OK so after hearing the warnings from the gluten-free beaver (see yesterday’s post), I wondered some more about the impact of gluten on people who, unlike me, do not have a serious gluten related medical condition. There are a fair number of celiacs who think that no one should ever eat gluten…ever. They believe that we are all to some extent sensitive to gluten and that its a problem even for those of us who do not have celiac disease or autism or even non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
I never used to believe this. I just figured that there are people for whom nuts are good food and people who will die if they eat nuts. I always thought gluten was the same. Some people can eat it and others like me, can be killed as a result of eating it.
However, it appears that perhaps the other celiacs are correct and no one should ever eat gluten…ever.
This is a link to a Spanish study. The problem with this study was that they studied a whopping three non-celiacs and found that 100% of them had an immune response to gluten. Choose poorly with my Facebook friends and you would think that everyone was born in May. Three people is an interesting start, but not a study. Still, the mechanism is explained here so I thought I would include it.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1954879/
What is more well studied and concerning is that the number of people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity may be larger than I would have thought.
And in case your doctor is not up with the latest research, non-celiac gluten sensitivity is an accepted diagnosis…at least according to the American Journal of Gastroenterology. It is a known problem, even for non-celiacs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825366
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22371218
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23083983
We don’t yet know what percentage of the population has a problem with gluten, but for now I would say this. If you have skin rashes, depression, a potbelly that doesn’t go away, a flat butt or health problems that seem odd (heart disease or cancer at a young age) you may want to try eliminating gluten and seeing how you feel. You should take the tests but a negative doesn’t mean you have the all clear. The tests don’t reliably work on non-celiac gluten issues. This is why our nutritionist recommends the old fashioned test.
Stop eating gluten, dairy and corn for two months
Do you feel better now?
If not have a nice pizza with cornbread.
Do you feel horrible now?
You have your answer. What you do with it is up to you.
