About this episode
Gluten is a hot topic in the health world. There are those who staunchly believe that only those with celiac disease should avoid it, while others claim that even a small amount can be harmful. In this episode, Dr. Tom O’Bryan sheds some light on this topic. Dr. O’Bryan is one of the leading experts on celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity as well as a functional medicine practitioner specializing in chronic illness. I’m on the road this week, so this interview is conducted by Olivia from Wellness-Media.com and is a playback (with permissions) of this interview from last year’s Wellness Family Summit. We Talk About: Is gluten really that bad or can people who don’t have celiac disease safely eat it? Long term effects of gluten consumption What intestinal permeability is and how it relates to gluten sensitivity How gluten (and other foods) can enter the bloodstream and cause autoimmune problems How celiac disease (an autoimmune disease) relates to autoimmune problems How your intestines are like a carpet Why gluten sensitivity can lead to osteoporosis The difference between gluten sensitivity and celiac disease How non-celiac gluten sensitivity can affect your children What are FODMAPs and how to know if you have trouble with them The biggest flaw in most studies Related Resources: Article: Gluten is Not a Food Group Article: How Grains are Killing You Slowly Dr. Tom’s website: TheDr.com Read Transcript Oliva: So, Dr. Tom, thanks so much for taking the time to be here with us today. We’re so happy to have you. Dr. Tom: Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be with you. Thank you. Olivia: Good. You are just so knowledgeable about gluten sensitivity, which is a topic that I know many of our viewers are highly interested in. So let’s jump right in. Gluten sensitivity has definitely gotten more mainstream attention lately, but there is still a lot of skepticism and many articles talking about why it can be problematic to avoid gluten and why gluten isn’t that bad. So would you mind talking about your research in this area? Is gluten something that we do need to worry about, or is it okay for most people who don’t have celiac disease? Dr. Tom: Okay, that’s a good way to get right into it. One of the interviewees on The Gluten Summit was Dr. Alessio Fasano, the Chair of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Mass General, Harvard. Dr. Fasano is the world’s leader in looking at gluten and its effect on the gut and the development of something called pathogenic intestinal permeability; leaky gut is the slang term for it. What Dr. Fasano tells us is that no human can digest gluten. No human. I have to back up. Gluten is not bad for you; bad gluten is bad for you. There’s gluten in rice and there’s gluten in corn, there’s gluten in quinoa; gluten is an umbrella term for families of proteins, and it’s the toxic family of proteins in wheat, rye and barley, those glutens are not good for us as humans. The other glutens are fine. So it’s the wrong word to use really in gluten sensitivity. It’s kind of like someone handing you a piece of paper and sa