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Diet plan for celiac: Dietary Changes for Celiac Disease

Dietary Changes for Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a disorder that damages your small intestine and keeps it from absorbing the nutrients in food. The damage to your intestinal tract is caused by your immune system’s reaction to gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. Some oats contain gluten. 

When you have celiac disease, gluten causes your immune system to damage or destroy villi. Villi are the tiny, fingerlike tubules that line your small intestine. The villi’s job is to get food nutrients to the blood through the walls of your small intestine. If villi are destroyed, you may become malnourished, no matter how much you eat. This is because you aren’t able to absorb nutrients. Complications of the disorder include anemia, seizures, joint pain, thinning bones, and cancer.

Lifestyle changes to cope with celiac disease

A gluten-free diet is the only treatment if you’ve been diagnosed with celiac disease. You’ll have to avoid gluten for the rest of your life. Even the slightest amount will trigger an immune system reaction that can damage your small intestine. Eating a gluten-free diet requires a new approach to food. A gluten-free diet generally means not eating most grains, pasta, cereals, and processed foods. The reason is that they usually contain wheat, rye, and barley. You’ll need to become an expert at reading ingredient lists on packages. Choose foods that don’t contain gluten. You can still eat a well-balanced diet with many different foods, including meat, fish, rice, fruits, and vegetables, along with prepared foods that are marked gluten-free. 

Gluten-free bread, pasta, and other products have long been available at organic food stores and other specialty food shops. Today, you can find gluten-free products in just about every grocery store. Gluten-free dishes are on menus at all kinds of restaurants.

Tips for following a gluten-free diet

Here are steps to take when getting gluten out of your diet.

Rethink your grains:

  • Avoid all products with barley, rye, triticale (a cross between wheat and rye), farina, graham flour, semolina, and any other kind of flour, including self-rising and durum, not labeled gluten-free.

  • Be careful of corn and rice products. These don’t contain gluten, but they can sometimes be contaminated with wheat gluten if they’re produced in factories that also manufacture wheat products. Look for such a warning on the package label.

  • Go with oats. Recent studies suggest you can eat oats as long as they are not contaminated with wheat gluten during processing. You should check with your healthcare provider first.

  • Substitute potato, rice, soy, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, or bean flour for wheat flour. You can also use sorghum, chickpea or Bengal gram, arrowroot, and corn flour, as well as tapioca starch extract. These act as thickeners and leavening agents.

 Become a label expert:

  • Know terms for hidden gluten. Avoid einkorn, emmer, spelt, kamut, wheat starch, wheat bran, wheat germ, cracked wheat, and hydrolyzed wheat protein. Stay away from emulsifiers, dextrin, mono- and di-glycerides, seasonings, and caramel colors because they can contain gluten.

  • Check the labels of all foods. Gluten can be found in food items you’d never suspect. Here are some likely to contain gluten:

    • Beer, ale, and lagers

    • Bouillon cubes

    • Brown rice syrup

    • Candy

    • Chips, potato chips

    • Cold cuts, hot dogs, salami, and sausage

    • Communion wafers

    • French fries

    • Gravy

    • Imitation fish

    • Matzo

    • Rice mixes

    • Sauces

    • Seasoned tortilla chips

    • Self-basting turkey

    • Soups

    • Soy sauce

    • Vegetables in sauce

More strategies for a gluten-free lifestyle

Here are ideas to better make the transition to a gluten-free diet:

  • Separate all kitchen items used for preparing gluten and gluten-free foods. These include cooking utensils, cutting boards, forks, knives, and spoons.

  • When eating out, if you’re not sure about the ingredients in a particular dish, ask the chef how the food was prepared. You can also ask whether a gluten-free menu is available. Most restau­rants have a website where you can review the menu in advance. 

  • Ask your pharmacist if any of your medicines contain wheat or a wheat byproduct. Gluten is used as an additive in many products from medicines to lipstick. Manufacturers can provide a list of ingredients on request if they are not named on the product. Many herbals, vitamins, supplements, and probiotics contain gluten. 

  • Watch your portion sizes. Gluten-free foods may be safe and good for you, but they’re not calorie-free.

If you still feel symptoms on your gluten-free diet, double check that you’re not still consuming small amounts of gluten hidden in sauces, salad dressings, and canned soups or through additives, such as modified food starch, preservatives, and stabilizers made with wheat. Even some medicines can contain gluten. Tablets and capsules can be sources of gluten contamination. The risk of your medicines containing gluten is very small but, if you are concerned, you should discuss this with your healthcare provider. 

As you and your family become experts in reading food and product labels, you’ll be able to find hidden sources of gluten before they can cause a problem. You might also get more ideas from joining a support group, in person or online, that can help you adjust to your new way of life. These are great forums for learning a wealth of delicious recipes for everything from gluten-free cookies and banana bread to biscuits, trail mix, and grits.

7-Day Meal Plan | Eat! Gluten-Free

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We created the 7 Day Meal Plan to help you kick-start your gluten-free diet whether newly diagnosed, or struggling with eating gluten-free. This nutritionally balanced Meal Plan provides three meals and two snacks each day with easy to make recipes and “Quick Fixes” for those on-the-go.

Footnotes

    Continue to link

    menu for a week, list of allowed and prohibited foods, results, reviews of nutritionists

    The name of the gluten-free diet speaks for itself. All foods in the diet are free of gluten, a plant-based protein found in the gluten of wheat, barley, rye, and their products. Most often, such a diet is prescribed by a doctor for celiac disease – an autoimmune disease, expressed in gluten intolerance, as well as for gluten allergy 1 .

    Lately, the gluten-free diet has been increasingly promoted as a healthy lifestyle. Fans of such a diet talk about improving digestive functions, increasing mental and physical activity, and strengthening immunity. In addition, a gluten-free diet, like all other types of diets, helps to lose weight. The other side of the coin is the loss of many useful nutrients for the body.

    Benefits of a gluten-free diet

    Unfortunately, the proven benefits of a gluten-free diet are only health benefits for celiac disease and gluten allergy. This is a purely medical diet, and switching to it without a doctor’s prescription will do more harm than good. Many of its adherents claim that the rejection of gluten:

    • helps to get rid of heartburn, disturbances in the digestive tract;
    • improves immunity;
    • causes a surge of strength and energy;
    • helps to lose weight.

    However, these problems can also be solved with a less radical method recommended by the doctor.

    Cons of a gluten-free diet

    Avoiding gluten deprives us of a large number of vitamins, amino acids and minerals essential for the body. In addition, gluten is the main source of low-fat and protein-rich fiber. Therefore, this diet has much more minuses than pluses:

    • deprives the body of an important source of B and D vitamins, zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium and folic acid;
    • reduces the amount of fiber necessary for the digestive tract;
    • due to an excess of fatty foods in the diet, it can lead to an increase in cholesterol levels, disorders in the functioning of the cardiovascular system and the development of diabetes;
    • Gluten-free foods tend to be higher in calories;
    • requires careful monitoring of nutrition for vitamins and trace elements;
    • gluten-free products are significantly more expensive.

    What you can eat on a gluten-free diet

    Even if you completely cut out gluten-containing products, you can easily diversify your menu, but you will need to change your eating style. The list of “permitted” products is quite large:

    • all types of vegetables and fruits, berries without restrictions and drinks from them;
    • any meat, poultry and fish;
    • legumes, buckwheat, wild and brown rice, millet, amaranth;
    • seeds and nuts;
    • soya and products thereof;
    • eggs;
    • almond, coconut and buckwheat flour;
    • vegetable oils;
    • cocoa and natural teas;
    • low fat dairy products.

    What not to eat on a gluten-free diet

    With this type of diet, all products from wheat, barley, and rye should be excluded from the diet 2 . The list of such products is also quite impressive:

    • flour, starch, potato chips and cereals;
    • bakery and confectionery products, crackers;
    • all kinds of pasta;
    • cereals and sweets;
    • sausages;
    • canned and prepared foods;
    • sauces, gravies and salad dressings;
    • seasonings with additives and impurities;
    • fast food;
    • seafood imitations;
    • beer and malt-based drinks;
    • Celiac disease should not consume oats and products based on it.

    Weekly menu for gluten-free diet

    With a gluten-free diet, there are no restrictions on the number of meals and their volume. It is recommended to eat at least 4 times a day, and do the last meal 3-4 hours before bedtime. Do not forget to drink clean water – up to 2 liters per day. The main thing is not to overeat and, if possible, avoid traditional snacks.

    Below is a sample weekly menu that you can use as a basis and modify as needed. Breakfast, lunch and dinner can be complemented with your favorite drinks. If desired, lunch can be divided into two meals. As additional meals and desserts, you can use vegetables, nuts, fruits and berries.

    Day 1

    Breakfast: rice porridge with milk.
    Lunch: mushroom soup, roast meat with potatoes, vegetable salad.
    Dinner: syrniki.

    Day 2

    Breakfast: cottage cheese casserole with berries.
    Lunch: borscht, fried fish with rice and vegetables.
    Dinner: Seafood salad with vegetables and eggs.

    Day 3

    Breakfast: corn porridge.
    Lunch: meatball soup with broccoli and cauliflower, Greek salad.
    Dinner: fried chicken breast with mashed potatoes.

    Day 4

    Breakfast: pancakes with jam.
    Lunch: fish soup, baked vegetable salad with beans and chicken.
    Dinner: cottage cheese with fruit.

    Day 5

    Breakfast: bacon and eggs.
    Lunch: Rabbit stew with mushrooms and vegetables.
    Dinner: fruit salad.

    Day 6

    Breakfast: buckwheat porridge with milk.
    Lunch: cheese soup, beef stew with rice.
    Dinner: fried liver with vegetable salad.

    Day 7

    Breakfast: Omelet with mushrooms, vegetables and cheese.
    Lunch: chicken broth with rice noodles, braised pork with vegetables.
    Dinner: salmon steak with mixed salad.

    Results

    If you’re on this diet to lose weight, you’ll have to limit your portion sizes. Gluten-free meals tend to be higher in calories and higher in fat, so weight loss is a moot point.

    Avoiding gluten in healthy people does not improve athletic performance or improve health. A gluten-free diet is a system of therapeutic nutrition prescribed by a doctor based on laboratory tests.

    Reviews of nutritionists

    According to nutritionist, gastroenterologist, therapist, nutritionist Svetlan a Nezvanov a , the attitude towards a gluten-free diet causes a lot of controversy among nutritionists ov. The diet, of course, implies the rejection of many “harmful” foods, but also depletes the diet of foods containing fiber, vitamins and trace elements.

    According to nutritionists, there are many other diets aimed at improving the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, preventing various diseases and promoting a healthy lifestyle, and the benefits of a gluten-free diet for healthy people are a controversial issue.

    Popular Questions and Answers

    We asked our expert, dietitian, gastroenterologist, therapist, nutritionist Svetlana Nezvanova, to answer the most popular questions about the gluten-free diet.

    How many times a day should I eat on a gluten-free diet?

    — Meals should be fractional, at least 3-4 times a day in small portions. No need to eat at night, the last meal should be 3-4 hours before bedtime.

    What foods should I look out for on a gluten-free diet?

    – Since this diet is gluten-free, you need to eat more foods rich in fiber, vitamins and trace elements. Eat more vegetables, fruits and greens. Make sure you have enough vitamins in your diet.

    Can a gluten-free diet harm a healthy person?

    – If you resort to this diet for a short time, there will be no harm to health. Products with gluten do not contain a critical amount of fiber, vitamins and trace elements. The main thing is to keep your diet balanced.

    Sources:

    1. Celiac disease: a modern view of the problem. V.V. Chikunov, N.A. Ilyenkov. Journal “Bulletin of the Clinical Hospital”, No. 51, 2018.
      https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/tseliakiya-sovremennyy-vzglyad-na-problemu/viewer
    2. Diet for celiac disease. I.K. Nurtazina. Journal “Bulletin of Surgery of Kazakhstan”, 2017.
      https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/dieta-pri-tseliakii/viewer

    Gluten-Free Diet – Recipe Calendar

    Back

    Gluten-Free Diet was developed 120 years ago, the diet was created specifically for people suffering from celiac disease. The diet has helped save hundreds of thousands of people, and with its help, many were able to forget about extra pounds. The diet is characterized by the complete absence of components with gluten (gluten), thereby avoiding allergies and losing weight.

    The following products are to be abandoned:

    • flour;
    • most of the cereals.

    Benefits of a gluten-free diet:

    1. People with celiac disease cannot respond normally to gluten by avoiding it. By avoiding gluten, they protect their intestines from problems.
    2. A gluten-free menu minimizes the risk of allergies and reduces the overall calorie content of a meal.
    3. As a result of this principle of nutrition, one can effectively maintain health, as well as lose weight.

    Abstaining from gluten also has an unpleasant side – you lose a lot of protein, in order to maintain its norm, you will have to compensate for the menu with a number of products.

    Gluten-free menu prescription

    1. Slimming. After analysis by specialists, it became clear that avoiding gluten is often a necessary measure. The diet helps to remove toxins, normalizes metabolic processes, promotes fat burning. The diet is not aimed at a hunger strike, you can choose any from the list of approved products, this does not prevent you from losing too much. The diet maintains the norm, and includes important components.
    2. For people with autism. Medicine has already linked dietary proteins with autism, in practice it has been proven to block autistic disorders if gluten-containing foods are excluded from the diet. This effect is associated with a decrease in the content of proteins and peptides. These components are harmless and are of natural origin, but in autism they provoke processes that worsen the mental state. A gluten-free diet eliminates this problem. The exclusion of gluten from the diet will not only improve the functioning of the intestines, but also lead to the stabilization of brain functions.
    3. Celiac disease solution. Such a diagnosis is made after research, if a problem is identified, the exclusion of gluten is immediately prescribed. The causative agent of the allergy is removed, as a result, all the symptoms can be blocked, and the person lives again, like other people. The intestines, unable to cope with gluten, begin to recover. The disease will not recede from this, but it is “frozen”. In order to maintain a normal life, people do not consume cereals and all products containing flour all their lives.

    Gluten Free

    If you have celiac disease or another gluten-free diet, you need to cut out certain foods and meals, while eating the rest of the food without restriction. In order to optimize the effectiveness of the diet from the therapeutic side, a careful examination of the digestive tract was made in people who are too sensitive to gluten and with autism. The result of their activities was a couple of categories of products: those that are suitable for food, and prohibited.

    The following may be used:

    • buckwheat;
    • rice groats;
    • corn;
    • quail and chicken eggs;
    • any vegetables and fruits;
    • natural tea, any;
    • all kinds of coffee or cocoa;
    • cow’s milk, not store-bought;
    • any fish and meat;
    • oil products (from sunflowers, olives, and butter).