Kaili McIntyre, a Shoreline baker, suffered for 13 years of debilitating joint pain.
“Four years after my last child, I fell apart. I couldn’t walk, my knees hurt, bones, muscles hurt. My skin was irritated, I was suffering,” McIntyre said.
Doctors thought she had Polymyositis, an inflammatory muscle disease, but she noticed every time she’d pull out the flour to bake with, she would start a sneezing fit. McIntyre thought it might be connected to an allergy. She later found out she has an intolerance to gluten, a peptide found in wheat, rye, barley and some oats.
The condition, also called Celiac disease, causes the small intestine to not be able to absorb nutrients. The genetic disease can cause osteoporosis in young men and women, anemia, infertility, stunts growth in children, and can even turn deadly, causing diabetes, thyroid disease and cancer if left untreated, said Cynthia Kupper, a nurse and dietitian who is executive director of the Gluten Intolerance Group, a national organization that supports gluten intolerant people. Children in Italy are routinely screened for the disease.
“One in every 133 people have Celiac disease, and it’s the most under-diagnosed disease today,” said Kupper, who also suffers from it. “The body sees the protein gluten as something that shouldn’t be there and attacks it, like a virus, in a process that produces antibodies which damage the small intestine.”
Many people allergic to wheat are actually allergic to gluten, said Doctor Stephen Wangen, a food allergy doctor who practices in Bothell.
The symptoms cause it to often be misdiagnosed and range from diarrhea, constipation, joint pain, dermatitis, anxiety, depression, insomnia, migraine headaches, sinusitis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and others.
While it’s a genetic disease, Wangen said an historical viewpoint can draw some ideas as to its development.
“For thousands of years, people ate mostly plants they found edible, berries, wild game and fish,” he said. “When agriculture sprang up, we started growing wheat and introduced much higher quantities of certain types of food into our diet. It’s my guess that’s where we started having bigger troubles. We haven’t evolved to digest or break down or tolerate it. We are not designed to eat all those refined carbohydrates we eat on a daily basis.”
Treatment of Celiac disease requires a wheat and gluten-free diet — a simple answer, but almost impossible to practice.
Gluten-free means no breads, pastas, cereals, crackers, cakes, waffles, pancakes, bagels or beer. It also may mean no modified food or processed foods like fast food, lunch meats or snack foods. Gluten is in vinegar, soups, salad dressings, meat breading, condiments, sauces, hot cocoa mixes, chewing gum, fruit drinks, on the backs of stamps and in many candies — listed as modified food starch.
Being diagnosed with gluten intolerance was a shock, said McIntyre, who makes her living baking and cooking.
“You lose your zest for life — all you can eat are certain meats vegetables and rice — who wants to eat that stuff for life? You suffer emotionally,” she said.
That’s why she turned her culinary skills to benefit others with her condition.
In April 2002 she started “Wheatless in Seattle” at Kaili’s Kitchen, a restaurant and catering company located in the bottom of the Department of Transportation building off Aurora on Dayton Avenue in Shoreline.
Her restaurant is one of only a handful of gluten-free restaurants in the nation, and she’s gotten requests for shipping her food all over the country.
She makes loaves of bread, pancakes, waffles, scones, biscotti, panini, sandwiches, pasta, macaroni and cheese, lasagna, chicken pot pies, fish and chips, soups, gravies, sauces, meat breading, cakes, cookies, lemon bars and lots more — all gluten-free. She uses ingredients like ground buckwheat, flaxseed, rice flour, tapioca potatoes, soy and honey, she said.
“And because I’m a baker, I have the pickiest taste of all — and I think mine is the best tasting food on the market,” she said.
“I’m helping people feel better with their lives,” McIntyre said. “It’s not a choice issue — for many, it’s a medical issue.”
Manna Mills, a health food store in Mountlake Terrace, has a freezer dedicated to her line of foods. She’s been asked to cater weddings and is shipping a wedding cake to Texas. She has plans to write a cookbook, and will be featured on Channel 9 “KCTS Cooks” on February 22.
Her number one best seller — “Bread — it’s what people miss the most,” she said.
For more information, visit: www.gluten.net
www.celiac.com
www.wheatlessinseattle.com.
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