TOas soon as I received the diagnosis celiac disease, that is, after a diagnosis with specific blood tests e gastroscopy with biopsy, it’s time to revolutionize your eating habits. Starting with the shopping. You must first learn to read the labels and recognize the safe products. But it’s not enough. It is also necessary to know how to choose the best products, to avoid eating an incomplete or unbalanced diet, with too much sugar and little variety. We talked about it with Doctor Marta Civettini, dietician and nutritionist specializing in celiac disease, consultant at pr Le Smart Clinic del San Donato Group in the clinics dedicated to celiac disease in Bergamo and Milan.
Celiac disease: how to choose gluten-free products?
How to choose the new foods that will enter the diet after the diagnosis of celiac disease? How to read the label and what mistakes to avoid? It is not enough to buy products that say “gluten-free” or the crossed out red ear of wheat logo. Some precautions are needed to ensure the person with celiac diseasesafe but nutritious diet, without substance deficiencies which could negatively affect your metabolism and health.
Healthy celiac disease, first rule: vary the cereals allowed
«First of all it is It is essential to vary as much as possible the diet, starting from gluten-free cereals”, recommends Doctor Civettini. Don’t just choose rice and corn pastabut also vary by choosing pasta based on other cereals. Now fortunately companies aim to make products very similar to those with gluten, no longer too rich in sugars and fats.”
Doctor Marta Civettini, dietician and nutritionist specializing in celiac disease, consultant at the San Donato Group in the clinics dedicated to celiac disease in Bergamo and Milan
Why is the ingredient list longer?
If for “normal” products with gluten it is preferable to choose a label with a list of very few ingredients, things change for those with celiac disease. AND It is normal for the ingredient labels on gluten-free foods to be longer than those with gluten.
«We must not compare them to products with gluten: by removing gluten you remove many useful properties to make a product palatable. The gluten makes dough more elastic, retains the gases in the dough creating a gluten network allowing a better leavening. That’s why it’s needed insert a series of ingredients in gluten-free dough that do the same thing that gluten does. Other than that, gluten-free product companies prefer increase the variety of cereal flours permittedi, consequently increasing the length of the ingredient list. In this way, not only will the nutrients and therefore the quality of the product from a nutritional point of view increase, but it will also make it more pleasant and acceptable in taste”, explains Doctor Civettini., clarifies Doctor Civettini.
Pay attention to the glycemic index
When you look at the labels of gluten-free products you always think that they are unhealthy products because they are full of starches that can increase the glycemic index of the product itself. This may be true on the one hand, but fortunately today companies are able to partially balance this problem inserting a series of fibers in order to search to lower the glycemic index. It is important that each patient, depending on their situation (diabetes for example, or lactose intolerance) follows a tailor-made diet suitable for avoiding nutritional deficiencies”, explains the Doctor Marta Civettini.
Celiac disease and thickeners
Thickeners on the label are not always “evil”. «All those “E”s inside gluten-free products represent thickeners, colorants, preservatives, which can be useful for improving the performance of the product itself. For example the psyllium cuticleL’hydroxypropyl methylcellulose they are thickeners that they help amalgamate the different ones ingredientswhich otherwise would not go together without gluten» continues the expert.
Fats, almost always vegetable in gluten-free products
Over the years, companies have increasingly improved the recipe of their gluten-free products, so much so that they end up having products that are very similar to glutinous ones even when it comes to fats, lowering especially the saturated ones.
Variety of flours and fibre
«To have a complete product it must be there variety of flours and fiber. Sugar serves to make a sweet product palatable, obviously, but it’s good do not choose products with a high sugar or starch content so as not to raise the glycemic index. The question of starches, which are included in gluten-free products because they create cohesion of the dough, make it softer and more similar to the product with gluten. Making a dough only with rice flour, water and oil does not work, because there is no thickener or starch to rebalance the dough and ensure that it rises and is not difficult to digest”, recommends Doctor Civettini.
Not just corn and rice
Corn and rice are poorer from a nutritional point of view, it is better to alternate them with teff, sorghum, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, etc. «Once again, I focus a lot on the variety aspect. In fact, it is essential for the health of celiacs and for everyone. By having a more restrictive diet you risk more deficiencies. Each cereal has its own characteristics and content of nutrients, vitamins and mineral salts. By being able to vary as much as possible, nutritional needs are better covered. Buckwheat is an excellent quality alternative, but it has a very strong and particular flavor that not everyone likes. Teff is a little-known cereal but very rich in iron, in 100g of teff paste there is approximately 11g of ironalmost 80% of our needs daily.
The brand of gluten-free foods
Celiac disease, because it can appear even at an advanced age
«It’s an autoimmune disease, like type 1 diabetes or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It can occur in different stages of life, from weaning to adulthood and advanced age. The factors that trigger the disease are the presence of gluten in the diet, obviously, and predisposition genetics. However, these are necessary but not sufficient factors for the development of the disease. Many people have a genetic predisposition and eat gluten, but only 1% of the Italian population develops the pathology”, concludes Doctor Civettini.
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