The New York Times Weighs In on Celiac Disease
On June 19th the New York Times published a web article with the title “Who Really Needs to Be Gluten-Free?” They of course give the token nod to celiac disease sufferers – knowing that if anyone has to be gluten-free it’s them. But then they go into the fact that many, possibly millions of people are walking around with celiac disease and they don’t even know it. The Dr. Murray they interviewed also stresses the importance of having the celiac blood test done, and it’s here I feel the need to broadcast my opinion.
The good doctor says that ” “Contrary to what many people think, a gluten-free diet is not necessarily a healthy diet,” Dr. Murray said. “When people with celiac go on it, they often gain weight, especially fat weight, because they are no longer malabsorbing nutrients. They are also more likely to develop metabolic syndrome.” Um, yeah, if they don’t take a second or two to learn about healthy nutrition which is basically, don’t eat high=glycemic index garbage with no nutritional value. You can eat a really healthy gluten-free diet after just reading a few blog posts. Seriously. Why this doctor didn’t take the opportunity to stress that fact? The complaint about a gluten-free diet being problematic needs to be taken with a few grains of salt. Just like any other way of eating, the gluten-free diet has its good and bad choices to be made within. Why’s the doctor knocking it without making the fact clear?
The article also seems to be complaining that people are self-treating their possible celiac disease by avoiding gluten. I may be reading it wrong, but there seems to be some sort of problem with that. People are encouraged to get the blood test for something they can deal with just by choosing to eat or not eat certain foods – there seems to be a bit of finger-wagging urging people to take a blood test that will have no practical outcome on the treatment of the disease. Why is that even an issue?
As Alice Bast, CEO of Beyond Celiac makes clear in her response to this article, “‘You have celiac disease. Go gluten-free and you’ll be fine.’ That’s the message that so many in our community – the minority that have received an actual diagnosis – hear when they get the news. For most of us, that’s it. We’re left to fend for ourselves even though research is showing that up to one-third of people with celiac disease continue to experience intestinal damage caused by the body’s immune response to gluten despite trying to adhere to a gluten-free diet. We feel so abandoned by the medical system that one-quarter of us haven’t bothered to go back to our doctor in the past five years. Those of us with celiac disease know that there’s a real need for alternative treatments to replace or supplement the gluten-free diet.” Until then, you’re only telling people to go gluten-free anyway. So what the heck do they need a blood test for that may not even work?
DISCLAIMER: I am speaking of adults who think they have celiac disease, not children with possible allergies or other issues.
My husband’s celiac disease did not show up on the blood test. The blood test doesn’t necessarily work for everyone – at the time my husband was diagnosed, doctors were posting about the problem that celiac blood testing isn’t very accurate. But the thing that gets my goat is the fact that the word endoscopy was not even mentioned as the second step when it comes to getting a real diagnosis. As I said, the celiac disease did not show up on the blood test and my husband suffered for months before they decided to do the endoscopy. You write an article like this, and you don’t even mention a basic fact like endoscopies being the second step in diagnosis, even with a positive blood test? A biopsy of the small intestine is the only way to diagnose celiac disease.
Come on -I know the New York Times is fake news at its best, but this was just shoddy reporting all around… as usual.