My journey to my find my expertise niche
In 1993 I took an opportunity to work with a group of doctors and dietitians working in the area of food allergies and food intolerances. A number of our clients had coeliac disease and despite being on a gluten free diet for a number of years, they still had symptoms.
My PhD research project was inspired by this group.
Prior to 1994 in Australia, the gluten free food standard contained wheat starch and malt, hence the approved gluten free diet also contained wheat starch and malt. About half of the volunteers had already removed these ingredients and half had not. We removed all known residual gluten foods from the diet and 3 months later noted any outcomes of this change. Five people became symptom free and did not require further diet changes. Everyone else then began a food investigation protocol looking for possible non-gluten food triggers for their continuing symptoms. All but 2 who did this protocol, found non-gluten food triggers for their continuing symptoms.
This highlights that food is complicated and what you think is causing symptoms may not actually be what you are reacting to.
The Australian gluten free food standard became stricter in 1994 so we also monitored, over a couple of years, any further changes to symptoms or small bowel improvement that might result from the removal of wheat starch and malt. In this second group there was no significant changes to either symptoms or small bowel improvement when residual gluten was removed. This began my interest in the gluten minutia of those eating gluten free.
Kim Faulkner-Hogg PhD Thesis
Assessment of gluten free diets in an Australian population with coeliac disease and their impact on symptoms, mucosal, nutritional and metabolic parameters. Read more
Publications
- Kim Faulkner-Hogg. Current perspectives on returning gluten to the diet to test for coeliac disease; how much, how long? Internal Medicine Review, 2017, Vol 3 Issue 8.
- Wu J, Neal B, Trevena H, Crino M, Stuart-Smith W, Faulkner-Hogg K, Louie J and Dunford E. Are gluten free foods healthier than non gluten free foods? An evaluation of supermarket products in Australia. British Journal of Nutrition 2015 Aug 14;114(3):448-454
- Faulkner-Hogg K, Swain A, Hodge L. Coeliac Disease. Australian Family Physician Oct 2009;38(10):785-786.
- Hodge L, Faulkner-Hogg K and Swain A. Food Allergy and Intolerance. Australian Family Physician Sept 2009;38(9):705-707
- Faulkner-Hogg KB, Selby WS, Loblay, RH. Dietary analysis in symptomatic patients with coeliac disease on a gluten-free diet : the role of trace amounts of gluten and non-gluten food intolerances. Scand J Gastroenterol 1999 Aug;34(8):784-789.
- Selby WS, Painter D, Collins A, Faulkner-Hogg KB, Loblay RH. Persistent mucosal abnormalities in coeliac disease are not related to the ingestion of trace amounts of gluten. Scand J Gastroenterol 1999 Sept;34(9):909-914.
- Selby WS and Faulkner-Hogg KB. Coeliac Disease Changing clinical spectrum and food labelling laws. Current Therapeutics, June 1998; 31-37.
Student Dietitian Research Supervision
- Manifestations leading to coeliac disease diagnosis Josephine Grosie, 2002
- Patient perceptions of treatments for functional bowel disorders. Wendy Stuart-Smith, 2000
- The role of food intolerance in people with gastrointestinal irritability. Sonia Brockington, Michelle Powers, Allison Fraser, 1998
- Different Dietary gluten restrictions and symptom expression in a large population of people with coeliac disease. Michelle Stuart, 1996
- Nutritional outcomes of 6 weeks of radiotherapy to the head and neck for cancer treatment. Melissa Carey, 1992
