CBS has put the actress and her character detective Jackie Curatola on a leave of absence. In a statement to the TV website Deadline.com, CBS Studios said:  “Jennifer has informed us that she is only available to work on a very limited part-time schedule. As a result, she’s unable to perform the demands of her role and we regretfully had to put her character on a leave of absence.”

Esposito took to Twitter on October 20, to accuse the network of “shameful behavior”, saying that: “CBS put me on unpaid leave and has blocked me from working anywhere else after my doc said ‘you needed a reduced schedule due to celiac’. CBS didn’t listen to my doc and I collapsed on set. Which everyone saw!”

She further says that once she was cleared to return to work, “CBS implied that I was not truly ill and this was a scheme to get a raise!”

Esposito has been a vocal advocate of celiac disease awareness, speaking out about the many years it took her to get diagnosed and the struggles she had faced before going gluten-free with extreme fatigue, gastrointestinal distress and hair loss.

In reply to some critical comments on one article about the dispute with CBS, Esposito elaborated on her current celiac-related health issues: “I can work on a limited schedule due to the vitamin IVs I need three times a week because I don’t absorb [nutrients and], due to the exhaustion from that as well.”

Esposito blogs at the site Jennifersway.org, where she shares advice and recipes.

Comment on CBS’s actions here.
View Esposito’s documentary on life with celiac here.

Dr. Joseph Murray, lead author of the study published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, said the results clearly show that celiac patients are not being tested frequently enough to ensure that no complications have arisen due to the disease. For example, osteoporosis and anemia may develop if patients are continuously exposed to even small amounts of gluten. Since strict avoidance of the protein is difficult, testing is crucial.

In a news release, Dr. Murray said, “It should not be different from other chronic conditions for which medical follow up is a given such as liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease or even gastroesophageal reflux disease. Anecdotally, patients with celiac disease often feel they are on their own in the management of celiac disease.”

The study looked at data on 122 celiac patients who were diagnosed between 1996 and 2006 and the number of follow-up exams they received between six months and five years after their initial diagnosis.

Dr. Margot Herman, who also worked on the study, said in a video that the American Gastroenterological Association’s guidelines recommend that celiac patients to receive periodic visits with a clinician, dietitian, as well as blood and other testing. But in reality, she notes, in a five-year period, only about one-third of patients receive this kind of care.

As well, fewer than a quarter of the patients in the study had bone density scans  in the five years after diagnosis. “It was remarkable how little follow-up these people were getting,” Dr. Herman said.

“Our study points out an area for improvement in medicine, and particularly for these patients in terms of their long-term disease management,” she said.

Optimal bone health depends on getting sufficient levels of calcium and vitamins D and K. Calcium and vitamin K may be consumed through foods, but vitamin D is primarily produced when we are exposed to the sun.

In the University of Alberta study, the vitamin K levels of the 43 participating children were a bit low, but the children were able to improve those by eating foods such as leafy green vegetables. However, the children live in northern Alberta, where they get only a few months a year of adequate sun exposure, which explains the lack of sufficient vitamin D.

Diana Mager, one of the study’s main researchers, told Allergic Living that this deficiency would probably extend to other children with celiac disease who don’t have adequate sun exposure: “I would expect to see the same effects of reduced sunlight exposure and suboptimal vitamin D status in other parts of Canada and in the northern United States,” she said. “Suboptimal vitamin D status is highly prevalent in North America.”

Mager also says that since much of the human skeleton is formed during childhood, lack of essential nutrients could present problems down the line. She cautioned parents of children who may be at risk of celiac disease to pay attention to their kids’ bone health. “Children with celiac disease may appear to be growing well but they can still have very bad bone health,” she said.

Anyone shopping for gluten-free pasta will tell you that many rice, corn and other noodles fall apart or don’t have quite the right taste or texture when compared to wheat flour pasta. However, a majority of taste-testers – 25 with celiac disease and 50 without – liked the pasta made from ground bananas, egg whites and xanthan and guar gums.

Raquel Botelho, one of the dietititians from the University of Brasilia who worked on the formula, told Reuters that green banana flour may also present a great option for gluten-free breads, biscuits and pizza dough. For now, the team must try to get the pasta from the lab to the grocery store shelf.

The bonus? This celiac-friendly pasta has fewer calories and less fat than whole wheat pasta and would be much cheaper than other gluten-free pastas. Now that’s something any grandmother would be happy about!

The chips, made by Pepsico Canada, for the most part have always been made without gluten, but now customers can be assured that Lay’s facilities and manufacturing processes have been verified by a third party. (Only one variety, Lay’s BarBQ Flavour, won’t bear the new CCA logo.)

Paul Valder, the consultant developing the CCA’s certification program, says this is just the first of a number of certified products consumers will see over the coming months.

The CCA is in discussions with a major retailer for certifying its private label line, and also in the gluten-free pipeline are: a national brand that makes crackers and cookies, a national bakery, and a generic drug manufacturer.

After studies in Europe showed a link between celiac disease and a high prevalence of migraine headaches, Dr. Alexandra Dimitrova, a neurological resident at Columbia University Medical Center, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Green from the Celiac Disease Center at that university, decided to investigate whether the same held true in the U.S. The researchers found that 30 per cent of the patients they studied with celiac disease reported chronic migraines (14 or more per month).

Read entire article here.

In offering Bob’s Birthday Club, Bob’s Red Mill is again partnering with Autism Speaks, the world’s leading autism science and advocacy organization. Earlier this month, Bob’s Red Mill also sponsored the lighting of Portland’s Morrison Bridge in honor of Autism Speaks’ “Light It Up Blue” campaign on World Autism Awareness Day. Bob’s Red Mill first began partnering with Autism Speaks back in 2009.

Here’s how Bob’s Birthday Club works:

• Anyone interested in signing up a child for Bob’s Birthday Club should visit www.autismspeaks.org/bobsbirthdayclub.
• With a donation of $30 or more made through the website, an adult can register an autistic child for the club.
• Then, as that child’s birthday nears, he/she will receive a special Bob’s Birthday Club kit

The kits are limited to the first 1,000 people who make donations.

More information about Bob’s Birthday Club can be found at www.autismspeaks.org/bobsbirthdayclub.

For the enitre Press Release, click here.

“It’s not about weight it’s about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway!” her Tweet of April 9 continued.

Miley’s gluten-free revelation followed days of speculation that the former “Hannah Montana” TV star was suffering an eating disorder. The singer then set off a flurry of response by Tweeting a photo of herself on April 8, deeply inhaling (but refusing to touch) fast food in a bag.

As the Twitterverse implored Miley to break down and take a bite, she replied with the “gluten and lactose allergy” explanation.

But Allergic Living offers a reality check for Miley. Girl, you need to get your condition straight. Do you have:

a) gluten sensitivity or
b) celiac disease or
c) a wheat allergy?
d) And is it lactose intolerance or
e) a dairy allergy?

These are all separate conditions. There is simply no such thing as a “gluten and lactose allergy” – and if Miley’s not sure which conditions she has, she should get tested – pronto. Undiagnosed celiac or wheat allergy or dairy allergy is nothing to mess around with.

It should be said that while Miley is definitely slimmer than she used to be, the 19-year-old still looks healthy in recent photos. Her toned arms suggest a lot of gym time, which also sheds the pounds.

In fact, living gluten-free and dairy-free doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss. As fans of great gluten-free and dairy-free recipes know – you can eat very well (and even gain weight) with these food restrictions. And sometimes you have to watch out for too much white rice and sugar in gluten-free foods.

So by all means take a pass on gluten and dairy foods if you need to, Miley. But two small bits of advice: get properly diagnosed (if you’re not) and do sample some of the great gluten-free and dairy-free food that’s out there these days. We’re fortunate to have so much more available for those with living with food restrictions.

Researchers looked at 27 adults who were newly diagnosed with celiac disease, and 27 adults without the disease. In those with celiac, 10 had thyroid disease, compared to three in the non-celiac group.

However, a year later, the thyroid disease had progressed in the celiac group, despite adherence to the gluten-free diet.

More studies are anticipated in relation to this disease connection.

While the availability of safe breads has certainly risen, the loaves often are still lacking in nutritional value and come out too dense, or too crumbly, or too small, or too hard, or just not that appetizing. As well, shelf life tends to fall a little short.

The good news is that new research published in the online journal Microbial Cell Factories suggests that making gluten-free sourdough bread may solve all of these issues.

Sourdough is made from mixing flour and water and fermenting the mixture with specific bacteria strains and yeast. Researchers have been working on figuring out which strains of bacteria would match up best with different gluten-free flours such as rice, corn and amaranth.

Elke Arendt, co-author of the study and a researcher and professor at the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at University College Cork in Ireland, told Allergic Living that she is encouraged by her team’s research.

She also noted that while another recent study suggested sourdough in breads made from wheat may help to “degrade” the gluten sufficiently for those with celiac disease to tolerate, she would not recommend this, advising instead sticking to a gluten-free diet when medically necessary.

Arendt says that consuming gluten-free sourdough is not about health benefits but “the reason you would add sourdough to [gluten-free] bread has mainly technological functions,” such as the structure and taste.