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It's free! On this episode of the Daily Dollar, I'm finalizing my chat with dietitian Stephanie Leckis about gluten. We're going to talk more about celiac disease, fructan intolerances, and some important points on managing your long-term health with these conditions. It's dollop time.
Hey, hey, my name's Kate. I'm a registered nutritionist, and after 20 years in the field of nutrition, I'm tired of seeing people stressed about eating and confused about where to start. And so, I'm changing the conversation. You deserve to feel confident in your food choices and empower to maximize your health.
Every weekday will dollop an episode into your feed, covering everything from busting nutrition myths, practical food ideas, my thoughts on trending topics, and habits for a healthy life. My promise to you, it will always be sustainable, realistic, restriction-free, and strictly no-woo. Only good science translated into easy, everyday advice. Let's do this.
Welcome back to the Daily Dollar Podpass, everyone. I've got Steph back on the show. Hi, Steph. Hi.
And we're just going to finish the chat on gluten celiac disease and now fructans, which we talked about in yesterday's episode. I hope you're learning something new. I certainly am. I always do when I talk to Steph.
In fact, it's like a daily occurrence. I'm like, gosh, every time I talk to Steph, I learn something new. Do you want me? So many lessons.
And you know what? Important life point. If we're not continually learning, right? And just moving forward in that way, I think that's sad.
I enjoy continually learning. So thank you for contributing that to my life and to the lives of our listeners on the show. I super appreciate it. So I've been left with some questions, Steph, for the last episode.
And I've got a few things that I just need to pick your brain about. Cool. And I'm going to... There's some challenging ones, so...
I'm braced. Be prepared. So we talked about celiac disease. And that there are other things in food, aka fructans, that can trigger similar symptoms.
So can someone just avoid these trigger foods, right? And then, and not worrying about going down the diagnostic path, considering that the diagnostic process for celiac disease is not a very nice one. Tell me about this. Can they just avoid the foods that upset their tummy?
I'd really rather they didn't. Why go down the diagnostic path? Yeah. It's a great question.
And you've read a wonderful point there. It's not an amazing thing to do if you really get those physical symptoms. It's not fun. But it is super important.
And it's super important because celiac disease is a chronic health condition. That needs to be taken seriously, not just because of the way people feel when they have gluten, but because of the physiological damage that is happening, if any amount of gluten is had. The flow and effects of that include micronutrient deficiencies. And you're also at a greater risk of other autoimmune conditions because celiac disease is an autoimmune condition and they tend to cluster.
So if you have one, it's a matter of can I collect the set, unfortunately? That's a terrible way of putting it, I know. But we do see that they cluster. And so if you have a diagnosis of celiac disease, what that means is your medical team is hopefully on it and is doing some screening tests for you before any of these associated conditions can become a problem.
So every year they're looking for different deficiencies. They're looking at your thyroid function. They're looking at your blood glucose. And these are tests that aren't necessarily done just for the sake of it, especially younger people.
So if you're, in one word term, a younger age bracket, you're possibly not going to the GP all the time. You're possibly not getting health checks done. If there's no reason to look at your thyroid on your blood sugar level, why would we be looking at your thyroid on your blood sugar level? So having a diagnosis of celiac disease means that these things are actually being looked at.
They're being monitored so that if something does pop up, it can be nipped in the bar. It can be treated early rather than escalating. And then you have multiple conditions that are difficult to manage. So it's super important that you get that diagnosis so that you can get that support if it's required.
And just last thing on that, Medicare also sees these as an issue. So Medicare will give you a rebate for a bone density scan every couple of years if you have diagnosed celiac disease at any age. Usually you don't get those in those bulk billing rebates unless you are much older. But you can get these done at any age for osteoporosis screening because we know that that is something that can go hand in hand with celiac disease.
You can get that done at the beginning of your celiac journey when you're just diagnosed. And then you can have that in the years following to check that things are still on track or improving if they weren't on track in the first place. So essentially, if you do have celiac disease, it is super important that it gets diagnosed so that you can get that support. You can do all the screening that needs to be done.
And from a financial perspective so that you can get a little bit of help with this because it can be an expensive condition to manage. It also means that if you are properly diagnosed, you can be a member of celiac Australia. They are a great support for people with celiac disease. And they also include a discount on some of the foods that you would need to be having to stay on a gluten-free diet.
Yeah, they've got a 5% discount on certain gluten-free foods. A supermarket that doesn't sponsor us. Non-sponsored advice. So essentially, you're running the risk then of being like, well, I'm just going to avoid my trigger foods and not go down the diagnosis path.
But essentially, you're putting yourself at risk of one, not coming off gluten fully because we can't just have trace amounts on celiac disease, can we? That's right. No trace amounts are allowed. So if you're not diagnosed, the attitude tends to be, oh, that's okay.
We can use the same chopping board for our watermelon and our bread. We can have chips that are done in the same fryer as the battered fish. And that's not okay on celiac disease. And there's also a whole lot of education that we do when someone is diagnosed with celiac disease that we don't have to do if someone isn't.
So there might be some information that you'll be seeing if you don't have that diagnosis. Yeah. So you're running the risk of not fully taking it out and then eventually that causing damage and then ongoing health problems and complications as well. And missing out on the extra support.
So that's really interesting. I did not know any of that. So that was so good. So all right.
My next question is then, so you can't have trace amounts of gluten with celiac disease. It needs to be fully fully out. That's right. What about if you are the more rare a person who's walked away with a non celiac gluten sensitivity diagnosis?
Can they have trace amounts of gluten? You're really pulling up the curly questions. No, I just my brain. I just can't help it.
I mean, if we break that down, if we break that down, you've gone through the process of looking for celiac disease. It hasn't been found, which means there hasn't been a physical damage to your gut, but you are still getting symptoms. Either this is just a thing for you, or there's an untiagnosed rook-tan in tolerance. If it's just a thing for you, or it's an undiagnosed rook-tan in tolerance, we know that those things are about symptom management.
And I will use the word only or just here, but I'm definitely not using that lightly because it's only don't feel very good. It really is awful. I'm not trying to say that it isn't an awful feeling, but it is using my air quotes just about symptom management in intolerances. And so if we take that information, then it would stand to a reason that if you don't have celiac disease, but you do feel that you get some symptoms from eating barley rye or wheat, that perhaps you can have the amounts that you feel okay with.
So if you're not getting a reaction, then there's no need to cut it out that amount. Although, like I did mention in a previous episode, there is that slight chance that you still have celiac disease, but it was too early for it to be diagnosed. So if we're talking about somebody that is truly not celiac, then those trace amounts aren't going to be a problem if you don't feel the symptoms when you have them. Yeah, and I think that is an important distinction.
And again, like you said, not minimizing people's experience, but in the case of celiac disease, we've got symptoms and damage to villi in the small intestine that then over time leads to poor health. That's right. And in the case of an intolerance, then we've got the symptoms, but it's not damaging our gut in some way. You're just having to put up with feeling crappy until it passes.
Is that right? Yeah, that's right. It's just about symptom management. Yeah, so interesting.
So if you do, then find out that you're intolerant to fructans. So that means that trace amounts are okay. Yeah. And this is the really interesting thing with fructans is that because it's an intolerance, that kind of means like it implies, that there is a level of tolerance.
So it's about finding what is that level of tolerance for you. Now, for some people, it might be a piece of bread, which is a decent schwack, right? That's a big piece. Yeah.
For other people, it might be the crumbs on a schnitzel of fun. So, and just to further complicate this, it might be that on some days you're okay with the half, with the whole piece of bread, and on other days you're only okay with half. And this is, yeah, this is a tricky thing with intolerances is that because they are additive, what that means is they sort of go on top of each other. So, for example, if you were to have half a week mix crumbled over your otherwise fructan-free breakfast, and you feel fine, and then you go, okay, well, that was all right.
So maybe tomorrow I'll have two weeks. I'll just, that's what I'll have the breakfast. And you get a reaction to that. And you think, okay, well, it was the amount of week mix fine.
That's super easy. I can see in my mind that the amount made a big difference. And that's a little bit more clear. But there are other instances where you've had that half a week mix and you felt fine.
And then you had a product that had trace amounts of flour in it, and you felt fine. Why wouldn't you? It's only trace amounts of flour. And then by the end of the day, you think, oh, cookie would be great.
Clothic cookie. Have a normal cookie with maybe regular wheat flour. And then the next day you wake up and you're like, oh, I'm bloated. So, it's that added to your digestive system.
And for some people, it can be in the digestive system for up to three days. So we're not necessarily looking at the last thing you ate and going, oh, you're intolerant to that. It might be that the last thing you ate was the same thing that you ate that time three days ago. If you're having the same thing for lunch, for example, every day.
But it's very difficult to put the blame on something without a systematic kind of process or a scientific eye, a detective per chance, to actually get to the bottom of these things. Because they can get quite complicated. By what else have you eaten that day? Do you have other intolerances?
Is it actually not the frick down at all? There's another curveball for you, okay? Other things we can be intolerant to, right? Yeah, exactly.
I have a client say to me, oh, you know, I don't feel great when I have pasta. It's like, okay, well, is it the pasta or is it the very creamy sauce that's on that pasta? Is it the pasta or is it the fact that you eat it really quickly? Because you feel guilty for eating it.
You shouldn't feel good if you're in pasta or something like that. But some people do. Yes, but some people do. And so the way that they feel about the food means that they eat it faster.
And if you eat something faster, you're getting more air in and if you're getting more air in, you're bound to get bloated. If you go, oh, pasta blokes me, I must have a problem with gluten. And I can see how that comes about, right? Because of what we are fed, not just literally but in social media and all over the place and gluten gets this name for being a thing that can be problematic.
But sometimes we just need to take a breath, take a step back and go, hey, I thought pasta really quickly and it was creamy. And sometimes higher, richer foods, creamier foods can upset my tummy. And on top of that, I just had a whole lot of air, so I feel bloated. Do I have to see the act of disease?
No, do I have a gluten sensitivity? No, do I have a forkdance? You're probably not that either. So this is where saying a dietitian comes in, right?
Because we're able to do that really in-depth assessment and go, how are you eating, not just what are you eating and when is it happening? I love that. But to answer your original question about a trace amount is okay. Yeah, they are.
And for some people, more than trace amounts can be okay. And because forkdance are found in all the same places as gluten in whole foods, they're not necessarily in manufactured foods. They might even make some things that you can really liberalize. And this is another reason that you want to get diagnosed because, oh, go down the process, go through the process of being diagnosed.
Because if you don't have celiac disease, you can actually be a little bit more liberal. You can buy the regular soy sauce, for example, soy sauce, gluten in it, but it doesn't have forkdance. I love this. So thank you so much, Stef, for being on the show.
I think the take-home point from all of this is to remember that nutrition and our food system and the food matrix and the way we eat is really complex. And it is important that we don't oversimplify these things for ourselves and make eating more complicated than it needs to be. And often unpacking all of this can then help make eating stress free for you as an individual. So make sure you check out the link in the show notes.
You can do a free 30-minute strategy session with Stef if you'd like to investigate any gut symptoms that you might be experiencing. But thanks for being on the show, Stef. Love it, as always. You're very welcome.
Thanks for having me. Bye, everyone. See you later, guys. We'll catch you in the next episode.
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Until next time.