Can you be too afraid of gluten?

[yankeepants]

I may sound ignorant but I have a friend who is neurotic to begin with but has decided that gluten is the root of all evil and has created a life that cannot accommodate day-to-day social interactions for fear of gluten. She currently has pneumonia because she refused to take medicine.

Any take on this would be helpful. thanks,

[applegrove]

1. My brother had undiagnosed gluten allergy for years. He developed

a bad case of type I diabetes and I think it was in reaction to his eating wheat. It can be really serious. The good news is that there are more and more products in the markets and restaurants and such that sell gluten free food. If there is a chance your friend is gluten intolerant she should get it checked out.

[MrScorpio]

2. Is gluten a problem for people without an allergy to it?

Frankly, I don't know a lot of any of this.

[applegrove]

3. I don't know any of the details about gluten. Just that my brother is gluten intolerant.

He used to feel like crap when he drank any regular beer. People didn't talk about gluten intolerance then so I never put two and two together. I don't know if it is a true allergy (I don't know why I used that term) because from what I understand it involves the cilia in the colon dying off.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Actually there is gluten allergy and then there is celicac disease.

People can be allergic to wheat.

Celiac disease means you cannot digest the proteins of gluten in the entire wheat family, and is quite deadly because it can lead to colon cancer, for one thing.

If I eat even a teensy amount of wheat gluten, I get flu like symptoms and muscle pain for the next 24 hours.
the entire day is gone for me, it is that bad.


Wheat gluten exists in barley, in most "malts" unless they are specifically stated to be from rice or another harmless grain, and some people cannot digest oats, which contain a very very similar form of the proteins in wheat which cause the problem.

One of the reasons wheat/gluten seems to be a growing problem is over the last couple of decades, they have bred wheat to contain
MORE gluten than older wheat varieties.

Celiacs learn to avoid processed and packaged foods, to read EVERY lable, to research EVERYTHING they put into their bodies, and to cook fabulous dishes that contain no flour or other wheat glutens.

The "treatment" for wheat allergy and celiac disease is the same, essentially: avoid the wheat gluten.
This is easier for those of us who have ...memorable...reactions. Aversion therapy, so to speak.

[applegrove]

14. So my brother has celiac disease.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Coeliac disease

Gluten tolerance is a very recent genetic adaptation.

Humans first started to cultivate grains in the Neolithic period (beginning about 9500 BCE) in the Fertile Crescent in Western Asia, and it is likely that coeliac disease did not occur before this time. Aretaeus of Cappadocia, living in the second century in the same area, recorded a malabsorptive syndrome with chronic diarrhoea. His "Cœliac Affection" (coeliac from Greek κοιλιακός koiliakos, "abdominal") gained the attention of Western medicine when Francis Adams presented a translation of Aretaeus's work at the Sydenham Society in 1856. The patient described in Aretaeus' work had stomach pain and was atrophied, pale, feeble and incapable of work. The diarrhoea manifested as loose stools that were white, malodorous and flatulent, and the disease was intractable and liable to periodic return.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_intolerance

[av8rdave]

5. My MIL has that. Cannot tolerate gluten in even microscopic amounts

[ArnoldLayne]

6. My 11 year old niece has it real bad like that too.

[eShirl]

7. "can be really serious" ?? ALL cases of Type I diabetes are really serious.

The pancreas stops making insulin, forever. It isn't the type of diabetes that can be managed with diet and exercise.

I have never heard of the theory that is may be caused by a reaction to wheat.

[applegrove]

9. I meant gluten intolerance or celiac disease can be really serious. Someone, I can't remember who,

said that a celiac reaction to eating wheat can cause all sorts of symptoms & disease including diabetes. It made sense to me since my brother was 35 when he got type I diabetes.

[astral]

8. I learned about gluten because I thought that was what was

wrong with me. After trying to go completely gluten free for a number of months, I found it is very hard to do, that is, if you buy anything whatsoever that comes in a package, or a can. Or a spice...

But what I did learn about gluten has convinced me it would behoove everyone to avoid it to a large extent. You can have a problem with it with no symptoms that you are aware of.

I don't know if 'gluten intolerance' is the same as 'celiac disease,' but it is true that people who can not tolerate gluten must (try~!) to avoid it 100% and it can make some people very ill to the point they can't even function.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Gluten allergies or celiac disease can be pretty serious

but your friend should get an actual medical opinion as to what ails her before she assumes it's a gluten reaction. She might have something else altogether.

[Enthusiast]

11. I am very ill from it right now.

They have wheat derived products in practically everything, including medications. It is very difficult to avoid. When I get dosed bad enough I just go to bed and stay there.

We frequently ate at restaurants before but now we do much better fixing something at home. Chipotles has a gluten-free menu but I find their food is cross-contaminated every single time.

The Olive Garden (stop laughing) has a gluten-free menu, but, honestly, the food just is not very good. If I get a steak it comes with broccoli and zukini. Seriously I can't understand how they can mess up broccoli and zukini so badly. When I fry zukini or steam broccoli at home it is delicious.

Recently I discovered Redbridge gluten free beer, I am thrilled to have it.

[Bennyboy]

12. I've got friends like that.

They don't have an allergy. They just think it is evil. Hanging with these nut cases is impossible. Go to dinner with them? FORGET IT. Plan a camping trip? OMG! 27 and the healthiest people ever. They have no allergies to Gluten but they are such whiney fucks that they can talk themselves into being sick (seen it happen). And then blame it on Gluten. Way too young to be caring about that shit if you ask me. Both my parents outlived their brains capacity to live and they ate shit all their lives.