Gluten Intolerance And The Importance Of Eating Organic

Is Gluten the Culprit?  Or is the current societal attention on gluten a case of misdirection?  This is the question I have been investigating lately, and my answer is simply that Gluten sensitivity although real and profound, is in fact a dramatic case of misdirection.  Before all of those suffering with gluten issues become enraged, please follow me through this.

Gluten sensitivity has grown in diagnosis over the past 10 years, and with good reason, more and more people find that by avoiding gluten, they feel more energetic, their pain symptoms dramatically decrease and their body improves in numerous ways.  In addition, many who have taken steps to avoid this protein also find exposure to one tiny smidge of gluten sends them into physical despair.  All of this is common and very real, but how we got here and the way gluten issues then shape our understanding of what is healthy has been poorly investigated and understood at best.

Once someone goes gluten-free, they then are only looking for one thing; gluten.  Consequently, all other parameters of food and its quality or lack there-of get ignored, not because of intentional disregard but because the focus for health-sustaining has become all about gluten. To understand how this is inaccurate we must look at how so many have become gluten intolerant. The issue stems from food production, and are informed by two main issues:

1. Wheat production; the most common gluten-containing grain is grown using exponentially large amounts of pesticide and fungicide, causing dramatic immune system disruption, colonic mucosal damage, and neurological confusion.
2. Genetic modification of crops, in general, has resulted in immune system damage, colon bacterial destruction, and also mucosal damage. 

These two factors have altered our physical bodies so significantly that we have become intolerant if not actually allergic to foods our ancestors and even ourselves previously had no real reactions to.  The problem is, when gluten is avoided, we only succeed in avoidance of one protein, yet are left exposed to genetically modified and heavily pesticide-laden foods.  For those avoiding gluten, exposure to these food categories is in fact quite high as most gluten-free foods contain corn, soy, and canola, some of the most heavily genetically modified and pesticide-laden foods in production.  Most gluten-free foods are not organic, and because those intending for gluten-free become so focused on one aspect of food, the importance of total avoidance of all foods that are either genetically modified or heavily sprayed becomes minimal compared to concern over gluten exposure.

Of course many will argue, if gluten is the main issue for an individual, gluten-free and organic cannot be as important as being gluten-free alone!  A misconception with potentially disastrous long term health consequences, which does not take into account why gluten intolerance exists in the first place.  Gluten intolerance developed due to dramatic immune system disruption resulting from combined effects of pesticide exposure and genetically modified foods on the body.  Consequently, avoiding gluten is necessary but only deals with the most obvious and pressing issue of inflammatory change, but does not in fact eliminate ongoing damage resulting from continued exposure to the very agents that set up gluten reactions in the first place.  Over time, if left unchecked these same influences will cause further mucosal damage and destruction resulting in future food intolerances and more immune disruption, leading to greater and greater challenges.

The exponential expansion of food intolerances is something I observe daily, as patients come to me, having been gluten-free for years, but now showing signs of dairy intolerance, issues digesting corn, or soy, or maybe amorphous digestive and inflammatory symptoms that do not identify clearly with just one food.  This is not only frustrating but also confusing for those who have worked so hard to eliminate gluten and for whom total gluten avoidance had provided respite for quite some time.

Hence, misdirection, in my view, the public focus on gluten without adequate focus on organic and gluten-free and without adequate information and education on how the intolerance had in fact been generated is misleading and dangerous.  Gluten intolerance is only one more obvious of many significant issues growing in prevalence that have resulted from significant damage which is 75% rooted in the continued modification of our food supply and the impact of that modification on our immune systems.  A problem for which the only real solution is to not only avoid gluten but also anything that is not organic.