This is a nice article about a great study. I'm glad for both.
But I'm concerned about reactions I've seen. I've witnessed multiple discussions of this article, and "Now those stoopid gluten-free people are getting their comeuppance" is a common thought.
That isn't what the article is about. First of all, the study addresses gluten specifically, not wheat more generally. Second, there are speculations about the irritant effects of FODMAP carbohydrates[1] and the nocebo effect[2].
Actually, I find the mention of the latter to be a bit odd. Some doctors recommend rotation diets to patients with food intolerances, on the theory that some people can rapidly develop an intolerance to food eaten multiple times in a multi-day period. I do not know how rigorous the basis for this idea is. But perhaps it ought at least to be considered, if an experiment suggests that a diet causes no problems initially, and significant symptoms of intolerance later.
True that. I predict lots of misleading headlines from this. Though unsupported elsewhere in the article, a quote at the end indicates that NCGS is still a recognized disorder just of lower incidence than previously thought. More importantly, it acknowledges that non-intestinal symptoms still exist (type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto's, neuropathy, etc).
The question might be: do low gluten diets do any harm?
Since the beginning of the year, I have cut my gluten consumption by over 90%, and I have been feeling great. For at least fifteen years, I have been keeping track of how I feel the day after eating different foods. I was going to reduce gluten for about a month as an experiment but I just felt good and kept my modified diet.
Another benefit: my wife and I are great cooks, and making gluten free food that tastes great was a fun little challenge, until we acquired new skills.
So, any evidence that going gluten free causes harm?
Great... more fuel for the "it's just in your head, you want to feel special, you want to take part in a fad" fire.
(yes, I did read the article at the very end it admits it may be a real problem, but tries to diminish it as a real thing)
I could write a book about my own personal experience, how worthless most doctor's are if you don't have an acute condition they can easily diagnose, and how society itself had convinced me that I was the problem. I suffered in silence as I hate doctor's and don't like attention, even when I'm sick I try to pretend as much as I can that I'm not as I don't want any sympathy.
I have had allergies since I was 6 months old, mostly pollen. I developed psoriasis at age 9. By the time I was 15 I felt like I was walking around in a fog all of the time. Because of this I didn't like to interact with people, I had to work hard to concentrate. Around 17 my sinus's constantly were clogged, even though I didn't have a runny nose. It was like cement that no nasal spray or drug could clear. It was like breathing through needle sized holes. I also would throw up in the shower every morning, as I would feel so nauseous. Despite this I only went to the doctor a couple of times for the allergy part and kept the rest to myself.
Even at an early age, I got really sick when I ate rye bread. In college, beer always made me feel sick. Wine, potato vodka, tequila, cognac... no problem. For me though, when I am exposed to any gluten containing products I don't get diarrhea, I would get constipated. The thing is, I never knew any of this was weird because my entire life 3 meals a day I would eat something containing gluten. In fact I loved the taste of bread, pizzas, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta, pretzels, oatmeal cookies, carrot cake. These were my staples. These foods are cheap, readily available and quick to make at home.
Fast forward to around the time I turned 30. Quick to anger, quick to fight; It's a good thing people who crossed me always ran away. I most certainly would have killed one of them, and being highly intelligent I don't fight fair back then I would fight to win at all costs, even if it meant injury or worse to myself. So I'm 30, and out of nowhere I'm hit with panic attacks. It didn't make sense, I was not stressed, everything in my life was working out great. The company I worked for had a salary freeze, I told them if I didn't get a raise I was gone, I wasn't even going to look for a new job first. Boom $10k more a year, within an hour of telling my boss he told me to give him 3 days and he came through. So because of the panic attacks I go to the doctor, he finds out my heart rate is erratic and hovers between 90-110 when I'm completely relaxed. He tells me I need to relax, calm down, maybe see a psychiatrist. I try to explain to him that I do feel calm, well I did until I started to fear having another panic attack. There was nothing stressful at all going on in my life, I had just gotten a raise, my manager didn't even manage me, I worked with the other engineers at my company to figure out what tools they needed. There was no pressure, about the only time I saw my manager was for the golf league and we never even talked about work. He told me my adrenaline was cranked up and it never rested. So he gave me ativan, and an evil drug called paxil. Funny thing about paxil, besides the killing my entire motivation to do anything and weird brain zaps. It also gives me diarrhea. But combined with the gluten I end up with normal bowel movements. This I didn't know at the time.
Not long after, I receive a call about a possible management position. Management is what I had wanted since the beginning, I can write code but honestly hate it. Even though I'm really good at it, which is why I got into it in the first place, that and the money.
So I move to take on the new management position, I'm making a lot more money. So I t...
What I have is not "gluten intolerance" or "gluten sensitivity", it's a GLUTEN ALLERGY and a quite debilitating one at that. I find it absurd how casually people act about it, like it's NO BIG DEAL. Restaurant personal who can care less, some I believe even taint the food because they think it's funny and that people are faking it. I avoid going out at all costs, unless there's a good sushi or thai place nearby. I always make sure they don't add soy sauce and don't even mention gluten. I'm tired of the eye rolls, I'm tired of explaining it, I'm tired of not being taken seriously. This isn't the minor inconvenience of lactose intolerance, I can't just pop a benadryl and muscle my through this. I get food that's contaminated and there goes a good 2-3 weeks of my life. I never find out until about 1 - 2 hours after eating the contaminated food. I suspect it is once it hits my intestines.
I through stupid luck and 35 years of suffering figured out what was making me sick, had I never gotten worse I never would have even known there was a problem. I would never have known how much better it is to feel "normal". I never knew what normal was. My normal was miserable.
I forgot to mention, my pollen allergies are incredibly mild now. No itchy eyes, runny nose. Just need to blow my nose a couple times a day when the season comes around.
This was much longer than what I intended, I think I wrote this because it would be nice if it helped someone else who went through what I went through. Most doctors will not help you, period. They just want to give you some pills and get you out the door. They don't want to fix the root cause just treat symptoms. 99% of doctors know NOTHING about nutrition and food allergies. If you don't swell up like a peanut allergy it must not be real as far as they are concerned.
7 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 28.8 ms ] threadBut I'm concerned about reactions I've seen. I've witnessed multiple discussions of this article, and "Now those stoopid gluten-free people are getting their comeuppance" is a common thought.
That isn't what the article is about. First of all, the study addresses gluten specifically, not wheat more generally. Second, there are speculations about the irritant effects of FODMAP carbohydrates[1] and the nocebo effect[2].
Actually, I find the mention of the latter to be a bit odd. Some doctors recommend rotation diets to patients with food intolerances, on the theory that some people can rapidly develop an intolerance to food eaten multiple times in a multi-day period. I do not know how rigorous the basis for this idea is. But perhaps it ought at least to be considered, if an experiment suggests that a diet causes no problems initially, and significant symptoms of intolerance later.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FODMAP
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo
Since the beginning of the year, I have cut my gluten consumption by over 90%, and I have been feeling great. For at least fifteen years, I have been keeping track of how I feel the day after eating different foods. I was going to reduce gluten for about a month as an experiment but I just felt good and kept my modified diet.
Another benefit: my wife and I are great cooks, and making gluten free food that tastes great was a fun little challenge, until we acquired new skills.
So, any evidence that going gluten free causes harm?
I could write a book about my own personal experience, how worthless most doctor's are if you don't have an acute condition they can easily diagnose, and how society itself had convinced me that I was the problem. I suffered in silence as I hate doctor's and don't like attention, even when I'm sick I try to pretend as much as I can that I'm not as I don't want any sympathy.
I have had allergies since I was 6 months old, mostly pollen. I developed psoriasis at age 9. By the time I was 15 I felt like I was walking around in a fog all of the time. Because of this I didn't like to interact with people, I had to work hard to concentrate. Around 17 my sinus's constantly were clogged, even though I didn't have a runny nose. It was like cement that no nasal spray or drug could clear. It was like breathing through needle sized holes. I also would throw up in the shower every morning, as I would feel so nauseous. Despite this I only went to the doctor a couple of times for the allergy part and kept the rest to myself.
Even at an early age, I got really sick when I ate rye bread. In college, beer always made me feel sick. Wine, potato vodka, tequila, cognac... no problem. For me though, when I am exposed to any gluten containing products I don't get diarrhea, I would get constipated. The thing is, I never knew any of this was weird because my entire life 3 meals a day I would eat something containing gluten. In fact I loved the taste of bread, pizzas, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta, pretzels, oatmeal cookies, carrot cake. These were my staples. These foods are cheap, readily available and quick to make at home.
Fast forward to around the time I turned 30. Quick to anger, quick to fight; It's a good thing people who crossed me always ran away. I most certainly would have killed one of them, and being highly intelligent I don't fight fair back then I would fight to win at all costs, even if it meant injury or worse to myself. So I'm 30, and out of nowhere I'm hit with panic attacks. It didn't make sense, I was not stressed, everything in my life was working out great. The company I worked for had a salary freeze, I told them if I didn't get a raise I was gone, I wasn't even going to look for a new job first. Boom $10k more a year, within an hour of telling my boss he told me to give him 3 days and he came through. So because of the panic attacks I go to the doctor, he finds out my heart rate is erratic and hovers between 90-110 when I'm completely relaxed. He tells me I need to relax, calm down, maybe see a psychiatrist. I try to explain to him that I do feel calm, well I did until I started to fear having another panic attack. There was nothing stressful at all going on in my life, I had just gotten a raise, my manager didn't even manage me, I worked with the other engineers at my company to figure out what tools they needed. There was no pressure, about the only time I saw my manager was for the golf league and we never even talked about work. He told me my adrenaline was cranked up and it never rested. So he gave me ativan, and an evil drug called paxil. Funny thing about paxil, besides the killing my entire motivation to do anything and weird brain zaps. It also gives me diarrhea. But combined with the gluten I end up with normal bowel movements. This I didn't know at the time.
Not long after, I receive a call about a possible management position. Management is what I had wanted since the beginning, I can write code but honestly hate it. Even though I'm really good at it, which is why I got into it in the first place, that and the money.
So I move to take on the new management position, I'm making a lot more money. So I t...
What I have is not "gluten intolerance" or "gluten sensitivity", it's a GLUTEN ALLERGY and a quite debilitating one at that. I find it absurd how casually people act about it, like it's NO BIG DEAL. Restaurant personal who can care less, some I believe even taint the food because they think it's funny and that people are faking it. I avoid going out at all costs, unless there's a good sushi or thai place nearby. I always make sure they don't add soy sauce and don't even mention gluten. I'm tired of the eye rolls, I'm tired of explaining it, I'm tired of not being taken seriously. This isn't the minor inconvenience of lactose intolerance, I can't just pop a benadryl and muscle my through this. I get food that's contaminated and there goes a good 2-3 weeks of my life. I never find out until about 1 - 2 hours after eating the contaminated food. I suspect it is once it hits my intestines.
I through stupid luck and 35 years of suffering figured out what was making me sick, had I never gotten worse I never would have even known there was a problem. I would never have known how much better it is to feel "normal". I never knew what normal was. My normal was miserable.
I forgot to mention, my pollen allergies are incredibly mild now. No itchy eyes, runny nose. Just need to blow my nose a couple times a day when the season comes around.
This was much longer than what I intended, I think I wrote this because it would be nice if it helped someone else who went through what I went through. Most doctors will not help you, period. They just want to give you some pills and get you out the door. They don't want to fix the root cause just treat symptoms. 99% of doctors know NOTHING about nutrition and food allergies. If you don't swell up like a peanut allergy it must not be real as far as they are concerned.