Gluten-free need not taken seriously by radio prog

It may make one constipated or retain water. I was avoiding carbs utterly at that point. Now that I'm just on "very low" carb diet, I gained back about 5 lbs of it, but that seems to be holding. I also gave up aspartame and other artificial sweeteners at the same time, for which there is some support for weight gain. So it's multi-factorial for sure.

 

Don't know if you read my post, but the only thing I did was switch to gluten-free bread and pasta, and otherwise take care to avoid gluten. My calorie intake went up slightly because of the formulation of gf bread I was using, but the weight fell off. Carb content of gf bread and regular is generally pretty similar. Gluten does make some people fat. What we don't know is why.

 

Firstly let me say that I do have access to data that helps me come to my conclusions. Most of this is in the public domain. If you tell me what bits you are interested in I can try and find a public source.

The rise of gluten free products in the UK (I can’t speak for anywhere else because I don’t look at the consumption data as frequently) is documented from till data. What we in the trade call EPOS data.

This shows a sharp rise in gluten free consumption over the last 8 years or so....this is a massive change, not a little 10% yoy ....it’s an enormous shift.

The only thing that moves this quick is fashion...if you compare it to other trends in healthy eating ...people reducing sugar consumption for example the pace of change is much much slower ...like 3% yoy.

What’s interesting is that dairy free shows a similar pattern.

The wheat hasn’t changed in this time, the dairy products haven’t changed, there’s not been price or promotional activity or shortages or normal bread and dairy and there are no health changes that would happen this quickly to make people all be suddenly sensitive to wheat and dairy.

Add to this surveys of consumers and you find that most admit to choosing gluten free for lifestyle reasons (9/10 also don’t have a medical reason to do so). This ties in with the recorded instances of coeliac disease which hasn’t changed significantly over the period.The most popular sited reason why they prefer gluten free food is “because it makes them feel less bloated”. There is very little mention of cramps, nausea, reflux, ibs. Another study showed people associated gluten with more than just wheat and didn’t understand that gluten was a protein so there is confusion there as well.

Now what has happened over the same period of time is that people have got fatter and the rates of obesity are rising at an alarming rate. We know it’s not the type of food that is causing the obesity crisis, just eating too many calories for a number of reasons (availability, lack of cooking from scratch, more eating out, More snacking between meals etc etc.). Interestingly consumption of sugar has been declining yoy over the same period, and consumption of vegetables and protein rich foods (like red meat) is also down. We can then infer by the type of foods that are growing that refined carbohydrates and saturated fat are making up the majority of the calorie overeat.

Gluten free is not responsible for obesity...rather obesity has driven people to choosing gluten free foods under the misconception that they are bloated because of a food sensitivity rather than because they are eating too many carbs/sat fat and calories.

What is worrying is that the retailers are making more money as consumers switch to gluten free , even though the consumer is carrying on eating too many calories and carry on believing they are doing something to help themselves. This is wrong in my book.

At the same time quackish websites are misleading consumers with a whole array of tripe

It is also alarming that the government has targeted taxing food as a way of changing people’s eating habits rather than tackling all the misinformation some of which is also populated by celebrity chefs rather than the governments own scientific resources.

It’s a bit bonkers to be honest.

As i said at the beginning I am not talking about genuine cases of food sensitivity or PWME...I’m talking about millions of people who have neither.

 

Tbh I don’t think our situation is simple from any stretch of the imagination.

I had a terrible 2 year constant ibs that was sorted out by reducing carbs ...it may have been that or it may have been sorting out my low b12 and folate which took around a year.

I also reduced my activity and started pacing better, so perhaps I had a low stomach acidity thing ?

My weight loss was helped by reducing carbs but most importantly reducing total calories ..I was working on a 2000-2500 calorie target for a 6’ man. But I really needed to be on 1800-2200. It was only by strict calorie monitoring and setting my target to 1600-1800 that I started losing weight. The lower carbs doesn’t matter whether it’s wheat, corn, potatoes, oats ?

But we are all different

 

I’ve not seen anything on this ? I do keep an eye on research ...it’s one of those dull things I have to do for my job. Do you have a reference for anything (genuine request)

 

Does it necessarily have to be fashion? In whole or in part?

Couldn't it be a pattern of information spread?

Let's say that somebody has a long pattern of unexplained bloating discomfort.

Where would they get the information that stopping gluten might make a difference? From other people.
What recent trends have there been in the access to information? The rise of smartphones and social media.

The rise of smartphone ownership



Social Media trends (US):



So, access to the internet and social media has co-incided with the gluten free trend.

The access to the internet could be a fashion, but the gluten free trend could be a consequence of the fashion, and the fact that you are far more likely that you would find gluten free sources of information than 10 years ago. I suspect this would mirror the access to information about ME/CFS and non-state approved therapies/coping like pacing. I only know about pacing because of the availability of the internet, and maybe ten years ago I wouldn't have.

The internet has added to the amount of people we are in contact with that we trust/or are willing to listen to, with the likelihood that we might get some helpful advice increasing too.

Sure we have access to a lot of bad information too, but do you think that our access to information can be the reason? Just think of your own contribution to the recognition of tripe!

 

You would think the population would be skinnier with all the "fat free" products in the market over the last 20+ years. Nope, they've increased the sugar content to improve the taste.

 

Personally, my weight loss from going gluten-free for one year was because I was eating less sugary foods. I basically gave up desserts, cakes etc.

 

I haven't checked my calorie intake lately (have some problems with numeracy since my possible mini-stroke a couple of years ago) but I think I estimated it after going gluten-free and it was at least as high as before. I have a lot of unsaturated fat, especially coconut oil, so that must account for quite a lot. And I'm not able to burn off as much as I once did. I don't think that 'calories in' can be the only cause of weight loss or gain. I'm pretty sure I heard about some research that found it - sorry but I can't think what it was.

 

Yes I think the Internet has been responsible and there is almost a direct correlation with the quality of food related information (personal survey based on the 90% of utter crap I have to read on a daily basis) to the number of genuine cases of food sensitivity from the survey results.

it’s a great tool for spreading ill informed tripe and for whipping people up into a frenzy over nothing, as well as the many good things it does.

 

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I think that research is controversial and I think it was debunked ...it was based on some very spurious data and taken out of context by the press...I also can’t recall it ...will have to look

 

Two members of my family have coeliac, one since birth. Things have gotten so much better in the last few years for them. The quality, selection and price of gluten free foods is infinitely better than it used to be.

So I say thank you celeb fad diet pushers, your (probably) pointless diets have made life much better for coeliacs.

 

Here it is

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28765272

I think I have the full report at work...the calories in vs out was challenged by a theory about carbs and insulin etc but that was proven to be insignificant in the scheme of things.

 

Won't the quality of excreta be important? For example, a lot of us suffer from digestive problems, some of us have diarrhoea, etc.

 

Yeah, me. And a lot of other people who have the same experience exactly, some of whom have posted in this thread. They stop eating gluten, they lose weight. Often, as in my case, rapidly going from being overweight to being a healthy weight, with nothing changing except avoiding gluten.

You seem to be saying that because it's not been studied and verified, it can't be true and must be some kind of fashion-led misattribution. Which is the kind of bs we have to put up with all the time.

 

I think a lot of my diarrhoea problem (every day for over a year) was possibly due to a range of things. My b12 and folate was low I was low thyroid, my histamine symptoms were off the scale. I don’t think I was eating differently? Well may be a bit more carbs at the beginning ...due to brain going ...need more energy eat more carbs.

Mostly though I stabilised, probably because I stopped doing as much and paced better.

I did DIY ketogenic for 8 weeks then slowly increased my carbs to around 150g per day and so far so good only mild diarrhoea when I crash. I am mild/moderate though and probably have more scope for manoeuvre than some ? I can’t say that low carb made my diarrhoea go away ...it could be any number of things.

I know a lot of PWME have gluten problems perhaps this is a sensitivity of the gut generally which is exacerbated by some things more than others? I think we are all very different in this experience.

 

I’m not talking about PWME

I’m talking about millions of people without ME

 

Coconut oil is 90% saturated fat, it's higher than butter.

 

I didn't suggest you were.