
Against the Grain: Should you go gluten-free? - srikar
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/grain
======
russnewcomer
My wife was advised to try going gluten-free for a period of time to see if it
would help with a condition she had been dealing with. It didn't help with
that, but we did discover that she lost about 10 pounds and her previously
regular bloating and intestinal discomfort went away. We have since observed a
fairly strong correlation between consuming regular bread and bloating. So she
largely eats gluten free foods.

But we don't go to overboard on gluten-replaced foods, and instead try more
for food choices that just don't have gluten either way. Sure, we do have rice
noodles or corn pasta sometimes, and I do have gluten-free bread in the
freezer for her for occasional sandwiches, but we usually just eat more like
East Asians or Mexicans and just don't have bread.

It's kind of like when I was ten, I noticed that sometimes I had bad diarrhea
after we had spaghetti and so after running an experiment on myself, I deduced
that a certain brands of sauce made me have diarrhea, along with raw tomatoes.
I also discovered the same thing with soy sauce and peanuts, and although I no
longer have that same sensitivity to soy sauce and lessened to peanuts, I
still avoid those foods.

Basically, I think almost everyone has some sensitivity to some kind of food,
most of us just don't know it. If you do have to avoid some kind of food,
avoid it, don't go for a substitute.

~~~
batbomb
This is anecdotal still unless you control for other parts of the diet, such
as total carb intake, total sodium intake, and/or dietary fiber intake.

When many people stop eating gluten, they often just stop eating so much
bread, usually lower their total carb, sodium intake (there's tons of it in
bread), and often sugar and other things as well, sometimes substantially
lower.

Occasionally the opposite is true if people start swapping out large amounts
of glutenous products for sugary fruits.

The same thing happens with MSG and chinese restaurant syndrome. People tend
to think MSG itself, and not their actual sodium intake (MSG is sodium +
glutamic acid), makes them feel sick. In controlled studies with equivalent
sodium intake and controlling for taste (basically two gelatin pills, one with
MSG and the other with an equivalent amount of sodium), there's been no
correlation.

~~~
russnewcomer
Totally agree that my wife going gluten free is relatively anecdotal. I didn't
wish to put her through too much torture trying to run empirical tests, but I
do know that there are times when she has accidentally consumed regular
versions of food that she has no problems with the gluten-free version, and
she has bloated. Doesn't really bloat with gluten-free. Relatively anecdotal
and not the strongest causation, but definite correlation.

My personal issues with spaghetti sauce however, I did control for as much as
possible, purchasing enough ingredients to make multiple rounds of the rest of
the meal, varying only spaghetti sauce. Basic outcome: Prego and some other
local store brands from 10 years ago means diarrhea, Ragu does not. Same thing
with nuts - eat peanuts, almonds, pistachios, wait an hour, diarrhea. Don't
know if it's it's in my head or not, but since it happens, I try to avoid
foods that make it happen.

------
scottlocklin
Fun fact: if you look in an old copy of the Joy of Cooking, there are several
references to wheat allergies (only found one in the index at a glance),
including an old USDA publication on the subject (couldn't find that easily).
This book has been around since 1931.

~~~
maxerickson
Can you explain more about why you think that is interesting in this context?

~~~
scottlocklin
Because several people below are asserting that sensitivity to gluten (or
whatever it is in wheat that gives people the wheat heebie-jeebies) is some
kind of modern thing. It's not; people just forgot about it, then remembered
again. About half of what I consider noteworthy enough to say on HN or my blog
is pointing out that humanity regularly forgets, then remembers important
things. FWIIW, my own mild sensitivity is almost certainly not to gluten, as
certain Italian 00 flours, rye and oatmeal don't bother me at all.

~~~
maxerickson
The popularity of self diagnosis with gluten sensitivities does seem to be a
modern thing.

I'm not saying self diagnosed allergies are nonsense (I know someone who is
clearly allergic to Yellow #5), I guess I would just consider someone claiming
it was all fake (rather than much of it being faddish) an ill-informed crank
(and not really feel the need to push back on what they are saying).

~~~
scottlocklin
I was a little ahead of the curve on this: I figured it out going on a strict
keto diet in furtherance of my hobby of picking up heavy things (then putting
them down again). I couldn't believe how good I felt, even on a diet of
nothing but tuna and water. When I added things back to my diet; milk, rice,
beans; all no problemo. First time I ate spaghetti, I went back to feeling
like dirt. The internets informed me that other people were sensitive to wheat
as well (this was around ~ 2004), and I haven't looked back since then.

------
kolev
Most GF foods may trade the cealiac disease for something worse - diabetes.
The starches they replace wheat with (like tapioca) have much higher glycemic
index than wheat! If you can't have wheat, trying avoiding all refined carbs!
As it's hard to stay completely away from gluten foods, my family is sparingly
using Italian einkorn wheat (the ancient non-GMO wheat) products by Jovial
[1].

[1] [https://jovialfoods.com/einkorn/](https://jovialfoods.com/einkorn/)

~~~
gregcrv
this. The problem is not gluten. The problem is how wheat, especially in the
USA has been selected and/or modified to increase its gluten amount to a level
more and more people can't tolerate. The increase of pollution and pesticides
might also be responsible for our increased reactions to allergens. Arte
showed a lot interesting documentaries about this subject last summer.

~~~
kolev
Yes, exactly. All foods contain some level of natural toxins and anti-
nutrients, and wheat has a long history of consumption, i.e. we can assume
that we've adapted to it already. What we haven't had time to adapt to is the
modern wheat.

------
justifier
the gluten argument, for me, is really a conversation about
shitting'pooping'defecating'whatever-ing-you-need-to-talk-about-excrement-
seriously

do some light research, find grain alternatives that are gluten free, eat that
for a week and see if how your body expels its used resources is changed

it is interesting to me that the initial response to a 'fad' is aggressive
denial stead some basic experimenting

there is a world of interest for those that are willing or wanting to dig deep
in giving up mass produced bread products

i find with each limitation i place on my diet the more interesting my meals
become because i am forced to think of alternatives to standard meals, similar
to how artists will impose limitations to incite creativity

meals without bread products remain unaffected but if you love baking, like
the anecdotal couple at the end of the article, you baking can become even
more interesting and involved using alt flours, baking with alt flours is like
chemistry with each one having different bake reactions and health benefits

also, there is beginning to be science to support the adverse effects one
feels when ingesting gliadin class proteins, component to gluten, which
increases intestinal permeability inhibiting nutrient absorbtion(i)

the reality is the food industry is out for money stead your health

if you change your mind on what your health requirements are the industry will
follow and in due time we will have all the donuts and cookies anyone could
want and they will be made with alt flours

(i)
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18485912](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18485912)

~~~
batbomb
farm to toilet

------
steven2012
It's just another fad, like the Atkins Diet. That diet, for a few years,
caused egg demand to skyrocket, forcing producers to change much like how this
is currently causing change. But it will recede like all fads do.

~~~
justifier
i think an analogy of high fructose corn syrup is more apt

is removing HFCS from your personal diet a fad? is removing HFCS from your
personal diet beneficial to ones health? are more products using HFCS or
alternatives these days?

personally after choosing to actively know what is in the food i am buying i
find the nutrition labels to be too lacking in information: o, really, 20g of
protein? what kind of protein? what ingredient is sourcing that protein? what
scientific studies can be cited to explain how my body reacts to that protein?

i want more information stead less so i can continue to make decisions for
myself about how i fuel my body

------
venomsnake
In one word - nothing.

Growing up in the 80s in Eastern Europe culinary allergies and the likes were
virtually unheard of. Or autism and ADHD.

Right now everyone has some kind of intolerance. I think for the majority it
is reverse placebo effect. For the others - people spend so much time trying
to be sterile and pop antibiotics like tic-tac that their immune system lacks
any form of calibration and measurable response.

~~~
Someone1234
> Growing up in the 80s in Eastern Europe culinary allergies and the likes
> were virtually unheard of. Or autism and ADHD.

> Right now everyone has some kind of intolerance. I think for the majority it
> is reverse placebo effect.

Did you just call autism a fake condition? Have you ever met anyone with
severe autism before? Some of these people need near constant supervision for
their entire adult lives, and you think they're just, what? Faking it? For the
funzies?

Sorry but that's a new level of dumb. Autism has gone by many names but it has
been written about since at least the year 1566. The only thing that is
relatively new is its name, and that might change a few more times as "autism"
seems to contain at least three different distinct conditions.

~~~
adventured
They clearly did not call it a fake condition. You're being hyper reactive,
and calling them dumb for something they plainly did not say.

They said it was extremely rare. It was extremely rare - in terms of being
diagnosed - in the 1980s in Europe.

Today a diagnosis of ADHD is far more rare in Europe than in the US.

~~~
Someone1234
> They clearly did not call it a fake condition.

Like hell they didn't. If we reform the sentence:

> Growing up in the 80s in Eastern Europe [autism] and the likes were
> virtually unheard of. Right now everyone has some kind of intolerance. I
> think for the majority it is [.] placebo effect.

In this context a "reverse placebo" and a placebo mean the same thing (since
technically a reverse placebo is a real condition, making what they said
before it contradict what they had just said, so we can only assume they meant
to say "a placebo by a different route" rather than a "reverse placebo" which
makes no sense in the context).

> You're being hyper reactive, and calling them dumb for something they
> plainly did not say.

There's no way you can explain away that post without it coming across dumb.
They just took three conditions and called them placebos.

> It was extremely rare - in terms of being diagnosed - in the 1980s in
> Europe.

Sorry, no, that is not what they said. The term "diagnosed" never appeared in
that post, and reading it back when you get to the part about popping
antibiotics like tick-tacks the implication is CLEARLY about us creating
fictitious conditions today or treating conditions which "rarely" exist.

You cannot just re-write their post and then claim the criticism of what they
actually wrote originally is wrong.

~~~
waterlesscloud
There's no benefit to be found in this argument.

