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Getting out the gluten.

Article Excerpt
Getting out the gluten

Growing numbers of people are avoiding wheat and other grains because of celiac disease.

Gluten seems to be the food ingredient non grata these days. Bakers are coming up with recipes for gluten-free cupcakes and baguettes. Anheuser-Busch sells Redbridge, a gluten-free beer made from sorghum. And, of course, times being what they are, you can easily slip into an Internet swirl of blogs and Twittering about gluten-free foods. It's not just talk: cash registers are ringing. By some estimates, the sales of gluten-free foods have tripled since 2004.

Gluten-free food has become more popular partly because doctors are diagnosing more cases of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder whose symptoms are triggered by gluten, the protein content in wheat, barley, rye, and spelt (an ancient form of wheat that's catching on as a health food). Celiac specialists say the disease isn't diagnosed as often as it should be. As a result, many people suffer with it for years, often after getting other * and incorrect * diagnoses and useless treatments.

But a growing number of the people dodging gluten fall into a gray area: they don't have celiac disease but seem to be unable to digest gluten properly. There are no tests or strict criteria for this problem, aside from simple trial and error with a gluten-free diet. Often people self-diagnose. It's hard to know what's going on. Some people may be getting caught up in a food fad. But many others probably do have a real problem digesting gluten or perhaps the sugars in some of these grains, a condition akin to the lactose intolerance that makes it hard for many people to digest dairy foods. Their problem is not as well-defined or...

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