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Gluten-Free Article in The Chicago Tribune
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Here is a recent link and article from the Chicago Tribune about a Gluten-Free diet. If you want to read it at the Tribune website you will need to copy and paste the link in your browser. Here is the information:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-healthgluten-story,1,7645208.story?page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1

HEALTH WATCH

The gluten-free phenomenon
Has giving up foods containing gluten become the latest diet fad?
By Janet Helm | Special to the Tribune
Just when bread was starting to make a comeback after the low-carb craze, it has been hit with the gluten-free frenzy.

Hoards of people are giving up gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Yet the growing numbers of gluten avoiders are not only people with celiac disease--which was once dismissed as a rare condition but is now estimated to affect 1 out of every 100 Americans.

Gluten has become the dietary villain du jour, the new "carb," if you will.

Gluten is being blamed for everything from migraines and chronic fatigue to depression and infertility. It's being accused of making us fat and aggravating arthritis, acne and attention-deficit disorder.

Going gluten-free has even become trendy on college campuses.

Among the strongest advocates of gluten-free are families affected by autism. A gluten-free diet is recommended by autism support groups. And parents, including celebrity mom and author Jenny McCarthy, have been quite vocal about the benefits.

Most definitely, people with celiac disease need to strictly avoid gluten. Otherwise, this autoimmune disorder can damage the small intestine and interfere with the absorption of nutrients. For celiac sufferers, a gluten-free diet is far from a fad. It is the only treatment.

What appears less clear is whether gluten can be blamed for other problems such as autism.

A gluten-free lifestyle

Carol Fenster has been gluten-free for 20 years even though she does not have celiac disease. She's part of a growing group of people who say they simply feel better avoiding gluten.

"I was told if you don't have celiac then you don't have a problem," said Fenster, who defended her choice to avoid gluten when her doctors said "it's all in your head."

Fenster said her chronic sinus problems cleared up and she had more energy after she gave up gluten. She became so enamored with the gluten-free lifestyle that she dedicated her career to it.

Fenster conducts gluten-free cooking classes in Denver and has written seven gluten-free cookbooks, including her latest "Gluten-Free Quick and Easy."

Experts say that the growing attention on gluten is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it may encourage more people to get tested for celiac--which still remains undiagnosed in about 97 percent of the people who have it in this country. A typical diagnosis often takes 10 years because the symptoms are mistaken for other conditions. But, ironically, the current fervor over gluten may be making a proper diagnosis even trickier.

Starting a gluten-free diet before being tested for celiac may cause the gut to heal temporarily and an accurate diagnosis will be missed, said Dr. Joseph A. Murray, a celiac disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

"If you're concerned about celiac you should be tested before treating yourself," he said.

Self-diagnosis is rampant, probably due to the increased awareness of the disease. People are more likely to know someone with celiac now and they relate to the diverse and often vague symptoms associated with the disease, Murray said.

Complicating matters more is the emergence of Internet laboratories promoting mail-order blood tests for gluten intolerance.

"Many of these tests are not an indication of what's going on at the intestinal level," said Dr. Carol Semrad, a celiac expert at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center.

She's concerned people will needlessly eliminate gluten, which is an "inconvenient and often difficult diet to follow."



If celiac is ruled out, Murray said there is little or no evidence to support a connection between gluten and other ailments, including autism. Even so, he said there is nothing wrong with cutting out gluten as long as your diet is nutritionally complete.

"If you feel better, I can't argue with that, even if I don't have scientific proof as to why it seems to help," he said.

Going without the grain

Giving up gluten is challenging because this ingredient is so prevalent in our food supply, often hidden in sauces, marinades, canned soups and other processed foods.

The diet also can be nutritionally challenging, especially for people who do not cook, said dietitian Dee Sandquist, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association who has celiac herself and specializes in celiac nutrition counseling.

Many gluten-free baked goods are made with refined flours that are low in fiber and do not contain iron, folic acid and other nutrients that are routinely added to wheat flour.

Experts say people on a gluten-free diet often lose weight because they typically reduce total carbohydrates and calories, not because gluten is inherently "fattening."

Sometimes the overall quality of the diet improves because people start eating more fruits and vegetables and rely less on processed foods and sugary, refined grains.

Chocolate banana bread

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

"This chocolate banana bread is the best of my grandmother's and mother's worlds: thrifty and decadent both," writes Shauna James Ahern in "Gluten-Free Girl." (For more on the book, check out her Web site at glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com ) "With the gluten-free flours--rice flour and teff flour, predominantly--it is mine." She suggests serving slices of the bread with cream cheese. Look for the specialty flours and xanthan gum at health food stores or Whole Foods Market. The specialty sugars can be found in many supermarkets too.

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1/2 cup each: organic cane sugar, turbinado sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 large bananas, mashed

1 cup teff flour

1/2 cup each: sweet white rice flour, sorghum or brown rice flour, tapioca flour, almond meal

3 tablespoons cocoa powder



1 teaspoon each: ground cinnamon, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt

3 tablespoons demerara sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter and cane and turbinado sugars in a large bowl; beat with a mixer on medium speed just until creamed. Beat in eggs, sour cream and vanilla; stir in mashed bananas.

2. Combine the teff flour, rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, cinnamon, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Fold the flour mixture into the wet batter with a spatula, 1/4 cup at a time, until everything is just mixed together.

3. Scrape the dough into a buttered and floured (with white rice flour) 9-inch round cake pan. Cover the surface of the dough with the demerara sugar. Bake until a knife inserted gently into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the pan 5-10 minutes; unmold on a wire rack.

Nutrition information per serving: 317 calories, 20% of calories from fat, 7 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 47 mg cholesterol, 60 g carbohydrates, 7 g protein, 420 mg sodium, 5 g fiber

Popped amaranth cereal

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

Amaranth is an ancient grain eaten around the world, writes Shauna James Ahern in "Gluten-Free Girl." It is high in iron and fiber and has "a light, nutty taste, with a smell like roasted corn." The flour can be used in crepes, cake and muffins, she advises, but Ahern developed this cereal after experimenting with popping the whole grain in a hot skillet like popcorn. Look for the seeds in health food stores.

1/4 cup organic amaranth seeds

1/2 cup warm milk

1 tablespoon organic cane sugar

1/2 teaspoon each, ground: cinnamon, ginger

1/4 cup chopped dates

2 tablespoons chopped pecans

1. Heat a skillet over high heat until beads of water can dance across it; add the amaranth seeds. Cook, stirring as soon as the seeds begin popping, until toasted, but not burned, about 5 minutes. Remove from the skillet; transfer to a small bowl.

2. Pour the warm milk over the amaranth. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Top with the chopped dates and pecans.

Nutrition information per serving: 525 calories, 27% of calories from fat, 16 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 87 g carbohydrates, 14 g protein, 62 mg sodium, 10 g fiber

ctc-goodeating@tribune.com




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