The Atlantic: The Harm in Blindly Going Gluten Free

[LiberalElite]

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/05/celiac-vs-gluten/482676/

May is Celiac-Disease Awareness Month. Which might seem unnecessary, if the superfluity of “gluten free” labels and advertisements were any indication of people’s awareness of the disease.

Gastroenterologist Norelle Rizkalla Reilly believes it’s quite clearly not. She directs the Celiac Disease Center’s pediatric program at Columbia University. Her understanding of public misconceptions comes not just from daily immersion in the world of gluten-related immune disorder, but from a careful analysis of the true window into our souls: our Google histories.

xposted in GD and Good Reads

[7worldtrade]

1. Must read- important!

I have become inured to the political discussions on du. I hardly ever post but I read the latest threads several x a day because I know that the du community will always point me to something new. I doubt anyone who posts here will persuade a Bernie supporter to flip to Hillary or visa versa, but this information about gluten can actually make a meaningful and immediate impact on people's lives and finances. Thanks for the post!

[LiberalElite]

3. Gluten free stuff is everywhere and i think a friend

wanted to stop eating it just because it seemed like a good idea, as if gluten is automatically bad for everyone. It makes sense that a gluten-free diet is really only for those who can't digest gluten.

[hedda_foil]

2. My adult daughter has severe celiac disease. I've tested gluten intolerant but not celiac.

I can tolerate a small amount of gluten occasionally without a problem. She had thought she could get away with an occasional slip until she had a endoscopy last year and learned that her small intestines were barely functioning. At that point, she committed to being totally gluten free. It's VERY difficult and expensive to maintain, but she has no choice.

In one way, I'm glad that so many people have decided gluten free equals healthy because there are a ton more good tasting, high quality products available than there were a few years ago, which makes life much easier. Unfortunately, all those folks doing gf because it's trendy aren't doing themselves their kids any good at all.

A few tv star diet docs have convinced a lot of women that gluten is responsible for their belly fact. Dr Oz is leading the pack as usual.

[SheilaT]

4. The actual incidence of celiac disease

is under 1% of the population. For those who have it, avoiding gluten is crucial. But all those who've jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon because the think there's something terrible about gluten, are simply wrong. And those who say that humans have only been consuming gluten for about ten thousand years or however long it is, don't understand human evolution.

Rather than try to explain in twenty-five words or less, I want to point people to two books:

The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending
and
Paleofantasy by Marlene Zuk.

They both explain quite clearly and with many examples as to how humans are continuing to evolve.

On a slightly different topic, but related to common misinformation, a book that blows apart they myth that cancer is largely a result of civilization is The Cancer Chronicles by George Johnson. Even dinosaurs got cancer. And the main way to avoid getting cancer is to not smoke, and hope you didn't get certain genes. Other than that, who gets cancer is pretty much a crapshoot.

[phylny]

5. The fact for me is simple.

I eat a gluten-free, quality fat, quality protein diet and I lose weight. I add gluten to this, I gain weight.