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This is a pretty poor article. It does not provide any counter points or reference anything in the other camp. The article skirts any knowledge about who is ev

by xemoka 14y ago

This is a pretty poor article. It does not provide any counter points or reference anything in the other camp. The article skirts any knowledge about who is evangelizing the wheat free movement (William Davis [1] wrote an excellent book, Wheat Belly [2] about this exact phenomenon) and why. It's anecdotal, yes, as is most scientific research early on when there may be a lot of competing arguments. Dr. Davis clearly outlines why he feels that wheat is a problem in our current society (mainly due to the changes in amylopectin in modern wheat, as well as other protein changes that are not present in ancestors to modern wheat). It's worth a read if you want to know more, it is anecdotal but there sure is a lot of anecdotes and empirical evidence, and it's fleshed out quite thoroughly in his book [2]. It seems that anything in our diets that is in over abundance seems to cause us problems, be it wheat or soy. Both of which are in almost everything we eat today, and both of which have undergone some serious changes in the last 40-80 years. [1] http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/about-the-author/ http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/about-the-author/ [2] http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-William-Davis/dp/1443412732?tag=613240924-20 http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-William-Davis/dp/144341273...

zwieback 14y ago
Counter point to what? The article mentions that a lot of people that don't have celiac disease avoid gluten and out of those 1/3 actually find some relief from a gluten-free diet. I didn't feel the author was taking sides.
- xemoka 14y ago
  Perhaps you're right. It just seems a little underdeveloped in my opinion. There's a lot of talk around wheat's effects and this article could have included more information. When authors make links to celebrities jumping on board I often end up not thinking very highly of what the celebrities are supporting. Particularly when the previous sentence is purporting gluten-free to be a 'fad'. I guess in the end, it's not truly a poor article, it just does not go into as much depth as a feel it could have. I suppose it's all about the audience, and I am not the target audience for this article.
cheeseprocedure 14y ago
"Wheat Belly" is probably not a shining example to use here. It (rightfully) attracted a lot of criticism over the author's cherry-picking of citations (even those of studies whose own abstracts contradict his claims) and failure to provide concrete evidence for many of his most damning conclusions. Some examples: http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.ca/2012/03/wheat-belly-busted.html http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.ca/2012/03/wheat-belly-bus... http://huntgatherlove.com/content/wheat-belly http://huntgatherlove.com/content/wheat-belly
- xemoka 14y ago
  That's great to know, thanks! Do you know of any better examples in support?
  - cheeseprocedure 14y ago
    I do not. My limited understanding of wheat-free diets is that 1. the vast majority of people are not affected in any measurable way by gluten, and 2. there is too much anecdotal noise obscuring point #1.

by xemoka 14y ago

zwieback 14y ago

Counter point to what? The article mentions that a lot of people that don't have celiac disease avoid gluten and out of those 1/3 actually find some relief from a gluten-free diet. I didn't feel the author was taking sides.

xemoka 14y ago
Perhaps you're right. It just seems a little underdeveloped in my opinion. There's a lot of talk around wheat's effects and this article could have included more information. When authors make links to celebrities jumping on board I often end up not thinking very highly of what the celebrities are supporting. Particularly when the previous sentence is purporting gluten-free to be a 'fad'. I guess in the end, it's not truly a poor article, it just does not go into as much depth as a feel it could have. I suppose it's all about the audience, and I am not the target audience for this article.

cheeseprocedure 14y ago

"Wheat Belly" is probably not a shining example to use here. It (rightfully) attracted a lot of criticism over the author's cherry-picking of citations (even those of studies whose own abstracts contradict his claims) and failure to provide concrete evidence for many of his most damning conclusions. Some examples: http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.ca/2012/03/wheat-belly-busted.html http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.ca/2012/03/wheat-belly-bus... http://huntgatherlove.com/content/wheat-belly http://huntgatherlove.com/content/wheat-belly

xemoka 14y ago
That's great to know, thanks! Do you know of any better examples in support?
- cheeseprocedure 14y ago
  I do not. My limited understanding of wheat-free diets is that 1. the vast majority of people are not affected in any measurable way by gluten, and 2. there is too much anecdotal noise obscuring point #1.