Should Your Child Stay Away from Gluten? Part 2

Gluten has been a hot topic for the last couple years and a serious concern for many parents. Should you be worried?

Unfortunately, many of the gastrointestinal symptoms associated with celiac disease can also be attributed to other causes. In the past, children were often never diagnosed with celiac disease simply because the doctors didn’t think of it. If you aren’t sure and your child has been experiencing significant gastrointestinal discomfort for weeks, ask your doctor about the possibility of having this disease and getting some tests just to be on the safe side.

Testing is usually done through blood tests, endoscopy or the less invasive capsule endoscopy. None of the options are particularly pleasant for kids, but getting an accurate diagnosis is essential. Finding out the truth could quite literally change their future for the better.

To a person with celiac disease, gluten can wreak havoc on the body and have devastating, long-lasting, irreparable effects. Whether or not gluten poses a health hazard to everyone else is still a hotly contested issue.

There’s been a great deal of debate in recent years as to whether or not humans should eat gluten at all. Advocates of popular diets such as Paleo claim that we’re better off without it. Many people also claim to have gluten sensitivity, meaning that they may not actually be allergic, but believe that it still negatively impacts their bodies. Many such individuals reputedly have more energy and better health after eliminating gluten from their diets.

Still, most of the evidence against gluten is based on hearsay rather than empirical facts. A recent study by Peter Gibson, the researcher at the Monash University in Australia who reported on gluten sensitivity in 2011, suggests that eating these proteins has no negative effect on people without celiac disease. In the study, a group of participants who claimed to be sensitive to gluten were put on a diet free of any common irritants or allergens for two weeks. They were then placed on high-gluten, normal gluten or gluten-free diets without knowing which one they were on. Every participant cycled through each possible diet and ingested only food provided by the study. In the end, everyone claimed to experience the same symptoms, regardless of whether or not they were on a gluten-free diet. The study’s conclusion was that gluten sensitivity may be largely psychological, or due to people mistakenly attributing symptoms of other irritants such as sulfites, preservatives or coloring agents used in processed foods to gluten.

Is this conclusive evidence? Not entirely. Although the study was rigorously conducted, it was done with a relatively small control group and isn’t enough to disprove gluten sensitivity all by itself. At least at the moment the evidence suggests that if your child tests negative for celiac disease, you shouldn’t have to worry about gluten.

Photo Credit: kamikaze.spoon via Compfight cc