Fans of Gluten-Free Diet?

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  • hal1964
    hal1964 Posts: 82 Member
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    I'd say I am gluten-sensitive. I did an elimination diet and one of the things that was eliminated was wheat. I just felt better after and I don't consume much food containing wheat anymore. They even have gluten free beer!
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    hal1964 wrote: »
    I'd say I am gluten-sensitive. I did an elimination diet and one of the things that was eliminated was wheat. I just felt better after and I don't consume much food containing wheat anymore. They even have gluten free beer!

    Are you sure your not wheat sensitive? They aren't the same thing.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    Celiacs

    ^^^^


  • TaraTall
    TaraTall Posts: 339 Member
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    hal1964 wrote: »
    I'd say I am gluten-sensitive. I did an elimination diet and one of the things that was eliminated was wheat. I just felt better after and I don't consume much food containing wheat anymore. They even have gluten free beer!

    Don't you dare tell me Gluten Free Beer is even comparable to the real stuff lol. I miss my beer. There's some okay ones out there but...just... no.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    My doctor recommended that I try eliminating gluten for a couple of months to see if it would alleviate my fatigue and brain fog. It was kind of hard to tell how much better I was feeling while it was eliminated, but upon re-introducing it, I felt horrible. I got migraines, weird irritated bowel stuff, and heavy fatigue. So I think that I am now stuck with going "gluten free" (did I lose a tolerance to wheat?). I did lose weight during the initial elimination phase (no more beloved pale ales), but quickly gained it back after I started eating more rice, potato starch, and sugar, simple carbs that replace wheat in most of the gluten-free stuff on the supermarket shelves.

    I still have regular pizza a couple of times per year. And sometimes you just can't avoid gluten. But I always pay the price afterwards with fatigue, migraines, and weird poop stuff.

    So I would add that if you do it, be prepared to possibly be stuck with it, whether you want it or not.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    One good thing has happened to me as a result of not eating wheat -- no more acne!
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    TaraTall wrote: »
    hal1964 wrote: »
    I'd say I am gluten-sensitive. I did an elimination diet and one of the things that was eliminated was wheat. I just felt better after and I don't consume much food containing wheat anymore. They even have gluten free beer!

    Don't you dare tell me Gluten Free Beer is even comparable to the real stuff lol. I miss my beer. There's some okay ones out there but...just... no.

    I came across one that I really liked. Dara Damm. Of course, it seems i dont do well with alcohol either. But on a splurge....
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    I cut out sugar and all forms of all grains Oct 2014 hoping to manage 40 years of pain without Rx meds going forward. It was a hellish first two weeks then the cravings faded fast. 30 days in my pain levels of 7-8 had dropped to 2-3 and stayed low ever since. 180 days in my 40 years of serious IBS had totally resolved and has not returned. All health markers are better now at 65 than at age 45.

    I am a huge fan of this new way of eating because it is giving me back my life.
  • Panda_brat
    Panda_brat Posts: 291 Member
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    What is so unhealthy about gluten unless you have a condition that makes you unable to tolerate it?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    I cut out sugar and all forms of all grains Oct 2014 hoping to manage 40 years of pain without Rx meds going forward. It was a hellish first two weeks then the cravings faded fast. 30 days in my pain levels of 7-8 had dropped to 2-3 and stayed low ever since. 180 days in my 40 years of serious IBS had totally resolved and has not returned. All health markers are better now at 65 than at age 45.

    I am a huge fan of this new way of eating because it is giving me back my life.

    Gluten is in a lot of things besides grains...
  • smileymaxine
    smileymaxine Posts: 275 Member
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    Celiacs we -love- not being incredibly ill !!

    People who do not need to cut a entire food group from their shouldn't it can actually cause food sensitivities. Also means I have to share gluten snacks with other people who just do it for a diet very annoying
  • HorrorGeekLiz
    HorrorGeekLiz Posts: 195 Member
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    Here's the deal with a gluten free diet (and I am not speaking to people with Celiac disease here....obviously you have no choice) - it's fine if you want to cut out gluten because of some perceived benefit, but I can guarantee you, if you think gluten is the sole reason for your weight gain, and you just sub every processed food you've been eating with a gluten free version, you're not going to get any benefit whatsoever. Gluten does not cause weight problems, therefore eating gluten free pasta instead of regular pasta will do nothing if you don't eat less of it.

    I do not have a gluten allergy, so I do not monitor gluten. I do, however, have a family history of diabetes that I am trying to avoid becoming the next victim of, so I have removed many items from my diet that happen to have gluten, such as bread and pasta. I feel better without these foods because they tend to make me lethargic and extra hungry, no matter how much of it I eat. People think this is proof positive of some "gluten intolerance", when in fact, it's because they're cutting out foods that are low nutrient, high glycemic index foods that cause these reactions due to blood sugar spikes.

    I DID think I had Celiac for a while, so I went gluten free (without eating processed gluten free substitutions) and I felt better, MOST of the time, but I still had several issues. I felt worse when I went back on the gluten foods. I falsely thought there was a connection. Well, there was a connection, but it wasn't gluten - it was milk. After some allergy testing, I found out I was allergic to milk, which is in a lot of the same processed foods I was avoiding when I mistakenly thought the issue was gluten. (You always put butter on bread, cheese on pasta, etc).

    So, in short, unless you have a medical reason to avoid it, there is no need. Gluten itself isn't the cause of any issues. There is certainly no harm in avoiding the items it is in, as long as you don't replace them with a bunch of processed substitutes.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    Panda_brat wrote: »
    What is so unhealthy about gluten unless you have a condition that makes you unable to tolerate it?

    Some non-celiac people make antibodies to it and it causes inflammation and a host of other issues. Here are a few articles about gluten and grains from the paleo world. The underlined bits are references: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-gluten-have-any-effect-on-non-celiacs/
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,389 MFP Moderator
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    minniemoo1972 wrote: »
    Gluten free replacements are expensive and basically taste like I assume sadness would.....id much rather have gluten

    Do you even Outback Chocolate Thunder from Down Under?


    My wife has to be for her medical condition and it sucks. Constantly trying to work around it and find restaurants that can compensate. Add on top of that many gluten free foods are higher in calories.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    buntzums wrote: »
    I don't know what effects it has if you don't happen to have a sensitivity

    There are none...
  • FunkyTobias
    FunkyTobias Posts: 1,776 Member
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    CorneliusPhoton wrote: »
    Panda_brat wrote: »
    What is so unhealthy about gluten unless you have a condition that makes you unable to tolerate it?

    Some non-celiac people make antibodies to it and it causes inflammation and a host of other issues. Here are a few articles about gluten and grains from the paleo world. The underlined bits are references: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-gluten-have-any-effect-on-non-celiacs/
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/

    Instead of Mark's Daily Apple, look at the actual science
    Analyzing the data, Gibson found that each treatment diet, whether it included gluten or not, prompted subjects to report a worsening of gastrointestinal symptoms to similar degrees. Reported pain, bloating, nausea, and gas all increased over the baseline low-FODMAP diet. Even in the second experiment, when the placebo diet was identical to the baseline diet, subjects reported a worsening of symptoms! The data clearly indicated that a nocebo effect, the same reaction that prompts some people to get sick from wind turbines and wireless internet, was at work here.

    http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitivity_may_not_exist.html

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648697


  • CharleezAngel1
    CharleezAngel1 Posts: 11 Member
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    I went gluten free to help with depression and overall inflammation. I feel like living again, so yeah, huge fan.
  • TrailNurse
    TrailNurse Posts: 359 Member
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    I have Graves Disease so no gluten or dairy for me!
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    I cut out sugar and all forms of all grains Oct 2014 hoping to manage 40 years of pain without Rx meds going forward. It was a hellish first two weeks then the cravings faded fast. 30 days in my pain levels of 7-8 had dropped to 2-3 and stayed low ever since. 180 days in my 40 years of serious IBS had totally resolved and has not returned. All health markers are better now at 65 than at age 45.

    I am a huge fan of this new way of eating because it is giving me back my life.

    Gluten is in a lot of things besides grains...

    2X on that.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
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    FunkyTobias wrote: »
    CorneliusPhoton wrote: »
    Panda_brat wrote: »
    What is so unhealthy about gluten unless you have a condition that makes you unable to tolerate it?

    Some non-celiac people make antibodies to it and it causes inflammation and a host of other issues. Here are a few articles about gluten and grains from the paleo world. The underlined bits are references: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/does-gluten-have-any-effect-on-non-celiacs/
    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/

    Instead of Mark's Daily Apple, look at the actual science
    ...
    http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/05/gluten_sensitivity_may_not_exist.html

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23648697


    Actual science? From a science blogger? Ok...

    If you looked at the multitude of links in Mark's articles, most of them come from nih.gov, just like (one of) yours. Don't assume I am pushing a no grain agenda. I'm not here to debate. I was simply providing the perspective on grains and gluten from the paleo community, as they are the ones who are the loudest about not eating those foods.

    As far as the "realclearscience" blog author, he is no more legit as Mark Sisson. However, Mark Sisson has posted numerous literature reviews on the subject, and continues to do so. It is his life's work. Regardless, the bottom line is that there is currently no diagnostic test for it (but maybe there will be soon http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27388423), but that does not mean that sensitivity does not exist.

    An open mind allows that the truth might lie somewhere in the middle.

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