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Do you think that gluten, lactose, or {insert supposed food intolerance here} is really just a fad?
Replies
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Ultimately what a clinician is looking for from someone who does not have celiac disease yet claims some type of food allergy or intolerance is a reaction from the body which is immune system quantifiable from diagnostic testing. Ideally an IgG-mediated immune response to specific foods or ingredients. People that legitimately have such a condition would produce an immune system response from what the body interprets as foreign matter. This is not altogether dissimilar from how the body reacts to an invading pathogen or infectious agent like a virus, for example.
Remember the celiac disease itself is an autoimmune disorder of the more extreme and unpleasant variety, so those that claim a more minor variation of a similar biological reality should react in a similar but far less acute manner. The overwhelming majority of people simply don't, is the short answer, and furthermore unless an MD strongly suspects the patient suffers from celiac disease due to the preponderance of symptoms, they won't typically go through the trouble of ordering laboratory testing to that end. What many in medicine (and elsewhere) have done to be accommodating to the trend is offer watered down, imprecise, and sometimes entirely ambitious tests and sometimes and self tests to placate people. Since there is nothing inherently dangerous about people who omit gluten from their diet, the chances for any type of malpractice case are relatively low, so there is not real harm per se.
What I do think it accomplishes which is harmful is to allow the average Joe Blow to play doctor without the added benefit of the type of applied knowledge it takes to make these types of decisions. How long before some new age freakshow really does hurt themselves by believing every crock of nonsense they read? We have seen evidence of this type of destructive behavior from the public before in the form of lunacy like the "anti-vax" movement and other forms of quackery.
With the amount of web traffic and following that colossal imbeciles like Joseph Mercola ,Mike Adams, Vani Hari, Mehmet Oz, and others are able to attain, I would say I have more than adaquate reason to be skeptical.5 -
I've never understood why people so fiercely hate that people get sick from gluten or don't want to eat it, do you own stock in wonder bread?9
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WickAndArtoo wrote: »I've never understood why people so fiercely hate that people get sick from gluten or don't want to eat it, do you own stock in wonder bread?
The critical point of the matter you appear to have missed entirely, which is the overwhelming majority of people who claim such issues simply do not have them in a real, legitimate and clinical sense. You naturally have the hypochondriacs of the world to consider (I have an Aunt who certianly qualifies for this camp), but in the majority of circumstances I suspect you simply have people who just buy into the hype, for a whole host of possible reasons.
This does not discount the importance of freedom of choice which you brought up in the least, just that people often make dumb decisions with incomplete or false information.2 -
SuzySunshine99 wrote: »I just met someone who told me they are "allergic" to meat. Is that a thing??
If it is, I think I would just tell people I'm vegetarian to avoid the odd looks like the one I gave this person.
There is a tick (The Loan Star tick) that if it bits you, you become allergic to red meat.0 -
@Relser
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I had never met anyone with celaics who was over weight, but now I know! It's always nice to learn more. That sucks it took thirteen freaken years! [/quote]
I know it took forever!!! I now see over the years how I had symptoms going back to high school. I did a lot of research trying to figure out what was wrong with me, and more after I did find out. This was one article that I came across about overweight and celiac.
https://www.celiac.com/articles/1077/1/39-of-Celiac-Disease-Patients-are-Overweight-at-Diagnosis8212A-Full-30-are-Obese/Page1.html0 -
I found your post interesting and insightful, I just wanted to make a small correction. Oats are intrinsically gluten-free. The reason you see them specifically labeled gf is because unless grown in a wheat-free environment the oat crops are often rotated with wheat crops so that stray wheat plants will come up with the oats and cause cross-contamination. Oats are also often processed along with wheat on shared equipment again leading to cross-contamination.[/quote]
I do know that oats are in themselves gluten free but they are often cross contaminated. I would not advice anyone who has this disease to eat regular Quaker Oats they would get sick.
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In NZ where GF label means rested to less than 3ppm as opposed to the US where its 20ppm oats ate considered NOT safe for Coeliacs, not due to contamination as above but due to their dominant protein that is very similar to gluten. 1 in 4 coeliacs will react to it the same way as to gluten so for safetys sake we avoid even GF oats.0 -
I have mixed feelings about the trend of gluten free - I say this because as someone who is gluten intolerant I hate to be put in the same bucket as those who are avoiding gluten for non-medical reasons. I find that as a result of this trend, I can no longer eat a gluten free meal at a restaurant without fear of cross-contamination. The meal prepped just don't seem to take the allergy seriously.
On the plus side, the fact that we can find so many gluten free dedicated sections at grocery stores or even entire restaurants that are gluten free is amazing! I have only been the beneficiary in this sense of finding clearly labeled packaging now that gluten free is such a trend.
To note, I know celiacs is the most commonly linked issue with gluten, but raising awareness here - autoimmune diseases can also flare or cause additional damage to a person's body due to gluten. See photo of my knobby knee on $200 a tube of prescription topical ointment (left) versus no prescription - just avoiding gluten for a year (right).6 -
My husbands lactose intolerant & I see the results when he gives in. A friend of mine gets inflammation when eating gluten0
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reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!2
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reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!
I have similarly encountered identical behavior more times than I care to remember, which is what prompted me to investigate the matter more throughly and begin this thread.0 -
supaflyrobby1 wrote: »reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!
I have similarly encountered identical behavior more times than I care to remember, which is what prompted me to investigate the matter more throughly and begin this thread.
It's important to remember that the level of lactose in foods varies and everyone who is lactose intolerant has a certain threshold of how much they can handle before gi upset.
For me personally, I can handle most yogurts, most baked goods, hard cheeses and most soft cheeses for sandwiches, on pizza, etc.. I can even handle most ice creams (like Ben and jerrys)!
But a glass of whey protein? A fettuccine Alfredo? A glass of milk? A bunch of pizza/cheese fries at one time? Nope!6 -
My mom is only lactose intolerant when it's something she doesn't like. Ice cream she has no problems with. Actually, now that I think of it, my husband's mom is the same way. A surprising number of Baby Boomer age women of my acquaintance refuse to drink milk "because of lactose intolerance." Weirdly, they are also intolerant of soy milk, almond milk, and every other milk like beverage, but they can eat ice cream and every kind of cheese all day.
Not sure that counts as a trend, though, since they have all been that way since the 1970's, when doctors still told women they had to drink lots of milk for the calcium so they wouldn't get osteoporosis. Instead of just honestly saying they hated milk so much they didn't care if they had weak bones, they made excuses. Ironically it turns out now that dietary calcium in adulthood has very little to do with bone density.
By the way, my mom has DNA tested for genealogy purposes and one of the things they tell you is whether you possess the gene to handle lactose. She does. I haven't mentioned it to her.3 -
rainbowbow wrote: »supaflyrobby1 wrote: »reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!
I have similarly encountered identical behavior more times than I care to remember, which is what prompted me to investigate the matter more throughly and begin this thread.
It's important to remember that the level of lactose in foods varies and everyone who is lactose intolerant has a certain threshold of how much they can handle before gi upset.
For me personally, I can handle most yogurts, most baked goods, hard cheeses and most soft cheeses for sandwiches, on pizza, etc.. I can even handle most ice creams (like Ben and jerrys)!
But a glass of whey protein? A fettuccine Alfredo? A glass of milk? A bunch of pizza/cheese fries at one time? Nope!
What I find truly interesting is more the sociological/psychological aspects as to why so many people falsely claim gluten, lactose, or the various other intolerances which do not really clinically exist for them. This is a field I have no experience in, which is why I find it fascinating. I like learning new things.
I read a blog post the other day on a site called Science Blogs that I frequent that put forth that it is perhaps a new form of a concept called conspicuous consumption. Essentially that people do these things because they are concerned with how they are perceived in the psychosocial sense, and they attach some value to this as a form of elitism or pretentiousness. This phenomenon is often referred to in a more colloquial way as "special snowflake syndrome"3 -
rainbowbow wrote: »supaflyrobby1 wrote: »reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!
I have similarly encountered identical behavior more times than I care to remember, which is what prompted me to investigate the matter more throughly and begin this thread.
It's important to remember that the level of lactose in foods varies and everyone who is lactose intolerant has a certain threshold of how much they can handle before gi upset.
For me personally, I can handle most yogurts, most baked goods, hard cheeses and most soft cheeses for sandwiches, on pizza, etc.. I can even handle most ice creams (like Ben and jerrys)!
But a glass of whey protein? A fettuccine Alfredo? A glass of milk? A bunch of pizza/cheese fries at one time? Nope!
and for me I can't handle any yogurt, any soft cheese, pizza or ice cream. I can't even manage a bar of dairy chocolate or anything with pastry made from butter without consequences. Such is life - we all have different thresholds0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »RaeBeeBaby wrote: »Whether it's a fad or otherwise, choosing to avoid a certain type of food because you feel better (or even imagine that you do) is a personal dietary choice. If it makes a difference, then what's the harm? Feel free to continue ordering your bread, pasta and cake and let others make their own choices.
I believe that I am gluten intolerant. I have never been tested but am allergic to a number of other things including certain pollens and some fruits like kiwi and pineapple. A few years ago I had developed a terribly itchy rash on my torso along with a systemic reaction that felt like pins and needles all over my body. Basically it was a histamine reaction and it flared up whenever I would get overheated. Exercise or going outside in hot weather became pure torture and I was literally housebound for an entire summer and fall. I went to several doctors including allergists and dermatologists and started taking a bunch of prescriptions. Nothing helped that much. My acupuncturist suggested eliminating wheat and gluten for awhile and guess what? All symptoms went away within a couple weeks. I've tested it by going back to eating gluten and the same symptoms return within a few days. So, I avoid wheat and gluten and I feel better.
Believe me, I miss bread and regular pasta. I don't avoid them because it's a fad but because I feel better without. I certainly appreciate this fad because I have many more choices these days!
I agree that some people do have an issue with some foods and definitely feel better not eating them. I remember my mother used to have terrible gastric issues with corn, so she didn't eat it.
But then there's the other folks who think that not eating certain things is eating cleaner or something and they just... ehh... I don't know. For them it's a fad. A silly fad.
The problem is that the people providing gluten free food don't always take them seriously and the people truly relying on gluten free products can't always rely that products touted as being gluten free are going to be meticulously prepared since some people aren't taking this all that seriously thinking that they're just accommodating people following a fad, not people who have a disease. It's troubling.
This just can't be said loud enough.
I appreciate the efforts by the restaurant industry (Celiac which led to lactose intolerance) but I don't trust them. I chose a gluten free menu item from an airline flying from eastern Canada to Australia. An epic 3 hours upset. Thankfully did not start until I was on the ground between flights. So, I only choose gluten free items when I am going home promptly after the meal. Next air flight, I fast. My lesson to be learned. Gluten free choices have made it possible to eat out more but are not without hazards. It is life. I don't expect restaurants to get it right. I had to handle it myself for more than 30 years and I still feel it is my responsibility to choose carefully, not theirs. And the "movement" against wheat has, in a way, made this harder because it tempts me to let down my guard.0 -
Another reason people are saying they are intolerant or sensitive to gluten is because their doctors will not test them for it. I think I am gluten sensitive. I went to my doctor and he sent me for the blood test (which almost always comes back negative, even in people are already diagnosed with celiac). He then told me that he did not believe more testing was necessary and a waste of resources. I went back to him a few weeks later still having stomach issues (I was missing work and I could not get out of bed most days and when I did it was right to the bathroom for long periods of time) and he said that I could try giving it up, but he still was not going to send me for a biopsy. I have given it up for also 2 months now and I feel comfortable at work, I can go places again and I don't have to make emergency trips to the bathroom anymore.
So I think a lot of it is undiagnosed cased of celiac. My doctor now doesn't want to put me through eating gluten again which means I still go undiagnosed and I can't even see a dietitian because of it.3 -
The UK coeliac website says that the average time it takes to be diagnosed is 13 years! So there must be a great many people avoiding gluten but without the proper diagnosis. They may have the problem but not yet confirmed. So I have some sympathy for the undiagnosed asking for gluten free.
But yes, the ones who eat just a little cake but claim to be gluten intolerant, I have no time for. At least in my experience, lactose intolerant is dose specific, gluten intolerance isn't. But maybe that is me. I am hoping the world moves on to something else soon.
@abungay thank you! I have the problem, my niece and nephew both have the problem (all diagnosed with biopsies) but my brother says he has no problem because the test came back negative. We were all shocked. He was the only one of us who was medically called coeliac when he was a toddler. And it was in 1946. Probably the recent test was a blood test as you describe because he is the one with the notorious symptoms. However, if he wants to eat gluten, he wants to eat gluten.1 -
supaflyrobby1 wrote: »I do not discount at all those who have legitimate medical issues, but I would still contend that the majority of people who have a gluten fixation in 2017 are simply impressionable, attention-seeking rubes who follows silly marketing trends and are buying into the hype. The same type of people that bought a Lance Armstrong bracelet and would of been a prime candidate for purchasing a pet rock when that was trendy.
This extremely annoying girl that works in HR at my company told me a few weeks ago she thought she was allergic to gluten. She blathered on endlessly about how she always felt run-down and crabby, had a waning sex drive, dry skin and hair, etc .Must be gluten! Yeah, that's the obvious culprit. Because at 25 years old, it couldn’t possibly be a result of the two packs of cigarettes per day and handle of rum she consumes every weekend. She probably got the idea from some stupid magazine article that she is always reading.
Again, I fully appreciate people who have Celiac disease. This is an autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine and tons of pain. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their body mounts an immune response that literally causes the body to attack itself. This has to suck, and these folks have my sympathy.
The guy who "discovered" gluten sensitivity was an Aussie by the name of Peter Gibson. Peter is a professor of gastroenterology at Monash University and director of the GI Unit at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His original research yielded results which were not replaceable (a key concept in the scientific method) by other labs . So like any good scientist, he re-launched a far more extensive series of trials and concluded that non-Celiac gluten sensitivity is nonsense. Peter's lab is hardly alone in this conclusion either. Check Medline or PubMed.
So unless you actually have Celiac disease, gluten has almost ZERO practical effect on you. And when you have Celiac disease, you KNOW you have it very early on in life most of the time. Just because you get sleepy after you eat seven slices of pizza doesn’t mean you’re allergic to gluten. Feeling bloated after plowing through that plate of Fettuccine Alfredo? You should, but not for the reasons you try to delude yourself into believing.
That said, this level of stupidity does have some economic benefit. $12.5 billion dollars worth of gluten-free products sold in the year 2016. So I guess indirectly it is supplying jobs and an economic boost. Ironically enough, in my day job I work for an ad agency, and this is hardly the only time pure nonsense is able to capture both the minds and wallets of the impressionable public.
This is patently untrue. Many people go their entire lives not realizing they have celiac disease. My grandmother was diagnosed at 82 (through a biopsy and bloodwork). She ate gluten her entire life, but never had clinical symptoms until she was quite elderly. The symptoms expressed themselves after she had hip replacement surgery. She never had any digestive/GI symptoms - but she developed the severe skin condition called Dermatitis Herpetiformis (or Duhring's Syndrome). It's the expression of celiac disease that shows up in skin.
After my grandmother was diagnosed, my aunt had a biopsy and bloodwork done and was confirmed to have celiac disease, though she also had few clinical symptoms. Her specialist thinks that her early onset osteoporosis was probably due to celiac disease.
Then, a couple years ago, my dad had surgery to treat a few precancerous growths in his esophagus. Guess what... a month after that surgery, he broke out in the same Dermatitis Herpetiformis rash my grandmother had. He was immediately diagnosed with celiac through skin scraping and bloodwork. When he went in for his confirmation biopsy, they told him the villi in his small intestine were so damaged by the celiac that they were all flattened and absorbing almost no nutrients. He NEVER had any digestive symptoms. He was 65 at the time. All his life he had been fit, healthy, athletic, and just a few pounds overweight.
My point is - LOTS of people find out they have celiac disease in their elder years.
The MAJORITY of people with celiac disease are diagnosed as adults.
Also - you can test negative for celiac time and time again, but still eventually develop the disease. It just depends on whether the genes get 'triggered' (excerpt) "During the past 30 years, there has been a fivefold increase in the prevalence of celiac disease, and a lot of these cases occurred in elderly people, according to a study published in the Annals of Medicine." http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/celiac-disease/news/20100927/celiac-disease-can-develop-at-any-age#14 -
I'm lactose intolerant, wheat intolerant, allergic to onions (and the entire onion family) and garlic, I'm intolerant to chicory & I can't eat anything raw, so the only fruits I can safely eat are bananas & blueberries, plus a few strawberries and raspberries, I can't even eat salads, because the raw veggies kill me - I literally have what I call my "Fat clothes" these are items of clothing 3 sizes bigger than I normally wear, I keep a set of them at work and in my car, just in case I eat a contaminated item because when I do my stomach bloats up so big my normal clothes don't fit me, but it gets so bloody boring reading the labels on EVERYTHING that I want to put in my mouth ... I drank a cup of lemon & ginger tea (lemons & ginger are fine for me) at work last week, but forgot to read the ingredients - within an hour I was rolling around in agony and had to go home - it turns out that the lemon & ginger tea also contains blackberry leaves & chicory, I was off work for 3 days because of that cup of lemon & ginger tea.
My diet is very rich in meat, fish and seeds, it's naturally quite high in protein, as I follow what is known as the Modified FODMAP diet, after doing the elimination phase which is called the Low FODMAP Diet - I know people at work laugh about my dietary restrictions (it's definitely raises some eyebrows when I tell people what I can't eat) ... I am unable to digest insoluble fibres; the normal process is they break down so far and then pass through the intestines pushing along the other waste matter which eventually leaves the body, but with me they ferment in my intestines and cause terrible pains, sickness and some other very unpleasant symptoms I won't mention on here, then eventually pass through after causing absolute chaos.
So I definitely know that there are many people who genuinely have food issues, but there are some that just play on it, but for what reason is beyond me - I would love to walk into a restaurant, sandwich shop, burger house or coffee shop and say "I'll have one of those please" but no, I have to say "Please can I have a look at your allergy book and the list of ingredients please" (because chicory, onions & garlic are not listed allergens, so aren't listed in a simple allergy book) but if I want to eat out, that's the rigmarole I have to go through, unless I go to certain places that I know are safe.
So now I'm sat here with my gluten free bread (only one brand I can eat, because the others all contain high FODMAP items I can't eat) with Tesco sandwich ham & lactose free cheese spread , lactose free natural yogurts (that way I know it's free from fructose, another one of my intolerances) with blueberries, pumpkin seeds & sunflower seeds, which I will follow with a couple of Morrisons dark chocolate (no milk in that) rice cakes, which is the exact same thing I have every day for lunch at work - sometimes I swap the cheese & ham for tuna & mayonnaise (Heinz as it's the only FODMAP friendly one I can find) ... I have had days where I'm completely fed up with my limited diet, but then again I remember how ill I was until I discovered the Low FODMAP diet and I think, you know what I actually love my food.
So in response to the OP - yes I do think there are people who swing it and pretend they're intolerant to things, but for the life of me, I can't see what it gains them & using it to be trendy just makes me want to punch people like that
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supaflyrobby1 wrote: »I do not discount at all those who have legitimate medical issues, but I would still contend that the majority of people who have a gluten fixation in 2017 are simply impressionable, attention-seeking rubes who follows silly marketing trends and are buying into the hype. The same type of people that bought a Lance Armstrong bracelet and would of been a prime candidate for purchasing a pet rock when that was trendy.
This extremely annoying girl that works in HR at my company told me a few weeks ago she thought she was allergic to gluten. She blathered on endlessly about how she always felt run-down and crabby, had a waning sex drive, dry skin and hair, etc .Must be gluten! Yeah, that's the obvious culprit. Because at 25 years old, it couldn’t possibly be a result of the two packs of cigarettes per day and handle of rum she consumes every weekend. She probably got the idea from some stupid magazine article that she is always reading.
Again, I fully appreciate people who have Celiac disease. This is an autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine and tons of pain. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their body mounts an immune response that literally causes the body to attack itself. This has to suck, and these folks have my sympathy.
The guy who "discovered" gluten sensitivity was an Aussie by the name of Peter Gibson. Peter is a professor of gastroenterology at Monash University and director of the GI Unit at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His original research yielded results which were not replaceable (a key concept in the scientific method) by other labs . So like any good scientist, he re-launched a far more extensive series of trials and concluded that non-Celiac gluten sensitivity is nonsense. Peter's lab is hardly alone in this conclusion either. Check Medline or PubMed.
So unless you actually have Celiac disease, gluten has almost ZERO practical effect on you. And when you have Celiac disease, you KNOW you have it very early on in life most of the time. Just because you get sleepy after you eat seven slices of pizza doesn’t mean you’re allergic to gluten. Feeling bloated after plowing through that plate of Fettuccine Alfredo? You should, but not for the reasons you try to delude yourself into believing.
That said, this level of stupidity does have some economic benefit. $12.5 billion dollars worth of gluten-free products sold in the year 2016. So I guess indirectly it is supplying jobs and an economic boost. Ironically enough, in my day job I work for an ad agency, and this is hardly the only time pure nonsense is able to capture both the minds and wallets of the impressionable public.
This is patently untrue. Many people go their entire lives not realizing they have celiac disease. My grandmother was diagnosed at 82 (through a biopsy and bloodwork). She ate gluten her entire life, but never had clinical symptoms until she was quite elderly. The symptoms expressed themselves after she had hip replacement surgery. She never had any digestive/GI symptoms - but she developed the severe skin condition called Dermatitis Herpetiformis (or Duhring's Syndrome). It's the expression of celiac disease that shows up in skin.
After my grandmother was diagnosed, my aunt had a biopsy and bloodwork done and was confirmed to have celiac disease, though she also had few clinical symptoms. Her specialist thinks that her early onset osteoporosis was probably due to celiac disease.
Then, a couple years ago, my dad had surgery to treat a few precancerous growths in his esophagus. Guess what... a month after that surgery, he broke out in the same Dermatitis Herpetiformis rash my grandmother had. He was immediately diagnosed with celiac through skin scraping and bloodwork. When he went in for his confirmation biopsy, they told him the villi in his small intestine were so damaged by the celiac that they were all flattened and absorbing almost no nutrients. He NEVER had any digestive symptoms. He was 65 at the time. All his life he had been fit, healthy, athletic, and just a few pounds overweight.
My point is - LOTS of people find out they have celiac disease in their elder years.
The MAJORITY of people with celiac disease are diagnosed as adults.
Also - you can test negative for celiac time and time again, but still eventually develop the disease. It just depends on whether the genes get 'triggered' (excerpt) "During the past 30 years, there has been a fivefold increase in the prevalence of celiac disease, and a lot of these cases occurred in elderly people, according to a study published in the Annals of Medicine." http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/celiac-disease/news/20100927/celiac-disease-can-develop-at-any-age#1
Wow! The history of the elders in my family. Thanks for this post.0 -
jacquih2981 wrote: »rainbowbow wrote: »supaflyrobby1 wrote: »reminds me of an acquintance of mine who claimed to be severly lactose intolerant yet the cup and a half of ice cream she ate very single evening at 9PM never gave her a moments problem. Nor the cream she put in her tea. Or the milk she used in her baked goods. But let her look at a bottle of milk and she swore her stomach cramped up just from that!
I have similarly encountered identical behavior more times than I care to remember, which is what prompted me to investigate the matter more throughly and begin this thread.
It's important to remember that the level of lactose in foods varies and everyone who is lactose intolerant has a certain threshold of how much they can handle before gi upset.
For me personally, I can handle most yogurts, most baked goods, hard cheeses and most soft cheeses for sandwiches, on pizza, etc.. I can even handle most ice creams (like Ben and jerrys)!
But a glass of whey protein? A fettuccine Alfredo? A glass of milk? A bunch of pizza/cheese fries at one time? Nope!
and for me I can't handle any yogurt, any soft cheese, pizza or ice cream. I can't even manage a bar of dairy chocolate or anything with pastry made from butter without consequences. Such is life - we all have different thresholds
Sorry i should have clarified, i can have those things in small (reasonable) 1/2 cup portions or a couple slices of pizza. Anymore is hell and i'm still finding the threshold on specific foods and taking probiotics with lactase daily.0 -
JustRobby1 wrote: »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.
i think everyone looks for answers and explanations for things, even things that are too trivial [imo] to be worth the mental investment of looking for one. so sure, people glance over the fence at what puts their neighbour into the hospital and then start wondering if perhaps that explains their own little bubble of totally-normal intestinal gas. people do mentally borrow each other's completely-legitimate hammers and start using them to whack everything that they think is a nail in their own lives. it's a human-bean thing. we progress as a species by information-sharing, after all.
whether an individual person's cry of 'me-toosies!' at any particular piece of information that's shared is a dead end or actual progress in that person's life . . . well, idk. my feelings are mixed since i have rhuematoid athritis and i totally get the value of a 'special' community of peers if you are in fact somewhat special.
but in general, i guess my own take on the matter is 'meh'. i haven't personally drunk a glass of nothing-but-milk since idk when, and i have reasons for that. but i never associated an identity with it; it was just cause-and-effect realisation that it gives me a stomach ache. but it hasn't affected my life to a degree where i feel much of a need for a community of like folks based around that one thing. as far as other people's claims go, i suppose my reaction could be summed up as 'meh'. the only way to determine whether they 'really' are intolerant would be to collect way more information their insides than really seems worth the payback, to me.
i think i'd be annoyed if a person who has no idea what it's really like decided r.a. is kinda cool and they want it too, though. it's a disconnect thing. they'd be in there among 'my' people claiming a sympathy and fellow-feeling i might not be willing or even able to give. i cannot relate to totally mundane normal-life 'aches' and such-like. that's not really me being a snot. i've had r.a. for so long that i literally can't remember what that kind of sensation is like. i don't have anything in my database that correlates to whatever they're talking about.0 -
I think to be able to tell if this is a fad or not, the question first needing to be answered is what exactly is gluten?
How familiar are people with lectins?4 -
When I eat wheat and dairy I make moderate amounts my skin breaks out and I also have flare ups of psoriasis on my scalp and eczema on the back of my arm, from a GI perspective I alternate between constipation and diahorrea and passing blood (endoscopic biopsy ruled our celiacs).
I'm not 'allergic' but I do have a sensitivity which occurs with both wheat and dairy. My symptoms usually resolve after a month or two of eliminating these from my diet. I also notice improved clarity of thought and decreased iritability.
I *can* eat them. I won't die if I do, but I choose not to.
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All I know and care about is that I'm lactose intolerant but I love frostys. So I make an exception once a year and pay the price.0
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My husband has a gluten intolerance. I know I accidentally had gluten in the meal if twenty minutes after dinner he runs to the bathroom. I didn't realize soy sauce and teriyaki sauce had gluten in them. It hasn't happened since but I felt so bad.0
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100catscrazy wrote: »All I know and care about is that I'm lactose intolerant but I love frostys. So I make an exception once a year and pay the price.
You might find a big part of the issue has to do with the difference between A1-casein and A2-casein milk products. Most of the cows in the US have the A1-casein mutation, whereas European cows have the A2-casein gene. Many people who have problems with A1-casein products have found they do just fine on A2-casein products. A2-casein products are just now starting to find their way into US shelves.
The other part to this is finding "pastured" dairy products, so to avoid the problems with lectins from animals fed feed made from wheat, corn and soy (the lectins in those foods cause leaky gut in cows, etc just as easily as they do in humans, so such products are another avenue for these dangerous lectins (of which gluten us only one of MANY). "Cage-free", "free-range" and simply "organic" don't really cut it. The lectins then enter our body by causing and perpetuating leaky gut in us, and then interfer with our hormones, neurotransmitters and immune system.
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theresejesu wrote: »100catscrazy wrote: »All I know and care about is that I'm lactose intolerant but I love frostys. So I make an exception once a year and pay the price.
You might find a big part of the issue has to do with the difference between A1-casein and A2-casein milk products. Most of the cows in the US have the A1-casein mutation, whereas European cows have the A2-casein gene. Many people who have problems with A1-casein products have found they do just fine on A2-casein products. A2-casein products are just now starting to find their way into US shelves.
The other part to this is finding "pastured" dairy products, so to avoid the problems with lectins from animals fed feed made from wheat, corn and soy (the lectins in those foods cause leaky gut in cows, etc just as easily as they do in humans, so such products are another avenue for these dangerous lectins (of which gluten us only one of MANY). "Cage-free", "free-range" and simply "organic" don't really cut it. The lectins then enter our body by causing and perpetuating leaky gut in us, and then interfer with our hormones, neurotransmitters and immune system.
wait wait wait.... is it possible to have no problem with a1 and only a2? I was never lactose intolerant before moving to europe and i can't eat any dairy here but had no issues my entire life in the US. My boyfriend (also american) has problems with the dairy here too having never been lactose/dairy sensitive before.0 -
I have no doubt that there are people, many more than are clinically diagnosed with a problem, that don't handle lactose or gluten or whatever well. There are also conditions we still don't have a good handle on (CFS and Fibromyalgia come to mind). And there are previously unknown conditions still to come to light, because our understanding of how the human body works is only modestly beyond primitive. We also see scientific "fact" (often many years) later proven wrong, because the original claim was actually little more than a hypothesis. In all cases these things become fads when the popular media start talking about them as "the answer" and the general public takes up the challenge. So gluten has gone from something those with a specific disease can't have, to a not insignificant number of people don't handle gluten well, to claims that everyone should avoid gluten. It's when it hits that last stage, and friends and family start touting that gluten (or xxx) "is bad", then I label it a fad. But even if there is a fad around gluten, that doesn't lessen that it's a very real problem for some.
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