Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Celiac disease may be initiated by an agent used to improve food texture and to literally glue together meat fragments into a more substantial, steak-like product.  The agent is microbial transglutaminase, and a review of data about the causation of celiac diease just published in Frontiers in Pediatrics suggests that the increasing amounts of this substance that are finding their way into our food supply may be at fault.   Over 3 million American have celiac disease.  It is an inherited autoimmune disorder, and you are 6 times more likely to have it if a close member member is affected.    It is characterized by an attack of a person’s own immune system on their gut lining, and it’s triggered by the presence of the gluten protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.  Other factors such as stress, infection, or antibiotic use seem to initiate or exacerbate the process.   Although our own systems make transglutaminase, they do so in very small quantities compared with what we can ingest in processed foods.  The ex