A friend of mine sent me an article link about how gluten sensitivity may not exist. (Link to article) I like that my friends (and anyone else) can send me links that push my boundaries and point out things that are contradictory to what I or other like minded bloggers post about.
I thought I’d share my opinion after reading the article and associated links. This is the email I sent in reply:
“This does seem like pretty good science from what I could read about it, but there will always be limiting factors. Mainly time and money. Time is the constraint here because some different “experts” have shown* that gluten can stay in the system, and have lingering effects for as much as 6 months. So while the 2 week cleanse period is a good idea, having gluten first, second or third in the line up of diets might have made a difference.
I agree the brain plays a huge role, being that if someone eats gluten and does so knowingly, they could feel worse than if they didn’t know of an accidental exposure. As far as everyone doing that, or submitting to a “nocebo” effect of feeling bad because they thought they were going to feel bad is definitely subjective and hard to quantify. Since every person has different “pain tolerance” and idea of “GI disturbance.” I would think the stool samples would’ve helped verify a difference between gluten and non-gluten diets. But when they say there was no measureable difference, they don’t tell us what was measured, or define what a “normal stool” is. If they were comparing stool samples of these subjects to “normal people” (as in the general public) I’d argue most of those people don’t have “normal” stool. In the end they say “consider this: no underlying cause for gluten intolerance has yet been discovered,” which brings me to the classic argument of “absence of proof isn’t proof of absence.” We may not have the right tests, or our tests may not be sensitive or accurate enough yet.
To play it safe, I’ll keep avoiding gluten because it makes me feel better. If that’s physical from a chemical disruption or damage, or from a brain to body creation, I still feel better, right? It’s a very interesting topic and a lot more research is needed. The easiest way to feel good, is to eat real food, know where your food came from, and to cook it yourself. Thanks for the link.”
A few thoughts came to me after I sent this email too. The study talks about what they limited, ie. gluten, FODMAPS, whey, but they didn’t talk about what they included. Was it organic microwave meals? Was it fresh veggies from the garden? Was it low quality ground beef cooked in hydrogenated oils? And they didn’t really say if the GI issues were alleviated during the 2 week “baseline” diet. So at the start, this looks like a good study, but there are still a lot of questions left unanswered, and the conclusion the media makes from it isn’t very strong. They try and make it seem like the general population that is buying gluten free products is wasteful. And lastly, I wonder where the funding came from to do this study. Is it “big-ag” trying to convince people that wheat/gluten intolerance is “all in their mind?” Probably not. Keep an open mind and eat what makes you feel good.
* – I use the word “shown” because, as evidence by the linked-to article, proof can be subsequently be proved differently.