Gluten Is Just A Very Bad Idea For All of Us

Despite the fact that gluten allergies, intolerance and sensitivities are becoming more and more recognized, many people continue to eat it without a second thought to the damage they’re doing to their bodies.

Understandably, if someone goes to a doctor to try at determine why their having stomach issues (like me), does a test for Celiac Disease which comes back negative (like me) and is told by their medical professional that there is no reason why they should omit gluten, it makes perfect sense where the some of the confusion is coming from.

And, on the flip side, if someone has been confirmed with sprue, then their take home message to avoid gluten is rather straight forward as well.

But what about the grey area in between?

Well, it’s a huge area indeed, but it’s not actually all that grey.

Why?

Because none of us needs to be eating gluten.

Put Paleo aside for a moment, or veganism or eating or avoiding certain foods for religious reasons.

Across the board, gluten is toxic, and this is not an exaggeration.

Yes, even for those who eat it regularly and don’t feel ill, the damage is still being done.

Intestinal permeability is increasing, leaky gut is occurring and inflammation is beginning, or progressing. 

Remember, too, that it’s not just the GI Tract that is affected.   Inflammation throughout the entire body results from eating gluten, and related maladies like joint pain, migraine headaches, chronic fatigue and exacerbation of auto immune conditions occurs.

If you’re  someone who is experiencing the GI issues that I did, it’s a bit easier to comprehend that if you’re sick to your stomach often, you can see that you’re not absorbing all the nutrition from your food.

Think about the long term consequences of this.  And mull it over in terms of what you’re feeding your kids, too.

One example I feel compelled to mention is that of a 25 year old female client.  Healthy and fit on the outside, she only recently found on her own that by eating Paleo, she no longer has constant stomach issues or migraine headaches.  She also found out, unfortunately, that she has osteopenia in her lumbar spine.

While her MD brushed off the idea that the low trabecular bone density in her spine would not have had much to do with the fact that she was literally sick to her stomach nearly every day for most of her formative years, and therefore didn’t absorb the calcium in her diet in order to build a strong spine, one can help but raise an eyebrow, at the very least…

Just cut it out.

We’re just not meant to be eating it.