Who Done It? – the gluten or the yeast
I think most of us are well educated in the whole realm of eating gluten free and the possible health concerns about the over consumption of gluten containing products. I still get a kick out of the “gluten free” symbol (G) in restaurants and reading the labels on “gluten free” margarine – thank heavens! It really makes it obvious that nutritional choices have come of age.
But a couple of things have come up in the clinic lately, that has made me rethink the whole culprit in the “who killed my digestion” saga. Gluten has been the number one suspect over the past decades and it certainly plays a huge role for those who are coeliac or have autoimmune diseases; like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I would not leave out possible gluten sensitivity with anyone presenting with digestive dysfunction or with certain inflammatory conditions.
But, when I dig a little deeper I am finding that more clients present with yeast sensitivity and at higher levels than that of gluten. The clinic provides food sensitivity testing as a way of individualising someone’s specific food sensitivities and after testing hundreds of clients, it has become obvious that we may have (in part) “charged” the wrong culprit. Remember, this is just an observation but it is worth addressing yeast containing foods when considering diet modifications. Even better, consider really effective testing methods that actually pick the culprits out of the line-up like our Food Detective test.
We tend to follow broad trends and the latest in nutritional advice based on our symptoms and this information may be market driven or be so broad that everyone fits into their symptom pictures, (we all use Dr Google) whereas taking the initiative (initially) to individualise your health picture can save so much energy. Once you individualise the drivers of your specific symptoms you can have far greater impact.
So, the gluten or the yeast is a fantastic example of following the usual suspects and not really knowing the truth or the true culprit because we really don’t know the full picture about us. We need to obtain the right information before we make an accusation. Following nutritional trends has about a five percent success rate long term.