Gluten

I just thought I'd share a tidbit about what I've learned about gluten over the years. It was suggested to me that I go on a gluten free diet at one point because of my Hashimoto's. It didn't work for me, but there were other issues involved for me as well, so that could be why.

Throughout the process, though, I learned something interesting about gluten and the bread we eat today as opposed to about 50 years ago and why gluten is such a problem for us now when it wasn't then. Apparently back then, the wheat was fermented before it was milled, which inadvertently broke down the gluten. They stopped doing that for whatever reason (probably because they didn't find it cost effective), but our bodies are not equipped to break down gluten. So most of us get sick from it, or even develop other food allergies as a result (notice the rise in nut allergies?).

Just thought I'd share. There are a lot of foods that are prepared differently now than they were years and years ago, that are now causing us health issues when they didn't before. Maybe it's a clue that some things should be left unchanged?

This is interesting, do you have any articles to link to about the topic?

I've never heard of "hashimoto's" before, but I do have a friend with Celiac. She was telling me that almost everyone who has Celiac is also lactose intolerant, though I have to to figure out the reasoning behind that. So while the idea of other food "allergies" being born out of gluten allergies/intolerances isn't entirely new to me, I've only ever heard of it in relation to dairy products. Interesting to hear that they're coorelating it to other food allergies as well.

Hashimotos is an autoimmune issue where your body basically decides its going to murder your thyroid like its an intruder. Leaves your system pretty delicate which is why food intolerances are so common if you have it. Gluten, wheat, caffine, potatoes (salic acid), various preservatives and colourants. Pretty much all the good stuff can set you off for a bad bad day.

3 words, Yay for Paleo.

Funny you bring this up now. My wife and I have been looking into gluten-free foods the last couple of days.

Wow. What a lifestyle change it requires.

I don't know if I could do it. I tried giving up dairy once and only lasted a few days (Gawd, I hate Almond Milk).

It's a major upheaval in your diet, but there are some amazing recovery stories of people that feel like whole new human beings after going gluten-free.

I tried gluten free and it didn't work for me. I also have a sensitivity for xanthan gum and other additives. I have too many food sensitivities to count. But I also learned it's not necessarily the gluten that's getting to me. I can't have whole grains. I have a bad reaction to those, but plain white bread in small amounts doesn't bother me.

I think it all really comes down to figuring out what your body does and doesn't like, which takes a lot of trial and error.

This is interesting, do you have any articles to link to about the topic?

Unfortunatley, this was from info gathered over a few years and I don't have the articles, but I doubt they'd be that hard to find.

...but I do have a friend with Celiac. She was telling me that almost everyone who has Celiac is also lactose intolerant, though I have to to figure out the reasoning behind that.

I have a friend with Celiac as well and she can't have dairy either. Not sure what has caused that though.

gluten is toxic to most humans. If you're a bit of a farter, stop gluten. Today's wheat is even more toxic to us than it was 50 years ago. Non-gm wheat is actually GM: it has been crossed and unnaturally selected to become what the farmers use today. thicker, shorter, etc. It's really no different from the stuff they make in labs, except in labs they actually test its effects on humans, instead of just the effects on yield.

Scientists suspect our ancestors, when they switched to farming (from the hunter gatherer diet) went from a 70 year life expectancy to 40. Wheat is a cheap source of energy which allowed us to survive more, but not better.

Life would be much better without gluten and fructose in our diets. I'm even willing to bet it would have a positive impact on things like our cancer rates.

I use to grow my own food and I will say that I felt great. I never completely gave up bread and pasta but I didn’t eat as much of it as most.

Living in an apartment makes it virtually impossible to grow my own food now and as a result I eat a lot more store bought products. And I can tell that I am not as healthy as I was. (could be that I’m just getting older, can’t rule that out. :whistle: )

As a general rule, I do not like to put anything in my body that is not natural. If it has to be processed, synthesized, created or is covered in synthetic chemicals or poisons at some point… it’s a no go. But again, I live in an apartment in the middle of the city and complete avoidance is so hard. So I do take in some of the afore mentioned from time to time.

The point of this is that I would not just point the blame on Gluten. Nor would I dismiss the things we eat as at least a contributor to diseases. :blink:

The body is a complex organism that we still do not fully understand. It can’t be good to bombard it with things it wasn’t designed or intended to encounter or handle.

Alors ...

Should one want to avoid gluten, what does one need to cut (or at least radically minimise) in one's régime ? For instance, I already have an alimentation pretty much without bread or pasta - I just don't like the stuff.

Other grains ? Anything surprising ? ... (super-)natually, anything that comes out of a box is out, but wouldn't also anything coming out of a farm of any kind ? Hunting gathering in the streets of London or Paris, perhaps ? -- we're running out of options -- :blink:

Most of my nourishment comes from meat, vegetables and some fruits. What's killing me ?

And "paléo" anything is not really possible. Whatever we will eat is GM, as ren said, if not by the labo modified stuff got into it, but because things just "modify" depending on how we've grown them over a [very]few millennia (ex. : broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage were essentially the same plant).

One word....moderation...you don't need to eliminate any one item...doing so can sometimes cause more trouble than it cures...in the navy I was my departments fitness coordinator, and I worked 2 years as a dietary aid in a nursing home...the only time any item should be removed is in the case of allergies or similar....this past year to prove a point to certain family members I lost 60 pounds...I still eat fried chicken,pizza, and everything else I ate prior...I simply modified my methods of preparing it, the frequency I eat, and the amount I eat...i swapped flat bread for regular bread thus reducing glutens but not eliminating....