
A carb called fructan may be the culprit behind gluten sensitivity - curtis
https://www.vox.com/2017/11/21/16643816/gluten-bloated-carb-wheat-fructan-problem-fodmaps
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IronWolve
Also, there is some theories fat protects people from allergies of some food,
that's why people losing weight sometimes become allergic to many foods. They
never had a gluten allergy or nut allergy but now they do after weight loss.

So when heard about the fat/allergy connection it clicked with me too.

I had the same thing happen to me, working with cement, lost major weight due
to job, became allergic to all kinds of chemicals. Doc blamed the Lime, but
after looking back, I'm suspecting the weight loss, as the tests reported I
was allergic to everything, but it went away after 1-2 years, this was over
20+ years ago.

~~~
uberduber
Very interesting, I've spent a lot of time in various doctor's offices, and
I've always noticed while getting allergy shots there are so many very thin
people. Even the small children look skinny. Maybe only 10% of people look
overweight, whereas at other offices often 60-70% of the people look
overweight. Also the biggest person I saw at allergist was mildly obese where
I've seen tons of 300+ lb people at many other specialties.

~~~
yhoneycomb
Could be that but it could also be partly that people with allergies are more
conscious/aware of the food they're eating

~~~
jaclaz
Yep, or the other way round, people with this or that problem in digesting
food (or however food related symptoms even if not a proper allergy or medical
condition) tend instinctively to eat less, hence they are thinner, while
"healthy" people that have no adverse effect from eating _anything_ tend to
eat a bit more and are thus fatter.

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phantom0308
Most of the research on FODMAPs have come out of Monash University in
Australia. Here’s a video from one of the lead researchers making a
presentation on it.
[https://youtu.be/ByszVbFBPtY](https://youtu.be/ByszVbFBPtY)

I’ve been on this for two weeks. The diet is incredibly restrictive and
unenjoyable. My symptoms have been a little better judging from my
food/symptom log.

~~~
JadeNB
> I’ve been on this for two weeks. The diet is incredibly restrictive and
> unenjoyable. My symptoms have been a little better judging from my
> food/symptom log.

I don't know if this is the place for "It Gets Better", but my wife was also
on the diet, and also found it restrictive and unenjoyable, but found a
noticeable difference in her symptoms. One important point is that it is _not_
meant to be a lifelong diet; it is meant to provide a 'reset' on which a
future satisfactory baseline, with lower FODMAPs (especially in areas of
discovered sensitivity) but not none, can be built. She has found much more
success managing her symptoms since then. (One example discovery: a previous
lactose-intolerance test had totally failed to catch her severe lactose
intolerance.)

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pasbesoin
FODMAP

My father recently had a doctor point him towards this -- for a condition
significantly more troublesome than many apparent symptoms with non- or non-
diagnosed celiac gluten sensitivity.

He took a look at the diet's do's and don't's, and ruled it out. What would he
eat? (And he and my mother have eaten pretty darned healthily, up to now --
pre FODMAP recommendations.

So, is FODMAP real? Or is this the next "gluten free"? Because it rules out a
LOT of what we've considered to be a healthy and healthily diverse diet.

~~~
uberduber
FODMAP is real, most of the people I know who are on the diet where it has
helped have SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). The problem is that
SIBO can have a bunch of causes. Mostly what I hear is that they get the
antibiotic and whatever underlying cause can't be found or fixed so they get
put on a low-FODMAP diet to stop the bacteria from growing out of control.
Doesn't work for everybody, guess it depends on your gut bacteria and what
they can survive on, but it seems to work for enough people that doctors
recommend it.

~~~
pasbesoin
Thanks. I think I need to nudge him to do some more of his own research. He
definitely needs anything that may help.

~~~
joshumax
I actually had SIBO a while back. Several years ago I had a terrible GI doctor
who kept saying all my symptoms were in my head. I eventually got to the point
where I weighed less than 100lbs and was constantly sick despite being
desperate to stomach anything without falling ill. She would just shrug all
this off and tell me nothing was wrong. Eventually I switched to a better
doctor who immediately diagnosed me with SIBO, and further testing showed that
I was genetically incapable of producing fructose transportation enzymes in my
small intestine. Of course most things that contain fructose are high in many
other sugar alcohols that ferment in the large intestine and cause an over
growth in bacteria that thrive in this environment. After my old doctor was
discovered to have nearly killed an infant with her refusal to actually do her
job, we filed a complaint. Of course MultiCare swept everything under the rug
and did nothing...

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phyzome
« There are definitely real gluten-related disorders that people have to cope
with, but these are vanishingly rare. Celiac disease causes people's immune
systems to violently attack their small intestine whenever they eat gluten.
About 1 percent of Americans have celiac disease, according to the National
Foundation for Celiac Awareness. »

1% is not vanishingly rare!

« Even more rare are genuine wheat allergies, which affect an estimated 0.1
percent of people in Westernized countries. »

0.1% -- _also_ not vanishingly rare.

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basch
I REALLY dont like that this article is a year old (Vox published it like Nov
21, 2017) but it only shows the Updated date, soas to appear new.

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emaercklein
There is book called The Wheat Belly that has a good explanation for the
evolution and genetic mutation of gluten throughout history to make it easier
to mass produce - resulting in a new genetic makeup that is entirely different
and very hard for our digestive systems to process. Intolerance manifests
itself differently in everyone so it goes widely unrecognized in many people.
You have to go over a month without any gluten to really notice a difference
and it seems most people quit after two weeks of "no results." Even if you
love pizza/bread and can't imagine ever giving it up, its still an interesting
read to understand the science behind the theory.

