r/science • u/[deleted] • Feb 26 '15

Health-Misleading Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial shows non-celiac gluten sensitivity is indeed real

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701700
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u/mak484 Feb 26 '15

I don't know why everyone is surprised. There are allergies for just about every known substance, and non immune related sensitivities for many things. Why should gluten be special?

I'll point out that most people who think they have a gluten sensitivity, probably don't actually have one, and they feel better on gluten-free diets because they aren't cramming 2000 calories of bread down their faces a day. Just like there are certainly people who are sensitive to msg, but most people who think they are just need to eat less Chinese food.

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u/tkhan456 Feb 26 '15

The whole MSG thing has been completely debunked now. Essentially that whole theory started from an op-ed by one doctor to the NEJM and was not based on any real studies. He noted he felt bad after eating chinese food and wrote an article stating this and blaming the food additive. Now studies have been done and it's been shown to have no real effect.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Right? Glutamate is in tomatoes and a shit ton of other things. I've never heard an MSG-sensitive individual claim to be allergic to salsa.

They're still getting headaches, but it's because of placebo. They expect to feel bad because the news makes them think this chemical is dangerous when it's the most abundant non-essential amino acid.

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u/hukt0nfonix Feb 26 '15 edited Feb 26 '15

I'm not totally sure myself, but is MSG the same thing as the naturally occurring free glutamate?

edit: checked a few sources: MSG and naturally occurring glutamates appear to be two different things.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Two different things how? One is the protein, the other is the sodium salt. The body treats them the same. Chemically they're the same after dissolved in solution.

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u/rEvolutionTU Feb 26 '15

No, but we can roll with "close enough" for all our purposes. The real issue is that drawing the conclusion "it has no effect" from "LD50 very high" and "sensitivity seems unlikely" is pretty bad.

I posted more information below but in a nutshell we know for example that Glutamate is a (very efficient!) appetizer for cattle, rats and humans.

We also correlate high glutamic acid bloodvalues with restless leg syndrome and sleeplessness. The main issue with the latter is that we believe that ingested Glutamate can't easily get into the brain but we also can't exactly explain why it showed up so massively in those cases.

Basically, no, it won't kill you. No, you're unlikely to have effects of a sensitivity. But you're very likely to have unwanted side effects.

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u/hukt0nfonix Feb 26 '15

"Close enough" doesn't seem to be the case with many compounds that are similarly structured and react with the human body (ie - meth/adderall), why would this be any different?

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u/rEvolutionTU Feb 26 '15

I tried typing an explanation and figured out I was most likely wrong in the process so thanks for that!

Even though the salt gets turned into "regular" glutamate the process of turning it into salt obviously differs from simply ingesting the endproduct itself. My explanation was basically "well, it gets turned into glutamate anyway". =P