Body: The guts of the matter
| 28 April 2010
Helen Razer goes gluten free.
Recently, at dinner, I was seated next to an Executive Assistant whose likeness will stay with me for two reasons. First, she said my demeanour brought to mind Lady Gaga. Who was I to argue? Second, she alerted the waiter of her food sensitivity.
Of course, it is no longer uncommon to hear such things at dinner. When seated at a large table the litany of dietary requirements can go on longer than the soup course. Among those who spoke up about their intestines were vegetarians, pescaterians and a woman who had been on the Atkins Diet for so many years she was unable to form coherent sentences. It was my Executive Assistant, however, who was destined to take the sensitivity cake. “I’m fructose intolerant,” she said.
Such a rare, hereditary condition would be terribly unpleasant. Not only must one endure a life over-full with liver-function tests, one will be eternally denied a Pina Colada and any fruit-based cocktail.
While our Executive Assistant and her fructose intolerance is an exceptional one in 10,000 case, the number of us diagnosed with gluten intolerance is far more common.
Gluten, or, more particularly, the allergens and gluten found in wheat, is the new dietary villain.
It’s terribly difficult to sort out science from fact when it comes to gluten-sensitive enteropathy, or GSE. Some nutritionists will dismiss our new gluten-dodging as mere fad. But, we do know that Coeliac Disease, an immune disorder of the gut exacerbated by consumption of glutens, has increased prevalence.
Last year, the journal Gastroenterology estimated that the disorder had become four times more common than it was before World War II. Astonishingly, the Coeliac Society of Australia estimates that one in every 100 people in the nation suffers from the potentially debilitating disorder. According to the Society’s data, circa 160,000 Australians are undiagnosed.
There are some reliable markers to diagnose CD. If you have a distended gut, abdominal pain or stinky, light-coloured poop, you might think about undergoing the test. This pathology, by the way, requires that you continue eating gluten – so don’t dive into a vat of quinoa just yet.
Your CD can be tested, but a range of other GSEs cannot. Medical opinion on the prevalence of a sensitivity that cannot be dependably diagnosed is, of course, divided.
Dieticians may warn us to shun what they see as a vogue sensitivity. Often, though, our guts can provide the best evidence-medicine around.
As I was not taking a prize-winning dump every day and found it difficult to squeeze into my pencil skirt after pizza, I decided to try an elimination diet. That is, I resolved to remove wheat from the menu for two weeks. About seven days in, I was rewarded with championship craps and a slimmer silhouette.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that during this diet of exclusion, I paid keener attention to nutrition. My title-fight shit and a relatively tiny waistline could have easily been the result of all those frigging healthy beans I ate. Nonetheless, I was so content with the result that I have resolved to modify my wheat consumption.
For me, a reduced dress size is a compelling argument. However, scientific suggestion that an excessive consumption of wheat has modified our tolerance to it seems to make good sense.
Oh. Bugger it. Who am I kidding? It’s all about the good poo and the figure. And, more to the point, the opportunity to say, “I’m intolerant” with impunity at restaurants.
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