Gluten sesitivity

dedflwrs

This is an interesting article:
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitivity_may_not_exist.html

Edit: I, off course, meant sensitivity. The joys of typing on a tiny phone keyboard.

weavernv

I read this study and actually have been trying to reproduce it in myself to an uncomfortable effect... sigh.

dedflwrs

I read this study and actually have been trying to reproduce it in myself to an uncomfortable effect... sigh.

You can't reproduce it if you know what you are consuming before hand ;-)

The mind is a powerful thing. While I know that there are allergies and such (I should know because I'm deadly allergic to walnuts, of all things) I think we can also make ourselves fret ourselves sick. We are an amazing feat of nature.

ana3067

I have been gluten-free for 4 years or so, and the problems I had before I tried any type of elimination diet ceased to exist once I stopped eating gluten. I also tried going dairy-free first for a month or so and there were no changes. So for me, it doesn't matter if an article claims that gluten sensitivity or intolerance is a placebo, because I simply feel better not eating it. But I am strict with my intake. I remember a few years ago I was eating a barley-based salad from a hospital cafeteria (all ingredients listed on the packaging) and I felt moderately bloated and uncomfortably gassy afterwards. I wasn't sure why, and then I asked my mom and she reminded me that barley is glutinous.

To eliminate something because it's a fad or because you think you'll lose weight that way is pointless. But if you undergo an elimination diet because you are experiencing digestive and GI issues (or even other issues) and find that eliminating something specific resolves your problems, then more power to you.

I used to be allergic to eggs (allergy testing), and I knew I was, and eating them made me feel gross. Stopped eating them for years, then one day I was like "eff it," ate some eggs, but had no reaction. I happened to fall ill near that time as well, so when I was undergoing bloodtests regularly for 6 months post-recovery and they tested the blood for allergens, eggs did not come up, while my old mold and penicillin ones still showed up. So in this case, I grew out of my allergy. When I tried eating gluten again this year, I lasted 2 months before the bloating and gas and diarrhea/constipation became too unbearable. In both cases I knew that I was consuming something that previously made me feel bad, and that had been eliminated for at least a few years, and yet my reactiosn were totally different. In both cases I wanted to be able to eat both, but only 1 didn't result in a poor reaction. Which sucks.

shaumom

There's one major flaw with this study - it's short term.

Many people I know of with what I would consider gluten sensitivity went gluten free, felt better, stayed on it a while, and then started eating gluten again. But they had the same result as the study; they had no reaction to gluten at all.

And for ALL of them - literally all of them, to date - within a few months, their physical problems started coming back. They started having gut issues, joint pain, headaches. Basically, all the things that had gone away. And so they tried going gluten free again, and their health improved again.

Many of them have repeated this process more than once over the last few years, because the diet is so difficult and expensive. And every time, a few months of eating gluten starts things going downhill.

The study above was a few days long and went under the assumption that a person with a gluten sensitivity would have symptoms immediately upon ingestion, that there would not be any effects that required time to build up. I don't think that's necessarily a good assumption.

Because sure, a person here or there can psychosomatically fool themselves into feeling better. But groups of people who have never even spoken to each other, all with the same experience? I'm thinking that's stretching coincidence a bit too far, you know?

FunkyTobias

There's one major flaw with this study - it's short term.

Many people I know of with what I would consider gluten sensitivity went gluten free, felt better, stayed on it a while, and then started eating gluten again. But they had the same result as the study; they had no reaction to gluten at all.

You might want to try actually reading the article. This is not what happened at all.

The participants all reported an adverse reaction when they believed they were consuming gluten even those who did not consume gluten at all