Now thatFootball season has arrived…which means football & friends. For those with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance this doesn’t mean you are left out in the cold while your buddies are cracking open the beers. Gluten-free beer does exist!
One of the key ingredients in beer is barley, which is a definite NO  for those on a gluten free diet. Since the rise in gluten free awareness in the past few years, the food and beverage industry has also followed suit. There are more and more gluten free options available now to accommodate those with celiac disease or a gluten intolerance.

Anheuser Busch, one of the most well known brewing companies in the world, has developed a gluten-free beer called Redbridge. It is made without wheat or barley, so the approximately 3.2 million consumers who are unable to drink beer made with barley due to celiac disease or because they follow a wheat-free or gluten-free diet can once again enjoy a great tasting beer. Redbridge is a rich, full-bodied lager brewed from sorghum for a well-balanced, moderately hopped taste. It is easy to find in larger grocery stores, as well as specialty wine & beer stores

  When you eat wheat do you notice digestive discomfort? Do you ever sneeze, wheeze or have a rash after consuming pizza, bread or other wheat based foods? If so, then you may have a wheat allergy. A wheat allergy is fundamentally different from a gluten intolerance

Wheat Allergy vs. Gluten Intolerance

Unfortunately you will find tons of misleading information on the web where people use the terms wheat allergy, gluten intolerance and even celiac disease interchangeably. However, these are not all the same condition.

• A Wheat Allergy is a histamine based allergic reaction. When a person with this allergy ingests wheat, a hypersensitive immune system produces antibodies known as IgE (Immunoglobulin E). When histamine stimulates H1 and H2 receptors, it triggers an inflammatory response in your body. Histamine helps dilate blood vessels so that white blood cells (in this case mast cells and basophils, specifically) can fight off the allergy trigger (called the allergen or antigen). As a result, more fluids enter the cells and skin. This causes swelling and other symptoms. An allergy is a type I hypersensitivity, implying it triggers an immediate response. Although most people associate Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) with allergies to fruits, nuts and vegetables, a wheat allergy may also manifest as a cross-reactive condition of OAS. Oral Allergy Syndrome is sometimes referred to as Pollen Foods Allergy Syndrome.
• Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system of a patient who ingested gluten (a composite protein found in grassy grains like wheat, , rye and barley) produces excessive antibodies (specifically AGA, EMA and Anti-tTG), which attack the walls of the small intestine (and possibly the cerebellum as well — see my Gluten Ataxia guide). Over time, exposure to gluten causes significant damage to the villi (or microvilli) along the lining of the small intestines and can lead to frustrating gastrointestinal problems at first and then serious malnutrition, which then catalyzes a long list of more severe consequences. Celiac disease symptoms include (but are not limited to) nutritional deficiencies like anemia, osteoporosis and weight loss. Some people also experience general digestive distress and indigestion, bloating and alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation. Celiac disease is a serious condition that can even lead to death if not treated in a timely manner. One problem with identifying celiac disease symptoms is that they may not manifest themselves in an obvious way at first, which leads many people to not understand their condition until serious damage to their small intestine has already begun.
• Gluten Intolerance, or Gluten Sensitivity, is similar to celiac disease (and many people use the two terms interchangeably, although recent research suggests a gluten sensitivity can manifest as a distinct entity separate from celiac sprue disease), but the difference is that people with gluten intolerance may have similar symptoms to someone with celiac disease, yet they might still have healthy villi in their small intestines. In some cases gluten intolerance is simply an early stage of celiac disease. Until recently, some people believed a non-celiac gluten sensitivity existed, but doctors and researchers remained skeptical. However, first a study in Australia and now a more recent study published in the BMC Medicine Journal finally corroborates this belief with real scientific data. What this means is that one can test negative for the various celiac disease tests (antibody check, intestinal biopsy, and celiac gene check — see gluten intolerance test for more on celiac testing) but still experience some degree of impairing gluten sensitivity.

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• Standard blood tests for gluten intolerance have a less than 30 percent accuracy rate. Would you tolerate that accuracy rate for a cancer, heart disease, or even pregnancy test? Gluten has to have significantly destroyed the gut wall for blood testing to be effective, and for many people that isn’t the case…especially if the brain, heart, or some other part of the body is the main target of attack.
• Current salivary tests produce false negatives due to the assessment of only one antibody of one wheat protein. Stool tests produce false negative and false positives due to specimen-interfering factors that alter the outcome of results.
• Current tests only screen for one component of wheat. Yet people can react to a single protein in wheat, or a combination of many proteins, peptides, and enzymes associated with wheat. Some people also have cross-reactivity to gluten. For instance, eating dairy can trigger a gluten-like immune response because the body sees them as one in the same.