Kim Faulkner-Hogg - Coeliac Dietitian

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Kim Faulkner-Hogg - Coeliac Dietitian

Dr. Kim Faulkner-Hogg is a dietitian with a PhD in coeliac disease and the gluten free diet. This page supports people eating gluten free.

Support is also given to those experiencing non wheat food triggers for IBS, headaches and other symptoms.

23/05/2025

Intriguing research from the Garvan and UNSW has found abnormal/mutated immune cells may be why some people with coeliac disease continue to have bad symptoms and damaged villi, despite strictly avoiding gluten.

👉️ They found that 7 out of 10 people with refractory coeliac disease had a high amount of immune cells with genetic mutations, appearing to give the cells a growth and survival advantage….. which may be why they were still found even when gluten was removed from the diet.

🟢 They are still determining if these cells are the cause or the results of the chronic inflammation that persists in this group.

🟢 If they can confirm that these mutated cells are in fact responsible for the disease not healing......

🟢 This should make it possible to target those cells with existing drugs.
🟢 Taking these cells away should lead to healing.

https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/05/rogue-immune-cells-explain-why-a-gluten-free-diet-fails-for-some-people-with-coeliac-disease

16/05/2025

Welcome to International Coeliac Day.

A diagnosis of coeliac disease brings on a mixed bag of emotions.

There’s some sort of relief at giving a name to the problem…. and a hope of not feeling ill all the time.

…BUT this is countered by the weight of the reality of needing to avoid all gluten and how this will change how you live.

👉️ Today let’s focus on the positives, such as……
🟢 Being able to live without constant headaches
🟢 Having a return of energy to go back to study
🟢 The lifting of brain fog to think more clearly
🟢 No griping stomach pains

Keep the list going and add something positive below about how the diagnosis of coeliac disease changed your life for the better……..

23/04/2025

A cheap way to make paint in childcare centres and schools is to heat a combination of starch/cornflour, sugar and water until the mixture thickens. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Once cold, food colour is stirred in and it is used as paint.

🎨Often large bowls of the primary colours are made and then a selection of other colours are made from this.

🎨Paint on the skin and hands will not lead to coeliac damage or symptoms. But if painted fingers go in the mouth or a young child eats the paint, then possible problems might arise.

👉️For most it won’t be an issue, but it’s an easy fix to have a conversation with the director to ensure that a maize based starch/cornflour is used.

🌾The term ‘cornflour’ is the colloquial name for the starch portion of any grain. It can come from wheat, maize/corn, barley, tapioca, rice etc. So clarify the grain source of the starch. If it is from wheat or barley it will be declared in Australia, in the ingredient listing.

🖌️Have you have encountered wheat starch paints with your child?

21/04/2025

People with coeliac disease have a small increased risk of developing pneumonia, compared to those without coeliac disease.
👉 Usually, the bacteria that cause this live harmlessly in the back of the throat, but during illnesses they can invade other parts of the body.
🟢 The spleen fights invading germs in the blood.
👉 In SOME people with coeliac disease their spleen does not work as well as it should.
🟢 This means the spleen can’t efficiently fight the bacteria that cause pneumonia, making them more susceptible.
🟢 This is why the Pneumococcal Vaccine is recommended for people who have coeliac disease.

Vaccination against seasonal flu needs to be considered on an individual basis.
👉 Discuss any concerns about this with your GP.

27/03/2025

If you are in Brisbane this weekend don't forget to attend Coeliac Australia's Gluten Free Expo at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

There is a line up of speakers each day.

Talks start off at 9.30am on Saturday and 10.30am on Sunday.

Hear from
🟢 Gastroenterologists
🟢 Coeliac Disease researchers
🟢 Cooking experts
🟢 and Penny Dellsperger and myself will also be presenting.

Your ticket is free with membership to Coeliac Australia.

You can also purchase tickets online from this link.

📲 https://www.glutenfreeexpo.com.au/

More speaker information is on this link as well.

See you there.

14/03/2025

Things made from wheat flour such as bread, cakes, pizza, pasta, crackers and other baked goods are incredibly dense in gluten.

👉One mouthful will provide about 400-500mg of gluten.
👉Research suggests that the majority of people with coeliac disease should have less than 10mg of gluten a day to be safe.
🟢Look at the crumbs in your butter and that would be close to the 10mg.
So although family is well meaning in saying… ‘just one mouthful surely can’t harm you’…..’this is Nonnas famous recipe’…..’but this is a special occasion…’

📲show them this post. …. save it now
👉Research concludes one mouthful of wheat food like bread, cakes, pasta etc... is harmful to those with coeliac disease.
👉50mg gluten coming in regularly from cross contact seems to be the tipping point for damage in many people. Research showed when this quantity was eaten daily, for a 3 month period of time, inflammation in the villi was more likely to start to appear.

🟢The effects will vary from person to person.
🟢The reasons why are not yet understood.

What are your stories?

13/03/2025

DID YOU KNOW….. About 80% of people who have coeliac disease don’t know they have it.

👉 Coeliac awareness week in Australia starts this Thursday 13th March and runs through until the following Thursday 20th March.

All that week, Coeliac Australia will be posting information about coeliac disease and gluten-free awareness, on their social media sites, their newsletter and their website, to help increase your knowledge and awareness of coeliac disease.

👉 If you are uncertain if you have this disease, it is important to be screened for it.

If it remains untreated, there are a number of chronic diseases that may develop over time because the damage to the small intestine, that occurs with coeliac disease, has not been addressed.

👉 Coeliac Australia has an on-line self-assessment tool that you can take to see if your symptoms may be some that are associated with coeliac disease. The tool can be found here on their website.
https://coeliac.org.au/self-assessment-tool/

You must have regular wheat products in your diet to be screened for coeliac disease. Your GP is the place to start.

11/03/2025

Try not to self-diagnose issues with wheat. Its important to distinguish Coeliac Disease from a wheat intolerance, because they affect the body differently.
🍞 Gluten causes damage to the small bowel if you have coeliac disease
🍞 But it does not do this if you have a wheat intolerance

🟢 A damaged small bowel reduces the absorption of nutrients from the food you eat.

🥐If gluten remains in the diet, the damage to the small bowel will not heal and the nutrients absorption will become worse.

👉 Over a life-time, this constant damage from not removing gluten, could lead to a number of medical conditions developing.

🥐 Some people have a lot of symptoms and get diagnosed early, while others barely have symptoms in which case it can take a long time to be diagnosed….. essentially because they don’t know they have a problem.

👉 People with coeliac disease need to remove ALL GLUTEN from the diet.

👉 People with a wheat intolerance often experience the same symptoms as those with coeliac disease BUT they do not have damaged villi. Many can reduce gluten to a level where the symptoms are tolerable.
🍞 However, some with wheat intolerance have terrible symptoms to small amounts of gluten just like some people with coeliac disease.

🟢 It’s important to have coeliac disease ruled out if you have not already done this. You MUST be eating wheat foods every day for at least 6 weeks in order for screening tests for coeliac disease to be validated.

10/03/2025

You would need to eat a lot of tahini or hummus each day to provide your calcium requirements.

Tahini is ground up sesame seeds. This does provide a concentrated form of calcium.
The chickpeas in hummus can also provide small amounts of calcium.

👉 Many of my dairy free clients have thought that because hummus is made from both chickpeas and tahini, then their calcium requirements are covered for the day.

Here is an idea of the calcium levels provided according to the Australian Food Composition Database:
♦️ 2 tablespoons of hummus provides ~30mg calcium
♦️ 2 tablespoons of tahini provides ~100mg calcium
♦️ compared with …1 cup of milk provides ~350mg calcium

Many people are unaware of the proposed daily calcium requirements. For those 19 and over….
🟢 Women 19-50 or pregnant need 1000mg a day
🟢 Lactating women need 1300mg a day
🟢 Women post 50 need 1300mg a day
🟢 Men 19-70 need 1000mg a day
🟢 Men post 70 needs 1300mg a day

So hummus can be a good dairy-free source of calcium, but it won’t stand alone as providing all the daily calcium needs.

📲 Book in for more information if this is a concern you have.

08/03/2025

International Women’s Day is where we celebrate all women and their many diversities.

Here are some words to describe women that focus on who we are, not how we look.
🔹Courageous
🔹Creative
🔹Ambitious
🔹Home makers
🔹Strong
🔹Caring
🔹Confident
🔹Inspiring
🔹Resilient
🔹Powerful
🔹Honest
🔹Rational

Can you add another word?

04/03/2025

With coeliac disease, gluten needs to be ingested to lead to harm.

In order to cause villi damage the lipstick would need to be eaten off the lips to make its way to the small bowel. How much gluten might you ingest in an application of lipstick and would that be enough to harm your villi?

💄 In 2012, the Gluten Free Watch Dog analysed 4 lipsticks/balms with wheat derived ingredients and they reported no gluten in any of them… with a lower limit of testing at 5 parts per million (ppm).

💄An Italian study purchased 12 lipsticks and 10 lip balms that were popular.
💋None had gluten ingredients and
💋only 1 had cross contact gluten at 27 ppm.

So let's play WHAT IF.....

How many tubes of lipstick would you need to eat in one go…. to get just 1 milligram of gluten
💋 15 tubes — if the gluten density was 20 ppm
💋 3 tubes — if the gluten density was 100 ppm

Presuming you get 100 applications of lipstick from a tube of lipstick…..ONE application provides
💋 0.0006 mg gluten — if the gluten density was 20 ppm
💋 0.003 mg gluten — if the gluten density was 100 ppm

💄I can’t make sweeping statements that encompass everyone or all lipsticks, but I think you can appreciate after seeing these figures, that most people with coeliac disease or wheat intolerance would not react to the wheat derived ingredients in lipsticks and this level has not yet been shown to lead to villi damage in most people.

👉 However ‘peace of mind’ plays a big role for many who buy ones labelled gluten free.

👉Each person must decide what is best for them

03/03/2025

Fermented foods can contain beneficial bacteria that can strengthen your gut microbiome and boost overall health. They are also known as PROBIOTICS.
👉 Fermented foods traditionally help preserve foods and increase their shelf-life.

👉 They can naturally bolster the microbiome by supplying a healthy mix of living micro-organisms crucial for healthy digestion.

👉 Naturally fermented foods ….meaning foods fermented by live organisms and not vinegar…….provide these organisms. Gluten free suggestions include.
🟣 Yoghurt, Kefir and Cottage cheese
🟣 Kimchi
🟣 Sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables, like pickles (but not pickles in vinegar)
🟣 Tempeh
🟣 Kombucha

👉 When you open a naturally fermented food there should be tell-tale bubbles in the liquid. This signals that live micro-organisms are indeed present.

👉 The microbes in fermented foods do not colonize the gut permanently. They need to be consumed regularly to keep their presence in the large bowel.

👉 Regular ingestion of probiotic foods is linked with a healthy digestive tract and increased immunity.

Address

Matraville, NSW
2036

Website

http://GlutenFreeNutrition.com.au/

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