to ask why so many people are gluten free?

[waitingforsomething]

I am getting married in a few weeks and 7 of the 70 adult guests are gluten free. 10%. One of these is a coeliac the rest just don't eat it. Aibu to ask why gluten is so bad and why so many people are avoiding it? Is there evidence other than in coeliac disease that cutting it out is helpful in some way?
I don't mind from a catering point of view but I am curious as to where this is coming from.

To a certain extent I agree with what Vulgar says - if I'm going to eat bread (and take the bloating that goes with it!) i will eat normal bread. I tend to have something complete different rather than a Free From alternative. Oat crackers, rice cakes, jacket potato, rice noodles, Rye bread... Mostly because I've found Free From versions expensive substitutes that don't really fill the craving for the "real thing".

Each to their own though.

Vulgar it's not just about bread though, is it? I tell anyone who is proposing to cater for me that I'm gf - otherwise chances are they'll produce a meal I can't eat. Doubt the OP wants to pay for 7 meals that are going straight in the bin.

'I forget the exact figures but something like one in one hundred people are actually intolerent but one in ten say they are.' Made up, surely!!!

There is so much unknown about the immune system and new factors being identified all the time that may impact it. And the answers to many health questions seem to be so complex and individual there is very little reliable, truly unbiased, long term research which takes account of all the necessary factors, this is complicated! While some experts have some of the answers no one has them all.

I eat a gluten, dairy and low sugar diet, as do my three children. I wish I didn't but with these restrictions, one son no longer has ear infections every three weeks and constant loose bowels, the other doesn't react to everything he comes across, nuts, seeds, red meat, red fruit, citrus fruit, deadly nightshade vegetables, anything containing petroleum, plastic, rubber, feathers, animals, straw, reactions ranging from exhaustion, constant runny nose, coughing, wheezing, vomiting, severe eczema, hives, itching, to anaphylaxis. And I used to get frequent ear infections, mild eczema, frequent bouts of thrush and mouth ulcers. Now, if I eat gluten, dairy or sugar I get mouth ulcers but not the other reactions I used to get when I ate gluten or dairy. I gave up looking for a test on the NHS that could rule in or out the things my family react to and are better without as reintroductions did such a huge amount of damage.

Thankfully we do now have an immunologist who monitors our nutrition and absorption levels and believes that there are many people for whom dairy and gluten are not good things to eat both for their immediate and long term health.

I wish we were not in this situation but having read widely on the subject over the years, the freaks (followers of GAPS diet, WAPF, Healting tooth decay naturally, Paloe diet,) do seem to be the ones who have immune issues and benefit when conventional medicine does not make them better.

I can't tell you why so many people are gluten free, but I can tell why I am.

More than 20 years ago during investigations for infertility, after six years of trying to conceive and four miscarriages, I was placed on a food elimination diet by the doctor, and found to be "intolerant" of wheat and yeast. After removing it from my diet, and treatment to repair damage to my gut, my health improved and I was able to have two children.

Now if I inadvertently eat gluten, I become very ill. On the last occasion, in a restaurant despite checking and double checking, I had severe stomach cramps before arriving home. I spent the next three hours in and out of the toilet until my body had eliminated the irritant. Then the next few days feeling washed out and very unwell.

I strongly suspect that I am coeliac rather than intolerant as now I can see that I had most of the symptoms including the hermetiform rash and hair loss, bloating, diahorrea, and even the infertility.

I could never ever return to eating wheat and gluten, though I can now tolerate yeast.

If that is "jumping on the bandwagon" then so be it.

stealth a really simple list of what can and can't be eaten. It is very restrictive but there are ways around everything. I can't eat too many tomatoes but have found hawthorn ketchup is very similar but I have to make it myself! www.ibsdiets.org/fodmap-diet/fodmap-food-list/

StrictlyMumDancing do you ever find some foods on the list you can handle raw but not cooked and vice versa?

I know several people who are GF, and none of them are for faddy, bandwagon reasons.
A few have coeliacs (medically diagnosed), some have an undiagnosed intolerance, and will suffer pain, cramps, diarrhoea if they have gluten, a couple have a thyroid condition and find that going GF helps to keep symptoms at bay.
I am currently trying GF as I have low iron levels, low energy, and I've read several articles that suggest gluten can cause problems. I'm not jumping on a bandwagon, I'm simply trying this to see if it can help me feel healthier. If after a few months it has made no difference, I will go back to eating it.

Drs are very good at dismissing things as normal, when you know in yourself that you feel as rough as a badger's arse. When I can't get advice or help from the gp, I'll try other things to try to sort myself out.

I'm not gluten free but I have been wheat intolerant in my 30s diagnosed by a Dr who obviously wants me on some bandwagon :o it makes me really, really ill.

I know someone with coeliac disease who went back to a gluten-containing diet, because like so many coeliacs she gained an enormous amount of weight once gluten-free. Never understood why anybody would do this voluntarily. I do of course understand why people who are intolerant do it.

This is just like dairy products a few years ago, it's the new food-of-all-evil. I wonder what the next one will be.

Of course some people are genuinely unable to eat gluten (ie those with coeliac disease and, rare, gluten allergy) but most self-diagnosed food intolerances have no physical basis.

That's not to say that cutting down on wheat is bad for you (I'm not a big bread and pasta eater myself) but as someone with severe food allergies and an allergic child, people who make their personal food preferences into a medical issue get my goat!

I'm trying a gluten free diet at the moment because I have fibromyalgia and my symptoms are getting worse. Fortunately the pain I'm in on the way to the kitchen reminds me that I'd rather have a restricted diet than live like this so I don't cheat.

I'm not sure how long I need to be gluten free to see if it's having any effect. Does anyone know?

My two youngest dc are wheat/gluten free as they are intolerant and have IBS

I think many people eat far too much over-processed wheat and yeast in their diets (especially commercially baked bread and cakes plus cardboard breakfast cereals tricked up to look like healthy food), causing all sorts of symptoms.

When they go gluten-free their symptoms improve because they are not eating so many processed grains and sugar and probably replace it with healthier more digestible foods (like fruit and veg). So it's not necessarily true that they cannot tolerate gluten - it's possible the over-processed 'junk' food was causing the problems.

there's nothing like a band wagon
This.
Some people are obsessed can/can't should/shouldn't eat, but some have a genuine intolerance to gluten.

If I eat wheat my joints seize up and I can barely move. The cost of gluten free food though I would definately not choose it.

Wheat makes me fat, bloated, tired and gives me a bad belly. Sometimes I get a pain in my kidneys it's that bad. It makes me very thirsty and I get a headache sometimes as well. I had a sandwich for lunch and I'm going to totally pay for that later

It's not a bandwagon it's just that were not supposed to eat the amount of wheat we do. It's in everything! People are getting sick. IBS is on the rise.

berry I don't find myself it makes much difference whether raw or cooked, but I do know a few people who do find this.

mist I never ever claim to have allergies as I feel to do so diminishes people who suffer from them. But please don't dismiss intolerances, they can be horrendous though not life threatening. Also gluten and dairy free are not preferences for me - I'd love to have a big latte and shove my face into a tiger baguette right now, but neither are worth it when the other side is not being able to cope without high strength painkillers and other medications.

I'm.gluten and dairy free because when I ate them I'd feel very ill and get painfully bloated. I know I feel a lot better without them in my diet

Because I spent years with stomach pains, bloating and daily diarrhoea and decided I wasn't going to put up with t any more until me and the NHS had got to the bottom (snurk) of it. Apparently I 'present' as having coeliac but they tried 2 blood tests and couldn't get a positive. Colonoscopy and scans were all fine so they advised me to to give up gluten and I recovered in just over a month.

GF can be a faff but it's better than pain and time off work.

Ooh shann the joint problems is something that happens to me and I've never met anyone with the same problem! It's one of the unexpected improvements that going gf (told to by a gastro consultant) brought.
I would wake up with an apparent serious knee or elbow strain. Totally swollen and horribly painful. Three days of incapacitating pain and then on the fourth day, totally gone. Swollen toe (just one,) that had been with me for 15 years. Gone.

I still eat the same amount of carbs by the way. I just make sure it's GF.

I went gluten free to see if it helped resolve issues with fatigue. It helped a bit, and as a bonus the acne I've suffered from since I was a teen is almost gone.

I've since been diagnosed with autoimmune hypothyroidism, and have stuck with the gluten free diet as a lot of people think it's beneficial with many autoimmune conditions.

A couple of years ago I was asked to do a gluten challenge to have a coeliac blood test. I felt nauseous, bloated, constantly hungry, put on a stone in 6 weeks, felt exhausted and hurt all over, plus the acne came back. Coeliac bloods were negative, but I will not be eating wheat again!

I'm terrified of starchy carbohydrates. I won't eat bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc. I'm also scared of the majority of processed foods.

So that effectively means I'm gluten free. Possibly not 100% but, as it's not an allergy thing, I don't check.

I have suffered from excessive bloating and IBS for years, but never tied it to wheat or gluten until recently
When I had a day where I had far more wheat based products than usual (away from home and not many of my usual food choices available) I was unbelievably bad with the above, also psoriasis and felt very sluggish
I mentioned it to my GP who just suggested cutting back on wheat gluten for a trial period but didn't suggest coeliac testing
I could not believe the difference, I decided to cut out wheat altogether, feel years younger, IBS reduced greatly, skin better etc
It can be a pain but I don't buy substitutes as they are either expensive, taste foul, or have lots of sugar, fat or additives to make up for it in some way
I just stick to fruit n yoghurt for breakfast, soups jackets salads etc for lunch and healthy meat/fish and veg type meals in the evening
Why would I want to go back to eating something that made me feel so ill?
DP thought I was being faddy but even he can't believe the difference
I don't inflict my diet choices on others though and unless asked will just find something I can eat, or subtly avoid it

I'm gluten intolerant, when I eat it I start to feel nauseous, become bloated and get a sore head or dizziness and also get an upset stomach. I feel really sluggish too.

It's not just IBS though.
I love cheese and dairy but if I eat too much of it, then im Aching all over for the following days and I can't sleep due to the pain. So I avoid cheese and dairy even though I don't have any allergy at all.

A friend of mine has noticed that she feels sluggish and tired when she eats a lot of wheat so she avoids it.
What she has found though, is that it's much easier to say 'no gluten' because people have to assume she just can't have it rather than saying she doesn't eat wheat because then she is asked to explain why and then usually is told that it's all in her head and no she will have to have wheat.

Part of it might be that reacting to gluten is do a thing that we talk about now so there is more awareness.
There might also be the fact that people are more self aware.
But a if part is coming from the expectation that we should all be eating in a similar way so when one says 'oh no wheat/meat/dairy/tomatoes/whatever' we all notice it and want to know why rather than just accepting people are just eating differently.

As I have been told before, if you do things in a different way and you have a good reason, then that's ok. Otherwise, you're just a pain in the a and people will demand that you explain yourself (hence why people are hiding behind things like gluten to avoid having to explain themselves)