I have been reading with interest the  various articles/ posts about non coeliac gluten sensitivity, as it chimes a lot with the way that I feel about the proliferation of people who think that they have a problem with gluten or wheat.

Because of the massive industry that has built around gluten free products, I think that anyone whose gut feels uncomfortable, or worse, after eating bread, will presume that the cause of that discomfort / pain / bloating etc is wheat or gluten.

I have been working in the field of food intolerance for more than 20 years, using a Dietx machine [the new version of the Vega].  And before you switch off to what I am saying, please be aware that most practitioners using these machines only do a two day course in how to use it so the results are meaningless – no better than tossing a coin.

I have amassed LOADS of experience, and more importantly data, especially in the last four years. Less than 2% of the people that I test are wheat [or gluten] intolerant. And more than 65% of them think that wheat is something that they react to.  I think that if someone gets gut symptoms they will find that wheat gives them symptoms, but that when the real intolerance is found and that food or drink totally removed from their diet they can eat wheat without bloating, wind and other troublesome symptoms.  In 2011 when I did a survey on how accurate patients were in the assumptions of which were their problem foods, they were only 17% accurate.

Points to note

• Most of the intolerances were to FREQUENTLY used foods or drinks.
• People who thought that they had a problem with wheat often had a completely different underlying cause. In other words, it was intolerahces to dairy, tea, coffee, which sseemed to set thier guts up to fail when they ate wheat or vegetables or fizzy drinks or spices.
• The only children who tested positive to wheat were on the autistic spectrum.
• And people who were SURE that it was bread, [and therefore presumed wheat] often found that the cause was yeast, sunflower [oil or seeds] or a common preservative in bread E282 or E471.
• When I test people I find that when yeast is a problem, in 99% of cases they react to all cheeses and all yogurts. So I can see that if people get symptoms after eating pasta they think that it is the wheat, whereas I think that it is the cheese that they so often add to it.
• Although decaffeinated products only come in at 5%, this accounted for 95% of all the people who regularly drank decaff.  A lot of these people had been wheat and gluten free too!
• Many people who come to see me have been wheat / gluten free for a while, and by the time they come to see me they have become intolerant to the sweet artificial flavours in the Free From ranges of biscuits, cakes etc. These are also in many sweets, yogurts, jellies, squashes and fizzy drinks.
• My ’success rates’ with common symptoms of food intolerance are on my website.
  
  
  For more about Mary and her work check in to www.maryroefoodintolerancetesting.com
  
  

April 2015

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