Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead
I knew a guy in university who was diagnosed with it (around 1990) and had never heard about it before.
Then in the last 5 years I hear about all these gluten free foods and started wondering WTF. Now it is common?
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Its pretty common. Some say its the most common genetic disorder. What's changed since the 1990's is the awareness of the problem. Also, over the last century wheat has been bred to contain more and more of the protein that causes the reaction, because it is also the protein that gives bread its elasticity. Wheat was bred to contain more of the protein simply because it was better for bakers etc. Another thing is that its often hard to diagnose as symptoms can vary wildly between people.
A scary thing is that some food products are now being experimented with to ADD gluten to them. Tomatoes are one such food. The idea is that this will extend the life of these products and make them less susceptible to bruising etc. Not helpful if you are a celiac or have problems with this allergen.