Friday, October 15, 2010

Should you be eliminating wheat from your child's diet?

     Recent studies at the University of Maryland show that children are becoming more and more intolerant to gluten and celiac acids over the past 30 years. The study shows that people are losing their tolerance to gluten, gluey protein, barley and rye as they grow older. This inability to digest gluten has been found in some child when they were born, a genetic disorder. This is now recognized as a common problem in the health of children, often causing problems such as bloating, diarrhea and constipation. However, the people unable to digest gluten will suffer from more serious health issues later on in life, as scientists have pointed out. This inability of absorb the nutrients, protein and fibre will lead to a unhealthy lifestyle. Many parents; however, are skeptical of putting their children on a gluten-free diet because gluten-free foods are very high in calories and sugar; such as cookies.

     While more increasing numbers of people are becoming intolerant to gluten in wheat, it is still a necessity to a good diet and a healthy lifestyle. A possible solution to this upcoming diet problem can be to release a product to the public that contains the nutrients, vitamins and protein that is present in wheat but to extract out the gluten, celiac acids and barley out. This will be similar to milk and lactose-free milk; as some people are lactose-intolerant and are unable to consume normal milk. I don't think parents should get too concerned with this issue if their child is not affected, do not restrict certain products from their diet as this can cause even more serious problems due to a lack of nutrition. On the other hand, if your child is affected by this problem, close monitoring of his diet may be of help. Furthermore, replacing wheat products with alternatives that provide the same nutritions are another solution. 

1 comment:

  1. It is very interesting that children are becoming more and more intolerance in the last 30 years because of genetic disorder from their parents or their ancestry. Scientifically, it demonstrates the health problems, digestive problems in this case, of oneself can actually pass on to the next generation. I agree with Lyndon's solution of producing foods that contains the nutrients, vitamins and protein that is present in wheat but not include gluten. This is because it allows people to still be able to absorb the necessary nutrients for daily life, but not being affected by the disadvantage of gluten. On the other hand, there are also other methods to solve the problem. It is possible for biologists to find out methods, such as creating medicine, to make people less intolerant to the gluten inside wheat and to recover from celiac diseases. In addition, I think it is important for the government to adjust the regulations for food packaging, so that products containing gluten can be highlighted or recognized. This makes people who are suffering gluten-intolerance or celiac diseases. It also helps parents to choose food for their children.

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