In Reply To:
I am not gluten intolerant, but I feel better if I do not eat gluten. Rather, I have not been diagnosed as being intolerant of gluten, but I feel better when I don't have it. I don't need a doctor to tell me what I figured out for myself. Congrats again on a great race Jordan! When friends ask me about my 165mm cranks on my tri bike I can now reply, "The IMC champ recommended giving them a shot...no big deal." HAHA :-)
Anyway, with regards to the gluten issues, how/when did you figure out the difference in how you felt when consuming gluten vs. when avoiding it? What made you decide to try avoiding it in the first place?
I have done some reading on the subject, and many nutritionists are hypothesizing that people's "gluten issues" become sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The hear about others avoiding it, so they avoid it. Then, because they rarely ever do consume it, when they do, their body isn't used to it so they have issues. Also, sort of a reverse placebo effect kicks in when they consume gluten, they start thinking, "Uh oh, I consumed gluten, I am probably going to feel sick" and then sure enough they do feel sick.
Further, it seems that rates of gluten intolerance are skyrocketing, both physician and self-diagnosed cases, and some wonder if this is sort of a result of being in the era immediately following the "carbs are bad" craze in the U.S.. Huge numbers of people avoided carbs, and now, not suprisingly, huge numbers or people are claiming to have gluten issues.
Anyway, I was just curious to get your history/opinions as I try to solve some of my own stomach riddles.
It was Jill's recommendation. Without getting too graphic, I will say that I feel like I am generally less bloated through my lower abdominals. I am not "fat," but i used to have a bit of a "pooch" as if I had eaten a bit much all the time. Once I cut gluten out, that went way down. I also notice a difference when I use the toilet first thing in the morning. One big thing is that it smells relatively neutral, whereas when I ate a lot of regular bread, it smelled quite bad often. I also will say that EVERY time I used to go for a long run, I had to use the toilet. Sometimes with great emergency. But since eliminating it, I now would say it's normal that I *don't* have to go #2 during a long run, as opposed to having it be normal that I would. That was really the biggest marker for me. Because that was a recent change and really the ONLY change was no gluten. I.e., as soon as I eliminated gluten, I stopped having to use the toilet regularly during run workouts.
I'm also not surprised to see gluten intolerance rates skyrocketing. People are realizing that you don't need filler in everything. They are realizing that having bloating, etc. I have very little respect for the food industry. I'm reminded of the new thing now with the "concentrated" laundry detergents. Basically, they advertise that you get the same cleaning power out of a bottle 1/3 the size. Of course you do, because all you did to make the bigger size was add WATER to the detergent. It's kind of like, "we were totally fleecing you and making huge amounts of unnecessary trash, and now we will ADVERTISE the fact that we were basically selling you water by pointing out that we aren't anymore." I love that there are now ads for high-fructose corn syrup. It's a sign that people are paying attention to what they eat.
The web is certainly a mixed blessing. My sister and her husband are both doctors. There are a ton of people who are convinced they have something like Dengue Fever because they read about it on WebMD when all they have is a common cold. BUT, at the same time, people are also asking their doctors tougher questions and thinking more about what it says on the box they buy in the supermarket.
The main thing is really an issue of volume of calories. Bread is not bad for you. But I need a lot of fuel to train. And I need food that is easy and simple and consistent. So I eat a LOT of bread, because a sandwich is an easy way to get good calories and carbs for training. But that also meant that I ate a LOT of gluten, because I eat the same thing for lunch most days, because it's easy to have a loaf of bread and some jam and some nut butter around. The difference for me between a PBJ on "regular" bread and an Almond butter and jelly sandwich on rice bread - in terms of how I feel training afterwards - is remarkable.
Carbs aren't "bad for you." But the old FDA food pyramid - with like 8-10 servings of grains per day - was absurd. But that's how people eat. Sandwiches. Pasta. Pizza. Wheat-based cereal. A candy bar with a "cookie" type ingredient in it. It's likely that most people have gluten EVERY time they eat. That is too much. It would be too much regardless of what it was. If people ate as much quinoa as they currently ate wheat, they'd probably be in really bad shape from that as well.
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