When someone says they have food sensitivities, the foods they have difficulty with usually fall into two categories: gluten and diary.
I have food sensitivities, but have always been the person who says, “Give me the gluten and dairy, please. No issues here.” It made life easier, because gluten and dairy are everywhere. But then, more recently, I too joined the ranks of gluten avoiders across the US, a story I chronicle here.
It’s a great time to be gluten-free. So many good options now, even at restaurants.
Yet, the increase in gluten avoiders and the food industry stepping in to fill a profitable void doesn’t answer the question of WHY. Why do so many people have NCGS (non-coeliac gluten sensitivity)? What’s changed?
I decided to find out.
We Know About Gluten Sensitivity Now
While traveling in rural Colorado, we met a young man in his twenties who has coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition triggered by eating gluten. He was sick a lot and had migraines as a child, until they figured out what was happening.
This took place in roughly the early 2000s. Even many physicians didn’t know to look for coeliac then, much less non-coeliac gluten sensitivity.
Now, many providers know that when a patient presents with unexplained headaches, gastrointestinal issues, or brain fog, gluten foods may be a culprit. For most, a simple elimination diet can answer that question.
Most everyone else has heard of gluten by now and most of us know at least one person who can’t eat it. If we eat bread and get a stomachache, it’s easy to assume gluten and self-diagnose with NCGS.
However, while gluten-containing foods may cause your issues, gluten itself may not be the problem, as I discuss later in the article.
But of all the crap we eat nowadays, from fast food burgers to gummy bears, why wheat/gluten?
The short answer? We don’t know. However, I managed to find several interesting possibilities. Let’s go through each.
Americans Eat a LOT of Wheat
You’ll find gluten in wheat, rye, and barley. But let’s face it, most of us get our gluten from wheat.
The US is a very wheat-based culture. If you aren’t eating meat, veggies, or fruit, you’re eating wheat.
- Toast, bagels, cereal, pancakes, waffles, and pastries at breakfast.
- Sandwiches and wraps at lunch.
- Pasta, pizza, burgers, or at least a side of bread at dinner.
- Crackers and cookies for snacks.
- Cakes and cupcakes for special occasions.
Wheat, wheat, and more wheat.
When you eat the same thing day after day for long periods, especially when that thing is a common allergen like wheat, some individuals can develop an intolerance to it.
Not All Wheat is The Same
I’ve heard countless stories of American gluten-avoiders visiting Europe and finding they can eat bread without problems. I’ve even heard that some Europeans who eat bread all the time come here and have trouble with it. Why is this? Because there are different kinds of wheat.
Wheat has many varieties (over 30,000 worldwide). However, this grain falls into six classes: Hard Red Winter, Hard Red Spring, Soft Red Winter, Durum, Hard White, and Soft White.
Hard Red Winter and Hard Red Spring are the most common classes grown in the US, accounting for around two-thirds of wheat grown here. “Hard” wheats are known for their high gluten content, ideal for making bread.
The soft classes get used for cakes, cookies, and crackers, and have less gluten. Durum is used for pasta.
Point being, depending on where in the world you consume your bread, wheat will vary in its gluten content, protein content, and other properties. If you digest it differently when you visit another country or continent, chances are the wheat is a different variety or class and has grown under different conditions.
But here’s what’s interesting: Unless you have coeliac disease, if you react badly to gluten foods, you don’t know for sure that gluten itself is the problem.
You May Have FODMAPs Intolerance
FODMAPs stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, and monosaccharides and polyols, which are carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine and ferment in the colon. This fermentation can cause digestive problems in some people, leading to symptoms like bloating, gas, and diarrhea.
Wheat, rye, and barley are high in FODMAPs as well as containing gluten. If you react to these foods, you may have FODMAPs intolerance rather than gluten intolerance. In fact, some experts who study gluten sensitivity believe this is what’s happening in people with NCGS.
A good way to find out? Eat other high-FODMAPs foods and see how you react to them.
Immune Reactivity
While some experts who study gluten sensitivity attribute NCGS to FODMAP intolerance, others disagree, claiming that people’s reaction to gluten foods results from the immune system reacting to other proteins in these foods.
These other proteins are called amylase trypsin inhibitors or ATIs. This is an ongoing area of research, but I’m curious what they eventually find. (My guess is that NCGS will have multiple causes that differ from person to person.)
Everyone’s immune system differs. So do their immune system genes. Some studies suggest that people with certain genotypes are at higher risk for developing NCGS.
Microbiome Changes
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that you can’t talk about food sensitivities without talking about the gut microbiome. People with food sensitivities likely have altered microbiomes and/or damage to the gut lining.
It’s possible that gluten, ATIs, FODMAPs, or any immune reaction to wheat/gluten could alter the microbiome or disrupt the gut lining. We have evidence that gluten can disrupt the gut lining, especially in some individuals.[1]
Pesticides
I often see claims blaming the pesticide glyphosate as the culprit for people’s wheat/gluten sensitivity. This is a rabbit-hole topic, and a controversial one, but when I looked into the scientific evidence, the conclusion I found mirrored my own suspicions:
The evidence isn’t there to support that claim. Having said that, it’s possible that a causal link exists and science just hasn’t found it yet. The studies I linked acknowledge that this area is worth investigating further.[2],[3]
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Related Articles and Resources
I Have Non-Coeliac Gluten Sensitivity. Here’s What We Know About It.
Do you Have Oxalate Intolerance?
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[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10096482/
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5705608/
[3] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.556729/full
4 thoughts on “Why Can’t Anyone Eat Gluten Anymore?”
You forgot nuts!
I have a friend from college who spent most of her life without knowing she has celiac disease. She went to a doctor a few years ago for something else. Her docotr accidentally discovered that she has it. All sorts of miscellaneous maladies she had all of her life slowly started disappearing over 1-2 years.
Agreed. I wonder if GMO wheat contributes to the problem.
Came here to say this! lol
A few times I have also heard the idea that in the U.S. bread and pasta aren’t made the same way they used to be made.
An interesting anecdotal experiment would be to get people who have adverse reactions to wheat products every time to try eating imported pasts and alternatively made bread ( fresh milled spelt or kamut flower, sour dough, etc ).
I had FODMAP issues. Thankfully gone. I ate wheat products for entrees when I didn’t want to have gas.
It seems like more Americans, children and adults, have immune system issues these days. I’ve seen some articles about promising cures fix things instead of suppressing the immune system. At this point I don’t know if those things are just fodder for pop magazine articles that I’ll never see in real life.
I see dairy/gluten much more often than nuts. Nut allergies are no joke, though. The US hasn’t grown GMO wheat, although in 2024 one was developed so that could change. In Spain, I was obsessed with these spelt crackers that you cannot find here. I knew this woman who dealt with abdominal bloating for years and eventually found out she was FODMAPs intolerant.
I had the impression that the U.S. used GMO wheat. If not GMO than breeds artificially created in old ways. Low FODMAP diets, though meant to be temporary, are unpleasantly strict. That woman likely had to abstain from much more than wheat. I hope such a diet works her in giving her relief and in letting her system become more tolerant.
The GMO wheat thing is an area of confusion. GMO wheat is new (commercially) but hybridization and other forms of changing its genetic structure naturally are not new. You can breed plants without them being GMO. Which reminds me, I should do some articles on GMOs.