And yeah, gluten intolerance doesn't exist. Or rather it is a false-negative where they're missing the real diagnosis of Celiac, IBS, IBD, Chrohns, Colitis, etc. Also, there is the factor that your body no longer recognizes it after being off of it for so long that it treats it as a toxin. Same thing happens with meat with some vegetarians, or spicy peppers with people who don't eat them, etc.
HA HA HA SURE FOOD INTOLERANCES DO NOT EXIST LOL
Are you volunteering to clean the bathroom after I ate something I shouldn't?? And if my turbulent bowels, intense joint pain and crippling fatigue are actually IBS disguised as food intolerances, how come I have no symptoms as long as I keep onion-, garlic- and lactose-free? If someone stops eating gluten and gets better, are you saying that's irrelevant? I used I be snotty about food intolerances too, and then I got some. And every time someone says "Just eat it, it's really nice!" I want to punch them in the face. With my bowels. Because no one would make this shit (pun intended) up if they knew what it was really like.
Mostly my friends are people who had to do a lot of experimentation. They dealt with a lot of issues - intestinal pain, joint pain, and other intestinal issues. The celiac tests came back negative. (I also have a friend with Crohns, so I'm somewhat familiar with that).
It took a lot of experimentation to realize that if they gave up gluten (mostly wheat, but other gluten-containing grains), then their issues went away. You have to be hyper aware and ready to experiment to figure that out.
One of my friends just mentioned that she doesn't do gluten. She's a physician's assistant. She had many patients who gave up gluten and swore by it, but basically told them they were full of crap - you don't have celiac, you are making this up.
Then she decided to try it herself, and couldn't believe the difference. Thing is, when your body behaves a certain way, you get used to it. In her case, I think it was constipation. She figured it was normal. Then she got rid of gluten and all of her nasty problems, that she'd just been dealing with, went away.
I personally don't think I have a gluten sensitivity. But I did experiment with giving it up for a month last year. After several months of a strict calorie controlled diet (where I was losing about 2 lbs a month), I gave up wheat, sugar, and wine. For a month. My calories remained the same, I just substituted rice, beans, popcorn, corn, and potatoes, for any bread, sugar or wine. I lost 7 lbs that month. (It's important to note that in a normal month, I'd have 1-2 servings of bread, wine, or sugar in a week, so not very much).
I'm glad I don't appear to have issues with gluten, because I love bread sooooo much. Is there anything better than a slice of toasted sourdough for breakfast with fresh garden tomatoes??