There is a line between fads and practices. You do some things because you believe that this will improve your health, but you may do other things just because it is being done. Personally, I try to avoid trendy things because I can’t keep up with the Joneses. By that I mean that however hard I try, and however many magazines I read, somebody is always ahead of me creating the cutting edge. Whether it is fashion, entertainment, health or anything else, I never get near the front of the pack, let alone become a trend-setter myself.
So I paid attention when I saw the article featured today on Huffington Post online by Dr. David Katz. I would not stop eating gluten altogether because I do not react to it. However, my readers may remember that I discussed it in an article some time ago.
I still intend to get around to trying gluten-free products, but my motivation is research. I want to know what they really taste like. In order to do that I’ll have to get some bread mix and also I’ll try formulating my own bread recipe, which is necessary because you need to mix proportions of several specialized products. The place to look for these things is King Arthur Flour Online, which I have already looked at.
What I learned primarily is that I will need a special baking pan for gluten-free bread in order to encourage it to rise properly. This is because the dough doesn’t have the same characteristics as typical bread dough when it doesn’t contain wheat gluten. So once I have the pan, I can find King Arthur gluten-free bread mixes here in Tucson.
I have seen them at Fry’s in my neighborhood at Valencia and Campbell, and of course Sunflower Supermarkets and Whole Foods have them as well. One place where I have seen a lot of different flour products is Sprouts north of Ina on Oracle Road, and all the health-food stores feature large sections for gluten-free prepared bakery products. There I am most likely to find products from Arrowhead Mills, which is my second-favorite line after King Arthur.
Now let’s look at what Dr. Katz says about the history of gluten sensitivity. He starts out:
"There is a sizable, but still decidedly minority population that can benefit in terms of feeling better by excluding gluten, entirely or mostly, from their diets. There is a population -- an order of magnitude smaller -- for which it is vital to do so, and potentially even a matter of life and death. For everyone else, going gluten free is at best a fashion statement. Now, let's mill the details.
"Gluten is generally described as a protein, which is basically correct. The compound is basically two proteins, gliadin and glutelin, bound together by starch (a carbohydrate). In nature, gliadin is found predominantly in the seeds of various grasses. We typically refer to the edible seeds of grasses as grains.
"Grains, in turn, are made up of three parts: the bran or hull, the germ and the endosperm. Whole grains contain all three. Gluten is found in the endosperm, the principal part of the grain retained when grains are refined (and generally considered the least nutritious component). Consequently, gluten is present in grains such as wheat, rye and barley -- whether or not they are whole [grain].
"If one adopts the long view of paleoanthropology, grasses are not native human food. We don't digest the stalks per se, and the seeds of most grasses are too small to bother with. Grains therefore entered the human diet only with the advent of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent some 12,000 years ago, when their domestication led to increases in seed size. The large seeds of wheat and other edible grains familiar today are not accidental, but the product of careful nurturing by humans over millennia of the grasses nature provided.
"But still, only a dozen millennia, and while that's long enough for human selection to change grains, it's not a long time for natural selection to change humans. One of the important contextual considerations when attempting to explain health effects of gluten observed today is that this really is a recently introduced nutrient, foreign to the Stone Age diet that shaped our biological adaptations."
If you want to get an accurate idea of the Stone Age diet, read the Earth’s Children series, which begins with the famous novel, Clan of the Cave Bear. The author, Jean Auel, lived on a glacier for a year researching the lifestyle of the period, and she also studied the culture of both early humans and the pre-humans that we call the Neanderthal people. She draws a complete and informative portrait of what they hunted and gathered, how they cooked and what they ate.
Dr. Katz says that physiologically we are no different from the Cro-Magnon people, and no more adapted to eating ancient grains than they were. With regard to gluten sensitivity, Dr. Katz goes on to say:
"The most significant health problem associated with gluten consumption is, technically, gluten-sensitive enteropathy, long known as celiac disease, celiac sprue or non-tropical sprue. In this condition, the immune system mounts a response to gluten as if it were a dangerous invader, such as a pathogen. The resulting inflammation damages the intestinal lining, leading to malabsorption of diverse nutrients -- including both vitamins and minerals. Adverse effects can be severe, ranging from abdominal discomfort, to the manifestations of nutrient deficiencies, to an itchy rash, and over time, increased risk of intestinal cancer. Unaddressed, the condition and its complications can be lethal.
"Along with celiac disease, there is also the milder gluten sensitivity. This term is something of a catch-all, likely referring to various forms of intolerance and true allergy to gluten. The distinction between such conditions and celiac disease is that measurable antibodies to gluten are absent, as is observable damage to the lining and architecture of the intestine. Also absent is the nutrient malabsorption and increased risk of cancer. Recent insights, however, suggest the two conditions may overlap more than previously thought with regard to diverse symptoms."
What this means is that the inability to absorb gluten properly leads to a sensitivity to it that can cause severe intestinal inflammation, ending possibly in something like Crohn’s Disease or colitis. I knew a person who had this degree of intolerance to gluten and she was very familiar with where she could buy the gluten-free products that are absolutely necessary to her. I met her when I taught in Marana. You would be at risk for bleeding and a reaction to the fact that your body thinks that gluten is a toxin.
Dr. Katz’ article contains more information, which is:
"To my knowledge, no one knows for sure why this is happening, but there are theories. Against a backdrop of genetic vulnerability (both celiac disease and other forms of gluten sensitivity tend to run in families), there are new-age exposures to gluten that may be more likely to trigger immune system responses. In some cases, genetic modifications have increased the gluten content of wheat and other grains. It may be that genetic modifications are also introducing new nutrients into the diet, and some reactions to gluten may be primed by the company it is keeping.
"There may also be an influence of nutrient combinations due to modern food processing. Gluten is a widely used texturizer. That it is found in wheat, barley, rye, triticale and possibly oat-containing products is expected. That it is found in everything from candy, to deli meats, to potato chips may be less so. Its use in all these foods is producing novel nutrient pairings, and perhaps these also function at times as an immune system trigger.
"In the U.S. today, celiac disease is far from rare, affecting roughly 1 percent of the population at large. Gluten sensitivity affects 5 to 10 times as many. Celiac disease can be diagnosed by blood tests, biopsies or both -- so you will your clinician's help. The only truly reliable test for gluten sensitivity is a trial elimination of gluten to determine if symptoms wax and wane its intake. You can do this with the help of a nutrition expert, or all on your own.
"Prevalent as it is, gluten sensitivity still only affects a minority in the general population, but gluten preoccupation appears to affect many more. The potential adverse health effects of gluten in those sensitive to it have reverberated in cyberspace, creating the impression that gluten is a bona fide toxin, harmful to all. This is false; gluten is not "bad" for those tolerant of it, any more than peanuts are "bad" for people free of peanut allergy.
"Going gluten free is easier than it once was due to better food labeling, more gluten-free products and ever better guidance, in print and online. But it is still quite hard, given the widespread use of gluten in packaged foods, under a wide variety of aliases. The effort is well-justified for those who are truly gluten-sensitive, but potentially much ado about nothing for others just caught up in the trend."
I learned two important things from this part of the article. The first is that the use of gluten as a food additive is widespread in the food industry; hence people who are inclined to develop sensitivity to it have a good chance to do so over time. Personally, I developed my intolerance for dairy products over the years, so I know that it is possible to become sensitive to almost any foodstuff if you eat it in large quantities.
The second thing I learned is that gluten itself is not a dangerous component of grain. That means that if, for example, my daughter tells me that she thinks that she might have developed sensitivity to gluten, that doesn’t mean that I should avoid it. Just like peanuts, in Dr. Katz’ example, gluten isn’t a problem for me any more than peanuts are. So there isn’t any reason I should eat gluten-free except if it turns out that I like a gluten-free product more than its conventional equivalent.
Another thing to keep in mind is that white flour has a high gluten content, attested to by its capability of rising very high in baked goods. Whole-wheat flour has less gluten in proportion because less of its other nutritional content has been milled out of it. Other grains such as oats and rye have less gluten, so you can give yourself a break from natural gluten by having oatmeal a couple of times a week and skip the toast or pastries. Oats are also widely recommended for their protein content.
Many products that I see in Tucson’s markets are now labeled prominently if they are free from gluten, so if you stop to read the labels on what you buy—you do, don’t you?—you can lower the gluten content of your daily diet.
One last thing: I discovered my milk allergy simply by eliminating it from my diet for a week or so. The improvement in how I felt was obvious. I switched over to soy products and don’t look back. So if you suspect that a lingering feeling of slight upset and nausea might be developing gluten sensitivity, simply take it out of your diet by shopping for gluten-free products. You’ll soon feel whether the absence of gluten makes any difference.
This could be important down the line because sensitivity can escalate into a full-blown case of Celiac Disease. If you are at all suspicious, try it.
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