Posted on 02/06/2013 6:51:45 PM PST by nickcarraway
Eat no wheat.
That is the core, draconian commandment of a gluten-free diet, a prohibition that excises wide swaths of American cuisine — cupcakes, pizza, bread and macaroni and cheese, to name a few things.
For the approximately one-in-a-hundred Americans who have a serious condition called celiac disease, that is an indisputably wise medical directive.
One woman’s story of going gluten-free.
Now medical experts largely agree that there is a condition related to gluten other than celiac. In 2011 a panel of celiac experts convened in Oslo and settled on a medical term for this malady: non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
What they still do not know: how many people have gluten sensitivity, what its long-term effects are, or even how to reliably identify it. Indeed, they do not really know what the illness is.
The definition is less a diagnosis than a description — someone who does not have celiac, but whose health improves on a gluten-free diet and worsens again if gluten is eaten. It could even be more than one illness.
“We have absolutely no clue at this point,” said Dr. Stefano Guandalini, medical director of the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center.
Kristen Golden Testa could be one of the gluten-sensitive. Although she does not have celiac, she adopted a gluten-free diet last year. She says she has lost weight and her allergies have gone away. “It’s just so marked,” said Ms. Golden Testa, who is health program director in California for the Children’s Partnership, a national nonprofit advocacy group.
(Excerpt) Read more at well.blogs.nytimes.com ...
The gluten can come from wheat or rye or barley (and a few other lesser known grains). You can unknowingly get these glutens in restaurant foods too, such as the omelets at one restaurant chain where they put pancake mix into the omelet to improve the taste, or when flour is added as a thickener for some kinds of ice creams / frozen custards. You don't even know you ate any glutens in some restaurant foods.
Quinine pills or tonic water can help people get out of those kinds of cramps. Stopping the gluten can stop the upper-leg cramps from happening.
If anyone is interested, do a book search at Amazon for "Gluten Free", or also "Wheat Belly". (The "Wheat Belly" author advises against getting the foods from the grocery store's "gluten-free" section, as they can mess up your digestion pretty bad.)
Also, you might want to google (together) "gluten intolerance" and "upper leg cramps" (or "thigh cramps"), and read about some of the excruciating pain some people report there, caused by gluten thigh cramps (including one I saw some time ago where a woman said it was the worst pain she ever experienced in her entire life, and that it even hurt worse for her than childbirth).
“my prematurely always swollen ankles disappeared.”
It must be terribly difficult to walk now.
“...so I’ll eat all the gluten I want”.
You gluten glutton! :)
While i pity the people who have that disease, the NYT sees this as more of a problem than homosexual relations, but the grain belt must be a threat to the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Ms. Golden Testa?
You are absolutely right. Part of the reason for that is the wheat itself, and part of it is the sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other crap in the bread.
It really is hard to give up wheat. They stick either corn or wheat in almost every prepared food in one way or another. We were not made to eat this garbage. Solution: stop eating prepared foods. My diet is protein (meat, fish, fowl, nuts, cheeses), vegetables, and fruit. If it’s white, like bread, pasta, sugar, rice, potatoes, or stuff with flour in it, I don’t eat it.
“I feel better when I don’t eat gluten, therefore, gluten is the problem and must be eliminated from my diet.”
Sounds logical, but it isn’t. There are a dozen allergies and auto immune diseases that just seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps there is some new behavior or something new in our environment that is making us allergic to foods that our ancestors had no problem with. One thing that is new and different is our never, NEVER, being really hungry. Perhaps by never being really, REALLY hungry, our immune systems aren’t functioning properly. There are endless possibilities.
My prediction is that these people who are avoiding particular diet items will keep on finding more and more items they can not tolerate, until they are eating just glucose. It is not the items, it is something else.
Yes, indeed. Terribly difficult without the ankles.
It’s not just people with Celiac who eat gluten free... Individuals with various GERD issues, and other gastro illnesses do well following a FODMAP diet... Gluten is just one of the many foods that are not well tolerated.
There are also people who have wheat allergies.. but do not have Celiac.
Intolerance to foods can also develop in some individuals from over consumption.. it is true that most of us eat a less varied diet than we should. Wheat derived products just happen to be the most common carb staple, many of us eat it multiple times a day.
Chelsea Clinton had a gluten-free wedding, IIRC, I see ads ll over the place and even gluten-free bakeries have opened up near me. It is either a scam, or something odd is going on. If there is an increase in the actual NEED for this, than something bad is happening to Americans’ bodies on a grand scale.
My grandfather died at 42, one uncle at 49 and another at 39. I have celiac’s and it is hereditary. This crap about jsut showing up is just that crap. Celiac’s has a long history and most was never known till just after WWII. It was found that wheat caused it because of wheat shortages in Europe during the war. After the war when wheat became available again the problems started again. Just recently they came out with a blood test to test for it. That is why you see more cases now than in the past. Till recently most doctors had no clue or thought the symptoms would go away. That was true till you died like my uncles and grandfather from ongoing complications. I love bread and just about everything made from wheat barley or rye and still I went cold after diagnosed with celiac’s. If you have cieliac’s you know what it does and you would not think it is a joke.
I’ve been eating gluten free noodles for a few months.
Not for the glue free part but, what would be 300-500 calories of noodles in the regular ones, each package only contains 25 calories and is salt free.
I boil them in chicken broth that is sodium free and they are great.
LOL.....
So if it doesn't effect you, it doesn't exist for anyone.
Thanks for sharing, big guy.
What your vet means is probably what mine says: dogs should have vegetables in their diet as well as meat. If you look at the content of kibble, though, it’s mostly grains far outweighing God knows what kinds of parts of God knows what kinds of animals. The vet doesn’t mean that your god needs all this garbage. Just give him meat and a few vegetables, just as you eat. He’ll be healthier, have been teeth and breath, and will not shed as much.
I see it exactly the opposite. I’m eating meat, vegetables, and fruit. Real food, not crap. The crap is the packaged food that’s loaded with genetically modified wheat, high fructose corn syrup and a boatload of additives I can’t pronounce. My goal is to stay healthy and out of the doctor’s office so I’m really looking at what I eat.
Gluten and casein free is my best situation. Both tear up my digestive tract. Both cause my sinuses to run and choke me. Much better if I avoid both.
“...it isn’t worth eating garbage for the rest of your life. “
Well if being plain ornery would do it for me, I’d not have the gluten problems I have.
It definitely isn’t worth the consequences, at least for me, of eating real bread. I know, I’ve done it - it really wasn’t worth it, without going into the unsavory details.
I miss crusty bread and Guinness. Other than that, I’ve found acceptable substitutes that really don’t taste that different in many cases. But I sure wouldn’t ever choose gluten-free alternatives if I didn’t absolutely have to.
Bread and wheat based stuff is basically synonymous with food to me. Thank God I don’t have this. Maybe growing up in a wheat-producing area I developed antibodies to the antibodies?
Gluten free seems about as credible as global warming. Both have big industries that profits from it, and push a lot of fear and pseudo science.
Oh, bull. Gluten is only good for holding itself together; making fast food easy with breads and tortillas and other solid holder style foods. It’s not bringing you anything nutritious that you couldn’t get from other foods (seeds or nuts).
Going without gluten for health reasons means not replacing the starchy grain foods, it means leaving them out of your diet. Don’t buy the BE gluten free foods, which will also make you sick with all their gums and stabilizers and crap. Just eat real food, meat, dairy, eggs, fruit, veggies. No big industry will profit. Just your little humble body.
Gluten is just the protein found in wheat (and barley and rye). There is nothing wrong with eating it unless you have celiac disease. If you want to cut wheat to help reduce carbs, great. but gluten isn’t the reason tortillas or cake is unhealthy.
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