The Coming Gluten-Free Craze

More Gluten-Free Sports Star Successes

The rapid rise of Novak Djokovic to #1 in the tennis world after he adopted a gluten-free diet shook up the tennis world (The Diet That Shook Up Tennis?), but a single case could be dismissed as a fluke. Now other tennis pros like Sabine Lisicki and Andy Murray and other prominent athletes like Steve Nash, Raul Ibanez, and Cedric Benson (http://edwardandsons.com/blogpages/?p=85, http://glutenfreeworks.com/blog/2011/08/08/gluten-free-spells-success-for-big-time-athletes/) have reported that they avoid gluten and experience benefits as a result. Jefferson Adams of Celiac.com rightly foresees where this is likely heading in the tennis world:

"After five months on a gluten-free diet, top professional tennis player Andy Murray has more energy than before, a faster recovery time, and a new-found ability to wake up early, according to comments Murray made when asked by reporters.

The Scot says that he is amazed by the energy he's gotten from his gluten-free diet. He also says that his change in eating habits is proving beneficial on the court. ….

[I]f Murray sees anything like benefits experienced by Novak Djokovic, who credits a string of big victories to his gluten-free diet, the tennis world is in for some gluten-free excitement!" (Gluten-free Diet Now Fuels Tennis Star Andy Murray)

Once other athletes realize that not just people with celiac disease or severe gluten intolerance, but most people, can experience performance benefits from eliminating gluten-rich processed foods from their diets, it will likely become a craze amongst athletes, and once most people's favorite sports stars are touting gluten-free, I expect it will become a societal craze.

Most people don't pay much attention to scientific studies, but many do pay attention to their sports idols. Sales of gluten-free foods will likely skyrocket, with resulting temporary shortages and increasing prices. Eventually many folks will figure out that processed gluten-free foods aren't all that great either and natural, whole foods like meats, seafood, fruits and veggies are better.

Eggs beat bagels in intake study

Metro Toronto, Canada
Lifestyle
Published January 12, 2006

... The American College of Nutrition is touting results of a study that found eggs are better than bagels at curbing the appetite.

...

The study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, found that eating two eggs for breakfast, instead of a small bagel, reduced hunger and caloric intake at lunch and over the next 24 hours.

Study participants received one of two breakfasts with the same caloric and weight value: the first group ate two scrambled eggs and two slices of toast with low-calorie jelly, while the second group ate a 3 1/2-in. bagel with cream cheese and a small container of fat-free yogurt. The results showed that the first group, who ate eggs, had an average 163 fewer calories at lunch that day. On average, over the following 24 hours, this group ate 418 fewer calories.

...
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My take: Not surprising, given that eggs are a natural, ancestral food, whereas bagels, cream cheese and yogurt are man-made inventions. The best chicken eggs available in stores today say "Omega 3" on the package--they are higher in healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

Autism Increasingly Common--Parents Find that Diet and Supplements Help

Autism is "the fastest growing developmental disability among children. The number of children diagnosed with autism has risen from one in 2,000 15 years ago to one in 250 two years ago to 1 in 166 today."
(Autism ever more common: Mother assures parents there is hope, By TAMMY BOULD, The Register-Mail, Sunday, December 18, 2005)

The number of anecdotal cases of autistic children being helped by diets and supplements continues to grow and more and more parents are trying this approach despite the skepticism of doctors. For example, four-year-old Tyler Ferris of Galesburg, Illinois has autism and is helped by a special diet and supplements. (Autism ever more common). Joe and Selina Farrell of Orange County, California, started their son Joseph on a wheat- and dairy-free diet. "After some months, they said, Joseph began to think more clearly and had less self-stimulating behavior seen in autistic children." (Sunday, December 25, 2005, Alternative Approach: Parents of some autistic kids are at odds with many experts over the efficacy of nontraditional treatments, By JENIFER B. MCKIM, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)

More parents nationwide are trying a wheat- and dairy-free diet to treat autism, many under the supervision of doctors trained by the Autism Research Institute. A conference held by Defeat Autism Now, a project of the Autism Research Institute that promotes the DAN! diet to treat autism, included a discussion of the "debated theory that autistic symptoms can be caused by intestinal and immune-system problems that prompt toxins to affect the brain."

More and more research has made connections between the diseases of modern civilization, immune system malfunctions (autoimmune illness), gastrointestinal problems and modern foods. If doctors were aware of the latest science in autism, evolutionary nutrition, and paleolithic anthropology, they might not doubt the parents of autistic children so much.

GI Disorders Linked to Modern Foods

Accumulating evidence links gastrointestinal diseases and disorders to modern foods. Leading scientists believe that the reason grains, as well as dairy and possibly legumes, contribute to the development of GI diseases and other chronic disorders is that the human body has not evolved to digest these agrarian foods. The human body is believed to be best adapted to eating the wild foods that were consumed from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago--not the modern (agrarian and processed) foods introduced during the last 10,000 years. The diseases that result from consuming these modern foods, which include diverticulosis, diverticulitis, and other GI disorders, are called "diseases of civilization."

Diverticulosis, which is an acquired condition marked by mucosal herniation through defects in the colonic wall, has been termed both a "disease of the 20th century" and a "disease of Western civilization" due to its increasing prevalence in modern times and its striking geographical variability. (S. Jun and N. Stollman, Epidemiology of Diverticular Disease, Best Practice & Research: Clinical Gastroenterology, 2002 Aug;16(4):529-42)

Interestingly, diverticulosis was virtually unknown prior to the 20th century, and all studies indicate that its prevalence is increasing, especially in the urban areas of Western countries. An increasing incidence also is occurring in population groups that have moved from rural or less-developed regions to industrialized centers. The low incidence of diverticulosis in the less-developed countries of Africa may be explained in part by the high fiber content of the diet in those areas. (Ralph M. Myerson, Control diverticulosis with a high-fiber diet - includes related information, Better Nutrition (1989-90), August, 1989)

Modern foods like sugars, vegetable oils, dairy products, refined grains, and even whole grains, contain much less fiber than the fruits and vegetables common in most Stone Age diets. This lower intake of high quality dietary fiber may contribute to some modern illnesses.

Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century
Loren Cordain, S Boyd Eaton, Anthony Sebastian, Neil Mann, Staffan Lindeberg, Bruce A Watkins, James H O’Keefe and Janette Brand-Miller
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Fiber content

The fiber content (15.1 g/d) (23) of the typical US diet is considerably lower than recommended values (25–30 g) (116). Refined sugars, vegetable oils, dairy products, and alcohol are devoid of fiber and constitute an average of 48.2% of the energy in the typical US diet (Table 1). Furthermore, fiber-depleted, refined grains represent 85% of the grains consumed in the United States (Table 1), and because refined grains contain 400% less fiber than do whole grains (by energy), they further dilute the total dietary fiber intake. Fresh fruit typically contains twice the amount of fiber in whole grains, and nonstarchy vegetables contain almost 8 times the amount of fiber in whole grains on an energy basis (64). Fruit and vegetables known to be consumed by hunter-gatherers also maintain considerably more fiber than do their domestic counterparts (145). Contemporary diets devoid of cereal grains, dairy products, refined oils and sugars, and processed foods have been shown to contain significantly more fiber (42.5 g/d) than either current or recommended values (159).

Once again, the displacement of fiber-rich plant foods by novel dietary staples, introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial periods, was instrumental in changing the diets that our species had traditionally consumed—a diet that would have almost always been high in fiber. Soluble fibers (those found primarily in fruit and vegetables) modestly reduce total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations beyond those achieved by a diet low in saturated fat and fiber, by slowing gastric emptying, may reduce the appetite and help to control caloric intake (171). Diets low in dietary fiber may underlie or exacerbate constipation, appendicitis, hemorrhoids, deep vein thrombosis, varicose veins, diverticulitis, hiatal hernia, and gastroesophageal reflux (172).

Some medical doctors, such as Sidney V. Haas and Harv Haakonson, have for years had much success treating their patients with diets that are lower in modern foods like grains (www.scdiet.info/main.asp, www.pecanbread.com/elainesstory.html, www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info, www.slowcarbforlife.com/science.htm ).

Unfortunately, it usually takes many years for radical scientific breakthroughs to filter down into the general medical community and spread out beyond the innovators and early adopters. So in general, the best source of dietary information today is not MD’s or nutritionists—it is anthropologists who have studied hunter-gatherers.

Dr. Mercola says the Bulk of Us Do NOT Benefit from Wheat

“Due to the fact that celiac disease was considered rare in this country, it often went undiagnosed or misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or lactose intolerance. My experience is that the true incidence is probably much higher still, perhaps on the order of 1 in 10 people. The bulk of us however, do NOT benefit from foods with wheat and gluten.”

Is Acne Fed by the Western Diet?

Dec. 19, 2002 -- The scourge of teenaged life -- acne -- may result from the very diet that feeds it, suggests a new study that flies in the face of three decades worth of conventional thinking on the cause of facial blemishes.

And this time, it's not just isolated items such as chocolate or pizza being implicated. It's the entire typical western diet, a gamut of highly refined starchy and sugary foods that not only includes those "junk" foods but also the very breads, cereals, and carbohydrates that are the cornerstone of the USDA Food Pyramid.

My comment: What people with acne have been telling their dermatologists all along may be true: that diet affects it. Scientists have found that acne is extremely rare among people who eat a traditional hunter-gatherer diet their whole lives.