As I have begun talking about my food restrictions, I have been getting a lot of questions from people who want to understand the nature of them. I essentially have two different conditions that require me to avoid different foods. The first is celiac disease, the second is eosinophilic esophagitis.
Celiac disease is essentially an autoimmune condition that attacks the villi. In healthy individuals, the villi are small fingerlike projections in the small intestine that are responsible for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. If you spread out your fingers, you'll notice that there is a lot of space between each individual finger. However, if you close them there is no longer much space. I like to use this visual to explain to people how celiac disease affects me. If I were to eat gluten, my immune system would start to attack my villi and over time make them more like the closed fingers. There is no longer much surface area in the small intestine to absorb nutrients, so many nutrients do not get absorbed. In my case, I did not grow or develop at all between the time I was four until the time I was six because my body couldn't absorb anything.
Gluten intolerance (or Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity as I've sometimes heard it called) is different. Most of these individuals simply don't feel well when they consume gluten. They may be able to tolerate small amounts of gluten, but generally they do not feel well. I've heard of cases where gluten may act as a trigger in autoimmune conditions or other cases where it's simply an intolerance. Like people with celiac disease, they don't feel well when they eat gluten, but they don't have the intestinal damage that occurs in people with celiac disease. This type of condition would probably be diagnosed after a blood test for celiac disease comes back negative.
The other issue I wanted to address in this post is the question as to how my other allergies relate to celiac disease. The answer is they are the result of a completely separate condition: eosinophilic esophagitis. An eosinophil is a type of white blood cell that is involved in allergic reactions. During an allergic reaction, they may cause inflammation in some parts of the body, in my case my esophagus. This condition wasn't diagnosed until I was 14, after I had been gluten free for years. The specific foods that cause me trouble are milk and soy. I also have a mild allergy to eggs, but since I can tolerate them in small amounts, I still tend to use eggs in my recipes. The condition is in no way related to lactose intolerance since it is the milk proteins that trigger the allergic reaction. Milk just happens to be one of the foods that my body reacts to.
I'm hoping that this post answers some questions I've been getting from people. Earlier today, I updated the pages on this blog and also added a contact form on the main page. If you ever have any questions that you would like for me to answer, feel free to submit it via that form and I will try to get back to you as soon as I am able to.
