Wheat Belly diet

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Replies

  • Thorbjornn
    Thorbjornn Posts: 329 Member
    There is no test I'm aware of for lactose intolerance, yet it's accepted as a fact. So why is gluten intolerance blown off as a fad when so many people have adverse effects of consuming gluten? Just because it can't be seen under a microscope does not mean it doesn't exist. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

    If you can drink milk without adverse effects, drink milk. If you can't drink milk without adverse effects don't drink milk.
    If you can eat gluten without adverse effects, eat gluten. If you can't eat gluten without adverse effects don't eat gluten.

    It's no reason to dismiss someone else's discomfort because another person doesn't experience it and there are no "studies". Studies are often bull**** anyway.

    There are 5 separate tests to determine lactose intolerance. Everything from an elimination diet style thing up to an intestinal biopsy. Just as there are tests for gluten intolerance. There is no magic for food intolerances. If you feel like a magic snowflake when you cut out your morning muffin, then by all means go for it, but don't lump yourself in with people who end up in the damn hospital if they breathe too hard near the Mini Wheats.

    Also, lactose is a sugar, and not a protein -Ose <<sugar. Lactose intolerance just means you don't produce the enzyme to brake the sugar down.

    Thank you for supporting my points. I don't know why people are getting all butthurt and getting their jimmies rustled when other people say they can't tolerate a food component, gluten in this case. Whether it's an -ose or a protein, if you can't handle it, you can't handle it. But if someone stops getting the sharts, mud butt, bloating, inflammation when they stop wheat, and all that starts again if they eat wheat, then it's a pretty sure bet wheat has an adverse effect on them. There will always be fads, bandwagons, fearmongers and gullible people.
  • willnorton
    willnorton Posts: 995 Member
    wheat is the devil.....

    not all rules apply to all people...I am a low carber so that is where my opinions come from.....works for me...

    maybe not you....

    so like they say..opinions are like *kitten* ho#@s...everybody has one and they are all different...
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    wheat is the devil.....

    not all rules apply to all people...I am a low carber so that is where my opinions come from.....works for me...

    maybe not you....

    so like they say..opinions are like *kitten* ho#@s...everybody has one and they are all different...

    Low Carb is the devil. If I want arrythmia, all I have to do is go low carb.
  • JaredTheGeek
    JaredTheGeek Posts: 26 Member
    The other benefit of making your own bread to see what gluten products affect you is that you control the amount of sugar in it. The sugar content in store bought bread has skyrocketed.
  • Snow3y
    Snow3y Posts: 1,412 Member
    I eat pastas, breads, cereals, and people wanna say that wheat is fattening or more so 'the devil' :laugh: horse *kitten*
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    The other benefit of making your own bread to see what gluten products affect you is that you control the amount of sugar in it. The sugar content in store bought bread has skyrocketed.

    Yep. Plus home made bread tastes freakin AWESOME!
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Unless you have an intolerance to gluten, there's no reason to stop eating it.

    Weight loss = burning more calories than you consume. So if you eat at a reasonable deficit, you will lose weight. Not because of any fad diet.
    Unless there's a medical diagnosis saying you should avoid grain, there's not much of an advantage to doing it. However if you think it will be sustainable, and enjoy it then you can be as successful with it as with anything else. Mind your calories and macros, and pretty much anything will work depending on your goals.

    Re: "unless you're medically diagnosed" - That would help if non-Celiac gluten intolerance were diagnosable via blood tests, and if the Celiac tests tested for all of the gluten proteins in grains, not just some of them. It would also help if the people who actually did have Celiac, but presented slightly differently than the (stereo)typical reactions, would be taken seriously by doctors and didn't have to go through half a dozen just to get the blood tests done to begin with. As it stands, somewhere in the range of 90% of the people who have full-blown Celiac remain undiagnosed, and the people with NCGI, even if they do get tested, are told they're fine, and may even be told that it's all in their head...if their doctor even bothers to so much as entertain the idea that their IBS, eczema, RA, Fibro, brain fog, constant sick feeling, etc. might be related to some level of gluten intolerance.

    However, NCGI and the less extreme forms of gluten sensitivity, are diagnosed through...*drumroll* eliminating the gluten grains for a while and seeing how you respond to both the removal and the reintroduction. While this would need to be done under the "supervision" of a doctor in order to get a diagnosis, that's not really required to simply see how you feel. "You don't know what you've got, till it's gone," works both ways - the quote talks about not appreciating something positive until you lose it, but it also works in the sense that you don't know how low your quality of life is until you make a change that improves it (drastically, in at least some cases), if you've been living with a sensitivity that you didn't initially know you had. The body's funny about coping with things like that.

    Now, while it is correct that going gluten free doesn't "magically" break the CICO rule, it can have other effects, especially if you find you do have some level of sensitivity, and those effects can make it easier to do things like stay in a caloric deficit, or be more active. It's amazing how much better you can do, when you're not inexplicably exhausted, or in pain due to an inflammation disorder, or feel like you have to constantly be in arm's reach of a bathroom.
    There's only one gluten protein. It's called gluten. Glutenin+gliadin+water=gluten.
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    I eat pastas, breads, cereals, and people wanna say that wheat is fattening or more so 'the devil' :laugh: horse *kitten*

    I think the issue is we got trained as kids to accept wheat in _everything_.

    Remember the old "part of a healthy breakfast" ads that showed choco-crunch cereal, eggs, toast, milk, and orange juice? If you take out the choco-crunch cereal it's just as healthy a breakfast, and that cereal is primarily wheat.

    We also get sly marketing. "Eat the wrap! It's healthier!".. the wrap usually has more calories in it than the bun.

    What's healthier is making informed food choices, and limiting intake to rational levels.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
    I had to go gluten free after finding out i have a sensitivity to gluten. My doctor recommended I read Wheat Belly, and that pretty much really helped to change my mind about wheat. It honestly hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but be prepared as it is a lifestyle change. Wheat is in EVERYTHING and half the time it is so unnecessary. Best of luck!

    *headdesk*
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    I had to go gluten free after finding out i have a sensitivity to gluten. My doctor recommended I read Wheat Belly, and that pretty much really helped to change my mind about wheat. It honestly hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but be prepared as it is a lifestyle change. Wheat is in EVERYTHING and half the time it is so unnecessary. Best of luck!

    *headdesk*

    My doctor told me to take up dowsing, get my aura checked, and get a voodoo doll. I feel SO much better now.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    Strong placebo effect ITT
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    Strong placebo effect ITT

    No.. some guy photographed auras.. so it's SCIENCE! And it WORKS!

    And Voodoo wouldn't have been practiced for hundreds of years if it wasn't true.
  • mawon4
    mawon4 Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks for posting this discussion, I haven't tried it but interested to see what others think.
  • Threads like these always make my "ignore" list grow. This is without a doubt the most judgmental, preachy board I read .. and I've even been known to frequent a religious board or two. Why do people take what other people eat or don't eat so personally? I'm here to learn, not defend.

    For those who ARE allergic to gluten or super sensitive to wheat, is bleu cheese dressing the "gluten devil" it's made out to be? I really can't give up my bleu cheese dressing; and while I can control it when I make it by only purchasing gluten free bleu cheese, you never know when eating out.

    I am reading Wheat Belly right now, but I honestly don't regard it as a "diet book". But, frankly, weight loss is what leads a lot of us to reading about this stuff in the first place.
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    Thanks for posting this discussion, I haven't tried it but interested to see what others think.

    I gave zero credence to the "gluten" thing. My sister went on a gluten elimination diet, and learned she is sensitive to it. I figured, hey.. genetics.. I should try this too.

    So I did. Now, I realize not everyone can bake their own bread and make their own crackers, so my experience may not be possible for everyone, but in MY case, it's something other than gluten that was causing the issues I was having.

    YMMV.

    What I learned was I have some kind of mild allergy, and I have figured out it's A) something in commercial baked goods, but B) not gluten, eggs, salt, milk, or yeast.
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    Threads like these always make my "ignore" list grow. This is without a doubt the most judgmental, preachy board I read .. and I've even been known to frequent a religious board or two. Why do people take what other people eat or don't eat so personally? I'm here to learn, not defend.

    For those who ARE allergic to gluten or super sensitive to wheat, is bleu cheese dressing the "gluten devil" it's made out to be? I really can't give up my bleu cheese dressing; and while I can control it when I make it by only purchasing gluten free bleu cheese, you never know when eating out.

    I am reading Wheat Belly right now, but I honestly don't regard it as a "diet book". But, frankly, weight loss is what leads a lot of us to reading about this stuff in the first place.

    I cannot understand why Bleu cheese would be an issue.

    Of course, I also had someone with a straight face say you couldn't eat steak, because it probably contained gluten, because cows eat wheat. *blink* *blink*
  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 809 Member
    After being diagnosed by an allergist with a wheat allergy, I haven't eaten wheat for 30 years (except for the occasional slip-up). My digestive tract health improved greatly.

    However, I am fine with rye and barley. I can also eat oats (it's gluten-free, but some people with celiac disease still can't eat it). So, I don't have celiac disease, but a wheat allergy.

    I use wheat-free whole grain rye bread/brown rice bread, brown rice pasta, whole grain rye crackers, etc., in place of wheat products. It has become much easier to deal with a wheat allergy because stores are now stocking so many wheat-free products. For the first 20 years after I was diagnosed, I had to shop at health food stores to get wheat-free products.

    But, if I didn't have a definite reason to be doing this (diagnosed wheat allergy), I wouldn't be doing it.
    Any thoughts on it? I saw it on Dr Oz and was wondering if anyone has tried it. I have been eating mostly gluten-free for the past few months and this diet appealed to me. Thanks!
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    After being diagnosed by an allergist with a wheat allergy, I haven't eaten wheat for 30 years (except for the occasional slip-up). My digestive tract health improved greatly.

    However, I am fine with rye and barley. I can also eat oats (it's gluten-free, but some people with celiac disease still can't eat it). So, I don't have celiac disease, but a wheat allergy.

    I use wheat-free whole grain rye bread/brown rice bread, brown rice pasta, whole grain rye crackers, etc., in place of wheat products. It has become much easier to deal with a wheat allergy because stores are now stocking so many wheat-free products. For the first 20 years after I was diagnosed, I had to shop at health food stores to get wheat-free products.

    But, if I didn't have a definite reason to be doing this (diagnosed wheat allergy), I wouldn't be doing it.
    Any thoughts on it? I saw it on Dr Oz and was wondering if anyone has tried it. I have been eating mostly gluten-free for the past few months and this diet appealed to me. Thanks!

    Huh. clearly, it's not gluten, as rye has gluten in spades.

    That's actually really interesting.

    Thanks for sharing that!
  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 809 Member
    Traditionally the milk used to make blue cheese has been, and still is, inoculated with mold spores grown on breads or cultures that contain gluten.
    I cannot understand why Bleu cheese would be an issue.
  • MelRC117
    MelRC117 Posts: 911 Member
    I do a stricter version of the Wheat Belly diet. I eat low-carb and cut out wheat and sugar completely, and it has done WONDERS for my energy, weight, and mood. My cravings and appetite have been drastically reduced, and my depression/anxiety have reversed as a result of my diet. Wheat is POISON, and I only wish it was never in my diet in the first place! I highly recommend reading the book and cutting wheat out of your diet asap. It will change your life for the better!

    This is how other people on low carb diets get a bad wrap.....
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Unless you have an intolerance to gluten, there's no reason to stop eating it.

    On the other hand, it will do absolutely no harm to cut out gluten. Grains aren't particularly nutritious--even whole grains--and there's no nutrient in wheat that you can't get easily from other foods. You do have to watch out for hidden sources of gluten in processed foods, condiments, even some OTC medicines. If you don't notice any difference after several weeks on a gluten-free diet, then go back to eating grains. No problem.

    Right, so mesolithic people started storing huge quantities of "worthless foods" and neolithic people started actually cultivating "worthless foods" because of course people put that much effort into securing their supply of "worthless foods"

    No. It was an extremely valuable food to them because it guaranteed they'd have enough to survive the winter in environments where hunting and gathering didn't do that. (i.e. there was no guarantee they could hunt and gather enough to survive the winter). It didn't just give them much needed carbohydrate (higher activity levels back then n all that) it also gave them a lot of micronutrients and fibre too, because grains are nutritious foods. Eating nothing but grains would be unhealthy because that's an unbalanced diet and they don't contain sufficient quantities of all 8 essential amino acids, but that doesn't mean they provide no nutrition at all.

    Just because people *can* survive without a particular food, does not mean it's worthless. Vegans can survive without animal products, does that make animal products worthless?

    Just because a lot of modern people overeat on something to the point that it damages their health, that doesn't make it a worthless food or inherently damaging. And a lot of modern people overeat on pretty much everything. People need to learn portion control and need to be more active, that is all. Too much of anything can harm you. Too much vitamin A can kill you. But some vitamin A in the diet is essential to health.

    I have a question, since you are an expert. I went on a trip to China 4 years ago, and my guide was my elderly Chinese professor from my youth--college days. When we were traveling through a certain area of China she said "the people in this area are taller than normal Chinese because they eat wheat rather than rice". Is this true? Does eating wheat rather than rice effect height? I would be interested to know. Thanks.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    I do a stricter version of the Wheat Belly diet. I eat low-carb and cut out wheat and sugar completely, and it has done WONDERS for my energy, weight, and mood. My cravings and appetite have been drastically reduced, and my depression/anxiety have reversed as a result of my diet. Wheat is POISON, and I only wish it was never in my diet in the first place! I highly recommend reading the book and cutting wheat out of your diet asap. It will change your life for the better!

    This is how other people on low carb diets get a bad wrap.....

    :flowerforyou:
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    There are 5 separate tests to determine lactose intolerance. Everything from an elimination diet style thing up to an intestinal biopsy. Just as there are tests for gluten intolerance. There is no magic for food intolerances. If you feel like a magic snowflake when you cut out your morning muffin, then by all means go for it, but don't lump yourself in with people who end up in the damn hospital if they breathe too hard near the Mini Wheats.

    Also, lactose is a sugar, and not a protein -Ose <<sugar. Lactose intolerance just means you don't produce the enzyme to break the sugar down.

    >>>Edit for spelling.

    There may be tests for lactose intolerance, but unless you have Celiac, are intolerant to the proteins tested, and react with the expected antibody signatures, you're SOL when it comes to blood tests for getting "officially" diagnosed.

    From http://www.celiaccentral.org/non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity/testing-and-diagnosis/ :
    In NFCA’s webcast, Dr. Guandalini states:
    “As a matter of fact, right now, they are to say that there is absolutely no biological readout that is no way can this diagnosis can be supported by any laboratory investigation. No antibodies in the blood are specific enough, or sensitive enough, for this condition. No antibodies in the stools can be utilized to diagnose or screen for this condition.”
    Dr. Fasano also touched on this topic and stated that his team is currently conducting research to identify biomarkers that may help to test for and diagnose non-celiac gluten sensitivity:
    “…as Dr. Guandalini explained when the only way to make a diagnosis of gluten sensitivity is by exclusionary criteria since we do not have tests that will point in that direction. And that’s where our current efforts are all about. Now that we understand that it is a different entity we want to make sure that we can eventually identify the biomarkers for this condition, and we’re doing a double blind study to identify the biomarkers that will eventually fill the gap that Dr. Guandalini was alluding to.”
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    Unless you have an intolerance to gluten, there's no reason to stop eating it.

    On the other hand, it will do absolutely no harm to cut out gluten. Grains aren't particularly nutritious--even whole grains--and there's no nutrient in wheat that you can't get easily from other foods. You do have to watch out for hidden sources of gluten in processed foods, condiments, even some OTC medicines. If you don't notice any difference after several weeks on a gluten-free diet, then go back to eating grains. No problem.

    Right, so mesolithic people started storing huge quantities of "worthless foods" and neolithic people started actually cultivating "worthless foods" because of course people put that much effort into securing their supply of "worthless foods"

    No. It was an extremely valuable food to them because it guaranteed they'd have enough to survive the winter in environments where hunting and gathering didn't do that. (i.e. there was no guarantee they could hunt and gather enough to survive the winter). It didn't just give them much needed carbohydrate (higher activity levels back then n all that) it also gave them a lot of micronutrients and fibre too, because grains are nutritious foods. Eating nothing but grains would be unhealthy because that's an unbalanced diet and they don't contain sufficient quantities of all 8 essential amino acids, but that doesn't mean they provide no nutrition at all.

    Just because people *can* survive without a particular food, does not mean it's worthless. Vegans can survive without animal products, does that make animal products worthless?

    Just because a lot of modern people overeat on something to the point that it damages their health, that doesn't make it a worthless food or inherently damaging. And a lot of modern people overeat on pretty much everything. People need to learn portion control and need to be more active, that is all. Too much of anything can harm you. Too much vitamin A can kill you. But some vitamin A in the diet is essential to health.

    I have a question, since you are an expert. I went on a trip to China 4 years ago, and my guide was my elderly Chinese professor from my youth--college days. When we were traveling through a certain area of China she said "the people in this area are taller than normal Chinese because they eat wheat rather than rice". Is this true? Does eating wheat rather than rice effect height? I would be interested to know. Thanks.

    I'm not an expert, just an extremely enthusiastic amateur.

    Nutritional deficiency in childhood can stunt the growth. Substituting wheat for rice would only have that effect of making kids grow taller if the rice eating children's diet was deficient in a specific nutrient that was in wheat but not in rice. So it would depend heavily on what the kids were eating the rest of the time. Eating rice as part of an otherwise balanced diet won't stunt anyone's growth, and adding wheat to the diet won't make any well nourished children grow taller.

    Without studying the specific population it's impossible to say whether that's what was really going on. It could be due to that, but it could be due to normal genetic variation, e.g. one tribe/village/town's population having more genes for being tall than the others.a

    I read something years ago about how the introduction of the western diet caused children in Japan or China (I forget which) to grow significantly taller than their parents... this was put down to the fact that the traditional diet (at least of the ordinary people) was quite limited and people often didn't get enough protein, so people's growth was stunted a little in childhood... the the introduction of a high protein diet meant that a generation of children grew up without their growth being stunted, hence grew significantly taller than their parents. Eating wheat rather than rice *may* have this effect........ although I'd be inclined to say that eating wheat AND rice would be more likely to do so, as both wheat and rice have 7 out of the 8 essential amino acids in sufficient quantities, but the one that is missing is different in wheat and rice, so if you eat both wheat and rice it's not hard to get all 8 amino acids in sufficient quantities........... IMO if the issue is correcting a deficiency that's stunting the growth of children a little, then eating both wheat and rice would be more likely to correct the deficiency and lead to children not having their growth stunted.

    Without seeing a proper scientific case study it's hard to say though...

    ETA: on second thoughts, can't remember if the missing essential amino acid in rice is different to the one missing from wheat or not.... but if the kids really were taller and it wasn't genetic, then the wheat must have been giving them some nutrient that the other kids weren't getting from rice.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    I do a stricter version of the Wheat Belly diet. I eat low-carb and cut out wheat and sugar completely, and it has done WONDERS for my energy, weight, and mood. My cravings and appetite have been drastically reduced, and my depression/anxiety have reversed as a result of my diet. Wheat is POISON, and I only wish it was never in my diet in the first place! I highly recommend reading the book and cutting wheat out of your diet asap. It will change your life for the better!

    This is how other people on low carb diets get a bad wrap.....

    :flowerforyou:

    ^^^ yeah this

    wheat is not poison. cyanide is poison. arsenic is poison. wheat is a healthy, nutritious food. Some people are allergic/intolerant to it and therefore shouldn't eat it..... but that doesn't make it a poison.
  • I have noticed that when I stopped eating gluten a few months ago, my head became more clear. It was recommended I go gluten free because I got the lap-band and have been having difficulty losing weight due to my Fibromyalgia being very reactive to the band and everything else. I have some other auto-immune issues that I am dealing with. So I figured gluten-free couldn't hurt and then logging everything on myfitnesspal would only benefit. When I reintroduced gluten, my stomach became gaseous and hurt. So I think the best bet for me is to stay away from gluten however I didn't know the difference either between gluten-free and wheat free. I think I need to become more educated with all of it. I have a great book called "Food rules" that talks about eating mostly natural grown food and I think this would probably be the most healthiest way of eating (7 ingredients or less, etc). However I also work several jobs and have two kids so I need to be plan-full about what I make so the whole family can enjoy it but be healthy also. Thanks for the responses everyone! I truly appreciate it.

    Okay, wheat gluten is a protein. It's a very hard protein to digest. Much like the proteins in dairy, which some people cannot digest. When people cannot digest dairy proteins, they are "lactose intolerant". When people cannot digest gluten proteins, they are gluten intolerant.

    That said, many people have managed to re-introduce dairy by eating diets encouraged to increase the enzymes required to break down the dairy proteins, and I suspect the same will be found, over time, with gluten.

    my suspicion (purely unscientific, mind you) is that our really lousy diets, coupled with highly processed food sources (bleached, white flour, etc), make it harder for us to digest gluten, and we also get an overabundance of it in our diets, due to it's concentration through things like flour, and gluten being added to products to increase the efficiency of mass production. (If you have ever baked bread, you'll know certain breads call for "vital wheat gluten" to make the dough more elastic, and to rise properly. Now, I'm certain our ancestors did not add "vital wheat gluten" from a baking store when making whole wheat bread.. so they either took more time to do it, or something else has changed in the way we make flour, or what it's composed of).

    I think once gluten insensitivity is better understood, it will be a lot like lactose intolerance.

    This is the best response I've seen. :smile:
  • DamePiglet
    DamePiglet Posts: 3,730 Member
    I don't know about wheat belly, but I used to have a lard *kitten*. Is that related?
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    There's only one gluten protein. It's called gluten. Glutenin+gliadin+water=gluten.

    Technically, "gluten" is a protein compound, as you pointed out, consisting of glutenin and a gliadin (of which, there are several). Some people can be sensitive to the glutenin and not the gliadin. Additionally, some may be intolerant to the different types of gliadins. Therefore, it's entirely possible to have Celiac, but test negative, particularly if the doctor orders an antiquated test that only tests for certain gliadins.

    But, if you still want to classify it as one protein, then you can just change "gluten proteins" to "grain proteins," because gluten isn't the only protein in any of the grains, and it's possible to be intolerant to one of them.
  • Ctrum69
    Ctrum69 Posts: 308 Member
    I have noticed that when I stopped eating gluten a few months ago, my head became more clear. It was recommended I go gluten free because I got the lap-band and have been having difficulty losing weight due to my Fibromyalgia being very reactive to the band and everything else. I have some other auto-immune issues that I am dealing with. So I figured gluten-free couldn't hurt and then logging everything on myfitnesspal would only benefit. When I reintroduced gluten, my stomach became gaseous and hurt. So I think the best bet for me is to stay away from gluten however I didn't know the difference either between gluten-free and wheat free. I think I need to become more educated with all of it. I have a great book called "Food rules" that talks about eating mostly natural grown food and I think this would probably be the most healthiest way of eating (7 ingredients or less, etc). However I also work several jobs and have two kids so I need to be plan-full about what I make so the whole family can enjoy it but be healthy also. Thanks for the responses everyone! I truly appreciate it.

    Okay, wheat gluten is a protein. It's a very hard protein to digest. Much like the proteins in dairy, which some people cannot digest. When people cannot digest dairy proteins, they are "lactose intolerant". When people cannot digest gluten proteins, they are gluten intolerant.

    That said, many people have managed to re-introduce dairy by eating diets encouraged to increase the enzymes required to break down the dairy proteins, and I suspect the same will be found, over time, with gluten.

    my suspicion (purely unscientific, mind you) is that our really lousy diets, coupled with highly processed food sources (bleached, white flour, etc), make it harder for us to digest gluten, and we also get an overabundance of it in our diets, due to it's concentration through things like flour, and gluten being added to products to increase the efficiency of mass production. (If you have ever baked bread, you'll know certain breads call for "vital wheat gluten" to make the dough more elastic, and to rise properly. Now, I'm certain our ancestors did not add "vital wheat gluten" from a baking store when making whole wheat bread.. so they either took more time to do it, or something else has changed in the way we make flour, or what it's composed of).

    I think once gluten insensitivity is better understood, it will be a lot like lactose intolerance.

    This is the best response I've seen. :smile:

    Yeah, though I derped on lactose being a protein, not a sugar.

    But thanks.
  • I have noticed that when I stopped eating gluten a few months ago, my head became more clear. It was recommended I go gluten free because I got the lap-band and have been having difficulty losing weight due to my Fibromyalgia being very reactive to the band and everything else. I have some other auto-immune issues that I am dealing with. So I figured gluten-free couldn't hurt and then logging everything on myfitnesspal would only benefit. When I reintroduced gluten, my stomach became gaseous and hurt. So I think the best bet for me is to stay away from gluten however I didn't know the difference either between gluten-free and wheat free. I think I need to become more educated with all of it. I have a great book called "Food rules" that talks about eating mostly natural grown food and I think this would probably be the most healthiest way of eating (7 ingredients or less, etc). However I also work several jobs and have two kids so I need to be plan-full about what I make so the whole family can enjoy it but be healthy also. Thanks for the responses everyone! I truly appreciate it.

    Thanks for posting. I feel lighter and clearer and happier without gluten too! I am wondering if going gluten-free helped with your fibro at all? I have a friend who suffers from this. She is 26 and in constant pain :/ I have heard a lot of people talk about their inflammation going down after cutting out gluten. Did you notice a relief of any Fibromyalgia symptoms? Thanks,