Those with celiac disease have a 27 percent higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than those who can tolerate gluten: this was underlined by recent research conducted in the United Kingdom by analyzing the data of over two thousand celiacs present in the UK Biobank, a large population study which enrolled around half a million English people between 2006 and 2010 and is following them over time.
Risks for the heart and vessels
By following the patients for about twelve years, the researchers observed an increase in cardiovascular risk in celiacs and verified that the risk of heart attacks, coronary heart disease and the like increases as the time elapsed since diagnosis of the disease increases, reaching for example 34 percent in more so in those who have been celiac for over ten years. The hypothesized reasons range from the different diet of celiacs to the disease mechanisms, because those with celiac have a greater risk of other autoimmune diseases which in turn can affect cardiovascular risk. However, those with celiac disease who have not yet received the diagnosis or who eat gluten by mistake are certainly even more at risk: the ingestion of gluten maintains a constant local inflammatory process, therefore celiacs have a greater probability of experiencing problems related to malabsorption and the persistence of the symptoms for which celiac disease was diagnosed, such as polyneuropathies and headaches, recurrent miscarriages and infertility, osteopenia or osteoporosis.
Exclusion diet
Precisely for this reason it is important that celiacs eliminate all gluten from their diet, also because there is no quantity that can be considered tolerable: scrupulous (but not paranoid) attention to possible contamination is therefore necessary, i.e. the presence of very small quantities of gluten where none there should be. The foods that are definitely prohibited are cereals that contain gluten such as wheat (wheat, also kamut or einkorn), spelt, barley, rye, oats, spelt, triticale; all flours, starches, semolina and products prepared with prohibited cereals (pasta, gnocchi, bread, biscuits, crackers, muesli but also seitan, a classic veg food which is a concentrate of gluten); wheat germ, bran and malt from prohibited cereals, bulgur and couscous from prohibited cereals, seitan, tabbouleh. Also no to products that are breaded, floured, mixed with breadcrumbs or sauces thickened with flour, malted yoghurts or cereals. You cannot drink barley coffee or instant coffees containing malt or barley, nor beer made from barley and/or wheat malt. For example, cereal mixes, malt extracts, canned meat and fish, surimi, baby food, dairy products with added thickeners, preparations for soups and purees, preserved vegetables, preparations for drinks are at risk. , chocolate, sweets.
Allowed foods
Gluten-free cereals are rice, corn, buckwheat, amaranth, sorghum and teff grains, cassava, millet and quinoa seeds; meat, fish, eggs, raw ham, milk, cheese, natural, Greek or creamy white yogurt without the addition of flavorings or other substances, all vegetables and fruit, legumes, mushrooms are also permitted; you can drink coffee or tea; honey, sugar, fructose, maltodextrins and glucose syrups can be used for sweetening. A complete list of prohibited, permitted and risky foods can be found on website of the Italian Celiac Association.
2023-12-09 08:15:37
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