Following the Food Pyramid may cause health problems

Most Americans are familiar with the Food Pyramid which recommends nutritional guidelines. However, if you have a gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance (also known as Celiac Disease), then following this guideline may be causing health problems.

Celiac disease (an allergic reaction to gluten, a protein commonly found in grains such as wheat, rye and barley) may be one of the biggest undiagnosed digestive disorders that exist today and often gives the appearance of other diseases. One percent of Americans may have Celiac disease and up to five percent may have reactions to gluten. Even people that simply have an intolerance or sensitivity to gluten may be at risk.

Without a biopsy, (and why do that if it can be avoided), how do you find out if you have a problem with gluten? I posed this question to Tina Turbin, author, researcher and founder of Gluten Free Help (http://GlutenFreeHelp.info). Tina told me, "There is no single blood or saliva test to tell you, positively, that you have celiac disease or gluten intolerance. However, there are two tests currently available in combination to arrive at some degree of certainty as to gluten sensitivity."

People that have had Celiac disease for a prolong period, will often have problems absorbing nutrients which can lead to obvious, visible effects such as poor fingernail and hair growth and hair may lose it's normal luster. Your energy levels will be low to the point where you are easily fatigued. Some people experience symptoms such as: dry skin, tooth enamel defects, abdominal cramping and bloating, abdominal distention, acidosis and appetite cravings. Other common symptoms include back pains, constipation, dehydration, diarrhea, edema, mouth sores and even reduced foot padding. People have may also experience depression, a lack of disinterest in normal activities, irritability, unable to concentrate and mood changes.

As far as testing, to have any kind of accurate blood test you have to be on a diet with gluten in it. This applies to any of the blood tests. You must be ingesting gluten for any of the tests to be at all accurate because the immune system produces antibodies in response to substances that the body has determined are harmful. Tests measure the immune systems response to being exposed to gluten and its subsequent effect on the internal lining of the digestive tract. If there is no gluten in the diet, then there is no response that can be measured. Any brief change in diet, as in adding in gluten, will not have a noticeable effect on the test results. If you have been gluten-free diet for a week or so, it will also not make any great difference. On the other hand, if you have been gluten free for a protracted period of time and decide to be tested, a brief change of a couple of weeks is usually not enough to elicit an accurate test.

If you are already having severe symptoms and have taken yourself off of gluten, then adding gluten back into your diet just to get an accurate test and having all the symptoms return - just to confirm you a have a gluten intolerance, may be self-abusive. So, if you are currently on a diet containing gluten and have any of the symptoms mentioned above, go ahead and get the tests. Without tests a positive medical diagnosis will probably not be made.

If you have already stopped eating gluten then how do you tell without tests? Well, if the lack of gluten in your diet has lessoned your symptoms then you may be on the right track. Currently, there is no known cure for Celiac disease and the only treatment that exists is abstinence from gluten. So, an early start in the application of the remedy can only help. If the symptoms do not lesson then what you have maybe something else. Red Wiseman is an avid and intelligent writer and researcher in the Humanities, Arts and Sciences. Wiseman is always on a quest to expand his horizons and those of others via his written and spoken words.