Check out Allergic Living’s roundup of celiac disease events taking place in May 2013:

This travelling celiac expo stops in Philly on May 18. Admission is $10, but children under 10 enter for free. Meet medical experts and watch a cooking demonstration on the Rudi’s Gluten Free Bakery Stage, while sampling gluten-free products from dozens of local and national companies.

Click here for more information and to register

Each Monday this May, the Canadian Celiac Association is partnering with Turtle Jack’s Muskoka Grill for their Right to Safe Food fundraiser. After downloading a coupon from the CCA’s website, participants can bring it to a participating Turtle Jack’s location and have 25 percent of their bill donated to the CCA’s Right to Safe Food program.
Click here for more information

So Delicious Dairy Free will donate $1 to NFCA for every Facebook like they receive during Celiac Awareness Month, up to $5,000. So get liking!

So Delicious Facebook page

Laura Hahn, winner of NBC’s “Next Local TV Chef”, will reveal her secrets to gluten-free cooking. In two hours, participants will learn how to make an entire Vietnamese meal that’s both delicious and gluten-free.

Click here for more information and to purchase tickets

Researchers from Italy and the United States have analyzed the entire genome, or DNA structure, of the grain and have shown it to be free of gluten on a molecular level. This confirms earlier reports, studies and successful food challenges which all suggested the cereal contains no gluten and is considered safe for those with celiac disease.

Because the sorghum genome was only recently published, until now scientists had no way of proving on a molecular level that the grain was safe for people living with celiac disease. Allergic Living reminds, however to always check the label in case of potential cross-contamination.

In the West, sorghum has traditionally been used as feed for livestock, while in Africa and parts of Asia it has been used as a food for people for a long time. Farmers have developed ‘food-grade’ sorghum, which is meant for human consumption and is already used in a variety of products including some tortillas and flours. It can even be popped, like popcorn.

The researchers note in their report that in addition to being gluten-free, sorghum is nutritious, making it an ideal option for those with celiac disease. Previous studies of sorghum have suggested it may have a wide range of health benefits, including slowing the growth of tumors, reducing cholesterol levels and having higher levels of anti-oxidants than other grains and fruits. Other benefits as a gluten replacement include its low cost and neutral taste.

As Allergic Living previously reported, the actress, who has celiac disease, parted company with the CBS network in a dispute over her work schedule for the TV hit show Blue Bloods. The dispute arose after Esposito asked for a reduced workload due to health concerns related to her celiac disease.

But now Esposito has recast herself in the role of gluten-free baker, and appears excited to be offering New Yorkers her gluten-free baked goods – with a side of celiac disease advocacy. As a bonus, everything in the bakery is also made without soy, peanuts, dairy and refined sugar. Some products are also promoted as nut-free, yeast-free, and/or vegan-friendly.

Esposito is no newcomer to creating good gluten-free food. She has been blogging and sharing celiac recipes on her website jennifersway.org for some time, which also hosts the bakery’s site. Esposito was only diagnosed with celiac disease a few years ago after suffering with a long list of mysterious symptoms:

“It was years of trying to figure out what was wrong, to the point where I lost a tooth, my hair was falling out, I couldn’t stand up, I had such severe panic disorder”, she told NBC’s Today.

Esposito can still be found on TV, too. She and her bakery are part of a reality show called Playing with Fire, which follows chefs trying to succeed in New York City. The show premiered on The E! Network in March.

In 2012, Allergic Living reported that Esposito’s job dispute involved her request for a reduced work schedule because of her need for vitamin IVs and general exhaustion related to her recovery from the health toll of the years of undiagnosed celiac disease. CBS first put her on unpaid leave, saying that her part-time schedule made her “unable to perform the demands of her role”.

Since leaving the show, Esposito has said that she considers the bakery and her advocacy efforts to be a new, rewarding chapter in her life.

Using a standard method of determining risk factors for these cancers, Dr. Jonas Ludvigsson and his research team compared data from more than 17,000 women with confirmed celiac disease to that from about 88,000 women without the condition.

They found women with celiac were 15 percent, 40 percent and 11 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, endometrial and ovarian cancer respectively. What’s more, the decreased risk was greater when they excluded patients who were within their first year of diagnosis.

Ludvigsson told Allergic Living that one possible link between celiac disease and a reduced incidence of female cancers is a tendency among celiac patients to have a lower body mass index (BMI). Breast cancer, in particular, has been associated with obesity and a high BMI.

The expert suspects the decreased risk of ovarian cancer may be linked to early menopause in many women with celiac disease. Fewer ovulations in their lifetimes may be the reason.

Interestingly, the risk of lung cancer did not vary between celiac and non-celiac patients in this research. This is likely “because the smoking pattern of Swedish women does not seem to differ between celiac women and non-celiac women,” says Ludvigsson. More studies of celiac and cancer are planned.

First published in Allergic Living magazine.
© Copyright AGW Media Inc.

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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.