So what’s really up with gluten?

A few months ago, somebody asked me the following question: “Could you write about gluten (sensitivity)? Could you help people understand that it is a real thing?”

Gluten sensitivity is indeed a real thing, although I understand why some people think it is a sham. The grocery store is filled with all kinds of gluten-free stuff — from bread to desserts. The store is also filled with food that never has had gluten (and never will), but companies still label it as gluten-free because they know that it will boost sales.

There’s absolutely no reason, for example, that a bag of apples should be labeled as gluten-free, because they’ll never have gluten.

The current fad of eating gluten-free food is just one of many examples of how our society promotes what I call the “next health thing” concept. For example, when it was found in a study that compounds in green tea might indirectly help in fat burning, suddenly everybody was drinking green tea. Subsequently, we started to see green tea in everything from supplements to actual foods.

This kind of thing not only promotes a misunderstanding about how nutrition really works, but it also gives companies more opportunities to make money off of our misunderstanding. But that’s another topic within itself.

Getting back to gluten: Gluten is actually a protein found in grains like wheat, barley and rye that, in some people, can trigger an immune system response that causes the body to attack itself. This can display itself in a variety of ways, from conditions that cause severe digestive issues like celiac disease, to osteoporosis, to Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis where the immune system specifically attacks the thyroid and causes a wide range of troublesome symptoms.

Some say that sensitivities to gluten are on the rise because wheat is an ingredient in so many foods, and because of agriculture practices for the past several decades that, instead of promoting biodiversity in the varieties of grain grown, promote the fast production of fewer varieties of grain for the sake of greater profit.

Whatever the reason, there’s something about modern-day wheat that seems to be making an increasing number of us sick.

In contrast, there are some who are going gluten-free because they believe doing so will help them lose weight, and that if a product says it’s gluten-free, it must be healthier than a product with gluten. Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but even if a cookie is gluten-free, it’s still not going to help you lose weight.

So how do you know that you should try gluten-free foods? There are blood tests that can detect the presence of certain antibodies that can indicate gluten sensitivities. However, you can conduct your own gluten sensitivity test by avoiding all products that contain wheat for three or more weeks — especially if you regularly experience digestive problems and fatigue after eating.

Keep in mind that if you are trying to avoid gluten, that not only means that you should avoid breads, but you also will have to avoid soy sauce, other sauces and even other foods that were made in factories that make gluten-containing products. Even some toothpastes and medications contain gluten, according to Harvard Medical School.

It’s not worth it to hop on the gluten free train because it’s “what people are doing now.” But if you’ve ever noticed after not eating gluten-containing foods for a while that you feel better, then going gluten-free could be one of the best decisions of your life.

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 8:44 AM with the headline "So what’s really up with gluten?."