Celiac Disease: Eating Away at You?

The immune system learns to recognize the antigens from the body’s own cells as “self” and also to tolerate the many “nonself” tags on beneficial intestinal microbes and food particles. But in some people, the immune cells misread the antigens attached to HLA, mistaking, say, pollen for a cold virus or gluten for a toxin. Then they send out a faulty danger signal that makes their body’s own cells look suspicious, summoning other immune cells to attack the body’s tissue.

Continue reading "Eating Away at You"...

Gluten Free Backlash?

Daniel Engber over at Slate thinks Gluten Intolerance is all in your head. He states "Is it a coincidence that the specter of gluten intolerance only emerged in the midst of the low-carb bonanza?"

But Daniel might be onto something. For example, how about those annoying diabetics and always having to watch what they eat to control their blood sugar? Diabetes is just caused from too many people cutting sugar out of their diets... right?

And people with peanut allergies... always insisting on asking what is in their food to prevent anaphylactic shock. I mean peanut allergies are just a fad anyways... right?

And don't even get me started on the Phenylketonurics... always concerned about phenylalanine in their food! This is probably a result of the Low Carb diet fad as well... might want to tell the hospitals to stop testing the newborns for this genetic condition.

Continue reading: "Are we being too tolerant of gluten-intolerance?"