Early Dietary Treatment for Celiac Disease: The Banana Diet
In Honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Gluten Free Watchdog will be posting a series of articles (the goal is one per day during the month of May) related to the gluten-free diet–currently the ONLY treatment for celiac disease.
Post #1…
The Early History of the Diet for Celiac Disease (excerpted from The Gluten-Free Nutrition Guide by Tricia Thompson, McGraw-Hill, 2008)
“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.
In his paper, Dr. Haas makes the following observation: ‘Of interest in connection with the present paper is the statement that in Porto Rico (sic) the town dwellers who eat much bread suffer from sprue, the farmers who live largely on bananas never.’
It is interesting to note that the farmers’ health was credited to bananas and not the lack of bread in their diet.”
Tomorrow’s article: “Banana Baby: A former patient of Dr. Sidney Haas tells her story”
Comments (10)
Dear Tricia, Thank you for honoring celiac awareness month with daily articles and postings providing historical perspective and present day information. Reading part of Dr. Haas’ letter makes me shudder, and I am grateful for what the medical and scientific communities have learned and put into practice for the CD community since then. However, we still have distance to travel on the road to better treatments and/or prevention, and you are helping all of us on that journey. — Bonnie
You are most welcome, Bonnie. Thanks so much for your kind words and support.
Thank you, Tricia. I can attest to the fact that we have come a LONG way. I have major food sensitivities which severely restrict my diet. But I eat what I can eat and move on! Interestingly, bananas ARE OUT of my diet! Love them! They do not love me!
I came across your site and was amazed to be reminded of Dr. Haas. My mom told me she “dragged” him out of retirement (or is it my ” adult re-storying) to treat me in 1947 from 6 months – 5 years when I was pronounced “cured.”
I remember the day very vividly. He handed me a red hard candy in a wrapped and said i could now eat it, to which I replied, “but I don’t eat candy.”
I’ve had no issues with food or illness but did feel particularly good when i went on a gluten-free diet for 2 years about 15 years ago. I just couldn’t stick with it. Being deprived of goodies as a child left me. When I was 50 and had my first colonoscopy, my doctor, a friend, did an endoscopy and found no sign I had ever had celiac. I also tested negative.
Did I have something else (early childhood colitis) or was I cured? I guess I may never know. Any thoughts?
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Marilyn. If you haven’t read all the posts on Banana Babies, please see https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/?s=banana+baby. Please also see the article published by NPR at https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/24/529527564/doctors-once-thought-bananas-cured-celiac-disease-it-saved-kids-lives-at-a cost#:~:text=Cured%20Celiac%20Disease.-,They%20Saved%20Kids’%20Lives%20%E2%80%94%20At%20A%20Cost%20%3A%20The%20Salt,foods%20that%20made%20them%20sick.
As for your question, if you are interested in pursuing whether you have celiac disease, you might consider scheduling a virtual appointment with Dr. Fasano. He is mentioned in the NPR story. See also https://www.massgeneral.org/doctors/19184/alessio-fasano
22years before I was diagnosed with coeliac the diet has worked wonders for me before being diagnosed I thought I had ibs
My daughter was just diagnosed with celiac disease. Just 3 months ago she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I am very worried about her mental health and needing to keep her stress level down. She is only 17 years old and this was all allegedly caused by covid even though she was never sick from covid. I am a little scared and worried for my kid and just don’t know what to do now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Laura, Can you please contact me (Tricia Thompson, MS, RD) at info@glutenfreewatchdog.org so that our discussion is private.
I was born in 1950 and was diagnosed as a celiac patient by Dr. Isman a small town physician who referred my parents to a special doctor. Bananas became an essential part of my diet as at that time little was known about condition. I still eat the same way as I did as a child no barley, wheat or rye. They still bother me. Today they say not to eat as many bananas . What is the deal with this?
Hi Judy, I just read your post, and if I understand you correctly, you ate a lot of bananas when you were younger after being diagnosed with Celiac Disease (CeD). And you did NOT eat wheat, barley or rye as a child. You say that you now eat the same way as you did when you were a child. It’s not clear as to what food or foods still bother you. And are the doctors the ones who suggest you eat fewer bananas? The reason I am asking these questions is because you may benefit from the information and resources found on the National Celiac Association’s Website: http://www.nationalceliac.org (NCA). So much more is now known about CeD, and the variety of foods Celiacs can safely eat is huge. NCA offers a virtual monthly meeting where people from across the nation ask all kinds of questions, gather science based information, and find support in the CeD community. To register, go to the Calendar of Events on NCA’s website. The virtual meeting takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Take good care, Bonnie G.