Lilly Anthony- gluten-free diets

Summary: Many people over the years have done gluten-free diets. However this comes from celiac disease, which is “a digestive disorder in which your body is abnormally sensitive to gluten, a protein component of wheat, rye, barley and crossbreeds of those grains.” Now many Americans, especially in Hollywood, have decided to take on the gluten-free diet. It is known to have many health benefits aside from helping with celiac disease. During World War 2 in the 1940s, people with celiac disease had almost no mortality rate even with the lack of fruits and vegetables. Turns out that flour was made with potato starch and not wheat. In the 1970s, celiac disease was connected through a genetic immune response. Then in the 1980s, the use of describing someone as non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a condition that has the same symptoms of celiac disease but without the immune system damaging the intestines. Europe tended to have few numbers of people with celiac disease, but during the 1990s, U.S. had an extreme number of more people. Many people were curious why there had been little to no celiac disease in the past, but it was ignored until in the 2000s, a researcher note the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States at around 1%.” Then more people saw giving up gluten as beneficial, until the 2010s, where it isn’t helpful for everyone, especially if you don’t have any gluten sensitivity to begin with.

Analysis: This article discusses what a gluten-free diet is and how the history of celiac disease and this diet evolved over time. Most people have probably considered going gluten-free, so this article would be goods to read for information about this. I know many people who have had to live gluten-free and this article really informed me all about this disease. When John Winthrop encouraged Christianity at Massachusetts Bay Colony, there were people who did not support his views which only led to more religious groups with opposing views. Just like Christianity wasn’t for everyone, neither was a gluten-free diet.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/health/gluten-free-diet-history-explainer/index.html