Leave it to Jimmy Kimmel and late night TV to be the harbinger of the next big thing in dietary science. I mean, he is the guy famous for the “I ate all your Halloween candy” videos after all. So when I read a new study about gluten sensitivity (or lack thereof, as you shall soon see), the first thing I thought of was his “What is gluten anyhow?” sketch a couple weeks ago where he asked people on a gluten-free diet what it is they’re hiding from. Jimmy makes all the science fun: (click through to see video if it doesn’t show up in your reader)
“I live in LA, eating gluten is akin to satanism.” [Truest sciencey science ever]
Gluten is a combination of two proteins found wheat, barley and rye. You’ll never be dumb again. You’re welcome.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) is all the rage these days and unless you live under a rock made of bread dough (which strangely just made me crave giant sourdough pretzels – they’re so hard and stale they shouldn’t be good and yet… they are), you know someone who is gluten intolerant, “allergic” to gluten or just sensitive to gluten. (Not to be confused with celiac disease, an illness where when a person eats gluten it destroys the lining of the intestines and can be very serious.) Indeed, a recent survey reported that about 1 in 100 people think that gluten affects them negatively and 30% of US adults are actively trying to avoid it.
Miley Cyrus spoke for a generation when she tweeted about her “gluten allergy” saying, “It’s not about weight it’s about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway!”
And yet nutritionists have long been giving NCGS the side-eye because, like Pop Rocks and the new Grace of Monaco movie, the hype preceded any real substance. There just wasn’t any science to back up the “crapppp” theory (catchy!). That is, until 2011 when Peter Gibson, PhD, a professor of gastroenterology at Monash University and director of the GI Unit at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, published research that seemed to find that gluten negatively affected all people, even those with no medical diagnosis of celiac disease. His original research supported what so many people were already thinking that it took off like a rocket, quickly becoming one of the most-cited in the field. I personally remember writing about it when I first read it. It was big news.
But now, in one of the most stunning reversals in recent memory, Gibson says he got it wrong. Like totally, completely backwards, Justin Bieber’s pants wrong.
Unsatisfied with his 2011 findings, he devised a more rigorous study to examine whether it really was gluten people were reacting to or something else. According to RealClearScience, “Subjects would be provided with every single meal for the duration of the trial. Any and all potential dietary triggers for gastrointestinal symptoms would be removed, including lactose (from milk products), certain preservatives like benzoates, propionate, sulfites, and nitrites, and fermentable, poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates, also known as FODMAPs. And last, but not least, nine days worth of urine and fecal matter would be collected. With this new study, Gibson wasn’t messing around.”
The subjects, all of whom reported having NCGS but tested negative for celiac disease, were all placed on the low-FODMAP diet as a baseline. After two weeks they were then put on one of three diets: the baseline plus gluten, the baseline plus whey protein or just the baseline diet (the control group).
The results were astounding. He found that people on each study diet, whether or not it included gluten, reported feeling worse. Whether they ate a diet containing gluten, whey protein or a placebo, all the subjects reported increased pain, bloating, nausea, and gas all increased over the baseline low-FODMAP diet. Clearly the effect was mental, as confirmed in a second experiment. This time the subjects reported a worsening of symptoms even when the placebo diet was identical to the baseline diet (meaning they were told their diet had been changed to have gluten in it when in reality their diet hadn’t changed at all).
I got to interview Gibson for Shape and he told me of the study design, “We the designed a study using the ‘gold-standard’ method of rechallenging food components by doing a cross-over study (each person is his/her own control) and feeding the subjects all their food. With such a design, one can get very powerful results, i.e., less prone to chance. Thus, we are convinced in our 37 subjects, at least, that gluten was not the main culprit in their gut symptoms.”
Despite self-reported gluten sensitivities being “extremely common”, Gibson added, “In contrast to our first study… we could find absolutely no specific response to gluten.” Apparently just thinking something is going to make you sick can actually make you feel sick.
I find all of this SO interesting. One of the conversations I’ve had most over the past few years with countless trainers, nutritionists and holistic docs is about this idea of population-wide gluten sensitivity. When I tell them I don’t feel any ill effects from eating gluten-containing grains (which I generally eat in their whole, most gluten-iest form, like kasha or boiled cereal) they insist that the symptoms like systemic inflammation, brain fog and ugly poops are there, I’m just not noticing them because I’m either really unobservant when it comes to my body or I’ve lived with it for so long it’s all I know.
I’ve never quite known what to make of this. Obviously if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time you know I love taking other people’s opinions of my health over my own. (Seriously, I do. I love it when other people tell me what’s wrong with me and how to fix it!) And yet, it just doesn’t jive with my reality. Even when I thought gluten might be causing my anxiety, an elimination experiment showed it to have no effect at all. (Study of 1 is allowed when you’re the only one who cares about the results, right?)
Interestingly, Gibson may soon have something to say about the mood-gluten connection. His current research is investigating whether gluten may cause psychological and cognitive problems in people with ‘non-celiac gluten sensitivity’ after another pilot study they did showed that gluten seemed to make the subjects more depressed (a placebo did not). I’m really interested to read this new study when it comes out!
Still, despite my personal experimenting, I always wondered if they were right and I was missing something important. And I’ll admit that Gibson’s original study kept coming back to my mind. Even my yoga teacher – usually the haven of vegetarians – announced she’s gone grain- and dairy- free. So maybe I really just don’t know what’s happening in my own body? Not to mention the gluten-free marketing is relentless. Plus, all the cool fitness kids were going gluten-free. So even though I still felt fine eating it I subconsciously started to avoid it. (And I think I’ve started to absorb some of that whole “carbs will make you fat” zeitgeist going around these days.)
As to the million dollar question of whether or not you should add gluten back into your diet now, Gibson says it depends upon why you went gluten-free in the first place. He says his research shows that if it is to reduce bloating and other gut symptoms, the reason why you may feel better sans gluten is that wheat also contains FODMAPs – these are sugars and short chains of sugars (oligosaccharides) that are poorly absorbed in the intestine and cause those symptoms. FODMAPs are found in other food types. He found that bloating will be greatly relieved in 70% of people if they reduce the FODMAP intake.
“The bottom line is that it is not likely that you will be able to eat a lot of wheat bread without getting bloated, but you will be able to have breadcrumbs on the schnitzel etc – i.e., you only need to limit the FODMAPs and not absolutely avoid gluten = easier but not easiest!” he says.
I never totally quit eating grains so I’m going to take this current research as permission to not feel guilty about eating what I want to eat. (Which I shouldn’t feel guilty about anyhow…) But I’m also not going to tell you to start eating gluten if it makes you feel like crapppp. I love science but even more I love it when people become a scientist of their own bodies, finding out what best makes them tick. A placebo effect is still an effect and there may be other parts of wheat that people are reacting to (like pesticides) instead of the gluten. So if taking out gluten is helping then don’t mess with a good thing!
What’s your take – are you surprised by Gibson’s 180? How do you feel that gluten affects you – big problems or no biggie? Do you just avoid carbs all together?
NOTE: The original version of this post did not contain the quotes from Gibson, I updated it 5/21 after I interviewed him as I thought it added a lot of valuable information.
Well, here’s what I know — an excess of gluten makes me sick, sick sick. Unspeakable pain, vomiting, the runs, cramps, muscle aches. Proved it without a doubt just last week.
But everyone’s different. If you can eat gluten grains with a laugh and wave, have at it. Don’t feel guilty for what you can enjoy without repercussions! But a blow a big smelly fart in the direction of anyone who tells me not to respect my own body’s wisdom.
Me too, Karen. We are the people they should be studying! I dare them to attribute my predictable reaction to unknown consumption of gluten as a placebo effect (as in, I didn’t know I was even eating it). Exactly 2 hours post ingestion (when the gluten starts to reach my intestines) I have violent vomiting, horrible acute abdominal pain, temporary mental shutdown, and then 2-4 weeks of unspeakable constipation. It’s only after the event that I am able to go back and locate the source of the gluten, almost always in a restaurant (once it was ‘blue corn tortillas’ that were made with half flour, and another time I had brisket that had been cooked in beer! I have learned to never eat chips or tortillas in a restaurant, and to always ask how the meat is prepared.). I’d love to barf all over the researcher who wants to deny MY sensitivity! hahahaa! I’ve totally been gf for 3 years.
Don’t these so called experts drive you nuts? Right up there with the ones who tell you period pain is all in your imagination.
Gluten has never bothered me. I eat bread with almost every meal.
What did bother me was the “I ate all your Halloween Candy” video.
That was….pretty much….
Sadistic.
And some of the parents were gleefully sadistic.
Just SO not funny.
Really.
I have gluten sensitivity and I am sure the benefits I receive from avoiding gluten and dairy are not just in my mind. I live in southern Italy where being gluten-free is a royal pain in the patootie, no one understands it and the selection of gluten-free prepackaged products is slim and expensive. So, I just avoid the prepackaged stuff for the most part, cook from scratch and sigh sadly when others enjoy their pizza. I know I have to avoid gluten and lactose whenever possible, not because I THINK I’ll get sick, but because it has happened time and time again…I’ll eat something thinking it’s gluten/lactose-free, feel horrible and then realize, oh crap, there was gluten in that ice-cream or there was soy sauce in that dish my friend carefully prepared for me without realizing it contains gluten. Whatever. I know how I feel and it works for me. As with everything, everyone probably has to experiment and find their own path to health.
I’m not particularly sensitive to gluten, and eat whole wheat stuff, but in moderation, since I do get ‘brain fog’ when I eat too much.
At first, I thought it was the gluten in bread/pasta that caused this fog, but I now have the theory that by eating more bread, I somehow eat less of the good stuff (veggies, meat, nuts), leading to a carb-fog instead of gluten-fog.
I’ve never noticed any issues with gluten. I have issues with lactose and red meat. The red meat thing could be in big part just because I don’t eat it as much (generally) just because I don’t want it very much. But when I do have a big ole burger, it makes my digestion hurt (that’s how I describe it). Not a stomach ache but a full digestion ache, like I can really FEEL the whole process going on. So that makes me want it less and less.
The only thing I actively avoid is pop (or soda if that’s your word for it). When I have it it makes me get sugar crazy. I just want more and more sugar when I’m drinking pop (regular, not diet–diet is a waste of swallowing) and it gives me acid reflux.
I also try to limit “white carbs” for the same reason. So I eat wheat bread and have white pasta as a treat only (I don’t care for other types of pasta) and I try to eat fewer items with hidden high fructose corn syrup. I’ve found that doing all that helps me avoid the sugar crazies and keeps me from feeling hungry all the time. (my daily cinnamon supplement helps that, too).
Gluten “sensitivity” confuses me. I know waaaaaay too many people who claim to have a sensitivity to it. They claim they feel SO MUCH BETTER w/o gluten, even though they don’t have celiac disease. My opinion: when they cut out foods with gluten, they replace those foods with veggies and fruits and less processed foods so they feel better. I just don’t see how suddenly 50 of my friends have “gluten sensitivity” out of the blue. I call BS!
I’m not a statistics or medical research person, but I saw an article discussing this study a couple of days ago, and while I don’t remember all the details, the article made it sound as if this study was pretty suspicious and not super conclusive either. I really wish I could remember where I read this article, because it talked about all the weird screening they did for the test, and other things that might skew the results.
Also, can we please stop obsessing over whether celebrities cut food out because of allergies or to stay skinny? They’re constantly under scrutiny regarding their weight, and yet it is somehow a failing if they avoid gluten (or other foods) to stay skinny? It’s the old stereotype about how we all should be woman who can scarf down hamburgers with the guys but still fit into our size 0 skinny jeans.
The wheat board obviously got to Dr. Gibson. Either by paying him or threatening to break his legs.
As I said on facebook, I feel like crap after eating gluten. It is not in my head. That said, I have had unhappy insides for 9 weeks now. Maybe it is fodwhatevers. Need to look into it more.
I agree that people who cut gluten still have to eat SOMETHING, so they usually choose veggies, fruit, etc. THAT is what is making them feel better… (in my opinion). I choose to limit my gluten intake – but it’s not the gluten itself – its the other junk included in those products. SUGAR! It’s hiding every freaking where! That and soy. Mostly I eat air. (kidding) I eat LOTS and LOTS of good food – but 90% of it is made from scratch using the best ingredients I can find. (Lucky for me I live in Florida, next to a CSA where my son works, so although I can’t afford to buy their food, they often give him an armful of stuff at the end of the day…) I also spent the weekend “processing” (for the squeemish of you reading this) 11 of my own, home grown chickens. I know what they have eaten since day 1. I also eat my own rabbits. (I can NOT kill or eat a bunny, but once they are 8 weeks old, they morph into rabbits and I have little difficulty with that… lol Mind games…) Of course, we have lots of fresh veggies, fruits and our own eggs. Sorry – I just get on a thing about how blessed I am to be living this life.
I think people should eat what makes them happy! That said, I do think “sensitivities” are probably overused these days. Half the people I know are currently sensitive to something. I’ll admit, when I was wedding planning I referred to all of it as the special snowflake diet. But however people want to eat is their choice. I just don’t like preachy-ness, judgy-ness, and the “look at me, I don’t eat this” attitude that sometimes (not always, of course) accompanies it. I think it gives the rest of us with special diets a bad rap. As a lifelong pescatarian I try to never mention it unless asked and to not ask for special food accommodations, unless it’s a bizarre scenario where the only options are red meat or poultry. At a certain point though, when there are a bunch of diverse options and people can’t eat any of them for whatever reason, I think that’s time to quietly eat before or after.
Well, what bothers me is people telling me such and such a food isn’t good for you, or “you aren’t as strong as you could be because you eat bread”, or whatever. Poeple on both sides of hte coin will create theories to debunk things, someone put in commetns that there was evidence this study wan’t thorough (paraphrasing), but likely, the article that syas that is probably even more doubtful and misleading… so, people think they don’t feel well after eating xyz – yep happens, peolpe actually not feeling well after eating abc, yeah, that too.
Ifyou odn’t want to eat something for yourown reasons, fine, but don’t tell me I need to eat the same way because you read somewherewhat I eat is not good for me (you are not me, how would you know!)
All the “you’s” are not you but the impersonal”one”, was easier to write this way..
This “gluten is Satan/gluten is great” argument always seems to get oddly personal. People are affronted that others don’t believe them when they say gluten seems to affect them negatively, as though that means they’re wishing them harm. Other people are mad because they think someone not eating bread is an indictment of them, their cake, and their great grandmother. I dunno. It’s weird.
I am glad things are maybe starting to swing the other way. A little science thrown into the mix never hurt anyone!
My MIL is “gluten free”. It’s in quotes because about 50% of what she eats has gluten in it and she doesn’t realize it. I ate at her house the other day and she was eating super processed soy protein isolate “veggie” burgers on her very expensive gluten free hamburger buns. I looked at the veggie burger package and the second ingredient was…GLUTEN.Said it in big ole letters. But, she feels amaaaaazzzzzing now that she’s “cut out gluten” and won’t shut up about it. Also, she’s all about no GMO wheat. “That’s what’s making everyone allergic and fat,” she said. I told her there was no GM wheat being produced or used anywhere in the world to no avail. She looks at me blankly and proceeds to tell me how she’s been putting a cut onion in every room to suck up the germs floating around… *crickets chirping*
Yes, with a scientific mind like that, how can I NOT believe she has a gluten sensitivity?
(I need to make it known that I understand that Celiac’s Disease is real. It is horrible and it can be life threatening. I’ve known one person diagnosed with it for real many years ago before it got “popular” and she was very, very sick before they figured out what was wrong. I am mostly railing against the people who have jumped on the gluten free fad bandwagon without any real reason other than an article about it floated into their inbox or on their Facebook page.)
Your MIL might feel better because she cut out a good portion of the wheat she used to eat. She might actually have a problem with other parts of the wheat rather than the protein. So the veggie burger on a GF bun might be fine for her, since many veggie burgers use only the protein part (wheat gluten, wheat protein concentrate etc). Or she just is no longer going past her personal threshold. I know that I don’t do well if I revert to eating wheat bread at every meal and every day, but don’t have the same problem with Tofurky or Field Roast and such which use wheat gluten but not the flour. So I suspect I need to limit wheat because of some other part of it. Wheat bread is the only thing that gives me heartburn, for example, especially fresh baked bread. Older wheats like spelt and kamut do the same thing to me. Grocery store packaged bread is okay, as long as I limit it to two slices occasionally. Go figure. Anyway, don’t laugh so hard at your MIL! 🙂
Another possibility for GF improving things might be reduced pesticide exposure. American wheat is grown with a lot of pesticide applications. I wonder if this is why some people report they can’t eat US wheat but can eat organically grown versions, especially European wheats – Einkorn seems well tolerated for some reason. I wonder if allergy to strawberries might be due to the same factor for many people, since strawberries here are dosed with pesticides throughout the growing process and you can’t just wash off the residues.
Oh, I am so like you….thinking I must be wrong and others must be right about my lack of gluten sensitivity. I am kinda sickly, and I keep getting asked if I have quit gluten. I have. twice. Nothing happened. I keep doubting myself though…I musta done it wrong, or MAYBE I have just such a strong will….I psyched myself into believing I a am not gluten sensitive. I like bread….a lot. 🙂
UGH! People that insist they know what is going on in a complete strangers tummy better than the stranger who is living it!!!! I know exactly what foods don’t agree with me because I have lived through the results. I appreciate finding out that some people have felt better changing their diet this way or that. Sometimes I try the changes, sometimes I don’t, but I am not going to live my life ignoring my own experience because somebody said it just can’t be!
I’m a big believer in science and medicine, but I also believe in experience. For a long time, doctors told us that PMS symptoms were “all in our minds,” as well. It wasn’t until about 25 years ago that science caught up with what women had known for centuries. All part of the “female hysteria” issues that plagued us for so long.
Whether it’s the gluten or something else, I think this study speaks volumes about the way our food is produced these days. I hope that the scientists who did this study don’t stop here, but continue on until they discover what, exactly, is making people feel ill.
In the meantime, folks should keep avoiding the stuff that makes them feel badly.
It sounds like your reading and researching is encroaching on the intuitiveness of your intuitive eating. 🙂
I’m also in the gluten-is-ok camp – for me. I’d never tell anyone else what to do with their body and if avoiding wheat makes you feel better – do it. I find I feel gross when I eat a lot of animal fat, so I avoid that (for the most part). I feel gross when I eat a high volume of white carbs (unless it’s after a super long or super intense workout – then they make me feel like a human again when I can’t digest the more complex stuff). I feel gross when I eat a high high high volume of fiber (veggies, whole wheat, beans, etc etc), but I’m pretty used to that stuff when it’s the main staples of my diet.
My mom will eat a piece of bread and then says she gets the compulsion to devour everything in sight. If all I eat is veggies and meat, I find I can’t get full, I eat a LOT more calories, and I’m completely unsatisfied and always hungry. Atkins was the most miserable months of my life, and I only lost weight because I stopped eating much, and felt awful all the time. I think different strokes for different folks.
I also train 10+ hours a week (I didn’t at that point though), so my body is probably more primed for using that type of fuel than the average bear?
So interesting! I am taking a leadership class at work and part of the curriculum involves non-verbal communication. In addition to the typical gestures, etc., we learned that eyes move around according to the type of information the person is thinking about (so looking up is visual, side-to-side is auditory, etc.) All of the interviewees in Jimmy Kimmel’s video (except the last guy) looked to the area associated with feelings when they gave their answer (the sunglasses lady moved her head in that direction). I am not sure whether that indicated that they felt embarrassed about not knowing the answer or if their decision not to eat gluten was primarily based on emotion. Anyway, thanks for an example I can take back to class tomorrow! 🙂
Also, I think I need to start using “crapppp” in more of my written communication. So thanks for that too (you and Miley)!
Back when I followed various diets I would often “slip” and eat whatever food or ingredient was deemed bad. When I did, I would swear on a stack of Bibles that I could feel the ill effects from a low energy level to an increase in m y fat layer. This would happen even if I ate a single french fry or one bite of pizza.
Since I’ve broken free of all of the diet hoop-la I’ve found I can eat almost anything within a reasonable portion size and not experience any consequences at all.
I know there’s hard science out there, but I’ve learned to never under estimate the power of the mind to make us feel how we “should feel” as opposed to how we really are effected from a food. We can be trained (brain washed?) to believe something is bad or good and we’ll feel appropriate consequences just because we believe we should.
I don’t have any problems with gluten (thankfully) but I’ve been a pescatarian (vegequarian or vegetarian + seafood) for over 20 years. If I accidentally eat meat I get the same symptoms, bloating, stomach cramps, the worst farts, and feel gross and grumpy. And it doesn’t take much ! Over Easter my family went out to an Italian restaurant and I ate the vegetarian pasta from my neices plate that she didn’t like. There must have been some bacon mixed in it from something else she’d eaten. It would have been tiny, but within 1/2 hour I was in agony.
I’ve been told that the reason I react to meat like this is because my body no longer makes the thingies (scientific term) that breaks down meat in my tummy (another scientific term). Maybe people who haven’t eaten gluten in years then accidentally eat some get the symptoms for the same reason ?
People at my gym and on weight loss boards have been telling me off, quite literally, for years because I “wouldn’t admit I was gluten intolerant.” Half these people were strangers who didn’t know the first thing about me. I have never had problems with gluten, and an elimination diet proved it. (Also strangely proved I was allergic to orange oil/peels – stupid PPD!!!) I had this one woman, a stranger, come up to me at the gym and say, “You are struggling to lose weight because you have a gluten sensitivity.”
I started laughing and said, “B*$%# I just lost seven pounds last week so who’s struggling?” People, doctors and nutritionists included, really need to stop trying to push their opinions on others when it doesn’t match those people’s bodies.
I have IBS, one of the most stupid tags of something “they” don’t know a lot about. My problems CAN be triggered by gluten – if I have a stressful week. Or from anything processed. Or high fiber. Or yeast. Or – I have no problems eating any of this!
But they can also come with fresh pineapples, green apples, raw carrots or kiwi because I also have pollen allergies – and that’s consistent, I can’t even touch i.e. green apples to my lips before it itches.
To me they look related though; the mucosa reacts – and mucosa is pretty much everywhere in my problem areas, the respiratory system and intestines are pretty much a mess at times.
What baffles me though is the inconsistency in the intestinal problems, I’ve tried eliminating everything (had a rice-and-chicken-no-spice-nothing-else diet for four weeks) and when I added other food back one by one I still didn’t get the same response every time. The dr just said I have IBS and he couldn’t do much more to find out anything so I saved the money I paid to go there twice a month and started investigating on my own. But I still have problem weeks – and good weeks regardless of what I eat.
I don’t know but I really think Gibson’s on to something important. I will follow this closely!!!
I haven’t read the full text of the paper, but this is what popped out at me from what seems to be a generally well-designed and well-executed study.
1. They are able to conclude that none of their 37 subjects had NCGS. That’s not the same as concluding nobody does. It would lead you to expect that it genuinely exists in less than 1 in 37 of self-diagnosed cases, and with the full dataset you could make a more precise statement about it. But very rare is not the same as non-existent.
2. The demonstrated the nocebo effect, but did they actually demonstrate a placebo effect for gluten elimination? That is, would a person react to gluten if they had no idea they were eating it? I imagine that to test that, you’d have to “leak” false information to mislead the gluten group into thinking they were the controls, or something. Which might be difficult to pull off, and an ethics panel would probably look askance at it too.
Probably these points are discussed in the full text. Don’t imagine I know more about it than the actual researchers!
Oh, and here’s another article that might be relevant: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/mariakonnikova/2014/05/why-do-people-persist-in-believing-things-that-just-arent-true.html
Its focus is on political beliefs, nothing to do with gluten at all
, but this line jumped out – “When there’s no immediate threat to our understanding of the world, we change our beliefs. It’s when that change contradicts something we’ve long held as important that problems occur.”
I read that article earlier in the week, but I don’t think it has changed my mind on the subject. I don’t think gluten is evil. I do think that for some people it is a real problem, but I also think a lot of people jump on the bandwagon just because it is the new thing.
For myself, I cut out wheat & dairy completely for a while. It did not help with bloating or weird stomach pains that I get some times. It did not give me more energy or make me feel less tired. Within a week and a half, it did clear up the eczema on my hands, which had been at the point of being painful.
I’m not completely avoiding wheat & dairy now – though I don’t generally eat a lot of dairy anyway, and never have. But I try to limit wheat (which is hard because I love so many things made with wheat), and I do notice a difference if I’ve been eating a lot of wheat.
So there is something there…whether it is gluten or something else, I don’t know. It’s like everything else – you have to figure out what works for you, and that is likely not the same thing that works for everyone else.
“How do you feel that gluten affects you . . .”
I’m a hospital surgical inpatient diagnosed Celiac. I feel it affects me very, very badly and I don’t care for fighting for my life on a glucose drip, but maybe that’s just me.
“Do you just avoid carbs all together?”
This question is non-sequitur.
I have never noticed any particular symptoms of gluten sensitivity, though I know I do feel better when I’m eating less wheat (white flour products are especially problematic).
Then, after being hospitalized with intense stomach cramping, vomiting, and major electrolyte imbalance, my dad received a celiac diagnosis. At the age of 56. He had no idea.
Now I find myself wondering if I too have problems with gluten that I’m not even aware of. I’m planning to get a blood test to rule it out… At least for now, because apparently this is an illness that can develop at any time.
So while I think that gluten-free has become trendy, I can understand why there would be such a strong placebo effect. It’s kind of scary to think that an illness that initially presents with such nonspecific symptoms could be damaging one’s intestines!
I think everyone has put in great opinions on both sides. I’m glad that people feel better going gluten free. And anything that gets people to eat less processed food is great. I’m on the pro-gluten side myself. I do make almost all my own bread, though. I’m more scared of all the preservatives that is in most store bought bread, than the gluten.
Look who paid for this reversal of attitude: George Weston Foods. What do they make? Baked goods.
And…37 people in the study pretty much means nothing until it’s repeated with the many flaws ironed out.
But they all did well on Gibson’s FODMAPS diet? Hmmm, maybe because there was no gluten!
Nail on head. Always always always follow the money.
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So…
…as mentioned…
…sometimes science has an agenda.
Well done Charlotte, that’s a great article – very informative and balanced. From a personal point of view I find I get some bloating with wheat/gluten and I generally feel better when I avoid it. However obviously the Placebo effect and FODMAPs cannot be discounted from this. I totally agree that each individual should experiment on themselves and find which type of food AND exercise works best for them. I believe Trainers and Nutritionists will gain more trust and respect if they accept that not every diet or training programme is suitable for everybody.