In a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, a whopping 81 percent of celiacs on the gluten-free diet gained weight within two years after diagnosis. A key issue is that a person with celiac disease wasn’t able to properly absorb nutrients before diagnosis. But once on a gluten-free diet, the gut heals, and that’s when the now-diagnosed individual finally starts absorbing protein, calories and fat.

The result: those with celiac disease who eat the exact same amount of calories, protein and fat as they always did can suddenly begin to gain weight.

Allergic Living offers 5 great tips to keep off the extra pounds while living a healthy gluten-free lifestyle.

1. Become label literate
Be mindful of the serving sizes on packaged gluten-free products. They are often smaller than their gluten-containing counterparts – meaning that, for example, if you used to eat three-quarters of a cup of regular cold cereal for breakfast, you might need to reduce that to two-thirds of a cup of gluten-free cereal.

2. Stave off hunger with veggies and lean protein
“A common complaint from those on gluten-free diets is ‘I’m always hungry,’” says registered dietitian Alexandra Anca. Solution: drink more fluids and eat more lean protein, fruits and vegetables. Anca recommends gluten-free whole grains like quinoa or buckwheat: “They fill you up more and better – and they take a long time to digest.” Also boost your intake of chickpeas, beans and lentils.

3. Recognize that it’s partly psychological
When you’re gluten-free, it’s common to become obsessed with having satisfying starchy food, like bread, pasta and cookies. That’s because you suddenly can’t have what you’ve had – and loved – your whole life. Being aware of cravings and why they’re occurring is the first step to managing them.

4. Seek support
Find an in-person or online support group – especially if you cannot find a registered dietitian in your area who specializes in celiac disease. “Finding support should be your Number 1 priority,” says a Pennsylvania mother who struggled with post-celiac diagnosis weight gain. “With support you find resources, and you don’t feel so alone. You find people who will say, ‘I had the same problem, and this is what worked for me.’”

5. Get moving!
Put simply, losing weight requires expending more energy than you consume. On top of living a moderately active lifestyle (taking the stairs, walking), try to add 30 minutes of vigorous activity to your day at least a few days per week. (Speak to your doctor before starting any new exercise regimen.)

Related Reading: Gluten-Free Diet and Your Weight

“I was passed around from doctor to doctor,” recalls the Doylestown, Pennsylvania mother of two. “Nobody could diagnose me.” Like other patients with puzzling symptoms, she was even advised to see a psychiatrist.

Swollen joints in her hands and feet eventually led her to a rheumatologist, who diagnosed her with celiac disease in 2006 and referred back to her family physician. But that wasn’t the end of Auman’s woes, since the doctor was only superficially informed about her condition. “They gave me a piece of paper that just said: ‘No barley, no wheat, no rye,’” she recalls.

Confused and seeking to educate herself, Auman turned to Dr. Google – the Internet, that is – to learn more. The result? “I became afraid to eat,” she says. Although her symptoms improved on her new gluten-free diet, she found herself “starving” and quickly dropped 15 pounds. In some ways, it was a welcome loss for Auman, who had been moderately overweight. But feeling famished wasn’t sustainable.

Driven by constant hunger and a burgeoning depression, Auman headed to comfort foods found in the gluten-free aisle of the grocery store. “Because I felt like I couldn’t eat anything, I overate the foods that I could eat,” she says. It wasn’t long before she gained back the 15 pounds – “and then some.” Now, she had a life-changing autoimmune disease and a weight problem to worry about.

It turns out Auman’s case isn’t unusual. In a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, a whopping 81 percent of celiacs on the gluten-free diet gained weight within two years after diagnosis, and the dietitians Allergic Living spoke to say they see this all the time.

That’s what makes the gluten-free diet’s recent rise in popularity among those who have not been diagnosed with celiac disease so peculiar.

Gluten-free is today is what low-carb was 10 years ago: the “It” diet. Inspired by non-celiac celebrities who tout gluten-free as a way to slim down (we’re looking at you, Gwyneth Paltrow and Russell Crowe), North Americans are turning to the diet in droves. According to a study conducted by consumer market researchers the NPD Group, one-quarter of Americans are trying to reduce or completely avoid gluten in their diets. But if they are doing so to lose weight, they are terribly misguided.

Next: Feeling better – and the weight creep

On November 17, 2011, Senators Dirk Durbin (D-IL) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, which encourages all states to require that schools maintain a supply of epinephrine and train staff to administer the life-saving medication in case of emergencies.

Earlier this year, the state of Illinois passed a law that allows schools to obtain and administer a non-student-specific prescription for epinephrine. Studies have shown that as many as 25 percent of epinephrine administrations in schools involved students with a previously unknown allergy – which means they wouldn’t have their own auto-injector. The approximate cost to schools to maintain their own epinephrine stock is $100.

The new proposed bill, numbered S.1884, has the full support of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) and the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI), as well as the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). All of have submitted letters of endorsement for the proposed act.

“I am honored to introduce bi-partisan legislation with Senator Durbin which encourages schools across the United States to prevent allergy-related fatalities by adopting policies allowing trained staff to administer epinephrine to a student exhibiting symptoms of an allergic reaction,” said Sen. Kirk.

“Millions of children throughout the United States suffer from severe, life-threatening allergies. When these children are exposed to a severe allergen, swift and safe administration of epinephrine is often critical for their survival,” he said. “It is my hope this legislations prevents senseless tragedies and affords children suffering from severe allergies a measure of safety while they attend school.”

Under the proposed federal bill, states allowing schools to maintain a supply of epinephrine and administer it to a student having an anaphylactic reaction would be given preference when federal funding is allocated for asthma education and prevention acts. “Children with asthma are more likely to have food allergies,” the Senators noted to Allergic Living.

The funding preference created in the bill is not new. In fact, the bill builds on the Asthmatic Schoolchildren’s Treatment and Health Management Act of 2004, which created a preference for asthma-related Health & Human Services (HHS) grants to states with laws allowing students to carry inhalers and epinephrine auto-injectors to school, and self-administer them if necessary.

Next page: What you can do to help

Tropomyosin, the allergenic protein in shrimp, is also found in dust mites, cockroaches and other insects. The goal of the study was to determine whether there was a strong correlation between shrimp, cockroach and dust mite IgE levels.

Researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine examined blood samples of asthmatic children from seven inner-city areas across the United States. The children who had a high exposure to cockroaches at home had significantly higher levels of shrimp IgE than children who had low exposure to cockroaches.

There was not a high correlation between dust mite exposure and shrimp IgE levels.

Sample Letter of Support for the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act

Note:  Please paraphrase. It is important that Senators do not receive duplicates of the same letter from different individuals.

The Honorable (insert Senator’s name)

United States Senate

Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator (insert name):

I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor S. 1884, the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, introduced by Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk. I am the parent of a child with severe food allergies.  (Personalize here by inserting a brief description of your child’s allergies.)

Children with food allergies are at risk for anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death. To prevent death, anaphylaxis must be treated promptly with an injection of epinephrine. The Durbin-Kirk bill would encourage states to ensure that epinephrine is available in schools and that school personnel are trained to administer it in an emergency. Epinephrine is safe and easy to administer. Children are able to self-administer the medication, and any adult working in a school would be capable of learning how to administer epinephrine in a matter of minutes.

Nearly 6 million American children have potentially life-threatening food allergies. Schools need to be prepared to treat allergic reactions in the event a student’s personal epinephrine auto-injector isn’t available or the student is having a reaction for the first time.

The School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act is not a controversial bill. It is endorsed by the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of School Nurses. On average it will cost a school just over $100 to have epinephrine available to prevent a fatality from anaphylaxis. This is a small price to pay to save the life of a child.

I hope you will co-sponsor the Durbin-Kirk bill and work to assure passage of this legislation. Thank you for considering my views.

Sincerely,

In the study, researchers followed 19,349 twins between the ages of 12 and 41. The lowest risk of asthma was found in the group that consumed one to six  “units” of alcohol per week. (One unit of alcohol is equivalent to half a pint of beer or about half a glass of wine.)

Teetotalers take note: those who drank rarely or never had the highest risk of developing asthma; they were 1.4-times as likely to get it. But moderation is key, since heavy drinkers were also at increased risk, at 1.2-times as likely to end up with the respiratory disease.

The results also show that a preference for drinking beer was associated with a higher risk when compared with no preference.

Megann Ayotte Lefort. Image courtesy of her family, via La Presse.

This article was filed Nov. 11, 2011 See also the newer article from Nov. 22 here.

The parents of a 6-year old Montreal girl who died of an asthma attack or allergic reaction are upset that a newly released Quebec Coroner’s report assigns no blame in the case and makes no recommendations for school emergency procedures. The girl’s parents fault school employees for waiting too long before calling 911 when Megann Ayotte Lefort was having symptoms of breathing distress.

According to the details given in the Coroner’s report, on Sept. 16, 2010, Josée Ayotte, Megann’s mother, dropped her daughter off at the school’s child-care program at 6:15 p.m. so that she and her former husband could attend an hour-long parent-teacher meeting.

Over the next three-quarters of an hour, Megann cried and complained of missing her parents. At 6:45, one of the teachers gave the little girl two doses from her Ventolin inhaler for breathing troubles. At 7 p.m., Megann was still crying, which the teachers noted was not normal behaviour for her. She also complained of itching (and one of the teachers had noticed skin welts on the girl when she arrived).

When her breathing failed to improve, the teachers sought out Megann’s mother, who tried to administer another dose of Ventolin while a teacher called 911. The girl wasn’t able to take the dose.

Firefighters arrived on the scene first, and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The firefighters’ pediatric ventilator was defective, and a new one had to be found. Paramedics soon arrived, and transported Megann to hospital, where an emergency team took over, to no avail. The vivacious youngster was pronounced dead at 8:20 p.m.

Megann’s father, Sylvain Lefort, is angry that the Coroner did not find fault with the school’s actions. The report’s only recommendation is that the fire department more regularly monitor its resuscitation tools to ensure they are functional.

“There are no recommendations for the school. Why?” Lefort said to the La Presse newspaper. (He spoke to the reporter in French. Allergic Living has translated his comments.) “If we don’t want this situation to happen again at another school, the report ought to have made recommendations.”

Meantime, the school board is upset at Lefort’s efforts to hold the school accountable. “We understand [the family's] distress,” a board spokesperson told La Presse. “But the school has nothing to do with it.”

Next: Was It Asthma or Food Allergy?