Everyone is aware of gluten intolerance and just takes it as a fact, without even questioning it. Moreover, with the hype created around gluten, everyone these days seems to have become intolerant to it. Have you ever searched for scientific proof of said gluten intolerance? Do you know anyone suffering from this affliction?
Let’s assume you manage to find a correlation between your wheat based product consumption and certain pain or discomfort. If you browse the internet, you will most probably find plenty information to confirm the possibility of your being gluten intolerant.
More about Gluten
Let’s learn about gluten. Gluten is a protein found in wheat endosperm and is composed of two different proteins, namely gliadin and glutenin. What gluten does to your food is that it affects the chewiness of wheat based products. Okay, so what’s the harm in this? Well, as common as it may seem these days, gluten intolerance is a rather rare type of allergy that in mild cases is nothing more than a skin rash, but in some cases it can cause gastrointestinal reaction to wheat products, diarrhea and joint pain.
People tend to believe that gluten intolerance is something you’re born with. This belief excludes the possibility that you may get gluten intolerant through other means. According to ND Erik Bakker, candida infection may cause gluten intolerance (source YeastInfection.org). How? There is a protein called Hwp1 which is expressed by candida in its pathogenic phase that shares similarity with gluten protein. So, when the body reacts to candida, it automatically reacts to gluten. Therefore, there’s a high chance that having candida could cause gluten intolerance and in return, gluten can even enhance the overgrowth in candida due to its sticky nature. Read more here.
Your Body, Gluten and What Happens Inside
Another aspect to take into consideration is gut syndrome. What happens in your gut when you consume gluten? Once it reaches your intestines, tissue transglutaminase, (tTG) breaks down gluten into its two proteins. Next, they are seen as potential harmful substances. If you are gluten tolerant, they are absorbed and everything is okay. If not, then the gut-associated lymphoid tissue sees gliadin as a dangerous substances and creates antibiotics to fight it, by attacking the tGT, whose main purpose is to hold together the microvilli of your gut. When your natural antibiotics attack the tGT, it makes you unable to absorb nutrients.
The Leaky Gut Syndrome
Have you heard of the leaky gut syndrome? It is closely related to the impermeability of your intestines. It means that gluten can break the tight junctions keeping your guts together, hence making it ‘’leak’. Are you bloated, suffering from cramps and pains? If you want to learn more about leaky gut syndrome and how to cure it, Eric Bakker explains it all in this video. It could be leaky gut syndrome, but we advise to consult your practitioner before making any assumptions.
So, before diagnosing yourself with gluten intolerance, make sure you have excluded the other possibilities. Gluten alone is not harmful, unless you are allergic to it. Both sugar-
glazed doughnuts, and 13-wheat breads come along with important and vital substances. Giving them up on a whim is not necessarily the best thing you could do.