Featured Guest Post: Fatigue – the Hidden Symptom of Celiac Disease
This featured guest content has been provided courtesy of TOP Nutritionals, the parent company of Natural Calm Canada. You can find their excellent line of products in store at our locations in Newmarket & Vaughan!
Most people don’t associate celiac disease with fatigue, but insiders know better: over 80% of those with newly-diagnosed celiac complain of weariness. One commentator on a gluten-free forum had this to say:
“There should really be a new word invented for the ‘gluten tired’ that makes it a Herculean task just to walk through the house.”
Malnutrition and anemia may be to blame. Anemia is common with celiac, and while the condition is famous for the outward markers of pale, bloodless skin, the inner mechanisms are more serious – anemia starves the body and brain of oxygen.
The Canadian Celiac Association recommends close attention to dietary iron, together with strict gluten-free living.
If you’re following a plant-based diet, or if you’re challenged to get enough iron from any source, you’ll be interested in this. With one, simple plant food you can:
- Get up to 30% of your required iron in a 2 tsp serving
- Replace a serving of beef with just 20 calories of a powerhouse green leaf
- Improve the flow of oxygen to your entire body and brain
- Get more energy and mental clarity
Moringa Oleifera is the most nutrient-dense plant known to science. Two teaspoons of moringa leaf powder delivers about 2.5 grams of iron, comparable to a serving of beef or half a cup of cooked spinach. That’s about 30% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for men and postmenopausal women.
What’s more,moringa offers a package of complementary nutrients that work together for optimal iron absorption.
Moringa’s raw leaves boast seven times the Vitamin C of oranges, ounce for ounce. As with all dried foods, some of this water-soluble vitamin is lost in dehydration, but what remains works overtime to amplify moringa’s rich iron.
Dried moringa leaves are an incomparable source of Vitamin B2, or riboflavin, an essentialplayer in the fight against anemia. Riboflavin deficiency is common with untreated celiac. Correcting a deficiency, however, is simple with moringa – just 2 teaspoons of the powder provides a little over 100% of your RDA.
Plant-based relief close at hand!
You’d be hard-pressed to find moringa fresh in your supermarket, but you can find TOP Nutritionals dried, powdered moringa leaves at Nature’s Emporium. TOP Nutritionals uses only the highest-quality source, preserving the raw nutrition of this gluten-free powerhouse plant in a low-heat drying process.
Iron supplements in pill form can cause nausea, stomach discomfort and interfere with regularity, but TOP Nutritionals Moringa will not. You’ll feel good, naturally, when you add moringa to your diet.
You’ll also feel proud of your role in something bigger. This Canadian company donates all profits after business expenses to Organics 4 Orphans (O4O) – a charitable organization working to end hunger and disease in some of the world’s poorest countries. Learn more here.
Anna O’Byrne is a consultant on maternity leave. When not dandling a baby, she writes for TOP Nutritionals and O4O.