don't listen to celebrities

Dear Miley,

Celiac disease is not an allergy. It’s an autoimmune disease. You’re not a doctor, why are you recommended a gluten-free diet? I read an article from someone from the Mayo Clinic immediately after Miley posted on twitter recommending that everyone try a gluten-free diet because it does great things for your skin and energy level. Mayo Clinic does not support Miley’s statement…imagine that!

I, also, do not have gluten disease. I have allergies. Allergies are a particularly immune response where your body attacks a ‘normal’ protein as foreign. So when those flowers start budding and flowering and shedding pollen everywhere? Your body is attacking the pollen you inhale and the immune response causes swelling and inflammation in the nose, which is why you get runny noses and itchy eyes. So what’s going on with me is that my body is attacking these innocuous foods I eat and trying to eliminate them, generating my lovely symptoms.

Celiac disease however is not generated in this way. In celiac disease, your body generates an autoantibody called ‘anti-gliadin’ with gliadin being a component of gluten. When you ingest gluten and you have anti-gliadin present, it attacks the gluten and the immune system is drawn in and creates an inflammatory response which ends up with intestinal damage. This intestinal damage leads to a lot of the signs and symptoms of celiac disease—diarrhea with fat malabsorption, thus malnutrition. This can lead to osteoporosis, anemia, and other bleeding disorders. There are other things associated with celiac disease but they’re seen with undiagnosed celiac disease usually.

So while both ‘diseases’ involve the immune system, it’s via different mechanisms. I don’t have any damage to my intestine because of protein attack like I would if I had celiac. That’s probably as generally as I can make it. Also, celiac disease has clear genetic links.

One thing that is 100% true for both conditions: malnutrition is a highly likely possibility. Especially when you have extensive dietary limitations, like I do. It’s possible to get by. It’s annoying if you have to eliminate all gluten, but possible, particularly in this day and age with a growing amount of gluten-free products on the market. I have a lovely gluten-free cookbook converting lots of common recipes to gluten-free. I would NEVER recommend that anyone follow my diet. EVER. Yeast makes my diet incredibly limited. While I would recommend a lot of the benefits that I do get—eliminating processed foods, red meat, eating more vegetables and some fruits…you can do that without eliminating a lot of the things I have to do.  I have to cope with vitamin deficiencies on a daily basis, and probably will have to start getting blood tests to check some of these things. I will not, however, have to worry about my cholesterol or triglycerides!

So listen to the Mayo Clinic people--don't follow extreme diets! (Which in medical opinion includes some of the popular diets--Atkins, South Beach, etc)

Don't listen to Miley. Did she even graduate high school? ;)