Gluten as part of the puzzle
May. 24th, 2014 09:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI have reservations about this study, most particularly the time frames (one week is barely enough to get good responses with food-induced immune reactions, for one). I want to see more rigorous research on this.
By this point, however, my biggest issue is with the reporting on this study, namely that it may discourage people from trying a gluten-free diet -- and given that it's the easiest and most effective way to determine whether someone has celiac disease, that may be counter-productive. IFLS even went so far as to say "unless you're diagnosed with celiac disease, going gluten-free won't help" -- but blood tests are inaccurate, biopsies are invasive, and both require eating wheat steadily for six weeks. Once I determined that I had a wheat sensitivity (not celiac disease), you couldn't have paid me to put up with the symptoms for over six weeks, and many celiacs suffer just as much.
My advice to people with digestive health issues: try cutting gluten-containing grains (wheat, rye, barley) out of your diet first. If that helps you, then go look at a FODMAP-free diet as well. You might get even better control. But above all, if you'll pardon the pun, follow your gut -- if there's something going on, you know best what your body does and doesn't tolerate.
I react to one of the proteins in the wheat family (wheat, spelt, kamut), and gluten-free foods are guaranteed not to have wheat, so I buy a bunch of gluten-free stuff. I did notice that when I tested that sensitivity last time that the bread I ate seemed pretty hard to digest. That's probably FODMAPS in play, but it's a separate reaction. So it's less clear-cut than "if you aren't celiac, don't cut go gluten-free".
Sensitive To Gluten? A Carb In Wheat May Be The Real Culprit
By this point, however, my biggest issue is with the reporting on this study, namely that it may discourage people from trying a gluten-free diet -- and given that it's the easiest and most effective way to determine whether someone has celiac disease, that may be counter-productive. IFLS even went so far as to say "unless you're diagnosed with celiac disease, going gluten-free won't help" -- but blood tests are inaccurate, biopsies are invasive, and both require eating wheat steadily for six weeks. Once I determined that I had a wheat sensitivity (not celiac disease), you couldn't have paid me to put up with the symptoms for over six weeks, and many celiacs suffer just as much.
My advice to people with digestive health issues: try cutting gluten-containing grains (wheat, rye, barley) out of your diet first. If that helps you, then go look at a FODMAP-free diet as well. You might get even better control. But above all, if you'll pardon the pun, follow your gut -- if there's something going on, you know best what your body does and doesn't tolerate.
I react to one of the proteins in the wheat family (wheat, spelt, kamut), and gluten-free foods are guaranteed not to have wheat, so I buy a bunch of gluten-free stuff. I did notice that when I tested that sensitivity last time that the bread I ate seemed pretty hard to digest. That's probably FODMAPS in play, but it's a separate reaction. So it's less clear-cut than "if you aren't celiac, don't cut go gluten-free".
Sensitive To Gluten? A Carb In Wheat May Be The Real Culprit
