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AIBU?

to not understand the fuss about gluten?

146 replies

Bleakhouse1879 · 10/08/2015 13:08

This has probably been asked on here before, if so, shoot me down.

When I was a wee nipper I had never heard of gluten or its dangerous life changing properties. Now everyday I'm hearing about gluten-free this and gluten-free that, "I'm a celiac" or "my wife is intolerant to wheat and everything else in life"

Please could someone explain to this confused and rather befuddled gentleman of advancing years what all the fuss is about? Is it genuine or is it just another attention-seeking illness?

OP posts:

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DefinitelyMaybeNo · 10/08/2015 13:51

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ILoveMyMonkey · 10/08/2015 13:52

Well I have IBS and have recently gone gluten free in an attempt to give up the immodium that I take nearly daily and to be able to spend less time in the bathroom in severe pain and embarrassment - so far it's working and I haven't needed immodium at all this week and for the first time in many years am doing normal poops I can't tell you how happy that makes me and fuck anyone who thinks I'm jumping on a fashionable bandwagon or just being fussy

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SillyStuffBiting · 10/08/2015 13:52

I do think the amount of people declaring they're gluten free does minimise the importance of needing to lead a proper gluten free life when one has Coelliac's disease. It's a world away from someone avoiding bread as they bloat, it has serious effects on a body and goes undetected for some time in a lot of people, causing internal damage.

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Tanith · 10/08/2015 13:52

How long ago are we talking about, Op?

Thirty years or so ago, I helped out at a Boys Brigade camp. There were two boys there who could not tolerate wheat/gluten and had special bread etc. that I had to cook separately.

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slightlyconfused85 · 10/08/2015 13:53

Coeliac disease is very real. There's no evidence that giving it up for any other reason will help including intolerances/allergies.

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Reallywantgherkins · 10/08/2015 13:54

Ceoliacs is a serious illness but so is gluten intolerance, as someone who suffers serious problems when she eats gluten but is not coeliac I also find the fad dieters frustrating. Due to the belief that going gluten free helps you lost weight, those of us who haven't been medically diagnosed.... But have had a myriad of medical ailments go from the moment they stopped eating gluten (dysmenorrhea, joint problems, IBS, anxiety to name but a few) are suddenly being called fad dieters as well.
I understand the confusion OP I felt the same before I discovered the health problems eating gluten was causing me. It is not a bad thing that ceoliacs and gluten intolerance are becoming more widely known about however, it is a very good thing. Solving numerous health issues and preventing many more.

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Owllady · 10/08/2015 13:56

God yes the anxiety!

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BertieBotts · 10/08/2015 13:59

One theory about why there are so many people now being diagnosed Coeliac where it was somewhat uncommon before is that there was a shift in the 1950s and 1960s towards feeding babies solids very early, something we now know can cause allergies incluing coeliac. Before this time babies were usually weaned much later (and where they were weaned earlier often the foods were unsuitable so contributed to higher infant mortality anyway).

Advice was changed to 3-4 months in the 1980s but was not consisently given out and usually parents did what their own mothers had done. It wasn't really until the mid-late 00s that advice became consistent being 4-6 months.

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BertieBotts · 10/08/2015 14:00

But it's not the only cause and we don't really know, it's just a theory, but I thought it was an interesting correlation anyway.

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Catzeyess · 10/08/2015 14:01

slightlyconfused85

Actually DH was told (by a doctor) to give up wheat as part of an exclusion diet for ibs - you don't just have to be coeliac to be affected by wheat.

It's a high Fodmap food (along with many other things). Ibs sufferers are advised to cut these things out and reintroduce them slowly to see what their ibs triggers are. It is still not fully understood but there is plenty of science about it and it is not a fad.

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Tinandgonic · 10/08/2015 14:02

Theonlypink you are so rude!!!

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Bleakhouse1879 · 10/08/2015 14:04

Would non-sufferers benefit from a gluten-free diet, ie is gluten damaging me?

OP posts:

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FluffyCubs · 10/08/2015 14:06

There was a lot of rudeness and arrogance on this thread. God help your kids when they ask "stupid" questions.

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MaidOfStars · 10/08/2015 14:07

Fair play to the OP for taking the onslaught with good grace.

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xavierfondue · 10/08/2015 14:08

Right, I'm coming to the aid of OP here.

Coeliac Disease is horrible and a colleague's daughter has it and had to have a bag fitted at the age of 11. My neighbour has it, she suffers dreadfully. I sympathise with true sufferers and wouldn't wish this on anyone. All the gluten free foods are designed around them and well done to supermarkets for making these accessible.

BUT...

SIL pretends to be gluten intolerant but I saw her stuff down a loaf of bread before she married DB and she was fine. It was only when the nephew arrived that she went weird and all gluten/dairy/everything free and makes nephew eat synthetic cardboard.

A friend has decided to go all trendy and gluten free - because that is what it is now, isn't it? A trend - for her third child. Oh, give over.

If you're a serious sufferer,
If you're jumping on the bandwagon, have some

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meddie · 10/08/2015 14:10

no bleakhouse gluten only damages you if you have coeliac disease, Gluten free foods are often loaded with fats/sugars and extra salt to try and improve their taste, so they are not automatically a healthier alternative, just a necessity if you are coeliac.

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FluffyCubs · 10/08/2015 14:10

I don't know. It's been indicated in certain other conditions such as autism and, I think, ADHD, according to my doctor. Have you seen gluten? Boil pasta, drain and leave the saucepan. You will be faced with the appearance and texture of wallpaper paste after a few hours, it's really sticky stuff. (Gluten comes from Latin for glue.)

I always rinse pasta now. .... My kids re at the age when the love it but I'm slowly backing off .... I substitute toast for rice cakes etc for them as there is quite a strong genetic link and I don't want them to end up with my skin (haven't gone bare legged in years:(. )

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IceBeing · 10/08/2015 14:11

gluten isn't harming you unless you lack the ability to process it properly and hence experience coeliac disease.

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Rainbunny · 10/08/2015 14:13

Can't speak for everyone who restricts gluten but I have a coworker who watches her figure but for some reason doesn't want to look like she's dieting so she limits carbs. It always makes me smile when she explains to someone how she is gluten intolerant and that's why she can't eat bread products (while she slurps down her soup which is filled with gluten...) One of these days I'm going to have explain to her that pretty much everything I see her eat has gluten in it and there's no shame in admitting that she's avoiding carbs!

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ShortandSweeter · 10/08/2015 14:14

I'll come round yours, OP, and you can feed me some gluten and I'll squat naked on your carpet for an hour. You will see that it won't all be in head then.

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AnUtterIdiot · 10/08/2015 14:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

flixybelle · 10/08/2015 14:16

My dd is Coeliac and it can be a bloody pain and as shes only 5 she really doesn't like being the odd one out or taking a packed lunch to parties. But I would never ever want to go back to the pain and suffering she had as a young child.
I discovered that gluten makes me look 6mths pregnant so avoid it as much as possible, however I have also discovered that many gluten free alternatives do the same so I try and eat natrually gf. I don't make a song and dance about it.

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Pico2 · 10/08/2015 14:23

My mum describes herself as gluten intolerant. She is so much better without gluten that she has never been willing to submit herself for the testing for coeliac disease as that would require her to eat gluten for a while. There must be some people out there who do have coeliac disease and, like my mum, won't submit to be tested so will never know.

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slightlyconfused85 · 10/08/2015 14:24

Catzeyez gluten-free and wheat-free are not the same thing. It is possible to be on a wheat free diet and not gluten free.

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ExConstance · 10/08/2015 14:24

DH is coeliac, the test was horrible ( you have to eat lots of gluten and make yourself ill for it to work) he has such a limited diet I feel very sorry for him and now he is older (60) he is starting to suffer from mineral deficiency as a result and is at present recovering from Calcium deficiency which left him grey, unwell and suffering from pins and needles all over, even in his eyes, before it was diagnosed. Not faddy eating I can assure you.

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