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Do you think that gluten, lactose, or {insert supposed food intolerance here} is really just a fad?

JustRobby1
JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
edited June 2017 in Debate Club
As a disclaimer, I post this to spark discussion, not attack anyone in particular. There are obviously some people who have a legitimate medical diagnosis and suffer from celiac disease, but the overwhelming majority of people who claim such intolerances don't. To use an example, Just a decade ago, gluten-intolerance levels were at 1 in 2500 worldwide, and nearly 1 in 10,000 20 years ago. Today, it’s at 1 in 133 according to people's mostly non-medical claims.

People that claim that modern breads/wheats are the culprit are full of compete and utter nonsense, as breads from 70-120 years ago were far worse at aggravating gut sensitivities. Up until about 100 years ago, most breads were sourdoughs. Sourdough is a combination of at least one lactobacillus (lactic acid bacterium) and at least one yeast. Lactobacilli outnumber yeast on average about 100:1 to 200:1

I am of the opinion that the overwhelming majority of people who claim these sensitivities are completely full of BS, and just following a trend no different than a junior high school student changing his wardrobe to be cool.
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Replies

  • Unknown
    edited June 2017
    This content has been removed.
  • JustRobby1
    JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
    mph323 wrote: »
    In spite of your title, it seems you are very specifically bashing people who claim gluten intolerance without a doctor's diagnosis, apparently because a woman at work annoys you. Nice. You do realize the incidence of diagnosed celiac disease/gluten-intolerance has risen because there is more awareness of the symptoms and genetic links to auto-immune diseases in general. People with diagnosed family members often (correctly) self-diagnose, and the disease is very often NOT discovered at a very early age and is more often than not diagnosed in adults. And just wow, I'm so impressed at how you know that gluten sensitivity doesn't exist, so everyone who experiences symptoms without an actual doctor-certified celiac diagnoses is just kidding themselves. I'm interested in where you got your medical degree - could you share?

    Ok, so to address your barrage of statements, here goes:

    Odd you should mention more "awareness" as this is actually part of the problem, since it has lead to many people improperly self diagnosing themselves for whatever reason. You should investigate the acronym NOCEBO. It's a well documented medical principal similar to the placebo effect in the medical literature and it's especially pertains to people who claim NCGS.

    The study I mentioned above conducted by Dr. Gibson and several other researchers who "discovered" NCGS attacked the hypothesis quite throughly after it became a worldwide phenomenon. Aside from using typical controls, he also made certain other key variables were accounted for.

    1) Subjects were given every single meal for the duration of the study. 2) Any other potential causes of bad stomach symptoms were removed from the diet (lactose from milk, for example). 3) Peter collected nine days worth of urine and fecal matter for microbiological analysis to rule out other potential causes.

    An interesting facet of the research which touches on your point is that Gluten was proven as a NOCEBO by the researchers over the course of the clinical trials. This was done in a simple but novel fashion: people who did not take gluten but thought they were began to report symptoms. This was the straw that broke the camels for any scientific validity for the people claiming NGCS. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648697

    Also, checking PubMed or Medline will yield you the phonebook of similar research.

    To offer some pertinent quotes from the paper:

    “Non-Celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), occurring in patients without Celiac disease yet whose gastrointestinal symptoms improve on a gluten-free diet (GFD), is largely a self-reported diagnosis and would appear to be very common.”

    “There is definitely something going on, but true NCGS may only affect a very small number of people and may affect more extra-intestinal symptoms than first thought. This will only be confirmed with an a more through understanding of gastrointestinal mechanism.”

    For a more laymen's perspective, the NYT did a write up not long after the original paper was published, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/business/food-industry-wagers-big-on-gluten-free.html?_r=4
    Obviously when a discoverer of a supposed ailment recants and sees their error, it's fairly damning for it's continued proponents.

    Now my personal opinion based on the currently available evidence is NGCS might very well exist, but it effects an infinitesimally small subset of the population. Nowhere enough to justify the trendiness is enjoys. If people want to waste their money on these products, be my guest. Who am I to stand it the way of commerce?
  • peckchris3267
    peckchris3267 Posts: 368 Member
    Only 1% of Americans have Celiac disease.
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    I do think there are probably a lot of people eating gluten free who might not need to. However, I don't think it's fair to say that some level of gluten sensitivity does not exist in some people who do not have celiac disease. And like others have mentioned, GI issues may be a clue.