Coeliac disease
Frequently Asked Questions
Choosing to become gluten-free as a family is totally personal choice. Some families find it simpler to make all family meals gluten-free but then have smaller items such as breads for other family members clearly labelled.
When only one family member is eating gluten-free, it’s often a good idea to separate out the pantry and fridge to make it clear which food items are safe and to prevent cross-contamination.
There’s no evidence to suggest that kids growing up gluten-free are nutritionally disadvantaged. In fact, a whole-food diet that’s innately gluten-free can be equally [or more] nutrient-dense than a conventional diet. If you’re unsure about missing out on nutrients, it’s best to look at in in a whole diet context with a registered dietitian.
Eating out can be a major problem for people with CD. There’s no mandatory regulation for restaurants when labelling food as gluten-free. This means cross-contamination can be a problem in food outlets that don’t have a specific process to prevent this. It is important for a person with CD to feel confident questioning staff around their processes to prevent cross-contamination. One good example is to consider it a warning sign if you see gluten-free muffins and regular muffins sitting next to each other in a display cabinet – it’s likely cross-contamination has occurred.
Often people don’t fully rebound after removing gluten because of other underlying gut issues. This can be because of inflammation, damage to the gut lining, and changes in the gut microbiome, overall altering the way we process food and nutrients. Swapping to a whole-food, minimally processed diet is a good starting point to nurture the microbiome and gut lining. This means you should avoid processed refined foods such as sugar, grains (gluten-free breads and cereals), and processed oils. Full your diet with whole-foods which are innately gluten-free such as vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. If these issues are still not clearing up, then it’s best to speak with a dietitian to get to the bottom of what else can be done with diet.
If eating a whole-food diet, which means choosing mostly natural minimally processed foods, there should be no nutritional disadvantage to living gluten-free.
One of the problems with self-diagnosis is the uncertainty around trace exposure, cross contamination. If a person isn’t diagnosed it’s easy to get caught by thinking that a “one-off” exposure won’t hurt. Since there’s no consensus around how to clearly determine non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, it ends up being totally up to the individual to determine what is a safe level of exposure based on personal experience and health history.