How accurate is gluten sensitivity testing?; A surprising finding on food packaging; A story of medical error
A critical error in gluten sensitivity testing; medical error occurs more than you realize
Should You Test For Gluten Sensitivity?
My original Ph.D. dissertation design was to examine the effects of a wheat-free diet on asthma signs and symptoms. I have modified the study but plan to explore the original topic after graduation. After two years of research, I have learned a few things about “gluten” sensitivity.
The term gluten is a misnomer since gluten is not always the culprit. Since 2018 it has been known that other proteins found in gluten-containing foods (barley, rye, wheat, and spelt) can cause intestinal and extraintestinal signs and symptoms. Therefore, studies using gluten-pill challenges may have missed a subset of people who do not react to gluten proteins but react to other proteins found in gluten-containing foods, of which the most studied at this time is amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs). In mice models, it has been shown that ATIs, not gluten, are the main culprit for extraintestinal signs and symptoms.
Therefore, many practitioners, some very well-known in natural health, promote their gluten sensitivity test. I have written to many of them explaining how this will not accurately identify everyone with a true sensitivity to wheat, rye, barley, and spelt, but I have gotten no response.
With this knowledge, the only way to determine if you have a wheat, rye, barley, spelt protein-containing sensitivity is to do a trial 3-week elimination diet and monitor your signs and symptoms.
When you do the elimination diet, do not remove other high FODMAP foods; otherwise, you will not know what is causing the signs and symptoms.
If you are a person who says that you can consume wheat in other countries outside of the U.S, it may be due to the fermenting process of bread in other countries, or it may be that you do not have sensitivity but react to other ingredients in wheat-based products in the United States.
Bottom Line: Use a gluten-sensitivity test result with caution. You know your body best-do a trial elimination diet and note how you feel.
A Medical Error Example and Why you Need to Check Your Medications
As a nutritionist, you probably wonder why I would write about medications. But knowing what medications my clients take is vital so that I can discern a health condition symptom from a drug side effect, drug-related nutrient depletion, and drug-supplement-herb interactions. So I look closely at my client’s medications.
Recently someone was prescribed antibiotics for an infection. They said they returned to the doctor, were given another antibiotic, and were told to take both together. I asked them to take pictures of the labels and text them to me. When they sent a picture of only one label, I asked why. They said they realized the doctor had given them the exact medication twice. As a result, this person took one double dose. When they called the doctor, it was brushed off as an accident, and they just had to take one antibiotic.
In this case, doubling the dose was not harmful, but what if this was a different type of drug and a double dose may have caused a severe reaction or the person overdosed? There is a reason why medical error is the third leading cause of death. I was bothered that this error was brushed aside like it was no big deal.
But this individual would never have known they were taking two of the same antibiotic if I had never asked to see the labels. The person blindly trusted and took the medication.
My point is that no one is more responsible for your health than you. Read the labels of your medications and your supplements. We all make mistakes sometimes, and it helps if you review what you are taking. Don’t be afraid to point it out to the professional. Most will appreciate it and hopefully not brush it off.
What a New Study Found on Food Packaging: I was surprised by this finding.
Several years ago, I was ordering prepared meals from a small company for someone else. They stressed on the phone repeatedly that the containers the food was delivered in were BPA-free. I didn’t both inform them that a BPA-free container does not mean a chemical-free container. If using plastic, it will be very difficult to find one that is toxins-free.
If they remove BPA, they have to replace it with something. That something is usually BPS, another toxin.
In a recent study, Xu et al. (2023) analyzed 140 packaging materials from 140 fresh food items in North America. They found no BPA was detected, but BPS was present in thermal labels and that the chemical in the labels can migrate into the food.
If you go to the article, it shows a diagram of the type of labels inspected on fish packaging. Honestly, I was surprised that the toxins on the labels were absorbed into the fish. It is getting more and more challenging to avoid these ubiquitous toxins.
More importantly, reduce the load on your body by purchasing whole foods without packaging as much as possible and support your detox pathways so that your body has the ability to eliminate these toxins.
Source
Food Thermal Labels are a Source of Dietary Exposure to Bisphenol S and Other Color Developers. Ziyun XU, Lei TIAN, Lan LIU, Cynthia Gates GOODYER, Barbara F. HALES, and Stéphane BAYEN. Environmental Science & Technology. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c09390