Gluten free - fad or not?

[Charlieismydarlin]

I gave up wheat a few years ago. I'm not coeliac but feel a million times better without it. (Not IBS issues but rosacea, fatigue, sinusitis).

Anyway, of course I'm told by medical types that it's all a coincidence yadda yadda. I suspect they see me as a middle class first world type. I don't really care as I have avoided major sinus surgery!

Online, there is a shed load of research either way. I was told there is no evidence for NCGS but I think there is.

Anyway, now one of my DDs is having terrible stomach pains and we are ruling out coeliac. I'm thinking of drastically reducing gluten (once gluten test done) and just letting her have it at parties or play dates or treats.

Medical folk raise eyebrows at this.

Is there any consensus?

I'm rather cynical about NHS advice to be honest. I feel they take forever to catch up on growing research.

I was negative for coeliac but am insanely gluten intolerant - even a crumb gives me symptoms, and they are the kind others can see too. I also wish people didn't eat just a bit, as it does make it harder to avoid completely, especially without a diagnosis.

You need to be very, very careful - either you cut it completely or you allow her to have it. The "just at parties" approach if she does have a sensitivity to it would be a shock to the digestive system and could make her really quite unwell.

I can't stomach much gluten at all, although I'm not technically intolerant, but having seen the gelatinous sticky muck that forms with pasta etc, I'm happy to be labelled a faddy eater. Eating gluten had a major impact on my mood, my bowels and my skin (psoriasis).

I don't do the same for my kids as I don't want them to become sensitized to it but we do eat only gluten free pasta, oat based cereals and where possible oatcakes rather than biscuits. Deglutenising the main parts of the diet is enough, I reckon.

Just a heads up for those coeliacs who like me react to below 20ppm and can't cope with vinegar

Our local chip shop that does gluten free sessions uses a gf vinegar from a company called glu to go which we have never reacted to. It can be ordered directly from the company

If you are non-coeliac it's worth looking at the FODMAPs.

Try probiotics for a while, this is another fad. Most "live" bacteria in these products are in any case dead, and if they are not, they are killed by your stomach acid.

The human race owes its existence to gluten. Doesn't mean you have to like it, but honestly, it is 100% fine for 99+% of people

My DD (4) is 'only' intolerant to gluten and yet if she only has a tiny amount she has a really bad stomach, terrible acid reflux and she goes from a nice normal child into the child from hell.

If they are intolerant then keep them well away from it at all times.

I'm fine with gluten. 100% fine. I tried to switch to a paleo diet for a bit (in an attempt to lose weight) but despite drinking so much water I couldn't do an hours conference call without having to dash out it made me constipated as hell. My body likes gluten it seems. Perhaps I can be tested for my super evolutionary ability.

If you find a benefit to avoiding gluten that's great. What I find tiresome are those that assume the whole world will also find a benefit or that I'm poisoning myself by eating it. That's just not the case.

I actually went gluten free on the advice of an NHS colo-rectal (?) consultant who was checking some bleeding. It cleared up a pile of auto immune stuff inside a week. Some of it visible like joint swellings.
I've never been willing to go back to gluten for a coeliac test. The only time I tried any after stopping, I couldn't move my knee for 3 days.
And then a few years later it turned out I have colitis and a second consultant suggested my gluten free diet was helping.
So whilst not diagnosed as a coeliac I'm certainly not faddy.

Longlost10
"The human race owes its existence to gluten"

That's not true - we only started farming about 10 000 years ago. Humans have been around for 200 000 years.

It's perfectly easy to live well and healthily and normally without gluten. It's not an essential food at all. That doesn't mean it's an unhealthy or dangerous but there is no way our lives depend on it. Many cultures are mainly rice or corn based rather than wheat in any case.

Probiotics are certainly not a fad, read "eat dirt" by Josh axe, it's very informative. If bacteria got killed by stomach acid, we'd never get food poisoning / stomach bugs. Your average yakult is probably not up to much, you'd be looking at the likes of Optibac.

seasonvag, get powerful microscope, and look for yourself. "probiotics" are largely dead. And stomach acid kills 99.9% of bacteria.

"The human race owes its existence to gluten"

That's not true it is true, we would simply not exist without it.