Gluten-free diet

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Hi,

Does gluten-free diet help with improving digestive system health? I think I have read some posts that said something like that. If so, what should I avoid eating to eliminate gluten from my diet?

I have IBS, but since I started to take psyllium husk some years ago, it has improved dramatically. Now I want to see if eliminating something from my diet might further improve my intestinal health. Something must be causing/exacerbating IBS.

(People often discuss the link between gut health and autism here; that's my (lame) excuse for putting this here in GAD.)

It depends on whether you are a coeliac or have a gluten allergy or some other sensitivity.

I would suggest tracking your symptoms against your diet and seeing if you have a specific trigger. There are apps for this, but you could also just try writing things down.

If you can't be bothered with working out what is causing your symptoms then you could try pot luck. This may or may not be quicker, depending on how lucky you are!

Cutting out gluten is relatively easy, because it is quite fashionable, so there is a strong demand for gluten-free products. It's much easier to find a gluten-free ready meal than a lactose-free one, for example.

This website is useful if you decide you want to cut out gluten.

It's worth noting that most of the gluten we consume comes from wheat. If "gluten" seems to give you a bad reaction, try eating rhye or barley. It might be that you have an allergy to some other constituent of wheat.

Good luck! I hope you find a simple cause for your IBS, though not everyone can.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rosspomeroy ... not-exist/

Problems digesting gluten would make sense in populations like Inuit and Laplanders where grains are not part of their natural diet.
Mutations related to diet can occur in under 1000 years (the C282Y HFE mutation for example). Many human populations have had grain as a material part of their diet for over 10,000 years, so those populations are likely well adapted to it.

I had IBS issues for years and recently had high platelet count that a number of specialists could not find the reason for.

My GI doc placed me on a strict gluten-free diet (I had already been on a low casein diet for decades) and my IBS has essentially cleared up and my platelet count has been coming down.

So, clearly it's wheat-free for me.

I have suffered from the emotional effects of eating wheat

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... blems.aspx

insomnia
depression
anxiety
moodiness
bipolar-like mania or euphoria then a crash


also some other effects I noticed:
heartburn
indigestion
craving more carbs

While I agree gluten tolerance is a real problem for some people, Mercola is not a credible authority to cite.
http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/mercola.html

there are other people who talk about the emotional effects of wheat,
they also cite studies. Im not going to go to the trouble of digging up that information, if anyone is the slightest bit curious they should google it.

Please don't tell me you got caught up in the whole "gut bacteria" crank that's been going around these forums for quite a while (i.e. and its connection with autism). Connections between food and autism are flimsy at best, and flat-out wrong at worst. I'm not going to bother with any studies since it's too much info to dig up.

Regardless, on to the actual topic of cutting out gluten.... I've done it and I'm pretty proud of myself. My body seems to really hate gluten and is probably a big reason why I was still breaking out. I cut it out and now I'm not experiencing any acne breakouts, for example. I never had problems digesting it, but honestly given what gluten has done with my body before I"m best off avoiding it.

If you're celiac it's pretty much mandatory. It you simply have a sensitivity it depends (like me). If gluten is giving you digestive problems and/or other issues, I'd suggest cutting it out.

One great alternative I've found with bread is sourdough. Because of the way it's made, processed, etc, and the base itself lacks gluten, so much that there are reports that even celiacs are able to eat sourdough without ill-effects. Plus, it's delicious.

That's all I have to say for the matter.

Thank you, everyone, for responding to my post.

The link that The_Walrus provided gave me pretty useful information on what foods are naturally gluten-free. It seems that most healthy foods are gluten-free. A determined person can probably easily go gluten-free. My only problem is that I've always loved cakes, cookies, bread, pies and so on. Cutting them all out of my diet would leave me feeling empty emotionally. Still, I think I'll give it a go. I will surely find gluten-free alternatives to my cakes etc. You never know, it may be a life-changing experience. Both my physical and mental health might improve. eggheadjr's and Hansgrohe's posts sound very encouraging. Has slenkar benefited from going gluten-free?

I don't know if I have coeliac disease or something but the amount of gluten that I have been consuming all my life would've destroyed me by now if I had a disease like that. I still have mild IBS but psyllium husk keeps it under control. I don't even know if I have gluten intolerance. I just want to see if I can become completely IBS-free by eliminating something from my diet.

Sourdough sounds interesting. I may try that. And no, I'm not suggesting connections between food and autism although I can't absolutely deny that possibility. I'm too ignorant to make comments on that matter.

You can have all kinds of sweets that are gluten free. Some are really quite good. Texture is different, though, with other grains.

yeah quite a lot, I dont get depressed or anxious anymore.
I get little sad when sad things happen but that's normal.

Came onto the forums to see if anyone was discussing this, a few months ago after years of digestive issues I was diagnosed as coeliac and have been on a gluten-free diet since. I only realised a few days ago that there supposedly may be a link between coeliacs and Aspergers/Autism, which I've had as long as I can remember.

How am I doing on my new diet? Great to be honest, I feel much more energetic and no longer exhausted after work, I need less sleep already. I even feel more sociable now, though I can't tell if that's because the gluten-free diet has had some mental effect or simply that I have more energy now to be friendly

In the 70's a lot of genetic engineering was done on wheat using radiation and chemicals.
It isn't officially a GMO because single genes were not inserted or deleted.

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

So the people who are thought to have a history of eating grains are now the most susceptible:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.as ... el=5912599
^Sweden is the most gluten intolerant place in the world

slenkar, the sverigesradio link got broken off. The new WP system truncates hyperlinks beyond a certain length. Can you please post the link as text or create a tinyURL?

For a long time, I dismissed the idea of gluten as a problem because I couldn't believe there could be a wide-spread issue with a food like wheat which humans have used as a dietary staple for millenia.

Then I found that today's wheat is an invention of a massive agri-program of the 60's - 70's. Today's wheat is not the same as what was grown even 100 years ago. Dr. Davis is exposing this: http://tinyurl.com/lj42czw (www. cbsnews . com/news/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/)

So it may be the gliadin causing the problem for some, but people won't be able to tell unless we can get access to foods with just gluten with no gliadin in them.

Well, then there's the pesticides and anti-fungals that are sprayed on them while being stored, but that's enough for now.

here is the tinyurl
http://tinyurl.com/poxnmtr

there was also a nytimes story that says celiac has gotten 4x worse in the last 50 years but blames lack of germs growing up
http://tinyurl.com/aaox2pk