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A growing desire to avoid gluten is changing the food industry
- simonmales 12y agoI'm generally convinced that gluten is bad is everyone, or more so humans are not designed to digest it. But replacing one processed ingredient with another, doesn't make much difference.
- MereInterest 12y agoQuestion 1: Why are you convinced? Apart from celiac disease, evidence suggests that there is no such thing as "gluten intolerance", let alone universal gluten intolerance. http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitivity_may_not_exist.html http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitiv... Question 2: Why do you call gluten "processed"? It is a naturally occurring compound in wheat, and has been an essential part of bread for thousands of years.
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- AndrewDucker 12y agoRegarding point 1 there: "Instead, as RCS reported last week, FODMAPS are a far more likely cause of the gastrointestinal problems attributed to gluten intolerance." FODMAPS which...includes wheat. So the people who thought they had a gluten intolerance actually had a wider food issue which included wheat as one of the triggers.
- simonmales 12y agoRe Question 2: Wheat is processed into flour, which has gluten. No one eats wheat raw.
- Karellen 12y agoThe "processing" of wheat is simply grinding it, in a mill[0]. The ears are literally just physically broken down into small pieces. No chemicals are added, and ideally no chemical reactions happen within the wheat/flour. Certainly gluten is not a product of the milling process; it is a protein that exists in the original ears of wheat[1]. Also, the process of milling cannot be described as cooking by any reasonable defintion of the word, so I'm not sure what you mean by wheat being "raw" in a way that flour is not. Unless you count finely chopped ingredients as no longer being "raw". [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gristmill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gristmill [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat
- brc 12y agoYou make the point better than I did. I would also add that, by this definition, any animal product eaten is processed - even eggs - which are cracked and then usually cooked. Ground beef is extremely processed - having been butchered and then fed through a grinder. You can theoretically grow your own wheat and grind your own flour. If you can do it yourself without a food factory and secret ingredients, then I don't think it fits any reasonable definition of 'processed'.
- simonmales 12y agoCool I see your point. In my mind grinding is processing. It is being processed so we can make something something else out of it. Would you eat it on its own? I broadly wipe that anything that can't be done with ones hands is processed. But that opens the question if cooking meat is considered processing. I can't see prehistoric man grinding wheat to make a meal.
- DanBC 12y agoWheat is used in many recipes without being ground into flour. See cracked wheat or bulgar wheat for examples. Cooking meat causes chemical changes - maillard reaction. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction Many low tech cultures use carbs obtained from crushing or pulping grains. The reason they don't use wheat is not because of the need for grinding but because of the need for agriculture.
- nemothekid 12y agoGluten isn't a "processed ingredient." Its naturally found in wheat and grains, and humans have been eating it for thousands of years with bread being a staple food for many cultures. Celiac disease, which prevents a small portion of the population, seem to be the only people who outright need to avoid gluten to live - AFAIK there are no studies showing gluten free diets is actually healthier on a while for humans.
- simonmales 12y agoIndirectly I'm referring to flour as the processed ingredient. My assumption is that you cannot make bread without milling the wheat to produce flour. Thus processed. I believe you are correct there are no hard studies. But I did scan a report that said removing gluten from schizophrenic patient diets reduce symptoms.
- sjtrny 12y agoWhy are you convinced that gluten is bad for everyone?
- VLM 12y agoHe might be exaggerating a bit. There are two ways to understand what he's saying: 1) If wheat wasn't part of white people food for many centuries, and as a thought experiment it was invented in 2014, there's no way possible that the FDA / USDA would approve it for human consumption and stick it on the GRAS list. In other words the only reason we tolerate it in a world that bans red M+M food coloring etc is because it got grandfathered in. Not because its good or good enough. 2) In processed foods its always an empty calorie or bulk-ing substance. You cannot remove wheat from your diet and die of "wheat-deficiency disease" like happens if you try to remove all Vitamin C from your diet. If starvation was a serious medical problem in America I'd say taking twinkies away from the skinnies would be a pretty dumb idea, but in a nation of people dying from being too fat, a dietary substance that has no redeeming value other than empty calories and making farmers and food processors wealthy is a pretty tempting target to imagine banning. Corn can/should pretty much just go away for similar reasoning. If as a hard sci fi novel you imagine space aliens or terrorists dropped a genetically engineered virus that wiped out corn and wheat, aside from short term shortages the only real effect is Americans would have a healthier weight and longer life. Not exactly a stellar endorsement for a foodstuff that its only real purpose is to make most of us fat and dead and a few of us wealthy.
- sopooneo 12y agoWhat about wheat would make it so that the FDA would so likely not approve it? I ask in earnest and I expect there are a few things I don't know on the subject.
- pyre 12y agoI was going to call you out on "rice gluten" which has nothing to do with wheat (which all of the "gluten-free" hubbub is about). Then I decided to hit up [Wikipedia][1]: Gluten is a protein composite found in wheat and related grains, including barley and rye. and: The stored proteins of maize and rice are sometimes called glutens, but their proteins differ from true gluten. Which is sort of confusing, because you also have [Glutinous Rice][2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinous_rice
- gumby 12y ago"Gluten" is just latin for "glue" hence agglutinate, glue, etc. Glutinous rice is just that -- it sticks together. The use for the protein is just an obscure gerund.
- simonmales 12y agoYeah, well aware that Glutinous rice has nothing to do with gluten. Because rice has nothing to do with wheat.
- pyre 12y agoI know what glutinous rice is. It's just the propensity to describe the parts of grains that are 'sticky' as 'gluten,' and then to have one of them actually officially named 'gluten' that becomes confusing.
- Karellen 12y agoFWIW, some recent research suggests that it's fructans, rather than gluten, which are the actual cause of gastrointestinal problems in non-coeliac gluten sensitivity[0]. However, if you're looking for a purely diet-based solution to GI problems, given that cutting gluten out of your diet will also cut out fructans, then you might as well go ahead with that. Especially as people serving you food will know what you're talking about, as opposed to going "huh?" if you start asking about their fructan-free offerings. OTOH, if we try to deglutenate[1] foods in some way, or develop some kind of enzyme in pill form (glutase?)[1], than that's not going to help people who are actually fructan-sensitive rather than gluten-sensitive. [0] http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-balanced-look-at-gluten-sensitivity/ http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-balanced-look-at-glute... [1] Is this a word? [2] cf. lactase
- simonmales 12y agoFrustans is new to me.
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- brc 12y agoWheat is one of the top three plant based foods in the world, and is the largest non-animal source of protein in the world diet. The cultivation of wheat, and the ability to store it in a granary led to the establishment of the first cities in the Fertile Crescent. Humans of all cultures have been eating wheat based products for at least 8000 years and it is the top traded food commodity in the world markets. Less than 1% of the population is thought to have gluten intolerance by most studies. From all this, you've determined that gluten is bad....because why exactly? Because it is 'processed'? We're not talking about high fructose corn syrup here, we're talking about crushing a seed and using the various products. This anti-food information worries me as it seems to be spreading like anti-vaccination hysteria.
- Pxtl 12y agoI, on the other hand, want more gluten. Seitan makes for vegetarian food so tasty you don't miss a thing.
- cheepin 12y agoI just want to eat wheat products without nutty people trying to convince me that it is 'poison'. The evidence vastly supports wheat being awesome for your health, not detrimental.
- mirsadm 12y agoWhat evidence is that?
- SwellJoe 12y agoThousands of years of human consumption without negative effect might be a useful starting point.
- pyre 12y agoLack of negative effects are not proof of a positive effect.
- cheepin 12y agoBesides what other people have said, this link [0] gives a pretty good summary of the arguments for and against. [0] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/30/wheat-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/30/wheat-much-more-than-yo...
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- VLM 12y agoI hope the bubble bursts, the sooner the better. And I have a son with medically diagnosed coeliac disease. The substitutes are overpriced and I assure you from experience they are usually fairly disgusting in either taste, texture, odor, or the ingredient list. The best part of his diagnosis was the whole family basically stopped eating junk food. Awesome health benefits from that. So.. no empty calories, no problem! Stores are already full of gluten free products. I made a tasty homemade beef vegetable stew yesterday in the slow cooker with beef and carrots and potatoes and celery and thats about it (well, some spices, some salt, water, etc). This is what real gluten free substitutes look like. It tasted awesome. This is the kind of GF substitute I've come to expect, not a GF hot pocket or a GF package of oreos. There's a big business around convincing people they have to buy substitutes so they can keep stuffing their faces with (now gluten free!) twinkies until they die of diabetes at 500 pounds. I'm totally not interested in that kind of substitute. If their processed food business model loses money or wastes executive bonus money on R+D or even better, outright dies out, I'm not going to shed any crocodile tears in my homemade beef stew. You can see the propaganda way of steering thought by careful word choice: "Sales of alternatives to meat have flattened" They've flattened because they're disgusting soy based hyper processed plastic weirdness pumped out of a chemical plant that isn't really fit for human consumption. Not because nobody eats salads anymore. The whole article is like describing modern online music stores as selling "vinyl free product, even though most buyers don't medically need vinyl free music". Its people complaining the world has passed their business model by. If people aren't buying your toxic cellophane wrapped people-fattener products anymore, instead of trying even weirder chemical plant processing or stealth marketing with complimentary copy, just sell me some cheap lettuce and stop complaining.
- srj 12y agoPresumably your son would like to eat out occasionally? Or not be relegated to just the healthy options you want him to eat? Just because there are GF Oreo's doesn't mean you have to eat them. And to counter your observation, in my experience GF food generally tastes alright. My partner is allergic. It's "overpriced" (market priced, really) because it's lower volume and depending on the GF substitute it may be more difficult to produce.
- wyager 12y agoI'm not sure how to say this without sounding extremely disparaging, but I wonder if the reason these stupid, essentially baseless food fads catch on is because the primary food-purchasing demographics are not well-educated. Anyone with basic reasoning skills, understanding of elementary biology, and the Wikipedia article on gluten could tell you that this gluten-free fad is completely fatuous.
- sopooneo 12y agoCould be, but these fads all roar through the facebook feeds of my college classmates. Though I will grant the possibility that even highly ranked institutions may not be leaving their graduates (i.e., me) "well educated".
- brc 12y agoMost diet crazes are completely fatuous. It's not a lack of education (because we can't know everything about everything) - to me it's a chronic lack of self awareness and self responsibility that manifests in most people sincerely believing that everything that happens to them is the result of other actors, and not their own actions. So if you're feeling fat and bloated, it's not because you can't stop stuffing crap into your mouth and are too lazy to exercise, it's because some evil conspiracy is feeding you, the helpless victim, foods which you are not designed to eat. Maybe it is the decline in religion - without a seemingly senseless deity to blame - the search goes on for other reasons. When the answer is always in the one who asks.
- srj 12y agoThe gluten-free substitute products probably don't contain the FODMAPs that the self-reported "gluten sensitive" individuals are actually allergic to. I'm not sure that makes it a "baseless food fad", this is an area of ongoing research.
- metaleks 12y agoAnecdotally, this really began picking up when Novak Djokovic, the #1 tennis player in the world, began giving it such large press. When asked about his string of successes at the time, he told the press that he changed his diet, and completely cut out gluten. What he failed to mention during those initial interviews was that he was allergic to the stuff, which was the most likely cause for his inconsistent performances. The media, however, took the gluten-free diet and just ran with it... and here we are!
- bane 12y agoThe best part is when your friends complain about being on a gluten-free diet and you know they aren't sensitive (based on decades of late night pizza and sandwich runs) and they clearly aren't celiac so you say "oh yeah, no problem I've planned out a gluten free meal, health and whatever", and you serve gluten rich foods to them anyways and nobody complains about vague nonspecific symptoms and everybody says they liked the meal and want your recipe - and then a week later complains they can't get it to taste right with their gluten free substitutes.
- austenallred 12y agoAs someone whose wife is severely allergic to gluten, please don't do that.
- bane 12y agoI wouldn't do it to people who I know have problems, which is why I said that.
- brc 12y agoI know someone who is sure that her kids misbehave because of gluten, so she does everything to control their diet. At parties, she hovers around and takes cookies and cake and other things off them. The kids generally become whiny and behave badly. She usually puts this down to them slipping in some gluten while she want looking. The other kids stuff their faces, roar around feeding off the energy of the party, and go home happy. If we are going to talk about anything, it should be unhealthy obsessiveness with diets. Get some exercise, eat fresh foods for the most part. Go crazy and eat some ice cream ,pizza or chocolate cake once in a while. Job done.
- sopooneo 12y agoIs food nonsense filling the vacuum left by the decline of religion?
- seandougall 12y agoThe even better part is when you make assumptions about what you know about your friends and it turns out one of them is celiac and just hasn't had a biopsy to confirm. Making medical decisions for your friends without their knowledge is always a great idea.
- rch 12y agoI'm actually allergic to buckwheat, and it's becoming increasingly more difficult to avoid as people get carried away with gluten free options (pizza, crackers, etc). It's fine as long as resturant employees know what I'm asking about, but I've been caught off guard a couple of times now.
- chetanahuja 12y agoWell I. for one, am fully convinced of the ill effects of gluten because of this documentary I saw the other day: http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e02-gluten-free-ebola http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e02-gluten-free-ebo...