I’ve always been a little frustrated with how little coverage celiac disease and gluten intolerance receive in the mainstream media. So I was glad to find this article by Anna Seaton Huntington in the New York Times.

Does the following sound familiar to you?

Mimi Winsberg never knew that the energy bars and pasta that sustained her during endurance training were also making her ill. She had completed dozens of triathlons and marathons, but four years ago, when she was in her late 30s, her health and athletic performances rapidly and inexplicably spiraled downward.

It’s interesting that they look at it from an athletic perspective. And I’m relieved they discuss how under diagnosed gluten intolerance symptoms remain:

“Celiac is grossly under diagnosed in this country,” said Dr. Peter H. R. Green, a professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia and director of the university’s Celiac Disease Center. He said that at least 1 percent of the population had the disease but that only a fraction of the cases were diagnosed.

And please note this great but frustrating insight which may explain celiac goes undiagnosed so often and receives so little attention from the medical world:

Green said the current “lack of pharmaceutical backing for the disease” — the fact that it is controlled by diet, not drugs — was behind the scant research, medical education and public awareness. Doctors frequently miss the pattern within telltale symptoms of celiac, as happened to Winsberg and Hahn, Green said.

About the only thing really missing is a better explanation for what gluten is gluten, something many people don’t seem to really understand.

Read the whole article here: A Debilitating Disease That Is Often Unknown

And in case this whole gluten phenomenon is new to you, start here: What Is Gluten?