Learning about celiac disease

Late last year after a few doctor visits and some extensive testing I got the diagnose of having celiac disease. I hadn't even heard of the term. I might of heard about being gluten intolerant or being allergic to flour. But if someone would have asked me 'what is gluten', well I'd probably say "Google it". 

Today, well I know much more about it and knowing that my immune system attacks itself whenever I eat it, it's safe to say I try to avoid it at all cost.. But gluten food... It is so yummy. Adjusting to a life without it and also always have to double check with restaurants etc when eating out.. It is no fun.

So by a few statements here you probably understand that gluten is found in flour and in different kinds of food. But what is it really? Gluten is a general name for proteins that you will find in different wheat kinds as well as rye, barley etc. and it is what binds the food together like 'glue'.

Luckily not all kinds of flour has gluten in it, like corn flour, almond flour and even oat should be gluten-free unless the fabric are using the same tools and machines creating other flours that contains gluten. But for it to get a similar consistency as normal bread you have to add i.e xanthan gum, guar gum, or fibrex etc.

Funnily at the beginning of the year there was a parody song on YouTube based on Adele's hit "Hello" where part of the lyrics said "This gluten-free bread taste like a sponge", which I had to LOL at because it isn't that far from the truth. I have a long way to go when it comes to test out different recipes.

Sooo, gluten makes the immune system attack itself what do you mean with that you might ask?
Probably my poor wordings.. But yes.. You see the gluten causes the immune system to damage the small intestine. Picture it like this, we have branches in out small intestine (actually called Villi) that picks up nutrients that our body needs. But when the immune system attacks these branches it leaves it unable to absorb the nutrients like vitamins and minerals. There are other long terms affects too like Lactose intolerance, Gallbladder malfunction (I've already had mine removed years back), Pancreatic insufficiency etc.

When reading about celiac disease after the diagnose, I only wish I had learned about it earlier. It came with a lot of aha experiences that I've had issue with since I was a teenager. From what I understood it is quite normal to figure this out in your 30's and about 1 out of 100 has it.

I was actually looking through some of the recipes we used at primary school and secondary school and what do you know.. Gluten, gluten and more gluten. Hopefully we are more vary about this these days.