the country?” My father’s doctor said, “you don’t need a test for celiac disease – you are 60 years old. If you had it you would know, and you’ll never follow that diet anyway.” An article that cries, “the gluten-free diet may not be healthy” adds fuel to this fire. Celiac disease may be triggered at any age, and it is twice as common as Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and cystic fibrosis combined. Untreated, it can lead to infertility/multiple miscarriages, premature births, reduced bone density, neurological disorders, malignancies, thyroid disease, diabetes, and/or autoimmune liver disease. Once the gluten-free diet has been established patients may feel better within days. If too much damage has been done, a full recovery may not be possible. A gluten-free diet will interfere with the ability to make an accurate diagnosis, so the author sends one good message – do not start the diet until after you have been tested for celiac disease. Make no mistake, the gluten-free diet is healthy. Look at a typical list of gluten-containing items: cookies, cake, pastries, cereal, soy sauce, emulsifiers, thickeners, pasta and beer. You cannot tell me that cutting these things out of my diet is going to make me unhealthy. One might argue that when you merely find a gluten-free replacement for all of the items listed above, and call that your “gluten-free diet”, vitamin deficiencies are inevitable. More often than not, however, people who abide by a gluten-free diet find themselves in health food stores shopping for organic and whole foods. I eat more fruits and vegetables now than I ever have. This is because the only treatment for celiac disease is a strict, lifelong gluten-free diet. This author is barking up the wrong tree. If she really aims to better the health of her readers she should try this approach: The American diet. Even those who are obese and malnourished stay on it. But is it healthy? Here is a message worth banding together about: There are several routine tests for celiac disease, yet it takes an average of 11 years for a symptomatic patient to be diagnosed. That, my friends, is ridiculous. *Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List* ******* To unsubscribe, email: mailto:[log in to unmask] *******