patrick.net

I like all these healthy books, I keep them filed under "How to Start a Stupid Food and Diet Mythology and Make Big Bucks"

A woman I know is really pushing "Isagenix," which is a multi-level marketing company that makes self-professed "health" shakes.

The company funded a study that, amazingly enough, found that its products ARE healthy.

As an anorexo-dyslexic mother of 7 autistic children, a third of whom are gluten-intolerant, and half of whom have peanut allergies, I am concerned about gluten in vaccines, and how magnetic fields from power lines are affecting my childrens' ADHD and dyslexia: Should I take them off carbs entirely?

From what I've seen, the most fervent adherents of any fad diet or supplement are the people who are too lazy to exercise. So instead, they want the "magic bullet" of a mystical diet/supplement to keep them healthy or cure their health problems. Moving your body and eating a balanced diet will do more for you than any of the ridiculous and often expensive diets, cleanses, or supplements.
Exercise!

(singing)
She's got Celiac, Celiac for sure!
And she's dieting like she's never dieted before...

In related news, Whole Foods stock just dropped 60%.

(I kid: If the anti-gluten folks were susceptible to evidence, this might actually happen, but Whole Foods is safe.)

We are all gluten-sensitive. We all have peanut allergies and ADHD. We are all dyslexic. We have all been victimized by EMF from power lines and cell towers. We all were abused as children (satanic ritual abuse - repressed).

And everyone has AIDS!

You can pick the people who will have most of these imaginary conditions before they even get them: think "Oprah viewers" and you're pretty close.

An otherwise sane friend of mine had Epstein-Barr and CFS, then joined the anti-carb hysteria, and is now living the gluten-free cleanse lifestyle and loving it.

One thing, though: If you hear the word "Morgellons", run and don't look back! There are real cases of most of the conditions I mocked above, but Morgellons is a whole nother zone of delusion.

elliemae says

There's a new book - Grain Brain. It's all the rage. Apparently within 4 weeks, they can "keep your brain healthy, vibrant, and sharp while dramatically reducing your risk for debilitating neurological diseases as well as relieving more common, everyday conditions - without drugs."

Does it involve a "cleanse"?

(I won't join a fad diet unless it has a "cleanse" in it.)

Iosef V HydroCabron says

As an anorexo-dyslexic mother of 7 autistic children, a third of whom are gluten-intolerant, and half of whom have peanut allergies, I am concerned about gluten in vaccines, and how magnetic fields from power lines are affecting my childrens' ADHD and dyslexia: Should I take them off carbs entirely?

Sounds like a pleading for a class action lawsuit. "And somebody needs to pay! It's all THEIR fault."

Iosef V HydroCabron says

One thing, though: If you hear the word "Morgellons", run and don't look back! There are real cases of most of the conditions I mocked above, but Morgellons is a whole nother zone of delusion.

Yeah, I had to google that one. Must be akin to cutting taken to a paranoid extreme.

You gotta admit, it sure sounds spooky.

"Beware, the Morgellon is lean and athirst! Ia! Cthulu Fatghn!"

How many people have allergies to meat?

Nobody. Yet, there are many allergic to some of the most common plant-based ingredients: Soy, Wheat, Peanuts, etc.

thunderlips11 says

How many people have allergies to meat?

Nobody. Yet, there are many allergic to some of the most common plant-based ingredients: Soy, Wheat, Peanuts, etc.

I'm going to go ahead (as a Scientist) and point out that meat is basically yourself.

People are allergic to fish. And in some cases other's saliva. But cooked meat is pretty rudimentary in terms of allergens.

Now plants on the other hand (peanuts, wheat, etc.) cause severe allergies in people (pollen, i.e. hay fever), has a broad base for whom is affected, and these allergies can develop and dissapear over the course of a lifetime.

Anyways. I am in support of the belief that Celiacs disease is real, but extremely rare (mostly jews). And gluten really doesn't affect people, as it's really just a bunch of sulfur in peoples stomach, and that might cause undesired effects. Like if you ate a bunch of eggs.

In the end, if you do have a hurt belly after eating a bunch of wheat. Step back from the table fatty.

Didn't read the article. I tried a gluten free diet after talking with a friend about her experience. I was skeptical, but intrigued enough to give it a fair shot (6 weeks, strict gluten avoidance). I feel tremendously better, and the few times I have reintroduced gluten into my diet, I have started to feel bad again. Not rigorously scientific...at all. But I feel better and it's not too hard to do...If it is purely psychological, I'm ok with that and will keep doing it. If it's some other unintentional change in the diet, I may try to track that down so I can start eating gluten again...don't have the time to do that right now.

The two main things that are better for me:

1. Way more energy, even on less sleep. I had developed a problem waking up and had low energy throughout the morning into afternoon. Even on 9+ hours of sleep. Not a problem anymore.
2. Gastrointestinal issues. I had gotten used to this and thought it was normal. Much much better now.

For the GI issues I have also found that I am allergic / sensitive to citrus, and avoid that now too.

After restricting gluten with my daughter we have noticed a significant improvement in her energy level (particularly in the morning) as well as mood / emotional state. I suppose it could be psychological, but on at least one occasion we noticed her regressing and subsequently determined that we were eating bread that wasn't GF. After removing this from her diet , things got better again.

I am definitely interested in determining / understanding the truth of what is going on, but not if it interferes too much with the success we have found going GF. It sure seems to work, so I plan on continuing it. I'm sure I will "test" it from time to time and maybe try to get to the root of it...some day.

Swebb, the energy differential likely occurred from cutting the carbohydrate intake way down, relative to pre GF diet. For the fools that rely on carbs for energy, its a perpetual diabetic-type blood sugar spike followed by crash. Once you can garner energy from fat stores instead of carbs, the spike/crash is nullified and your energy access becomes much more constant.

If you enjoy reading, and want to expand your scientific knowledge on nutrition, start with

Nutrition and physical degeneration by weston a price
Good calories bad calories by gary taubes

Or if you're short on time you can get a solid understanding of nutritional mechanics and how we got here (confusion of weight loss/gain relative to calories in, calories out), try

Why we get fat and what to do about it by gary taubes

Then you won't have to sound like a misinformed person, still claiming flat earth nonsense like "eat everything in balance, and exercise more"

What about unta gleeben gluten globen

Back in the 70s when the dominant fad diet - "Low Fat" - was pushed - obesity was found in less than 12% of the population.

Today it's more than a third. The main calorie sources for Americans is sugary drinks (esp. "Low Fat" Coffee Drinks - apparently if you drink calories, they don't count) and corn-based snacks.

This emerged as Low Fat became dominant.

Adult Onset Diabetes used to be rare as rain in Spain, when Americans consumed more meat and vegetables and less corn-based products, also. Children almost never got it. It's why they had to rename it to "Type Two" diabetes.

Swebb says, "Didn't read the article. "

If he/she can't find the time to read a few pages of article, they won't be reading four books on nutrition. The rest was pure anecdote, and the exact stuff such fad diets use to "prove their worth" to people who only have time for word-of-mouth promotion and will never read a scientific article in their lives.

Quigley says

If he/she can't find the time to read a few pages of article, they won't be reading four books on nutrition. The rest was pure anecdote, and the exact stuff such fad diets use to "prove their worth" to people who only have time for word-of-mouth promotion and will never read a scientific article in their lives.

In the mean time I did get a chance to read the article linked to, which I found to be a bit smug and not entirely convincing, but it did catch my attention. While I don't have time to read more deeply on the subject right now, I'm open to learning / understanding it better. I thought I was pretty clear about this.

I was sharing an anecdote, but I was totally transparent about that fact. I acknowledged that the real cause/effect could be something other than gluten - but given my personal experience with GF and my limited time to dig deeper, I'm going to stick with what is working for me for the time being. What's wrong with that? I'm not promoting it or pushing it on anyone.

I actually did note the books that were mentioned, and may well read them in due time. And for what it's worth I have read (and authored) many scientific articles, so you missed the mark with your snarky comment.

@swebb
Sorry if I offended. I still think what I said is generally true, even if it doesn't apply specifically to you. You were indeed transparent about the nature of what you posted. I should know better: the average patnet poster is very educated and intelligent. Hope there's no hard feelings. I do indeed tend towards snark. It may be my default setting ;)

Snarky may or may not be your default setting. Nutrition is the most emotionally charged subject people are able to engage in conversation about.

Rightfully so. People don't often enjoy challenging their own belief system. and here we are in the year 2014, and the majority of our species doesn't understand how to scientifically fuel their most precious of all machinery. We're dumping unleaded gas into our diesel tank, and wearing our best "you're shitting me" face, when our faith in healthful Jesus is leaving us all sick.

CaptainShuddup says

What about unta gleeben gluten globen

Automan Empire says

(singing)

She's got Celiac, Celiac for sure!

And she's dieting like she's never dieted before...

-----------------------------------------------------
Def Sembello, my favorite singers.

Iosef V HydroCabron says

I won't join a fad diet unless it has a "cleanse" in it

Well, this is the one for you! Apparently your colon is causing you to be toxic. Because, according to some dude:

“When you use CFL daily, you help prevent the toxins that enter the body every day from becoming embedded in the soft tissue and cells. Plus you benefit from the powerful ingredients that are building blocks for good health and vitality.”

http://www.isagenix.com/en-US/products/categories/individual-items/cleanse-for-life

Gluten damages practically everyone's colon, it's just a question of extent. Some people suffer severe damage (Celiac) while others experience mild to no symptoms. When you're younger, your body can keep up with repairing the damage, but when you get old, your body won't keep up.

I had no obvious problems with gluten until I got into a very bad car accident. I then developed trauma-induced Celiac disease. I lost 40 pounds in a matter of 2 months before I discovered what was happening. I had to avoid all gluten-containing foods for about 3 years until my accident injuries fully healed. At that point my Celiac symptoms receded.

I believe the leaky-gut hypothesis. Before I had to give up gluten, I was developing early stage arthritis as well as bad allergies. Now, 15 years later and avoiding gluten as much as possible, I have no arthritis symptoms and my allergies have gone away.

I can’t speak for gluten but I can tell you with certainty that when I cut out refined carbohydrates (bread, tortillas, etc) for longer than 10 or so days, after that period I feel significantly better physically and have more energy throughout the day.

Patrick says

5,000 years of eating bread and we got provably shorter, with worse bones, teeth and overall health. Sure though, we can misrepresent the problem by saying gluten is now the problem.

DhammaStep says

5,000 years of eating bread and we got provably shorter, with worse bones, teeth and overall health.

Until the Industrial revolution the average lifespan was mid 30's. You only made it past 50 if you were a well taken care of leader or from the ruling class.

Gluten is not bad for you unless you are in the 1% who have celiac disease. Same goes for most other foods, if you are not allergic against them, they are mostly good for you in moderation.

Shaman says

So the same researcher who "discovered" gluten sensitivity for non-celiac patients has debunked his own work with nothing less than a rigorous application of science. His conclusion: perceived sensitivity to gluten is triggered by other factors including psychological cause. Approximately 1% of adults have a gluten allergy, known as celiac disease. So what's this say about the 18% of people who currently eat a gluten-free diet? Here's the article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/gluten-sensitivity-and-study-replication-2014-5

Yep, used to be the fastest way to make a million bucks was to start your own religion. (Direct quote from L. Ron Hubbard.)
Now, any ol' weird foodie cult will do.

Tenpoundbass says

Until the Industrial revolution the average lifespan was mid 30's. You only made it past 50 if you were a well taken care of leader or from the ruling class.

This is bullshit, trying walking through a cemetery sometime. The one by my house goes back to 1860's, and I see plenty of people who lived to be 70-100 who were born before the industrial revolution. And where I live is still outside of the city. The poor hygiene issues that caused a lot of diseases have always been the problem of cities, not of people. Going all the way back to the great plague in Europe.

Since the industrial revolution and the takeover of medicine by Rockefeller we have seen a steady decline in quality of life, and a reduction in life expectancy compared to pre-industrial times. This can easily be explained when you look at the explosion in chemical manufacturing, treatment based medication, and the food industry.

Also, this viewpoint overlooks an entire segment of US population, the Amish. I'd bet my left nut they live longer, and in better health than the average American today.

mell says

Gluten is not bad for you unless you are in the 1% who have celiac disease. Same goes for most other foods, if you are not allergic against them, they are mostly good for you in moderation.

That's very bad advise in an unqualified statement like this. What you mean to say is natural gluten is not harmful. But most wheat is GMO, not natural. It is the GMO wheat that causes the sensitivity, and can cause a reaction even to healthy gluten.

Tenpoundbass says

Until the Industrial revolution the average lifespan was mid 30's. You only made it past 50 if you were a well taken care of leader or from the ruling class.

There are plausible accounts from the ancient world of people living to 100.

I don't know how frequent it was, but I'm sure it happened.

NuttBoxer says

mell says

Gluten is not bad for you unless you are in the 1% who have celiac disease. Same goes for most other foods, if you are not allergic against them, they are mostly good for you in moderation.

That's very bad advise in an unqualified statement like this. What you mean to say is natural gluten is not harmful. But most wheat is GMO, not natural. It is the GMO wheat that causes the sensitivity, and can cause a reaction even to healthy gluten.

There is no GMO wheat that is commercially available.

mell says

Gluten is not bad for you unless you are in the 1% who have celiac disease. Same goes for most other foods, if you are not allergic against them, they are mostly good for you in moderation.

I beg to differ - while most people don't have Celiac disease, they do have allergies, autoimmune issues, and low-level chronic inflammation. Most of these are caused by foreign proteins and pathogens leaking from the gut into the body and bloodstream. Gluten causes leaky guts. Eliminate gluten -> eliminate leaky gut -> eliminate many of the previously mentioned conditions.

There was an interesting case of a woman who exhibited crazy tendencies and was sent to a mental hospital.
They gave her the usual treatment and meds, etc. which didn't seem to help her much.
Later she drank a shitload of something to "cleanse" her after hearing about some fad; I forget which substance she consumed.
Anyway, she ended up in the hospital and almost died.
Eventually somehow they found out that her craziness was actually caused by her food allergy or intolerance or celiac or something, I forget what.
After this she was normal and never acted crazy again.
What is fascinating to me is evidently there are other cases of where the conditions of your gut actually influence your brain.
I have a CNA friend who helped me after some surgery; she has an allergy to beef and pork evidently.
She actually went to the hospital once from it, so she eats chicken and fish.
I have not met anyone else with any food allergy.

I now believe it’s the Roundup in our food that gives us leaky gut, which allows proteins like gluten to enter our bloodstreams and cause us allergic reactions. It also correlates strongly with autism.

stereotomy says

mell says

Gluten is not bad for you unless you are in the 1% who have celiac disease. Same goes for most other foods, if you are not allergic against them, they are mostly good for you in moderation.

I beg to differ - while most people don't have Celiac disease, they do have allergies, autoimmune issues, and low-level chronic inflammation. Most of these are caused by foreign proteins and pathogens leaking from the gut into the body and bloodstream. Gluten causes leaky guts. Eliminate gluten -> eliminate leaky gut -> eliminate many of the previously mentioned conditions.

There is no proof for that. What's the pathway? People who have celiacs or not enough protease should avoid it, for the rest though it's even beneficial as it acts as a prebiotic. If you feel better without it, go GF. It's your body. Milk is highly beneficial for you yet some don't do well with dairy. It depends on the person.

Shaman says

I now believe it’s the Roundup in our food that gives us leaky gut, which allows proteins like gluten to enter our bloodstreams and cause us allergic reactions. It also correlates strongly with autism.

This could be it as molecular mimicry has shown to cause auto immune issues and more. Sadly they won't fund any studies to prove it.

What about lectins? There are plenty of people who jumped on that bandwagon and don't eat tomatoes and other healthy foods, just because of lectins. Personally I believe most auto immune diseases that are not hard core allergies come from either molecular mimicry or legit bacterial infections / imbalances where targeted antibiotics or bette phages could help. The immune system is not stupid. No proof, just evidence.

mell says

for the rest though it's even beneficial as it acts as a prebiotic.

No. Naturopaths are more and more telling people to avoid breads altogether, regardless of celiac or anything else. We pretty much cut wheat out of our home diet. Only have it when we eat out, and don't miss it, or see any negative health impacts whatsoever.

Some of you guys with the really bad health advise, mind sharing if your on any prescription medication, or how often you visit the doctor? I've haven't taken even over-the-counter medication in at least 15 years, and I've been to the doctor once for a checkup in the past 20 years. My family never has health insurance, because we don't need it.

Unless your lifestyle backs up your claims, I suggest you learn more before you say something that could harm someone else.