Who Has The Guts For Gluten? - New York Times

[Scott Adams]

Open Original Shared Link New York Times WE know that the proteins called gluten, found in wheat and other grains, provoke celiac disease. And we know how to treat the illness: a gluten-free diet. But the rapidly increasing prevalence of celiac disease, which has quadrupled in the United ... Open Original Shared Link International News Network Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[Takala]

So.... they made mice with celiac, and now they think we should move babies to Finland after breast feeding, where the incidence of the disease is lower, to prevent celiac.  Aie yee yee. 

 

There are three comments under the NYTimes story (actually, it is an op- ed piece, because if they dare to write about gluten intolerance under the other categories, the NYTimes writers get assaulted by the wheat and GMO lobbies) that one should think about:

 

•first:  From Brian G of NY, NY

 

My breast fed daughter has Celiac. Next..

 

 

•second quote:  From Pete of Decatur, GA, USA

 

 

Amazing how everybody seems to miss the point. It's fairly simple. If we don't eat gluten, we don't get celiac. We aren't supposed to eat wheat, or any other whole grain for that matter. Just because we figured out a way to cheaply feed the masses with agriculture doesn't mean that the things we harvest are necessarily good for us.

 

 

 

 

Really, I think "Pete" gets it. 

 

 

• third quote:  (and this was a "NYT pick")  the typical health and diseases troll quote, from "Cedar" of Colorado

 

Speaking from direct experience, I've looked at all the angles and many if not most of the studies of Celiac Disease, have tried a gluten free diet, etc etc. I believe that in at least 80% of the cases, Celiac like "the vapours" "le malaise" or "la grippe" - an artificial, fashionable disease whose symptoms are brought on by stress or a weakened constitution. Its symptoms mirror IBS. I hear people at restaurants having conversations like this "Oh, you had an upset stomach? You must be gluten intolerant." "Yeah, you're right, I have to go gluten free and vegan....." Every day.

Gluten is absolutely necessary for most people to survive - that is why it is called vital wheat gluten. On the other hand, damage from antibiotics to the gut, combined with stress, pollution, mercury almalgam dental fillings and lack of probiotic supplementation can all cause Celiac-like symptoms. 

I agree with the author that breast feeding is one of the keys to good long term health - my daughter is almost three, breastfed, and has never been sick a day in her life.

For the rest of us though, look further than the simple idea of gluten free foods to stress reduction and probiotics, since many of the symptoms of IBS are identical to so called gluten intolerance. Celiac Disease is becoming a catch all for fashionable hypochondriacs.  

 

 

 

bolding was mine. 

[Pac]

"Gluten is absolutely necessary for most people to survive - that is why it is called vital wheat gluten"

 

OMG!

(I miss the smiley rolling on its back laughing here)

[plumbago]

In side by side comparison, I think Karelia, Russia had a lower incidence of celiac disease than Finland.

 

This article was about the importance of the microbiome to the lack of onset of Celiac disease. In the comments, I did not see many  addressing that. My question is: how do the they prevent it? I am very interested in this topic (there was also a New Yorker piece on it from Oct 2012), but there was a noticeable lack of specifics in the article and none that I can see so far in the comments. The comments were fairly predictable, but most seemed to ignore tha main point of the article.

[Takala]

I don't know, but I'm waiting for some Russian to chime in with 

 

"vodka can cure everything !" 

[ButterflyChaser]

I don't know, but I'm waiting for some Russian to chime in with 

 

"vodka can cure everything !" 

 

Surely not for me: I am one of those rare people that seem to react to vodka. Oh well...

 

"Gluten is absolutely necessary for most people to survive - that is why it is called vital wheat gluten"

 

OMG!

(I miss the smiley rolling on its back laughing here)

 

*facepalm* - this MUST be a troll. Otherwise, we must be a miraculous population, thriving without an essential nutrient. Oh, snap! In science, they are called "essential" nutrients, not "vital," aren't they?

[plumbago]

The New York Times recently wrote about this again on Feb 25 in a separate article.

 

Infants may fail to develop a healthy mixture of intestinal bacteria if they are delivered by Caesarean section or do not drink breast milk, researchers are reporting.

 

Previous studies have linked the presence of certain gut microbes to healthy digestion, bowel regulation and stimulation of the immune system.

 

Again, fascinating stuff ! A new wrinkle in the autoimmune discussion for those who are serious about learning. (But at some point, a step by step explanation of not how babies get the bateria in the first place but how bacteria confer immunity would be most helpful.)