Is Gluten Sensitivity Real?

Gluten Sensitivity Not Real?

I saw that too. How dare you claim my fad diet was just a fad.

Maybe it's placebo, but I've been gluten free for 2.5 years and my digestive system is way, way more calm than it was prior to my diet including gluten. I rarely have gas, for example, unless I eat a plate of beans. I was diagnosed with IBS a long time ago, and I really don't have IBS type of symptoms any longer. I don't have celiac.I also think there's more to gluten sensitivity than just gas.Anyway, I do accept that this could be placebo... the power of the mind can never be ruled out.Mitra

Ah, yeah, I think they were monitoring more then "gas" in their studies. Everyone just has gluten on the brain. It's not some magic bullet.I think they speculated that a low FODMAP Diet is what helped people that really thought they were gluten sensitive.

That, I disagree with - because those items I eat all the time, and my digestive system still remains calm (except for the Galactans category!). Getting rid of gluten was the only real change in my diet.The FODMAPs in the diet are:Fructose (fruits, honey, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), etc)Lactose (dairy)Fructans (wheat, onion, garlic, etc)(fructans are also known as inulin)Galactans (beans, lentils, legumes such as soy, etc)Polyols (sweeteners containing sorbitol,mannitol, xylitol, maltitol, stone fruitssuch as avocado, apricots, cinteresting though, because they mention "wheat", which is filled with gluten. My whole reason to give up gluten started out because I supposedly have a wheat sensitivity. So I decided to give up gluten as a whole.

But, I do agree with the fact that giving up gluten is not a magic bullet. I have a doctor who is adamant that I need to go on Paleo, because it's not just gluten, it's any grain, dairy, legumes and sugar that will make an overall difference. She's trying to work with my anxiety and of course, my nervous system issues... I have done Paleo before, but not to that extent (I ate plenty of legumes and had cheated with dairy probably too often). She's a doctor of osteopathy - so she is an M.D. but also looks at things holistically. She's also big into the whole candida thing, and I'm not 100% convinced of the whole candida issue. I have no antibodies (although she said most people don't) to candida, and my ALCAT test showed that I wasn't sensitive to candida. I think candida can be an issue for people, but I'd bet that 99% of the population has some yeast overgrowth, and most of them are doing just fine.

I'm one of those forum members who throws out the diet suggestion as a "potential" avenue they might want to pursue. I'm not sure where people get the "magic bullet" claim, but it certainly should not be from any of my posts. I do my best to try and stress the point that IF gluten intolerance or sensitivity is an issue for them it is not the cause but merely another symptom of something bigger going on. I don't even point to candida as the ultimate cause any longer because that too is just another part of the equation. At least that is how it was in my case. I had to take a multi-faceted approach to completely overcome my BFS. There was no one thing that I did that sealed the deal. I had to address multiple areas of my life, but diet was indeed one of them. I fully believe that had I not addressed diet I would have not made it to where I am today.I eat gluten today. I eat lots of it. I have zero issues with it now and the BFS and twitching are all gone. There was a time when I could not though and I don't see how placebo or nocebo could possibly have been a factor since on multiple occasions I reacted even though I was blind to the fact that it had been ingested. Only after the fact was it revealed that I slipped up and ate something. If something happens often enough the chances of coincidence decrease to a point where doubt is no longer reasonable. People are free to believe whatever they wish to believe though. Eat what you want to eat and do what you want to do. We're all adults here.

I totally agree with SAM, I think we can figure out our own bodies with what we eat and the reactions from our bodies. And, I agree that I think our disorder can be multi-faceted, and maybe due to a combination of multiple causes. And, why not try out one thing or another, including modifying our diets?I accidentally had gluten in some gravy I had prepared for Thanksgiving, and felt really, really ill afterwards (again, major gastrointestinal distress). And, it wasn't from overeating or anything typical for Thanksgiving, because I ate very moderately that night, had no dessert, etc. Again, I guess it could be nocebo, but I really can't figure out how that could possibly be... Again, I so rarely have those issues since I have given up gluten that I was really surprised to see how badly I reacted.Anyway, I do wish that they would do more studies on this. I strongly feel that dairy and gluten are culprits for many people for many things. Neither lactose nor gluten are easily digestible, and it just makes sense. But, I'm also not one to cut down or deny a scientific study, so I'd really like to see it replicated (or disputed).Mitra

Fad diet. That's funny. One thing gluten sensitivity is not ... is a "fad". It may not affect everyone, but there are countless published journal studies showing that it can and does damage the lining of the gut, even in non-celiacs. But knowledge of the studies is not something most people bother with. Its much easier to skim articles you run across on "Business Insider" instead. Lets read something from someone who actually digs into published studies all day long, nearly every day of his life. Chris Kresser.If you're too lazy to read things in detail, the summary goes like this: There are studies proving gluten damages the gut in a significant portion of the population, and results in numerous systemic conditions. This study did not disprove that. It showed that people were sensitive to wheat, versus isolated gluten. Nobody eats isolated gluten. They eat wheat. Everyone still had bad reactions to the same exact foods(!!). All this study shows is that there may be something else in wheat in addition to gluten, which is causing these health problems. It doesn't come remotely close to saying "Eat Wheat". And the same people who wrote this study proved that wheat causes damage to people in a previous study. This study was just to try and isolate which ingredient was the culprit. Make sense now?--------------------------------------------------------------

Ha! I knew I would stir it up with this one. Good posts though. I think it's safe to say that you can have problems with a lot of stuff not just GLUTEN!! People were getting a bit gluten crazy there, as though the human body was that simple.

Haha I've missed this place.Muppetdog - you certainly need not apologize as you have done nothing wrong. We have a wide variety of individuals come through our community and some are more sensitive than others. If anything, I know too many who have refused to speak out against the silly (IMO) idea that gluten is of any significance to us for fear of being ridiculed, mocked, and insulted. We don't have to dig very deep into the archives to see some people react very aggressively when being challenged. Its almost worth "letting it go" than dealing with the wrath that has historically followed the act of speaking out against the gluten-free or paleo diets. The old timers still around have seen the long history of fad diets, medications, herbal remedies, etc. each at one time championed by some as the answer to our suffering (or lack thereof). Regardless of how far-fetched, there were always those who swear by the results based on their own experiences (and those of a few others). Typically, any negative feedback from other members gets challenged with defensiveness (changing the issue to a personal nature) or responses like "you must not be doing it right". In the end, those with the most years under their belt generally report beating BFS is like 90% mental. Given that, we can expect placebo effects to be big players in our condition as seen with many of these proposed solutions.