Sunday, August 9, 2009

Should we avoid gluten?

I was asked what all the fuss about gluten is about, and whether we should all try to avoid gluten. Gluten is just a particular component of wheat that some people react badly to. It’s quite serious, resulting in chronic diarrhea that can deplete the body of calcium and tons of other nutrients. Diagnosis hasn’t always been swift, with people usually suffering for years before they figure it out. If you are truly gluten intolerant (also called celiac disease), you need to avoid even the tiniest amounts. For most of us, there is no known value to eating less gluten, although like milk, we probably didn’t evolve to eat the huge amounts of wheat we tend to eat now.