Going Gluten-Free: Foodie Fad or Necessity?
By Janet Little, CN

Going gluten-free has become a current lifestyle diet craze among foodies (for its cleansing aspect), and it's in the news now almost every week.

But for 3 million healthy Americans (1 in 133) who suffer from Celiac Disease, a gluten-free diet is a necessity to eliminate a variety of severe, often painful symptoms. It prevents their chronic reaction to certain protein chains found in many grains, commonly referred to as glutens.

Shockingly, 97% of those affected with Celiac disease don't even know it or are misdiagnosed because many of the symptoms overlap with those of other health disorders. In fact, 1 in every 56 people have related symptoms.

There are differences between a wheat allergy, gluten intolerance and celiac disease though physical distress from ingesting gluten is common to both. This can include gastrointestinal problems, or sometimes sneakier symptoms like fatigue, joint pain or headaches.

This is because with sufferers, gluten creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed.

People who are simply allergic to wheat have an easy-to-diagnose inflammatory response and can be determined with simple allergy tests.
Gluten is the common name for the proteins in specific grains that are harmful to celiacs. These proteins are found in all forms of wheat, including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn and faro, and also related grains rye, barley and triticale.

The welcome news is that people with Celiac Disease and foodies looking for Gluten-free will find an abundance of tasty and satisfying products and ideas. Henry's Farmers Markets Gluten-Free store tours and Gluten-Free parties are well attended. Henry's "Gluten-Free Party" on June 24, in the Monrovia store, follows the success of the Woodland Hills store event.

In Woodland hills students in the Chatsworth High School C-CAP (Careers in Culin-ary Arts Program) were educated about Celiac and challenged to a contest for gluten-free recipes. Chloe Bryant, Brian Jeronimo and Driana Plummer won, and their recipes are available for coleslaw, potato salad and stuffed mushrooms. Yum.

My gluten-free party co-host at the events, "Party Charlie" Scola, author of the new book, Party Planning Secrets, told me that he now has a several clients with the disease. He says, "I regularly prepare dishes for celebrity and VIP gluten-free clients. It used to be that at one time, I would be asked to prepare special dishes for a vegetarian guest or two at a large party. Subsequently the number grew with each party. These days, I'm finding that requests for gluten-free dishes are growing more and more in the same way."

The basis for this condition started back during the Neolithic age, about 10,000 years ago, when humans invented ways to produce and store food. In the beginning wild grains were eaten, such as triticum (wheat) and Hordeum (barley), all genetically different from the grains that we eat today. They consisted of diploid chromosomes, which carried few seeds that would fall to the ground easily. This diploidicity allowed for a wide genetic variation in the plants protein and starches.

Since then farmers have learned much about growing, harvesting, and processing wheat.

With modern technology of genetic manipulation our grains have changes from few grains and low gluten to high yields and enriched in gluten (50% of the protein content).

Today our wheat comes from Triticum Aestivum, wheat with 42 chromosomes versus the 14 chromosomes of earlier years.

The Henry's Gluten-Free party hosted by "Party Charlie" at the Monrovia store, 400 W. Huntington Drive, will feature a talk about Celiac disease plus, demos and samplings from popular, local restaurants, including Mediterranean Garden Grill, The Peach Café, Meringue and the London Gastropub. For more details, please see www.henrysmarkets.com

The event takes place in conjunction with the Celiac Disease Foundation, whose headquarters are right here in the valley. www.celiac.org. Welcome!

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