I saw an interesting article from The Gluten Free Society named Celiac Patients React to Gluten-Free Bread. The article claims that corn contains gluten and is just as damaging as the gluten from wheat, rye and barley and they point to some studies to back up their stance. The studies appear to have some holes in them just from my cursory readings.
After reading it, my first thought was how much of that corn was GMO? Organic? Surely the body could have an immune reaction to a GMO grain and not react to the same grain in non-GMO form?
The GFS appears to be against celiacs consuming any grain in any form, at any time, for the rest of their lives. Personally, I never tested as having any reaction to corn, even when I did react to it. My reaction healed within six months of going off of corn and was gone. That was years ago, and now I can consume corn and any other gluten-free grain without any reaction or problems. While I do support trying a grain-free diet to those whose symptoms do not resolve with going gluten and dairy-free alone, I do not feel it is necessary for everyone and in every instance. I was able to heal without it and I know others have healed without it. I am concerned about the long-term ability to stick to a very restricted diet and the possible lack of certain nutrients found in such a diet, IF it is not necessary for healing. If it is necessary, I wholeheartedly endorse it.
What do you think? Did you have to go grain-free to recover from your allergies or was just going off of wheat, rye, barley and dairy enough? How long did it take you to heal?
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KerryAnn Foster runs Cooking Traditional Foods, the longest running Traditional Foods Menu Mailer on the internet. KerryAnn has over nine years of traditional foods experience and is a former Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader. Founded in 2005, CTF helps you feed your family nourishing foods they will love. Each mailer contains one soup, five dinners, one breakfast, on dessert and extras. You can learn more about our Menu Mailers at the CTF website. For a free sample Menu Mailer, join our mailing list. You can also join our forum to chat with other traditional foodists and learn more.
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Unfortunately, a misuse of the term by the corn industry has become common in recent years. It has become fairly common to call corn storage proteins corn gluten. Personally, I think there is no justification for such usage. Corn may contain prolamins, as does wheat, but not gluten.
In any case, as far as we know, corn does not seem to cause harm to celiac patients. Corn has not been studied in the extensive way that wheat has in relation to celiac disease, but for 40+ years patients and their physicians have seemed to agree that corn is OK. The sequences in the corn zein (prolamin) fraction are suspicious, but they do differ in an apparently crucial way from the protein sequences of the wheat gliadin (prolamin) fraction. There have been no modern biopsy-based studies of the effects of purified corn proteins on the celiac intestine as there have been for wheat, but the mass of evidence still seems to point in the direction of corn being safe for celiac patients.
Organic corn on the cob is your best choice, for obvious reasons we do not want to eat GMO. A person should avoid processed food and canned corn which are loaded with sugar, salt and at times gluten depending on the product that the corn has been added to.
If you can find organic corn on the cob I recommend eating it, it is nutrient dense and has health benefits.
Corn is a good source of vitamin B1, vitamin B5, folate, dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorus and manganese.
The niacin (vitamin B3) in corn is not readily available for absorption into the body, and lime helps free this B vitamin, making it available for absorption. I make a quinoa pasta salad with fresh corn and add lime to it etc….which helps with the absorption of b3 and it makes a great summer time dish.
We really need to use discernment with everything we read because we have no idea where the person posting the information got it from and how much research was actually done. Also we are all biochemically different so not everyone can eat the same thing but again plain ole corn on the cob doesn’t have gluten.
Have a wonderful day!
The thing that bothered me about the studies they were pointing to as the basis for their claim was giving people both wheat and corn and measuring the outcomes. You can expect a person who reacts to gluten to have severe reactions, and accessory allergies due to the proteins leaking into the gut wall. If they’re going to claim this, they need better studies that remove this issue and use celiacs whose guts have healed.
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I have a friend who was diagnosed 3+ years ago with advanced stage celiac disease. After going gluten free, but continuing to eat gluten-free grains (including GMO corn), her follow-up small intestine biopsy showed her lining had “healed.” I’ve been told similar stories by others. I haven’t seen the evidence yet that corn should be lumped with wheat, barley et al for celiac sufferers.
KerryAnn – I agree with your comment. There’s more research needed before definitive statements can be made. Because a messed up gut can cause all sorts of problems, a person can have celiac disease and also have several other concurrent problems, but that doesn’t mean all those other problems should be lumped with celiac disease by default. Between protein, carbohydrates and food chemicals, there are a number of things that could be triggering a reaction in someone.
Gloria – You bring up an important issue in the world of food – definitions. I really wish there could be agreement on how to define components of food.
When my youngest had reflux, he reacted terribly the few times I consumed GMO corn. With GMO-free sprouted corn he did fine. I later learned that GMO corn is full of disgusting bacteria. A few night ago I was reading in Nourishing Traditions about soaking corn or corn flour in lime water and how doing so helps to release “nicotinamide (vitamin B3), which otherwise remains bound up in the grain.” It went on to say that “soaking also improves the amino acid quality of proteins in corn.” “To make lime water, place about 1 inch pickling lime in a 2-quart jar. Fill jar with filtered water, shake well, cover tightly and let stand overnight. The powder will settle and the resultant clear liquid is lime water. Store in a cool place (refrigeration not necessary)”
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Rebekah thank you for sharing that info, much appreciated.
Rebekah, I’ve heard similar before from other nursing moms. Quite interesting! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I probably ought to mention that he was getting the corn through my breastmilk ; )
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I have Celiac Disease, and continued to have adverse reactions even when I was 100% faithful to my gluten free diet. It took a long time for me to be very sure that it is not just gluten that is bad for my body, but any kind of grain can make me very sick. The thing that made it so difficult to nail down the grain issue in my case, is that my reaction to non gluten grains is cumulative and not immediate. I can be eating the offending grain for weeks or months before I start becoming too sick to function. By the time I notice any reaction at all, the situation is severe. The common denominator is always that non gluten grains have crept back into my diet. Gluten makes me sick immediately, but other grains make me sick in the long term. In the last few months I have been experimenting with a low carb, gluten free, naturally fermented bread which was quite tasty. I loved it until I suddenly became dreadfully sick. Eliminating the bread helped me clear up the episode, and left me questioning why I try so hard to hold on to bread in any form.
I had an interesting conversation recently with a doctor who was volunteering at a local health fair. I thought I had rhumatoid arthritis and went to that particular screening. After taking the blood test, the doctor did a quick exam of my joints and said that I showed no signs of true arthritis. I asked him what could cause my joints to ache so much and he said that people with celiac disease often have achy and swollen joints even when they are 100% gluten free. This tells me that there must be some underlying cause of celiac that goes beyond gluten reactions alone. That is why I tend to be on the side of caution when the question of non gluten grains comes up. I know that I feel better and am healthier when grains are not a part of my diet.
I understand the concern about a diet that becomes unbalanced due to extreme restrictions, but there are many foods that provide the nutrition of grains without the problems. Starchy vegetables, fruits and seeds such as amaranth can make up for what is missing in a grain free diet. I feel so much healthier and function so much better when my body is not trying to cope with grains, that I don’t miss them at all.
Linda, I absolutely agree with trying grain-free if you have symptoms. My concern is over unnecessarily eliminating grains, which seems to be the trendy thing to do right now. I’ve met a number of people trying diets like GAPS who have no symptoms or other health problems. If you have symptoms, by all means, find and eliminate the offending foods, no matter what they may be.
The truth is all of mankind can survive just fine without grains. Very sad to know that the US new food pyramid has grains at the top of the food pyramid.
Curious Linda do you have sensitive to pasteurized cows milk? My children, myself and my husband are tolerating raw goats meat beautifully.
I don’t drink milk because of the sugar content; haven’t had any pasteruized milk in years and years.. But I do eat raw cheeses and do well with them as long as I don’t overdo it. I also allow myself 4 oz raw ilk kefir per day.
After 5 years, I can tolerate raw milk with no symptoms. I just gain 15 pounds overnight. Literally. So I’m still off of dairy until that resolves.