Wheat is murder? WTH?

23_Tauri said:
The cultivation of wheat changed the course of human history. Where would we be without it? Yes we have other staples (predominantly rice, which is gluten-free), but scare-mongering about something we've been eating for 10,000 years sounds like prime woo to me.
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10,000 years is barely enough time to completely adapt to a new food source, afaik. That's barely enough time for anything significant to happen. When they found the Tibetans had adapted to high-altitude over 30,000 years that was big news.

I don't think we should pay attention to the super-woos who thing everybody should stop eating it as use their hysterical beliefs to dismiss concerns. We might have a lot to learn about food sensitivity.
 
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timhau said:
Based on the experiences of a close relative, Celiac disease is not easy to diagnose. Symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue aren't specific to it, and their onset can be gradual. All diagnostic tests require you to eat gluten for weeks or months before the tests. In other words, if you have the disease but you have by yourself found a diet that minimizes your symptoms (and I bet we've always had people among us who say that this or that does "not agree with them") , to get diagnosed you need to scratch that and stick with a diet that makes you sick for weeks.

That is not to say that people who just want to make a number out of themselves don't use imaginary food allergies for that. A friend who is a waiter at one of the better restaurants in town says that whenever there's a documentary on Celiac disease on national TV, the number of clients who make a big fuss about getting gluten-free food increases dramatically for a few days. What's more, many of these people order a regular beer with their carefully-picked gluten-free meal... :rolleyes:
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My doctor says that the number of people who suddenly want to be tested for it increases dramatically as well. Most don't actually go through with the test, for the reasons you outlined, but nonetheless leave the doctor convinced they have it because of some recent digestion issues and unspecified fatigue.
 
Wow, and I'm a bread hound. I eat Italian bread every other night, sometimes that's all I have for dinner is Italian bread. I always eat bread rolls for an appetizer, which means I'll fill up on rolls before the entree, which usually consists of Italian bread. My standard desert is bread and jam!!

Oh yes, and croissants, I love crusty croissants!!
 
timhau said:
Big Ag shill!

(Yes, I like 'Big Ag'. Sounds much better than 'Big Wheat'. And more ominous -- they sound like they control pork too.)
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They control it all. And they're trying to kill us***.


***I've actually had organotards make this claim. However, they had a hard time explaining how a business that kills its own customers would manage to stay in business very long.
 
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Try to live a month without eating anything that has a health warning attached to it.

If you don't stave to death, you win.
 
Joey McGee said:
One rationalization for the gluten-free/casein-free diet is that evolutionarily wheat and dairy are the newest foods to humankind. It seems at least plausible that people will experience sensitivities/allergies to these foods more than others because we've had the least amount of time to adapt.
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Hmmm... but I think the point in the OP was that celiac disease is a recent phenonmenon, whilst we've been cultivating wheat from the Tigris Valley and beyond for 10,000 years. Did it just go undiagnosed before?

Joey McGee said:
As far as I know, it hasn't been tested extensively beyond a small study on autistic kids that showed no effect. But it's at least plausible in certain conditions. For example, schizophrenia. Perhaps the kind of glucose the body is able to make from wheat is hard on some people's brains and bodies.
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There's only one kind of glucose. It's called glucose. ;)

As for gluten, it's a protein! Nothing to do with glucose.

Joey McGee said:
Are there millions of people on a gluten-free diet because of the placebo effect? Probably. Are there any truths to the wheat allergy/sensitivity? Almost certainly, but we don't have enough research on it to say for sure. AFAIK
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Perhaps, but I think we need to look at the existing research and see what that tells us.
 
Moon-Spinner said:
Wow, and I'm a bread hound. I eat Italian bread every other night, sometimes that's all I have for dinner is Italian bread. I always eat bread rolls for an appetizer, which means I'll fill up on rolls before the entree, which usually consists of Italian bread. My standard desert is bread and jam!!

Oh yes, and croissants, I love crusty croissants!!
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Me too. Daily bread. And not in the Xtian sense. Bread makes good puds too: bread and butter pudding, summer pudding.... (hang on, wrong thread :rolleyes: )
 
I'm diabetic, and all I can add is that I have more trouble controlling my blood glucose if I eat wheat bread than if I don't. Never tried other grains much.

Go figure. ;)
 
timhau said:
Based on the experiences of a close relative, Celiac disease is not easy to diagnose. Symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue aren't specific to it, and their onset can be gradual. All diagnostic tests require you to eat gluten for weeks or months before the tests.
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This comports with what I have heard. I though that a truly definitive test requires a biopsy of intestinal villi. This leads me to wonder about the significance of the 53% figure in the Egyptian kids described in the OP. (I understand that this was described as a preliminary screening. On the other hand, it also sounds as though they were screening asymptomatic kids, which doesn't make much sense to me.)
 
Fermented wheat sure gives me angina. Soy sauce and "modified food starch" especially.

Many commercial beers are ultra- filtered, which takes out the gluten. In Europe, they can be sold as "gluten free" if the gluten is below a certain level. Not so here in America- if t was made with anything containing gluten, it can't be considered gluten free, no matter now low the level in the finished product. The filtering and the fact that much of American beer is made with large quantities of rice, allows me to risk the occasional brew. Not micros. And not my own thick, rich home brew, way lots of barley in "Flat ass tired".
 
23_Tauri said:
Hmmm... but I think the point in the OP was that celiac disease is a recent phenonmenon, whilst we've been cultivating wheat from the Tigris Valley and beyond for 10,000 years. Did it just go undiagnosed before?
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The only dubious claim is that there is widespread wheat sensitivity on a spectrum from mild to severe. This has become such a fad that it's worth the few million dollars in research to find out if it's true, if even for consumer protection purposes (why are we letting the "gluten-alarmists" profit from hysteria if it's not true?)

There's only one kind of glucose. It's called glucose. ;)

As for gluten, it's a protein! Nothing to do with glucose.
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You're right, thanks. I'm out of my depth, actin' a fool :p I should have cited my claim, then I wouldn't have misremembered.

Ketogenic/gluten-free diets are useful for schizophrenics.
 (Full, free text)

"We report the unexpected resolution of longstanding schizophrenic symptoms after starting a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet. After a review of the literature, possible reasons for this include the metabolic consequences from the elimination of gluten from the diet, and the modulation of the disease of schizophrenia at the cellular level."
 
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23_Tauri said:
The cultivation of wheat changed the course of human history. Where would we be without it? Yes we have other staples (predominantly rice, which is gluten-free), but scare-mongering about something we've been eating for 10,000 years sounds like prime woo to me.
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I've heard there's germs in wheat.
 
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