Now, before you hunt me down—with the history of science as our guide—this won’t be the last word on the gluten-intolerance yea-or-nay question. Plus, now you can love gluten-free stuff just because it’s delicious rather than because you have to (Nature’s Path Sunrise Crunchy Maple Cereal, I’m looking at you). Here’s what we know so far. In 2011, Peter Gibson, professor of gastroenterology at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and his team of researchers published one of the biggest breakthrough gluten studies to date. Their double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled research found that gluten did cause gut distress in patients without celiac disease, which is a serious, dangerous, and proven gluten-allergic condition. What they didn’t find was why. MORE: Is There Gluten In That? Find Out In Seconds With This… So in 2014, Gibson and his team published a new study that went looking for the “why” behind gluten intolerance. Instead, they uncovered another question: “What gluten intolerance?” The Monash University team fed 37 people with non-celiac-related gluten sensitivity three diets—a high-gluten one, a low-gluten-one, and a non-gluten placebo plan—to gather more data on what might cause the gastrointestinal distress brought on by the dreaded gluten. What the researchers found was that, relative to a baseline, the test subjects experienced unpleasant symptoms on all three test diets—yep, even on the gluten-free placebo diet. What was going on? Researchers traced the study participants’ bloating and gaseous emissions to FODMAPs, or fermentable, oligo-, di-, monosaccharides, and polyols. In layman’s terms, FODMAPs are poorly absorbed, short-chain carbohydrates found in foods like asparagus, apples, wheat, rye, cow’s milk, and pistachios that ferment in the gut and cause bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, and other GI distress. When people go on gluten-free diets, they remove many FODMAPs at the same time. Now, months later, FODMAPs are on everyone’s radar. How do you know whether the short-chain carbs are the cause of your symptoms? Go on a low-FODMAP diet and compare it to your gluten-free diet to see which makes you feel more eupeptic (defined as “having good digestion or being cheerful and optimistic”—I’ve always wanted to use that word).
