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Gluten-free diet - the situation in healthy food stores
BLAŽKOVÁ, Veronika
This bachelor thesis occupies with the survey of the situation in ten health food stores in South of Bohemia which offer gluten-free products to patients with coeliac disease. The thesis focuses both on the range of gluten-free food items and on the employees´ foreknowledge of them. The theoretical part of my thesis describes the coeliac disease, which is an autoimmune disorder, and the treatment of which is fully dependent on a special diet the gluten-free diet. For a patient, it is essential to avoid all meals containing gluten, a composite of proteins (prolamins and glutelins) that occurs in some cereals such as wheat, rye, barley and oats. These cereals are dangerous to gluten intolerant people, and must be eliminated from their diet. Hence, it is necessary to pay attention to products containing the above mentioned ingredients, for example bread, pasta, couscous, bulgur, dumplings, biscuits, thickened sauces, soya sauces, meat products and others. This way is vital for preventing the patient from his or her unconscious breaching of a diet. In the practical part I focused on the actual situation in health food stores. The information was obtained from the qualitative research conducted in ten health food stores in South Bohemia. The aim of it was to survey the range of the employees´ knowledge of the gluten-free diet. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews, and the results were presented in the form of graphs with notes. The quantitative part of the research was targeted at five patients with coeliac disease. My task was to find out whether their diet is full-fledged and if they consume some special gluten-free products. Using the Nutriservice application, I calculated their nutrient intakes according to their weekly menus. The results were recorded as case studies. As emerged from the ascertained data, all the selected shops that sell health food offer at least a part of products labelled as suitable for the gluten-free diet. The foreknowledge of the employees in the health food stores of the gluten-free products was at a very good level. However, the deficiency I revealed during my research was the fact that the information of gluten intolerance as a disease was not accurately arranged. Some answers showed that the information sources are sometimes populist and inaccurate. The gluten-free menu can be multifarious. However, to provide full-fledged nutrition intake, it is necessary to control both energy intake and the intake of individual nutrients to avoid deficiencies. Moreover, it is important to take into consideration any other autoimmune-related diseases.
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