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Comment by lokopodium | Hacker News Reader

Remember, if you are not actually gluten-intolerant, excluding gluten carries no health benefits at the price of significant inconvenience.

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The gluten-free fad has been a double edged sword for actual gluten-intolerant and celiac people.

On one hand, there are a lot more gluten-free products on supermarket shelves, all of which are legally required to be certified gluten-free. So big win there.

On the other hand, restaurants and chefs aren't taking requests for gluten-free food seriously, because there's a good chance it's just a fad dieter.

> On the other hand, restaurants and chefs aren't taking requests for gluten-free food seriously, because there's a good chance it's just a fad dieter.

My experience has been the opposite. My wife is gluten-intolerant, and we find that most restaurants are knowledgeable and follow best practices. They have separate prep stations when feasible. They change gloves. Some even have separate menus. I don't know if ignoring a food allergy request is illegal in some jurisdictions, but doing so certainly leaves restaurants open to lawsuits.

I find it interesting there is a market for gluten-free stuff. I get if you are buying some diet fad you might buy something like that but if you are actually allergic why not just abstain from bread or pasta for example? If you are gluten intolerant and pasta makes you sick there's a good change you don't even want to see anything resembling what made you sick. I guess if one is self diagnosed then it might not be a problem.. Gluten-free products are expensive as hell.

For lot of allergics out there you can't even entertain the thought of eating out in a restaurant because of cross contamination (peanuts etc).

Being food allergic myself it has forced me to eat healthy and avoid crap food. Having a muscular ripped body is just one of the benefits.

Gluten is in virtually everything.

I've found packaged salad that contains gluten because the vegetables were on a conveyor belt dusted with wheat to keep the salad from sticking.

Flour is used to thicken. If it has a sauce or gravy, it was probably thickened with flour. If it's a soup, it was probably thickened with flour.

Flour is used to make things stick when cooking. If it's breaded, it probably has flour. If it has added spices, the spices were probably mixed with flour. If it has ground meat, the meat was probably mixed with breadcrumbs to make it stay together.

Wheat is used as a filler in fake foods. If the food is made with tofu or fake meat, it probably has gluten. If it has bacon bits, its chock full of gluten.

If one of the ingredients is soy sauce, it probably has gluten. If one of the ingredients is malt, or malt syrup, or malt extract, or malt anything, it has gluten.

Sometimes restaurants will put pancake batter in scrambled eggs to make them fluffier.

Almost everything in grocery stores and restaurants has gluten in it.

Lots of the certified products are not substitutes for bread or pasta. Gluten is in many foods, often unexpectedly, and certification gives celiacs reassurance that they're not going to be harmed by that chocolate or those oats.

Gluten/wheat are used in a lot of foods. Peanuts and dairy? Not so much. I continue to be amazed at how many food items contain wheat.

Well I just eat the same shit - chicken, rice and broccoli - everyday. Problem solved. Wouldn't have it any other way honestly. After you eat certain foods long enough your body starts to crave them. Would have the same combo on final meal.

That's one option, and that option works for you. However, in a world full of flavors, some people want something better than "the same shit."

Also ... Many people who think they're gluten-sensitive may actually be sensitive to FODMAPs. It's worth finding out because there are gluten-free foods that still contain these substances.

That hypothesis comes from an old study that got a lot of media attention at the time (2013 I think) but it has since been debunked. People with gluten sensitivity respond negatively to gluten even when on a non-FODMAP diet.

On the other hand, the vast majority of people with celiac disease don't know they have it. And those with non-celiac gluten sensitivity remember the weeks or months of needless pain and suffering before they tried an elimination diet.

Excluding gluten lets you know if gluten is making you sick.

True, but you have to be more strict than most people think, and have to do it for longer than expected. 3 months of certified gluten free and whole foods would do it, and you also have to replace all of your utensils, cutting boards, plates etc or at the least all non-porous ones. And, everyone in your household needs to be gluten free, or probably you will still be receiving enough to throw the trial off.

Even better idea, just get tested. You can't do the test when you're gluten free, and if gluten makes you sick, going gluten free and then eating it for 1-3 months for the test will be miserable and perhaps dangerous.

While that is right, the standard test doesn't always tell the truth - NCGS is a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-celiac_gluten_sensitivity

I'm sensitive to gluten.

I ate wheat with no issues for the first twenty odd years of my life. Then I developed psoriasis, an autoimmune disease. The psoriasis was probably unrelated, but I discovered that gluten was a trigger.

Whenever I fail to resist wheat (cake, pizza, etc), I end up with rashes all over my body and horrible bloating/gas. This subsides after a week or so of abstaining from gluten.

It's terribly inconvenient, and breakfast has gotten more expensive.

Don't be so sure it's unrelated. I ate gluten for the first 25 years of my life. I stopped eating it for more serious problems but, when I did, the knee pain I had since 15 also went away.

! My housemate ate gluten the first 55 years of her life. When she stopped eating it, the knee pain she had since 17 (and other problems) went away. No doctor ever suggested doing that.

Maybe (or probably for some sub-set of those people?) ... one of the researchers who helped popularize NCGS did a small-scale study that indicates FODMAPs may be the culprit. Keep an eye on this research because you may need to limit other foods as well as those with gluten (gluten and FODMAPs both exist in many foods).

https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/are-18-millions-p...

Source?

Many many many millennia of human history is not enough of a source for you?

The gluten free fad is barely 5 years old.

This is why that's not a good answer: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2013/02/is-gluten-on-the-incre...

Did we read the same article? That article says there has been no change, and in fact people ate even more gluten in the past.

(The small bit at the end where he tries to guess a reason can be ignored, since he's basing it on nothing.)

Maybe I misunderstood you and you were bringing that article to confirm what I said?

you must mean "... eating gluten[-free] carries no health benefits..."

at the price of significant inconvenience

On the contrary, it's an extremely convenient way for fad-dieters to get the attention they crave.

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