10 ms·

Who Has the Guts for Gluten?

100 points by tokenadult 14y ago

Mizza 14y ago
Keeping an eye on this company developing a vaccine.. should be out 2018, fingers crossed.. based out of Kendall Square, too! http://www.immusant.com/news/ http://www.immusant.com/news/
gnosis 14y ago
I wonder if there are differences in yogurt (and other sources of probiotics) consumption in people who tend to develop celiac and other autoimmune disorders. Do the Russians mentioned in this article tend to consume more yogurt than the Finns?
- dmishe 14y ago
  I'm from Ukraine and love me some yogurt, but the first time I have even heard about celiac was at my first US doctor visit. Plus it looks to me that the whole industry of non-gluten food is so big here, while non-existant at home.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    The non-gluten food industry was pretty much non-existent in the US until recently.
  - bane 14y ago
    Americans tend to go through sudden waves of sick food fads, where perfectly healthy people, eating perfectly healthy food are suddenly struck by a kind of mass hysteria that some basic food staple we've been consuming just fine for tens of thousands of years is suddenly the source of all of our health problems.
    - defen 14y ago
      What are some other examples?
jkat 14y ago
A nice piece which stands in stark contrast to the alarmist and shallow FUD that so often accompanies this topic. It's amazing how little we know about nutrition and biology. A lot seems to come down to common sense: breast feeding is good, exposure to microbes is good, being overweight is bad. Hopefully the era of tonsil-removing and antibiotics overdosing is behind us
- pyre 14y ago
  | breast feeding is good I'm often amazing that there are people out there that are so extremely against breast-feeding. I'm not even talking about breast-feeding in public, either. For example, I met someone from France whose friend had to argue with the nurses in the hospital about whether or not she would be 'allowed' to breast feed her child. [According to this acquaintance there is a lot of breast-feeding == BAD sentiment in France.] | tonsil-removing Is tonsil-removing something in over-abundance? So far as I understand it, it's possible for your tonsils to be really infected (I've heard of holes in your tonsils that excrete puss), which would seem like a removal is a good thing.
  - dmishe 14y ago
    I thinkg that tonsils is one of first line defenses against bacteria/infections, so removing them would be suboptimal, although necessary
    - rdtsc 14y ago
      The idea is that at some point they (being the first line) succumb to infection and can be come the site of a persistent infection that in turns causes more sore throats and re-infections. At least that was my experience. I was advised to take them out in my mid 20's. It does seem that there is correlation, now that they are out I get less colds and sore throats.
      - dmishe 14y ago
        Were you advised because of some condition where it was clear tonsils was the problem, or just a routine operation?
curcumin 14y ago
I was diagnosed with Celiac, last year, after 22 years of suffering since no doc could figure what's wrong. Eating gluten filled foods foods made me sleepy, and behave exactly like any ADHD adult. I'm an avid cyclist. My performance/endurance jumped about 40% since I went gluten free. I really miss Pizza and sour beers :(
- MartinCron 14y ago
  If you miss pizza, get a copy of the book American Pie, a few boxes of King Arthur Gluten Free flour, and a pizza stone. You'll thank me. My GF restricted wife does.
  - scarecrowbob 14y ago
    My wife is gluten intolerant, but we also enjoy chebe as a pizza crust. Just an alternate idea. We have found quite satisfying, gluten-free alternatives to almost everything that she wants. Haven't quite cracked the doughnut, so if anyone has ideas...
    - MartinCron 14y ago
      The Top Pot doughnut cookbook has a recipe for GF doughnuts, but I haven't tried it yet.
- Mizza 14y ago
  If you're on the west coast, you need to hunt out this beer called Omission: http://omissionbeer.com/ http://omissionbeer.com/ They use some kind of magic to take the gluten out of real beer, so it tastes like a proper beer, not that sour sorghum stuff. Fantastic! Pale ale is the best but the lager is pretty decent too.
  - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
    It's not entirely gluten-free. I can drink a little, but not a ton of it, which sucks because I miss real beer. Here's the disclaimer on their website: Product fermented from grains containing gluten and crafted to remove gluten. The gluten content of this product cannot be verified, and this product may contain gluten. I've found it at nearly every co-op and Whole Foods in Seattle, btw.
drigotti 14y ago
Great article on the subject. As someone with a self diagnosed allergy, which I was unaware of for years, raising awareness can have a big impact. By just making minor tweaks to my diet, I am able to run again and back pain has decreased significantly, also thanks in part to acupuncture.
jmspring 14y ago
What I'd like to see is a breakdown of those reporting symptoms to what their actual diet is. I know people that claim celiac and avoid all gluten based products including things like beer. That said, a few of them I've known for years, the main gluten product I saw them consume was beer. Which has other aspects to it that can impact the digestive system. I know many Europeans that have a very bread heavy diet with no problems. Bread-heavy being relative, in the sense that they actually eat a well rounded diet of which bread is a part of. I know for myself (and project a bit on friends who's diets I know) we don't always get the full rounding of nutrients we should (dairy, vitamins, etc). I wonder how much overall balance plays into things.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pale_rider 14y ago
  I wish there was more known regarding the type of bread/gluten exposure. I know someone who has an 8 year old daughter who has weird reactions to gluten: causes her to feel sick, often get hives, and most of all get a cough that can't be controlled. Eliminating gluten fixes this. Normally reintroduction to gluten reintroduces the symptoms shortly thereafter. However a year or two ago they went on vacation in Europe. At some point their daughter had bread at a cafe and the symptoms never popped up. Puzzled, they let her eat bread at other destinations during the trip; nothing. Granted this isn't directly related to the article because this pertains more to a gluten sensitivity (which is a whole different can of worms) not celiac disease specifically. Nevertheless I think it's interesting that often times it seems to deal with how the product is made. I once read when researching the topic that a typical piece of bread (in the states) contains 100x more gluten than bread that was consumed in the 50's. This might be stretch, but with all the health oddities that have been surfacing it's certainly believable.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    Link for the gluten ratio? That only seems possible if older recipes were specifically removing a large macroscopic component of he grain.
vsync 14y ago
Gluten is delicious.
- solarbunny 14y ago
  Sure is! Here's a nice quote for you: "The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary." — Nassim Taleb
  - vsync 14y ago
    Luckily gluten is a protein.
awolf 14y ago
It's important to note that this article discusses specifically Celiac Disease and not Guten Intollerance. Failure to distinguish between the two has created a lot of confusion around the subject. For instance: some people believe that it is black or white: a person is either a) a are celiac, or b) deluding themselves into following a fad diet. This is not the case. A person can be gluten intolerant without necessarily experiencing auto-immune reactions to it. Many people see drastic health benefits by excluding gluten from their diets even though these people are not celiacs. Aside from the anecdotal evidence I, as a non-celiac, could offer about how life changing it was for me personally to cut out gluten about two years ago, here's a recent study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825366 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825366 and write up: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten-Intolerance-Research.htm http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten...
- bane 14y ago
  Thank you for making this distinction. I've had to sit no less than four close friends and family members down and have a long talk with them about this distinction as they all thought they had caught a sudden case of Celiac. Some in their 50s. sigh
bane 14y ago
Is anybody else finding this sudden hypchondria and mass hysteria over gluten terribly tiresome? Or like all food fads, like bran, should I just sit tight for another couple years for it to pass and things go back to relative normal? Here's how you know if you really have Celiac disease. If you eat a little bit of food that contains gluten, you curl up in a ball and want to die as your small intestine slowly necrotises itself. And you eventually find yourself in the ER with a surgeon removing a meter or two of your bowel. Does gluten make you sleepy? Not celiac Adhd symptoms? Not celiac bloated? Not celiac stuffy nose? Menstral cramps? Muscle weakness? Headaches? Blurry Vision? Arthritis like symptoms? Not celiac. Really, unless you feel like you just got shot with a gun, it's not Celiac. I'm not saying laying off of gluten may or may not help you with those things, but it's not celiac. Please stop insulting people who actually suffer from celiac by claiming your bloated loose stools are a sign that you too have joined the swelling ranks of one of the rarest genetic diseases in the world.
- awolf 14y ago
  Your comment is offensive. Many people who are not Celiacs experience deleterious effects as a result of gluten consumption none the less. It's called gluten intolerance. Awareness of how gluten can be the underlying cause of many subtle and low-grade health problems has only begun to spread in the past few years. Labeling the sudden realization that gluten is something that A LOT of people shouldn't be eating as "hypochondria and mass hysteria" is ingnorant.
  - bane 14y ago
    I'm merely finding the exploding numbers of supposed celiacs really rather insulting. People should what makes them feel best. If low gluten does, more power to them. But doesn't anybody else find it so bizarre that people who were entirely asymptomatic for decades suddenly break out with a case of gluten intolerance. The anecdotal cases even in my own personal circles are absurd. People who complain endlessly about immediate discomfort after eating gluten magically forget to notice these same symptoms when they eat foods they aren't aware has gluten or eat gluten free food and complain anyway because they heard that xyz has gluten in it When it doesn't. Never underestimate the power of the mind in creating hypochondriac symptoms in people who have entirely asymptomatic medical histories. Better yet folks who's mystery symptoms and strict diets change over the years at times that happen to coincide perfectly with changing pseudomedical food fads. It creates so much noise that people who actually do have problems have trouble getting appropriate treatment. In 5 years nobody will give 2 cents about gluten. the marketplace will simply have moved onto the next pseudomedical emergency involving millenia old food stuffs that don't seem to bother anybody outside of the country the xfree food is being sold in.
mjfern 14y ago
I had stomach issues for 32 years and tried everything to resolve the issue. I was tested for celiac, among other things, but the results came back negative. Finally I decided to try a gluten free diet. I threw away everything in my kitchen that contained gluten and started from scratch. The results were dramatic. Within about 7-10 days most of the issues dissipated and my stomach was 80-90% improved. Stomach issues no longer interfere with my life. Do I miss eating bread, spaghetti, desserts, etc that contain gluten? Sure. But it's a small price to pay for not being uncomfortable for 8-10 hours a day. Besides, you can now find excellent gluten free products at trader joe's, whole foods, and just general grocery stores (even bread, spaghetti, that tastes like the real thing). I'm not a doctor and take this advice with a grain of salt, but if you're experiencing persistent and long term stomach issues and you've been to a GI doctor and ruled out other causes (like celiac) then you might try a gluten free diet to assess whether you have gluten intolerance. It's a bit of a hassle at first, but the benefits are well worth it, should this solve your problems.
- jaggederest 14y ago
  You know, it may work for you, but it's probably no more than (and no less than!) placebo. Somatic gastrointestinal issues are very common, and are often resolved by placebo treatment. You can't tell unless you're in the context of a real study that uses blinding to tease out the placebo effect. I find it fairly absurd that so many people suddenly feel better when they stop eating gluten (poorly, might I add, if you monitor most gluten-free diets they're a complete failure) this decade. Is it just recently that everyone has started having issues?
  - scarecrowbob 14y ago
    If your standard for differentiating between placebo and "real" effects is participation in a "real" study, you've by definition eliminated pretty much all introspection as a source of data about ones body. Although you might find it absurd that folks are feeling better from a dietary modification that hasn't been around for a long while, I find it equally strange to dismiss out of hand the lived experience of "so many people".
jaggederest 14y ago
In this thread: People experiencing somatic issues have relief of their symptoms by placebo diet changes, and are angry when other people point this out.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- lunchbox 14y ago
  How do you know their issues are somatic, or that the relief they experience is a placebo effect?
  - jaggederest 14y ago
    Because a substantial minority of people have functional gastrointestinal issues that are well addressed by the same treatments as somatic pain: antidepressants, stress reduction, and placebo treatment. The rate of actual gluten intolerance is some 4-5 fold less than the rate of functional disorders - it's nigh on impossible that all those eating a gluten-free diet have gluten intolerance (let alone celiac), but it's extremely likely that they have functional gastrointestinal disorders.
- sethammons 14y ago
  Does the placebo effect work in reverse? If you try something, confident that it wont do anything, then it wont? If so, then a simple proposal. Cut gluten/wheat/bread/sugar out of your diet for a couple of weeks. If all goes your way, you will feel the same you do today. Or, maybe a bunch of people have found something that works and in a couple of weeks you will feel overall better.
  - jaggederest 14y ago
    No, the placebo effect works through any intervention at all. Also, I have tried a gluten-free diet extensively under the care of a gastroenterologist, in the course of investigation into stomach problems. I've had all the tests you can have, and all came up negative.
pan69 14y ago
This is interesting. I think have the opposite of this but no idea what that would be called. I can eat all the white bread, pasta, dough and other gluten rich foot but the moment I eat a (mildly) spicy curry, 5 mins. later it's running for the toilet... It's seems to have gotten worse now I'm a little older (40). Sounds familiar to anyone?
- sethammons 14y ago
  Spicy foods hit some people really hard. You may be surprised how much better, overall, you feel if you were to cut down on the bread/pasta/dough/wheat/sugar/gluten down to once a week or so. For me, I did not even realize I wasn't feeling as great as I could be. Maybe after that, you'd be better able to handle the curry?
jkulmala 14y ago
My personal experiences on gluten intolerance supports the views in this article. I started fixing my health problems with gluten-free low carb paleo in 2003. After 6 years I had to face the fact that even though my weight was optimal, my health was deteriorating. I switched into a diet optimising gut bacteria and hormonal balance. To my surprise, it seems I am no longer gluten intolerant. I still don't eat it much, just to be on the safe side. But when I do, I get no adverse effects.
- beagle3 14y ago
  > I switched into a diet optimising gut bacteria and hormonal balance. To my surprise, it seems I am no longer gluten intolerant. I still don't eat it much, just to be on the safe side. But when I do, I get no adverse effects. Very interesting! Can you tell us more?
  - jkulmala 14y ago
    Sure. The diet I follow is Schwarzbein Principle, but I've had lots of influences from Art Ayers (http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.fi http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.fi), SCD and Paul Pitchford's Healing With Whole Foods. And from several other sources too... I came out from paleo/lowcarb with very high insulin levels. Also had my adrenals exhausted (ASI test show this one). It took me several years to regain my health. I follow up the situation using Genova Diagnostics Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA2.0) and measuring certain vitamin and mineral levels.
dhendo 14y ago
My OH is a Coeliac, so I did the only thing I could do in the situation... wrote an app to make life a little easier to find somewhere to eat out. http://www.coeliacmap.com http://www.coeliacmap.com https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.djch.foodfinder https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.djch.foo... http://www.windowsphone.com/en-sg/store/app/coeliac-map/2a29c4ba-4a9c-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8 http://www.windowsphone.com/en-sg/store/app/coeliac-map/2a29... The majority of the reviews (user submitted) are in the UK, but there's some data in the US. Hopefully will be of use to someone on here!
gws 14y ago
For those in the camp of "gluten is harmful to everybody and will kill us all"... there is a massive experiment which has been running for over 100 years with tens of millions of people being administered massive daily doses of gluten (mostly from 100% refined white wheat in the form of pasta, bread and pizza) from birth to death. The results show that these people live healthier and longer than average lives[1]. The experiment is called Italy :) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expec...
- solarbunny 14y ago
  I've just returned from Italy and observed that they do eat a lot of gluten. However we must consider adaption: children being introduced early to small doses of gluten while still breastfeeding might have less incidence of celiac disease. Also, there might be some benefits from Mediterranean diet for this particular type of climate. It is also possible that they cultivate more traditional types of grains that does not include Super-Gluten (a type of Gluten molecule that may cause more trouble).
- beagle3 14y ago
  Where's your control group, though? :) This is non trivial evidence which should not be ignored, although it is by no means "scientific". Furthermore, wheat today and wheat from 100 years ago are not comparable - even the non GMO wheat these days has been thoroughly optimized ("slow GMOd") for shelf life, is exposed to insecticides it wasn't exposed to 100 years ago, and has recently started to be irradiated as well. It's going to take 50-70 years until we can evaluate this experiment with respect to modern wheat (and by then, we'll have postmodern wheat ....)
jonniekang 14y ago
I started this year of 2013 with a few New Years resolutions and one of them were to eat no or less gluten. I accidentally eat foods that are tainted with gluten or I sometimes forget to read the label-I didn't realize so much of our modern diet contain gluten! Since then I feel I have a lot more energy then I used to throughout the day and I get less acne breakouts. I have not been medically diagnosed with gluten intolerance yet because I haven't had time or the money to go to the doctor, but I do feel different in a better, healthier way.
junto 14y ago
I didn't see any mention of anti-biotics and the resulting alteration of the intestinal flora in this article. I am of the opinion that the causes of these increasing gastrointestinal problems are multi-faceted, and a variety of factors (our diet, environment and lifestyle in general all in effect) are coming together to affect people's lives dramatically and negatively. The bacteria that lives in our gut is sensitive. We throw all kinds of nasty toxic things at it and expect it to survive. While anti-biotics are still a necessary evil, I cannot help but feel that we do not truly understand the real affects long term of its usage. Living with a gastro problem is tiring, depressing and challenging.
gadders 14y ago
Just to be clear though, Coeliac disease is not the same as gluten intolerance which makes you bloated or use the toilet a lot. Coeliac disease is a nasty, nasty auto-immune illness.
evebrow 14y ago
There are people with celiac, and then there are those with wheat allergy, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitivity. The celiac people do everyone else a disservice by making light of anyone in the other categories. My mom, myself, and 2 daughters all have tested positive for gluten antibodies, after dealing with Hashimotos, Parkinsons, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, chronic sinusitis, and bipolar in our family. Friends with diabetes, osteoporosis, gall bladder problems, and out of control children have tested positive for gluten antibodies, with a range of different doctors and tests. None of us have had an invasive, risky, expensive biopsy, which is the only way to "prove" celiac, but going gluten-free has changed us all for the better, and cured the easier sicknesses including the bipolar. This is a silent and much more widely reaching epidemic than most people realize, and causes serious health problems, which drive our collective healthcare costs up. No one needs bread to survive, more people should see if gluten ails them, too. Celiac is just the tip of the iceberg, subclinical gluten intolerance affects up to 30% of Americans. I could quote dozens of legitimate research studies that back this up, having researched this issue over the past 5 years. Learn the facts - this is not quackery. Thank you New York Times! One last thing, if gluten is a problem, your intestinal bacteria are likely unbalanced and you probably have nutritional deficiencies. Get tested, and fix these problems before your problems snowball into cancer, autoimmune Disease, etc.

100 points by tokenadult 14y ago

Mizza 14y ago

Keeping an eye on this company developing a vaccine.. should be out 2018, fingers crossed.. based out of Kendall Square, too! http://www.immusant.com/news/ http://www.immusant.com/news/

gnosis 14y ago

I wonder if there are differences in yogurt (and other sources of probiotics) consumption in people who tend to develop celiac and other autoimmune disorders. Do the Russians mentioned in this article tend to consume more yogurt than the Finns?

dmishe 14y ago
I'm from Ukraine and love me some yogurt, but the first time I have even heard about celiac was at my first US doctor visit. Plus it looks to me that the whole industry of non-gluten food is so big here, while non-existant at home.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  The non-gluten food industry was pretty much non-existent in the US until recently.
- bane 14y ago
  Americans tend to go through sudden waves of sick food fads, where perfectly healthy people, eating perfectly healthy food are suddenly struck by a kind of mass hysteria that some basic food staple we've been consuming just fine for tens of thousands of years is suddenly the source of all of our health problems.
  - defen 14y ago
    What are some other examples?

jkat 14y ago

A nice piece which stands in stark contrast to the alarmist and shallow FUD that so often accompanies this topic. It's amazing how little we know about nutrition and biology. A lot seems to come down to common sense: breast feeding is good, exposure to microbes is good, being overweight is bad. Hopefully the era of tonsil-removing and antibiotics overdosing is behind us

pyre 14y ago
| breast feeding is good I'm often amazing that there are people out there that are so extremely against breast-feeding. I'm not even talking about breast-feeding in public, either. For example, I met someone from France whose friend had to argue with the nurses in the hospital about whether or not she would be 'allowed' to breast feed her child. [According to this acquaintance there is a lot of breast-feeding == BAD sentiment in France.] | tonsil-removing Is tonsil-removing something in over-abundance? So far as I understand it, it's possible for your tonsils to be really infected (I've heard of holes in your tonsils that excrete puss), which would seem like a removal is a good thing.
- dmishe 14y ago
  I thinkg that tonsils is one of first line defenses against bacteria/infections, so removing them would be suboptimal, although necessary
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    The idea is that at some point they (being the first line) succumb to infection and can be come the site of a persistent infection that in turns causes more sore throats and re-infections. At least that was my experience. I was advised to take them out in my mid 20's. It does seem that there is correlation, now that they are out I get less colds and sore throats.
    - dmishe 14y ago
      Were you advised because of some condition where it was clear tonsils was the problem, or just a routine operation?

curcumin 14y ago

I was diagnosed with Celiac, last year, after 22 years of suffering since no doc could figure what's wrong. Eating gluten filled foods foods made me sleepy, and behave exactly like any ADHD adult. I'm an avid cyclist. My performance/endurance jumped about 40% since I went gluten free. I really miss Pizza and sour beers :(

MartinCron 14y ago
If you miss pizza, get a copy of the book American Pie, a few boxes of King Arthur Gluten Free flour, and a pizza stone. You'll thank me. My GF restricted wife does.
- scarecrowbob 14y ago
  My wife is gluten intolerant, but we also enjoy chebe as a pizza crust. Just an alternate idea. We have found quite satisfying, gluten-free alternatives to almost everything that she wants. Haven't quite cracked the doughnut, so if anyone has ideas...
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    The Top Pot doughnut cookbook has a recipe for GF doughnuts, but I haven't tried it yet.
Mizza 14y ago
If you're on the west coast, you need to hunt out this beer called Omission: http://omissionbeer.com/ http://omissionbeer.com/ They use some kind of magic to take the gluten out of real beer, so it tastes like a proper beer, not that sour sorghum stuff. Fantastic! Pale ale is the best but the lager is pretty decent too.
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  It's not entirely gluten-free. I can drink a little, but not a ton of it, which sucks because I miss real beer. Here's the disclaimer on their website: Product fermented from grains containing gluten and crafted to remove gluten. The gluten content of this product cannot be verified, and this product may contain gluten. I've found it at nearly every co-op and Whole Foods in Seattle, btw.

drigotti 14y ago

Great article on the subject. As someone with a self diagnosed allergy, which I was unaware of for years, raising awareness can have a big impact. By just making minor tweaks to my diet, I am able to run again and back pain has decreased significantly, also thanks in part to acupuncture.

jmspring 14y ago

What I'd like to see is a breakdown of those reporting symptoms to what their actual diet is. I know people that claim celiac and avoid all gluten based products including things like beer. That said, a few of them I've known for years, the main gluten product I saw them consume was beer. Which has other aspects to it that can impact the digestive system. I know many Europeans that have a very bread heavy diet with no problems. Bread-heavy being relative, in the sense that they actually eat a well rounded diet of which bread is a part of. I know for myself (and project a bit on friends who's diets I know) we don't always get the full rounding of nutrients we should (dairy, vitamins, etc). I wonder how much overall balance plays into things.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pale_rider 14y ago
I wish there was more known regarding the type of bread/gluten exposure. I know someone who has an 8 year old daughter who has weird reactions to gluten: causes her to feel sick, often get hives, and most of all get a cough that can't be controlled. Eliminating gluten fixes this. Normally reintroduction to gluten reintroduces the symptoms shortly thereafter. However a year or two ago they went on vacation in Europe. At some point their daughter had bread at a cafe and the symptoms never popped up. Puzzled, they let her eat bread at other destinations during the trip; nothing. Granted this isn't directly related to the article because this pertains more to a gluten sensitivity (which is a whole different can of worms) not celiac disease specifically. Nevertheless I think it's interesting that often times it seems to deal with how the product is made. I once read when researching the topic that a typical piece of bread (in the states) contains 100x more gluten than bread that was consumed in the 50's. This might be stretch, but with all the health oddities that have been surfacing it's certainly believable.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Link for the gluten ratio? That only seems possible if older recipes were specifically removing a large macroscopic component of he grain.

vsync 14y ago

Gluten is delicious.

solarbunny 14y ago
Sure is! Here's a nice quote for you: "The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary." — Nassim Taleb
- vsync 14y ago
  Luckily gluten is a protein.

awolf 14y ago

It's important to note that this article discusses specifically Celiac Disease and not Guten Intollerance. Failure to distinguish between the two has created a lot of confusion around the subject. For instance: some people believe that it is black or white: a person is either a) a are celiac, or b) deluding themselves into following a fad diet. This is not the case. A person can be gluten intolerant without necessarily experiencing auto-immune reactions to it. Many people see drastic health benefits by excluding gluten from their diets even though these people are not celiacs. Aside from the anecdotal evidence I, as a non-celiac, could offer about how life changing it was for me personally to cut out gluten about two years ago, here's a recent study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825366 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825366 and write up: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten-Intolerance-Research.htm http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenintolerance/a/Gluten...

bane 14y ago
Thank you for making this distinction. I've had to sit no less than four close friends and family members down and have a long talk with them about this distinction as they all thought they had caught a sudden case of Celiac. Some in their 50s. sigh

bane 14y ago

Is anybody else finding this sudden hypchondria and mass hysteria over gluten terribly tiresome? Or like all food fads, like bran, should I just sit tight for another couple years for it to pass and things go back to relative normal? Here's how you know if you really have Celiac disease. If you eat a little bit of food that contains gluten, you curl up in a ball and want to die as your small intestine slowly necrotises itself. And you eventually find yourself in the ER with a surgeon removing a meter or two of your bowel. Does gluten make you sleepy? Not celiac Adhd symptoms? Not celiac bloated? Not celiac stuffy nose? Menstral cramps? Muscle weakness? Headaches? Blurry Vision? Arthritis like symptoms? Not celiac. Really, unless you feel like you just got shot with a gun, it's not Celiac. I'm not saying laying off of gluten may or may not help you with those things, but it's not celiac. Please stop insulting people who actually suffer from celiac by claiming your bloated loose stools are a sign that you too have joined the swelling ranks of one of the rarest genetic diseases in the world.

awolf 14y ago
Your comment is offensive. Many people who are not Celiacs experience deleterious effects as a result of gluten consumption none the less. It's called gluten intolerance. Awareness of how gluten can be the underlying cause of many subtle and low-grade health problems has only begun to spread in the past few years. Labeling the sudden realization that gluten is something that A LOT of people shouldn't be eating as "hypochondria and mass hysteria" is ingnorant.
- bane 14y ago
  I'm merely finding the exploding numbers of supposed celiacs really rather insulting. People should what makes them feel best. If low gluten does, more power to them. But doesn't anybody else find it so bizarre that people who were entirely asymptomatic for decades suddenly break out with a case of gluten intolerance. The anecdotal cases even in my own personal circles are absurd. People who complain endlessly about immediate discomfort after eating gluten magically forget to notice these same symptoms when they eat foods they aren't aware has gluten or eat gluten free food and complain anyway because they heard that xyz has gluten in it When it doesn't. Never underestimate the power of the mind in creating hypochondriac symptoms in people who have entirely asymptomatic medical histories. Better yet folks who's mystery symptoms and strict diets change over the years at times that happen to coincide perfectly with changing pseudomedical food fads. It creates so much noise that people who actually do have problems have trouble getting appropriate treatment. In 5 years nobody will give 2 cents about gluten. the marketplace will simply have moved onto the next pseudomedical emergency involving millenia old food stuffs that don't seem to bother anybody outside of the country the xfree food is being sold in.

mjfern 14y ago

I had stomach issues for 32 years and tried everything to resolve the issue. I was tested for celiac, among other things, but the results came back negative. Finally I decided to try a gluten free diet. I threw away everything in my kitchen that contained gluten and started from scratch. The results were dramatic. Within about 7-10 days most of the issues dissipated and my stomach was 80-90% improved. Stomach issues no longer interfere with my life. Do I miss eating bread, spaghetti, desserts, etc that contain gluten? Sure. But it's a small price to pay for not being uncomfortable for 8-10 hours a day. Besides, you can now find excellent gluten free products at trader joe's, whole foods, and just general grocery stores (even bread, spaghetti, that tastes like the real thing). I'm not a doctor and take this advice with a grain of salt, but if you're experiencing persistent and long term stomach issues and you've been to a GI doctor and ruled out other causes (like celiac) then you might try a gluten free diet to assess whether you have gluten intolerance. It's a bit of a hassle at first, but the benefits are well worth it, should this solve your problems.

jaggederest 14y ago
You know, it may work for you, but it's probably no more than (and no less than!) placebo. Somatic gastrointestinal issues are very common, and are often resolved by placebo treatment. You can't tell unless you're in the context of a real study that uses blinding to tease out the placebo effect. I find it fairly absurd that so many people suddenly feel better when they stop eating gluten (poorly, might I add, if you monitor most gluten-free diets they're a complete failure) this decade. Is it just recently that everyone has started having issues?
- scarecrowbob 14y ago
  If your standard for differentiating between placebo and "real" effects is participation in a "real" study, you've by definition eliminated pretty much all introspection as a source of data about ones body. Although you might find it absurd that folks are feeling better from a dietary modification that hasn't been around for a long while, I find it equally strange to dismiss out of hand the lived experience of "so many people".

jaggederest 14y ago

In this thread: People experiencing somatic issues have relief of their symptoms by placebo diet changes, and are angry when other people point this out.

deleted 14y ago
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lunchbox 14y ago
How do you know their issues are somatic, or that the relief they experience is a placebo effect?
- jaggederest 14y ago
  Because a substantial minority of people have functional gastrointestinal issues that are well addressed by the same treatments as somatic pain: antidepressants, stress reduction, and placebo treatment. The rate of actual gluten intolerance is some 4-5 fold less than the rate of functional disorders - it's nigh on impossible that all those eating a gluten-free diet have gluten intolerance (let alone celiac), but it's extremely likely that they have functional gastrointestinal disorders.
sethammons 14y ago
Does the placebo effect work in reverse? If you try something, confident that it wont do anything, then it wont? If so, then a simple proposal. Cut gluten/wheat/bread/sugar out of your diet for a couple of weeks. If all goes your way, you will feel the same you do today. Or, maybe a bunch of people have found something that works and in a couple of weeks you will feel overall better.
- jaggederest 14y ago
  No, the placebo effect works through any intervention at all. Also, I have tried a gluten-free diet extensively under the care of a gastroenterologist, in the course of investigation into stomach problems. I've had all the tests you can have, and all came up negative.

pan69 14y ago

This is interesting. I think have the opposite of this but no idea what that would be called. I can eat all the white bread, pasta, dough and other gluten rich foot but the moment I eat a (mildly) spicy curry, 5 mins. later it's running for the toilet... It's seems to have gotten worse now I'm a little older (40). Sounds familiar to anyone?

sethammons 14y ago
Spicy foods hit some people really hard. You may be surprised how much better, overall, you feel if you were to cut down on the bread/pasta/dough/wheat/sugar/gluten down to once a week or so. For me, I did not even realize I wasn't feeling as great as I could be. Maybe after that, you'd be better able to handle the curry?

jkulmala 14y ago

My personal experiences on gluten intolerance supports the views in this article. I started fixing my health problems with gluten-free low carb paleo in 2003. After 6 years I had to face the fact that even though my weight was optimal, my health was deteriorating. I switched into a diet optimising gut bacteria and hormonal balance. To my surprise, it seems I am no longer gluten intolerant. I still don't eat it much, just to be on the safe side. But when I do, I get no adverse effects.

beagle3 14y ago
> I switched into a diet optimising gut bacteria and hormonal balance. To my surprise, it seems I am no longer gluten intolerant. I still don't eat it much, just to be on the safe side. But when I do, I get no adverse effects. Very interesting! Can you tell us more?
- jkulmala 14y ago
  Sure. The diet I follow is Schwarzbein Principle, but I've had lots of influences from Art Ayers (http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.fi http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.fi), SCD and Paul Pitchford's Healing With Whole Foods. And from several other sources too... I came out from paleo/lowcarb with very high insulin levels. Also had my adrenals exhausted (ASI test show this one). It took me several years to regain my health. I follow up the situation using Genova Diagnostics Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA2.0) and measuring certain vitamin and mineral levels.

dhendo 14y ago

My OH is a Coeliac, so I did the only thing I could do in the situation... wrote an app to make life a little easier to find somewhere to eat out. http://www.coeliacmap.com http://www.coeliacmap.com https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.djch.foodfinder https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.djch.foo... http://www.windowsphone.com/en-sg/store/app/coeliac-map/2a29c4ba-4a9c-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8 http://www.windowsphone.com/en-sg/store/app/coeliac-map/2a29... The majority of the reviews (user submitted) are in the UK, but there's some data in the US. Hopefully will be of use to someone on here!

gws 14y ago

For those in the camp of "gluten is harmful to everybody and will kill us all"... there is a massive experiment which has been running for over 100 years with tens of millions of people being administered massive daily doses of gluten (mostly from 100% refined white wheat in the form of pasta, bread and pizza) from birth to death. The results show that these people live healthier and longer than average lives[1]. The experiment is called Italy :) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expec...

solarbunny 14y ago
I've just returned from Italy and observed that they do eat a lot of gluten. However we must consider adaption: children being introduced early to small doses of gluten while still breastfeeding might have less incidence of celiac disease. Also, there might be some benefits from Mediterranean diet for this particular type of climate. It is also possible that they cultivate more traditional types of grains that does not include Super-Gluten (a type of Gluten molecule that may cause more trouble).
beagle3 14y ago
Where's your control group, though? :) This is non trivial evidence which should not be ignored, although it is by no means "scientific". Furthermore, wheat today and wheat from 100 years ago are not comparable - even the non GMO wheat these days has been thoroughly optimized ("slow GMOd") for shelf life, is exposed to insecticides it wasn't exposed to 100 years ago, and has recently started to be irradiated as well. It's going to take 50-70 years until we can evaluate this experiment with respect to modern wheat (and by then, we'll have postmodern wheat ....)

jonniekang 14y ago

I started this year of 2013 with a few New Years resolutions and one of them were to eat no or less gluten. I accidentally eat foods that are tainted with gluten or I sometimes forget to read the label-I didn't realize so much of our modern diet contain gluten! Since then I feel I have a lot more energy then I used to throughout the day and I get less acne breakouts. I have not been medically diagnosed with gluten intolerance yet because I haven't had time or the money to go to the doctor, but I do feel different in a better, healthier way.

junto 14y ago

I didn't see any mention of anti-biotics and the resulting alteration of the intestinal flora in this article. I am of the opinion that the causes of these increasing gastrointestinal problems are multi-faceted, and a variety of factors (our diet, environment and lifestyle in general all in effect) are coming together to affect people's lives dramatically and negatively. The bacteria that lives in our gut is sensitive. We throw all kinds of nasty toxic things at it and expect it to survive. While anti-biotics are still a necessary evil, I cannot help but feel that we do not truly understand the real affects long term of its usage. Living with a gastro problem is tiring, depressing and challenging.

gadders 14y ago

Just to be clear though, Coeliac disease is not the same as gluten intolerance which makes you bloated or use the toilet a lot. Coeliac disease is a nasty, nasty auto-immune illness.

evebrow 14y ago

There are people with celiac, and then there are those with wheat allergy, gluten intolerance, and gluten sensitivity. The celiac people do everyone else a disservice by making light of anyone in the other categories. My mom, myself, and 2 daughters all have tested positive for gluten antibodies, after dealing with Hashimotos, Parkinsons, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, chronic sinusitis, and bipolar in our family. Friends with diabetes, osteoporosis, gall bladder problems, and out of control children have tested positive for gluten antibodies, with a range of different doctors and tests. None of us have had an invasive, risky, expensive biopsy, which is the only way to "prove" celiac, but going gluten-free has changed us all for the better, and cured the easier sicknesses including the bipolar. This is a silent and much more widely reaching epidemic than most people realize, and causes serious health problems, which drive our collective healthcare costs up. No one needs bread to survive, more people should see if gluten ails them, too. Celiac is just the tip of the iceberg, subclinical gluten intolerance affects up to 30% of Americans. I could quote dozens of legitimate research studies that back this up, having researched this issue over the past 5 years. Learn the facts - this is not quackery. Thank you New York Times! One last thing, if gluten is a problem, your intestinal bacteria are likely unbalanced and you probably have nutritional deficiencies. Get tested, and fix these problems before your problems snowball into cancer, autoimmune Disease, etc.