95% of Americans have Gluten Sensitivity & causes wt gain.

I would suggest reading Wheat Belly. Excellent book.

I gave up gluten about ten weeks ago. I was taking motrin (joint pain), protonix (acid reflux), proventil and flovent (asthma), singulair (allergies), neurontin (nerve burning and neuralgial headaches), and synthroid (hypothyroidism).

Now I only take the synthroid and that is at a lower dose!!!!

If I had known what I know today about gluten, I would have given it up years ago.

The problem is that when wheat is hybridized, it combines the number of genes. Compare that to humans, where the infant takes on some characteristics of each parent. Wheat takes on all the characteristics of each parent.

Over the years, as Einkorn wheat was hybridized and the result of that hybridization hybridized and so on, the amount of gluten in wheat has practically quadrupled. This is why we have people with Celiac disease, gluten allergies, and gluten sensitivity.

Now, I believe that those with gluten sensitivity actually have gluten allergies. It is just the first step toward the allergy. Further exposure will push the person toward an allergy, so let's call it what it really is - gluten allergy.

Celiac is known for the characteristic digestive issues, but they are finding that there may be people who are not affected digestive-wise. They may have issues with allergies, headaches, migraines, joint pain, nerve issues, urinary incontinence, etc. I am of the feeling that these things should also be called Celiac Disease because the problems are being caused by gluten in the diet.

The reason why people with gluten issues gain weight is quite simple - their body is starving because of the damage to the digestive system and other systems, causing the metabolism to slow down and the body to hold on to all it can as far as energy reserves. This should sound familiar to those here at MFP - it is just like starvation mode. The slower metabolism and holding on to energy reserves (fat) means that the person can be overweight and still have gluten issues.

I find it interesting that the further out I go with staying away from gluten, the smaller a dose of synthroid I have to take. I will say that the joint pain, tender abdomen, bloating, and indigestion went away within three days. The asthma and allergy issues got better within three weeks. The nerve issues took about six weeks. I am happy, though, for all these improvement.

If anyone is on multiple medications, I would recommend that you try a gluten-free diet for at least six to eight weeks and see how you feel. It may help and it may not help. You will not know until you try.

I was told over and over and over that everything that was wrong with me was because I was overweight. That all my health problems were a symptom of being fat and not that being fat was a symptom of an underlying health issue. Celiacs and a gluten intolerance were one of the things doctors swore I couldn't have cause I was gaining and NOT losing. I finally found a wonderful family practioner that helped me and I'm slowly cutting gluten out of my diet and have been trying to eat clean and in the process I have lost 25 lbs.

Quick question, what were you eating prior to making those gluten changes to your diet?

Without going to a doctor how would you know if you have a gluten intolerance or, as so many people are to some degree or another based on the article, is it best to assume you are and cut out gluten altogether? The thing that would concern me is that I am a vegetarian and get a lot of my protein from wheat gluten. Also, if you cut out gluten altogether but then accidently have some, would you have a more violent reaction than before to it? Sort of like if a vegetarian decides to eat meat again their body has not been producing the enzyme to properly digest it?

I think it probably goes like this:
OMG I HERD TAHT GLUTENS R TEH EVILS?!?!!!1!!one1one!
*stops eating "gluten containing" foods, and by "gluten containing" i mean "low-quality crap" and starts eating healthier foods*
OMGUH I FEEL SO MUCH BETTAR GLUTEN Y R U NO GUD 4 ME?!?!?!?

Not that some people don't have serious issues with gluten... the whole GLUTEN R EVIL thing is completely over-hyped though.

A lot of sandwiches and pasta dishes, cereals. Pretty much every meal I was eating wheat. I first cut out HFCS and foods with preservatives because I was having so many digestive issues I was tested for Chrons and ulcerative colitis, my body basically cannot break down highly processed foods. I get terrible stomach cramps, like, knock you off your feet off the charts painful. I have a very sensitive stomach, sometimes even drinking water I will get stomach cramps, it's just something I've always dealt with. I also cut out enriched bleached flour, which helped, but I'm still having symptoms that are sometimes attributed to celiacs or gluten intolerance like migraines, cramps, digestive problems and the like. I'm still in the process of going gluten free though. I'm transitioning into it because it's so damn expensive and Im a broke *kitten* college student.

A lot of sandwiches and pasta dishes, cereals. Pretty much every meal I was eating wheat. I first cut out HFCS and foods with preservatives because I was having so many digestive issues I was tested for Chrons and ulcerative colitis, my body basically cannot break down highly processed foods. I get terrible stomach cramps, like, knock you off your feet off the charts painful. I have a very sensitive stomach, sometimes even drinking water I will get stomach cramps, it's just something I've always dealt with. I also cut out enriched bleached flour, which helped, but I'm still having symptoms that are sometimes attributed to celiacs or gluten intolerance like migraines, cramps, digestive problems and the like. I'm still in the process of going gluten free though. I'm transitioning into it because it's so damn expensive and Im a broke *kitten* college student.

Got to an immunologist. Get an MRT done. Best thing you can possibly do for digestive issues. I spent a couple of years trying to figure out what was causing me grief (I am also extremely sensitive to a variety of chemicals/artificial colors/preservatives), and when I got my test results back, I found that 90% of "processed" foods had things that I had issues with (soy, whey, polysorbate, artificial colors), but in fact I have 0 issues with wheat and gluten (I am fine with corn as well, which I spent YEARS thinking I was allergic to because it is almost always found with chemicals/whey/soy). One of my coworkers went from constant brain fog, crippling abdominal pain, and terrible psoriasis to symptom free in like 2 months after cutting out everything the test indicated she was sensitive to from her diet.

Don't buy in to the gluten hype (I'm not saying that it's not possible that you have issues with gluten, just that it is statistically unlikely).

Yeah, only like 10% of the population is estimated to have gluten sensitivity of any sort. Post title fail.

Anyone who has a "gluten sensitivity" should shut up about their "gluten sensitivity" nonsense, give up their computer, cellphone, electric lights, and all other technology, and eke out a living on blue algae while living on a hippy commune.

Is there an actual test to see if you are gluten/celiac allergy? Or is it a process of elimination?

http://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=13214

Abstract: A novel hypothesis of obesity is suggested by consideration of diet-related inflammation and evolutionary medicine. The obese homeostatically guard their elevated weight. In rodent models of high-fat diet-induced obesity, leptin resistance is seen initially at vagal afferents, blunting the actions of satiety mediators, then centrally, with gastrointestinal bacterial-triggered SOCS3 signaling implicated. In humans, dietary fat and fructose elevate systemic lipopolysaccharide, while dietary glucose also strongly activates SOCS3 signaling. Crucially however, in humans, low-carbohydrate diets spontaneously decrease weight in a way that low-fat diets do not. Furthermore, nutrition transition patterns and the health of those still eating diverse ancestral diets with abundant food suggest that neither glycemic index, altered fat, nor carbohydrate intake can be intrinsic causes of obesity, and that human energy homeostasis functions well without Westernized foods containing flours, sugar, and refined fats. Due to being made up of cells, virtually all “ancestral foods” have markedly lower carbohydrate densities than flour- and sugar-containing foods, a property quite independent of glycemic index. Thus the “forgotten organ” of the gastrointestinal microbiota is a prime candidate to be influenced by evolutionarily unprecedented postprandial luminal carbohydrate concentrations. The present hypothesis suggests that in parallel with the bacterial effects of sugars on dental and periodontal health, acellular flours, sugars, and processed foods produce an inflammatory microbiota via the upper gastrointestinal tract, with fat able to effect a “double hit” by increasing systemic absorption of lipopolysaccharide. This model is consistent with a broad spectrum of reported dietary phenomena. A diet of grain-free whole foods with carbohydrate from cellular tubers, leaves, and fruits may produce a gastrointestinal microbiota consistent with our evolutionary condition, potentially explaining the exceptional macronutrient-independent metabolic health of non-Westernized populations, and the apparent efficacy of the modern “Paleolithic” diet on satiety and metabolism.