What's the Big Deal with Gluten?

[Warhammer]

Honestly, I'd like to know. Thank you in advance.

 

[Warhammer]

And interesting that I see keratosis pilaris (bumps on the back of arm/chicken skin) as symptom of gluten intolerance on some websites. I've always thought that keratosis pilaris was due to temperature change.

 

[Charlie Boy]

Shrinks your weeny brah.

 

[blknrdcllctv]

Well, most people who avoid gluten are most likely dealing with Celiac's disease.

There are some folks who may not process it well, and present symptoms that are similar to Celiac's but their level of intolerance is not as extreme.

Lastly, there has been studies conducted that point to a possible link between gluten consumption and depression (specifically, a build-up of wheat in the intestines triggering a manic depressive episode).

 

[moviedoors]

Some people have a gluten allergy and they can't eat such foods. Dumbasses misunderstood this and turned "gluten" into a dirty word. It's both a fad and a marketing tool.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4239

 

[Quasimod0]

My girlfriend is allergic to gluten.

 

[chaseter]

My girlfriend is allergic to people who have gluten "allergies".

 

[Quasimod0]

My girlfriend is allergic to people who have gluten "allergies".

It's a real thing though. I wish it wasn't, believe me.

 

[Doctor Evo]

My girlfriend is allergic to people who have gluten "allergies".

I don't believe you.

Spoiler

You don't have a girlfriend.

 

[chaseter]

She is made of gluten.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

She is made of gluten.

She's a doughnut...mmmm doughnutss

 

[Piper Maru]

What's the deal with airplane peanuts?

 

[Teelie]

Well, most people who avoid gluten are most likely dealing with Celiac's disease.

There are some folks who may not process it well, and present symptoms that are similar to Celiac's but their level of intolerance is not as extreme.

Lastly, there has been studies conducted that point to a possible link between gluten consumption and depression (specifically, a build-up of wheat in the intestines triggering a manic depressive episode).

Change "most" to "some" who as moviedoors said, misunderstood it and you're right.

Some people have a gluten allergy and they can't eat such foods. Dumbasses misunderstood this and turned "gluten" into a dirty word. It's both a fad and a marketing tool.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4239

I know several "gluten free" fadders who are doing this, not realizing how it's not doing them any good and potentially harming them.

That article does a good job of summing up this "diet".

 

[blknrdcllctv]

Change "most" to "some" who as moviedoors said, misunderstood it and you're right.


I know several "gluten free" fadders who are doing this, not realizing how it's not doing them any good and potentially harming them.

That article does a good job of summing up this "diet".

I say "most" because in my circles, because I have educated friends who don't easily jump on bandwagons. I have a couple of friends with Celiac's. I have also been encouraged to stop eating gluten (and I can tell the difference when I don't eat it...but I do eat it somewhat regularly).

 

[Teelie]

I, on the otherhand, am surrounded by "health nuts" who jump one whatever the latest "natural" fad diet is. And that kind of person far outweighs the kind of people who genuinely suffer a disorder from gluten.

And the consensus seems to back up most people aren't actually suffering from it but have jumped on the bandwagon. There are a lot of people looking for that one cure. The one change they need to make in their life to improve it.

As if it just takes one thing to make your life better. Or only one aspect of it.

 

[Warhammer]

So is the conclusion pretty much that unless someone has symptoms of celiac disease or fibromyalgia, them on a gluten-free diet is full of s***?

On a side note, I think my friend is on the bandwagon because she thinks gluten will cause her future children to have autism, but I'm pretty sure her parents ate gluten and she turned out just fine.

 

[Teelie]

That's one of the biggest lies yet. We've been eating gluten for as long as we've been eating grains. So a pretty damned long time.

From the link above:

GlutenFree.com and GlutenFreeMall.com claim their products help people with autism or ADHD, which is completely untrue according to all the science we have. The autism claim in particular is broadly repeated across the autism activist community. The treatment of autism with a gluten free diet has been studied a number of times with varying results, but so far no well designed studies have shown any plausible benefit. A 2006 double blinded study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders tested children with and without autism, on gluten-free and placebo controlled diets, and found no significant differences in any group.

Autism is linked to a lot of things in a desperate attempt to find a reason. To point at something and say that's the culprit. Most of them are obviously desperate and/or misguided, doing more harm than good and based on either poor science or myths and stretches of logic and reasoning.

 

[blknrdcllctv]

Just throwing it out there again, gluten sensitivity has been tied to mental illness as well. There has been research to support a link between gluten and schizophrenia, as well as a possible link between gluten and manic depression (bipolar disorder), although that link still needs more exploring

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21320252

I've read articles from a few doctors who believe that gluten shouldn't be a part of our diet, and really wasn't meant to be and that's why some suffer health issues (according to these folks, relative to how long we've been on the earth as a species, it's still a relatively new "staple").

I'm not so sure I believe in this particular point above, but as someone with some intense gut issues, steering clear of gluten is good for me.

 

[Teelie]

There's always exceptions. Someone with a peanut allergy clearly should not eat a Snickers or have a PB&J but that doesn't mean everyone else is harmed by consuming anything with peanuts.

Food allergies aren't universal and tying one to something as diverse as mental disorders is as far as I have read, not been shown.

That suggested a correlation but it's not enough to suggest it's a cause. In otherwords, gluten proteins might be seen with mental illness but it doesn't mean they cause mental illness. Someone like Dr Evo or someone else can better explain why causation and correlation aren't the same.