So, I tried asking it in askscience and my post got deleted, so I’m assuming this is a dumb question even though I’m just trying to understand a topic full of pseudoscience and it’s not a very uncommon assumption that gluten is just bad for health.
What I know is gluten can induce inflammatory response but for those who already have intolerance or allergy to it, but I’m not sure and nutrition is a very hard thing to get an answer for because there are a lot of misleading information. So, can anyone clarify this for me? I’ll gladly read some scientific articles too.
Thanks!
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The short answer is that for most people, no, it’s not. If you have Celiac, a wheat allergy, or non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), it’s best to avoid any products that contain wheat as an ingredient or have been processed in a facility where wheat is present (which includes a whole lot of things). If you’re not sensitive to wheat or gluten, eating gluten free is NOT recommended, because it can wind up being less healthy overall (and more expensive).
Celiac people have to be extremely careful all the time. For NGCS people, symptoms can range from mild to extreme. For NGCS people, doctors think that gluten can trigger an innate immune response in the bowels that causes inflammation, diarrhea, bloating, and in extreme cases deterioration of intestinal walls, letting your poop leak out (sepsis). But that’s not yet a solidly supported theory – doctors still don’t know much about it, or even how to reliably diagnose it. Celiac has biological markers, I. e. specific things they can look for when your body reacts to gluten to give them a “yes/no” diagnosis. NGCS doesn’t, so it’s largely based on patient reports, which are not super reliable or scientific. But that doesn’t mean it’s made up, like some people seem to believe. Right now, it looks like NGCS is lumped in with IBS, another ambiguous condition that is likely a bunch of distinct ailments that doctors can’t ID or treat very effectively. It functions as a catch-all for malfunctioning bowels.
IANAD, I’m just regurgitating things I’ve read, like this paper, so I’m sure I don’t have it all correct. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6182669/
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