The "Banana Diet" for celiac disease

Tricia Thompson has a very interesting post on the history of celiac disease on her blog today.

The gluten-free diet has not always been the treatment of choice for celiac disease. Before the 1950s and the identification of wheat gluten as the culprit in celiac disease, the thinking was that people with celiac disease could not properly absorb carbohydrates and/or fat. A particularly interesting dietary treatment used during this time was the banana diet, made popular by physician Sidney Haas.

This diet restricted both carbohydrates (with the exception of ripe bananas) and fat. In his famous paper, “The value of the banana in the treatment of celiac disease,” published in 1924, Dr. Haas presented the following foods as a typical diet for a child with celiac disease: albumin milk, pot cheese, bananas (as many as the child would take, usually four to eight each day), oranges, vegetables, gelatin, and meat.

Ben, Shira and I are very thankful that we were diagnosed with celiac disease in the 21st century. I can't even begin to imagine eating that stomach churning diet. We would have coped with the bananas, oranges and vegetables, but the thought of the rest has my stomach churning.