Gluten allergies are a farce?
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My mom jumped on the "gluten bandwagon" at the advice of Dr Oz, which caused a huge eye roll from me. However, we did notice that the sinus issues she had for decades (frequent infections every 2-3 months) completely disappeared along with this annoying throat clearing/reflux thing she had done in the two and a half decades I have known her. So, clearly some people are affected by gluten, and some aren't.
Correlation/causation...
Did her sinus issues clear up BECAUSE she stopped eating gluten? Or as a consequence of removing gluten, did she eat a better diet, thus becoming healthier?
Most of the time when people go "gluten free" for reasons other than Celiac or an actual food allergy, they try the nasty crap peddled as gluten-free first, then realize that stuff is awful, then start simply eating better. The idea of going gluten-free causes people to make better food choices in general, thus they become healthier people.0 -
My mom jumped on the "gluten bandwagon" at the advice of Dr Oz, which caused a huge eye roll from me. However, we did notice that the sinus issues she had for decades (frequent infections every 2-3 months) completely disappeared along with this annoying throat clearing/reflux thing she had done in the two and a half decades I have known her. So, clearly some people are affected by gluten, and some aren't.
Correlation/causation...
Did her sinus issues clear up BECAUSE she stopped eating gluten? Or as a consequence of removing gluten, did she eat a better diet, thus becoming healthier?
Most of the time when people go "gluten free" for reasons other than Celiac or an actual food allergy, they try the nasty crap peddled as gluten-free first, then realize that stuff is awful, then start simply eating better. The idea of going gluten-free causes people to make better food choices in general, thus they become healthier people.
I ate a GF donut yesterday before dinner. Was delicious. Many GF brands make tasty foods now, and I still eat a lot of junk/crap regularly lol.
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I don't think they're a farce. I DO think though that gluten intolerance and allergies are more prevalent because the wheat that we have now is not the same as the wheat that our parents, grand parents, etc. grew up on and ate.0
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There was another report recently from the NIH which has supported a correlative thing.
This time, though, it's tied to excessive use of pesticides, on wheat in particular, which are used to trigger the wheat's "Oh god I'm dying, better go to seed!" response and increase crop yields.
So the hypotenuse there is that, if you managed to eliminate wheat from your diet, you would also eliminate the trace residue of pesticides along with it, and your symptoms would back off.0 -
2 of my children have celiac disease. Trust me they are not just jumping on the bandwagon. they would love to eat like their friends, but they aren't tempted to cheat because of the intense pain and misery eating gluten causes them. My son also is a type 1 diabetic, and ends up in the hospital with low blood sugar and needing iv sugar when he accidently gets glutened. Its kind of a big deal. So please don't assume all the people eating gluten free are doing it because its a trend. My dr. also wants me to eat gluten free because of my Hypo thyroid...I'm on the fence...not enough research done on that to make me go gluten free completely, I have no symptoms of celiac, and I know them well. So there are Dr.s out there telling people they have gluten intolerence, (as mine has) when in fact not enough research has proven it to be true.
If you eat healthy, as most do, when you take out gluten, you are bound to feel better, but you can eat unhealthy and gluten free.
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You can have a sensitivity to food, where it gives you some type of distress, like gas or bloating. This is NOT an allergy, which can be life threatening. I hate it when people call their sensitivity an "allergy." It makes it harder for those with real food allergies to be taken seriously.
Not all allergies are life threatening. Some things that seem like "sensitivities" are in fact allergies. There is a medical definition of each word. For example me:
"A food allergy is a very specific immune system response involving either the immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody or T-cells. Both are immune system cells that react to a particular food protein, such as milk protein.
An IgE reaction occurs within minutes to an hour or so of either smelling, touching, or ingesting a particular food. The presence of the food triggers the immune system to over-react and interpret the food as harmful. Histamine is released, causing symptoms that range from mild to severe, including hives, itching, trouble breathing, wheezing, and anaphylaxis."
I have that milk allergy. It is an allergy. But I still eat milk products and just live with the digestive discomfort (usually within about 20 minutes) and mild eczema it causes me (depending on how much I had). You're implying it's just a sensitivity because it's not life threatening to me. But it is *medically* an allergy.0 -
Most people do not discover a food allergy because of anaphylaxis. Most discover at the mild symptoms stage; itching, rashes, etc. Many food allergies will never become serious enough to kill you.0
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I don't have celiac disease, but if I eat anything containing gluten I get hives. It's not a farce, and it bothers me when people say they are allergic when they really are just looking for an excuse, for whatever reason. It's very difficult having ths allergy. My hives are one step away from anaphylaxis.
Some celiacs get topical reactions to gluten. So clearly the body doesn't just react in one set way to an allergen or food sensitivity!
But as for myself, I stopped eating gluten 4-5 years ago and I feel much better without it. I first tried going dairy-free and this didn't change my painful bloating or gas. I also was doing these elimination diets more with the hope it'd clear up my acne (which it didn't) and wasn't really banking on some digestive improvements. I didn't even know what the symptoms of gluten allergy or sensitivity were when I did this.
So eh, YMMV.
About five or six years ago, many wheat growers were convinced by Monsanto that they should apply Roundup (Monsanto's name for their herbicide in which glyphosate is the major component) to their wheat crops. Even though wheat is not yet "Roundup-ready" (they are working on it) they apply the Roundup, shortly before harvest, in order to kill the wheat plants and more efficiently dry the wheat kernels on the stalk. While it saves a bit of money for the farmer, it means that there will be quite a lot of Roundup residue in the wheat. While the government has cleared glyphosate as "generally recognized as safe"--it may not be the glyphosate that is the problem in observed toxic reactions in animal studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25245870 (and possible human toxicity as well). There is a chemical called POE-15 that is added to the glyphosate in the herbicide and POE-15 has, so far, proved to be highly toxic to living cells. But glyphosate itself may not be as innocent as was once thought because further animal studies have determined that long-term exposure wreaks havoc with bowel flora among other undesirable effects: "Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression. It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer." You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/
Monsanto is pulling out all the stops in fighting those who are raising the alarm on the herbicide's pervasive use throughout the food supply. It is an extremely profitable product for them. They hire scientists to produce "positive" studies on its use and they hire individuals to post articles that negate its possible negative affects on health.
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TadaGanIarracht wrote: »
I think it is interesting that "TadaGanlarracht" has over 2,500 posts but has "de-activated" his/her account??
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As someone who was diagnosed quite some time ago with celiac disease (17 years now), seeing it become "trendy" to avoid gluten (as apart from people with sensitivy) is sort of interesting to me. The accompanying backlash is also interesting. And concerning.
Celiac groups have tried for many years to get accommodation in food stores, restaurants and the public consciousness for the disease and have succeeded admirably. I have read reports, though, where people claiming to accommodate those with gluten issues were merely paying lip service to the issue because of the perception that so many out there claiming a problem with gluten were really just being snowflakes about the whole thing. This is all a bit of the backlash that I find troubling. This presents a bit of a minefield situation for someone with celiac.
It's concerning when a very real health issue for you (and those of you with genuine sensitivity, I believe you) gets lost in the wave of skepticism directed at the latest fad diet craze.
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I have Coeliacs Disease and believe me being doubled over in pain, not being able to eat anything else (for the rest of the day if I happen to have something containing gluten), uncontrollable/explosive diarrhoea and feeling like I am going to throw up are not trendy nor is it welcome, I for one am not jumping on the band wagon, I really do suffer and I know one of two other people in the same situation as me....
Why would anyone want to pay £2.40 for a 400g loaf of bread (that falls apart before you can get it out of the toaster) instead of 59p for an 800g loaf of bread (that toasts lovely and butter melts onto it nicely) or have to way, way over the odds for anything for that matte!?!
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mamapeach910 wrote: »As someone who was diagnosed quite some time ago with celiac disease (17 years now), seeing it become "trendy" to avoid gluten (as apart from people with sensitivy) is sort of interesting to me. The accompanying backlash is also interesting. And concerning.
Celiac groups have tried for many years to get accommodation in food stores, restaurants and the public consciousness for the disease and have succeeded admirably. I have read reports, though, where people claiming to accommodate those with gluten issues were merely paying lip service to the issue because of the perception that so many out there claiming a problem with gluten were really just being snowflakes about the whole thing. This is all a bit of the backlash that I find troubling. This presents a bit of a minefield situation for someone with celiac.
It's concerning when a very real health issue for you (and those of you with genuine sensitivity, I believe you) gets lost in the wave of skepticism directed at the latest fad diet craze.
What bugs me, too, is the perception from restaurants that a person is just being a snowflake. Even "full-blown" Celiac doesn't always have instant reactions (especially for those who are newly-diagnosed and still learning how to eliminate gluten from their diets, and so haven't been off gluten for very long, if at all; in such cases, the brain is still desensitized to the distress signals the body is sending and/or they haven't yet associated a given symptom with gluten ingestion). This can appear to someone who only sees them for a grand total of an hour that they're faking it or just following a trend, but the customer is paying dearly for it sometime after leaving the restaurant in one way or another.
In my opinion, the reasons don't and shouldn't matter for why a person is asking for gluten-free options. The requests should be respected to the best of the restaurant's ability.
Re: the original premise of "if it's not Celiac, it's not real" -- The issue I have with that is that Celiac is defined quite narrowly. Specifically, villus atrophy (the breakdown of the nutrient-absorbing constructs in the intestine) is considered a hallmark of the disease and is a key to diagnosing it. Additionally, they only test for one or two of the immune response cells that are consistent with Celiac (ie - most people that have tested positive for these have Celiac), but they don't test the others. Did you know that there are 5 different types of antibodies that the body creates, depending on how it perceives the threat? The current test for Celiac -- and the mindset that if you tested negative, then your issues don't really exist -- is like saying that because the Navy hasn't been deployed, we're not actually at war (even though the Marines, Air Force, and Army have been deployed), and there's nothing going on.
Diabetes is diagnosed by a threshold. Prior to that threshold, you can be at various stages of "at risk" and your doctor will advise you to take certain actions depending on your risk level. Additionally, not everyone who is Diabetic is insulin dependent. Likewise, early stages of Hashimoto's involve both hyper and hypothyroid episodes, before the thyroid gives out entirely. Nearly every illness and disorder has a certain "scale" or "spectrum" upon which an individual can fall, where symptom and severity can vary between any two people. Why, then, is Celiac and its related issues seen as this neat and tidy box, requiring a few, very specific symptoms (namely, GI symptoms, even though a large percentage suffer neurological, dental, and dermatological issues and don't actually have much in the way of GI issues), and the presence of one or two specific antibodies or it "doesn't exist"? It's one thing to say "we use this because it's the best we have." It's a completely different matter to say "this is the only thing there is or needs to be, and if you don't test positive on it, then everything you're feeling is just in your head." (What a way to drive people away from doctors, let me tell you.)0 -
mamapeach910 wrote: »As someone who was diagnosed quite some time ago with celiac disease (17 years now), seeing it become "trendy" to avoid gluten (as apart from people with sensitivy) is sort of interesting to me. The accompanying backlash is also interesting. And concerning.
Celiac groups have tried for many years to get accommodation in food stores, restaurants and the public consciousness for the disease and have succeeded admirably. I have read reports, though, where people claiming to accommodate those with gluten issues were merely paying lip service to the issue because of the perception that so many out there claiming a problem with gluten were really just being snowflakes about the whole thing. This is all a bit of the backlash that I find troubling. This presents a bit of a minefield situation for someone with celiac.
It's concerning when a very real health issue for you (and those of you with genuine sensitivity, I believe you) gets lost in the wave of skepticism directed at the latest fad diet craze.
Yes--I hear you. My husband has a severe dairy allergy and we stopped going to restaurants years ago because you cannot trust the cooks or wait staff to be diligent in assuring that there is no dairy in what he selects. Cream sauces and cheese are obviously out but even margarine usually has dairy whey in it and they don't think about that. Apparently they don't believe him when he tells them he has a dairy allergy. In the past, when they would be careless, he would spend at least the next six weeks with horrible itchy eczema (he can't even sleep for the severe itching). Just not worth it.
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Dragonwolf wrote: »mamapeach910 wrote: »As someone who was diagnosed quite some time ago with celiac disease (17 years now), seeing it become "trendy" to avoid gluten (as apart from people with sensitivy) is sort of interesting to me. The accompanying backlash is also interesting. And concerning.
Celiac groups have tried for many years to get accommodation in food stores, restaurants and the public consciousness for the disease and have succeeded admirably. I have read reports, though, where people claiming to accommodate those with gluten issues were merely paying lip service to the issue because of the perception that so many out there claiming a problem with gluten were really just being snowflakes about the whole thing. This is all a bit of the backlash that I find troubling. This presents a bit of a minefield situation for someone with celiac.
It's concerning when a very real health issue for you (and those of you with genuine sensitivity, I believe you) gets lost in the wave of skepticism directed at the latest fad diet craze.
What bugs me, too, is the perception from restaurants that a person is just being a snowflake. Even "full-blown" Celiac doesn't always have instant reactions (especially for those who are newly-diagnosed and still learning how to eliminate gluten from their diets, and so haven't been off gluten for very long, if at all; in such cases, the brain is still desensitized to the distress signals the body is sending and/or they haven't yet associated a given symptom with gluten ingestion). This can appear to someone who only sees them for a grand total of an hour that they're faking it or just following a trend, but the customer is paying dearly for it sometime after leaving the restaurant in one way or another.
In my opinion, the reasons don't and shouldn't matter for why a person is asking for gluten-free options. The requests should be respected to the best of the restaurant's ability.
Re: the original premise of "if it's not Celiac, it's not real" -- The issue I have with that is that Celiac is defined quite narrowly. Specifically, villus atrophy (the breakdown of the nutrient-absorbing constructs in the intestine) is considered a hallmark of the disease and is a key to diagnosing it. Additionally, they only test for one or two of the immune response cells that are consistent with Celiac (ie - most people that have tested positive for these have Celiac), but they don't test the others. Did you know that there are 5 different types of antibodies that the body creates, depending on how it perceives the threat? The current test for Celiac -- and the mindset that if you tested negative, then your issues don't really exist -- is like saying that because the Navy hasn't been deployed, we're not actually at war (even though the Marines, Air Force, and Army have been deployed), and there's nothing going on.
Diabetes is diagnosed by a threshold. Prior to that threshold, you can be at various stages of "at risk" and your doctor will advise you to take certain actions depending on your risk level. Additionally, not everyone who is Diabetic is insulin dependent. Likewise, early stages of Hashimoto's involve both hyper and hypothyroid episodes, before the thyroid gives out entirely. Nearly every illness and disorder has a certain "scale" or "spectrum" upon which an individual can fall, where symptom and severity can vary between any two people. Why, then, is Celiac and its related issues seen as this neat and tidy box, requiring a few, very specific symptoms (namely, GI symptoms, even though a large percentage suffer neurological, dental, and dermatological issues and don't actually have much in the way of GI issues), and the presence of one or two specific antibodies or it "doesn't exist"? It's one thing to say "we use this because it's the best we have." It's a completely different matter to say "this is the only thing there is or needs to be, and if you don't test positive on it, then everything you're feeling is just in your head." (What a way to drive people away from doctors, let me tell you.)
Quite true. My little granddaughter has some kind of a problem with gluten. The first tiny bit that she gets causes her to break out in an itchy rash but then it goes on to stomach cramps and nausea and progresses to projectile vomiting and diarrhea. Her other grandma thought that my daughter was being a "health nut" and gave the little one some toast that made her very ill. My daughter was furious. But after a royal scolding from my son-in-law, she saw the light and is very conscious of what food items have gluten. My little granddaughter has learned to ask, "Is this gluten-free?" Sad that some people would endanger the health of others through carelessness or even being obtuse. There was a young girl who died in Toronto a few years ago because she had a very severe dairy allergy and the cafeteria worker apparently didn't believe her when she asked if some food item had dairy in it (it had margarine in it I think--margarine typically has dairy whey in it). I don't know if she didn't have her epi-pen with her or what. But anyway, by the time that the paramedics were called, it was too late. Her mom started a campaign to have school workers trained to handle food sensitivity reactions.
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BELIEVE ME, celiac disease is VERY, VERY, real!!! I was very sick for a long time. Doctors could not figure out what was going on until the light bulb came on. And a Gastroenterologist Doctor decided to test for Celiac anti-bodies and do a endoscopy. Low and behold, I have the celiac spur and my anti-bodies were through the roof. Also, my small bowel had severe damage. Good thing it can regenerate if I follow a gf diet.
If I ingest gluten, whether cross-contamination or knowingly, I get very sick. Everything from skin rashes (which was something I suffered from for quite awhile), weight loss or gain, constipation, severe diarrhea, headaches, severe fatigue, joint pain, fog brain, blurred vision, severe abdominal pain, etc. Now not all symptoms present themselves at all times. And not everyone presents with the same symptoms. Some have none at all (that's the scary part) I have also come to find that GLUTEN is in everything. Everything from the envelope that you lick to close, make-up, food, drinks, etc. One cannot possibly be totally gluten-free (unless you live in a bubble) Anyway, it is NOT a TREND for me. I hate this disease. The only treatment is a gluten-free diet. If not treated correctly, it can cause small bowel cancer and other auto-immune diseases, such as, diabetes.
SO please do not lump everyone in the same category. For me, this is a daily struggle. Avoiding gluten is like avoiding blinking.0 -
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Probably because you were diagnosed with celiac disease.marchione65 wrote: »BELIEVE ME, celiac disease is VERY, VERY, real!!! I was very sick for a long time. Doctors could not figure out what was going on until the light bulb came on. And a Gastroenterologist Doctor decided to test for Celiac anti-bodies and do a endoscopy. Low and behold, I have the celiac spur and my anti-bodies were through the roof. Also, my small bowel had severe damage. Good thing it can regenerate if I follow a gf diet.
If I ingest gluten, whether cross-contamination or knowingly, I get very sick. Everything from skin rashes (which was something I suffered from for quite awhile), weight loss or gain, constipation, severe diarrhea, headaches, severe fatigue, joint pain, fog brain, blurred vision, severe abdominal pain, etc. Now not all symptoms present themselves at all times. And not everyone presents with the same symptoms. Some have none at all (that's the scary part) I have also come to find that GLUTEN is in everything. Everything from the envelope that you lick to close, make-up, food, drinks, etc. One cannot possibly be totally gluten-free (unless you live in a bubble) Anyway, it is NOT a TREND for me. I hate this disease. The only treatment is a gluten-free diet. If not treated correctly, it can cause small bowel cancer and other auto-immune diseases, such as, diabetes.
SO please do not lump everyone in the same category. For me, this is a daily struggle. Avoiding gluten is like avoiding blinking.
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herrspoons wrote: »Coeliac disease is very real and has a clear aetiology. Gluten sensitivity is a spectrum of disorders, and includes coeliac. Wheat allergy is not gluten sensitivity, but a separate group of conditions.
Most people have none of these conditions, sensitivities, or diseases.
But don't you see? The problem with being dismissive about "most people" particularly in response to the idiots out there jumping on the fad bandwagon is the risk of dismissing those of use who aren't "most people" who have a legitimate diagnosis.
I've been at the gluten-free game for a loooooooooong time. It is really quite frustrating to see gains that have been made in the public consciousness being wiped out by intolerance to idiots. Why can't people ignore the idiots and just remember that there are quite a few people (certainly not most, but more than you'd think, actually) who do have a genuine issue with gluten?
Back when I was first diagnosed, it was so hard to get specialty products, and shopping was a minefield. Forget eating out. At least now, those of us who have a genuine problem have an easier time of things--at least when yahoos in restaurants aren't deciding to play fast and loose with gluten because they decide that everyone saying they need to avoid gluten is just making it up to jump onto the latest fad bandwagon.
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If you have a way to pay for allergy testing I highly recommend it to eliminate the guesswork.0
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