Why are SO many people allergic to gluten these days? Is it really this common?

What's happening? What year is this?

There are a few answers:

1) most are not 2) America's wheat is notoriously bad; there have been so many people from other countries and get really sick from eating our wheat because our government allows all kinds of pesticides and crap into it which are banned in other countries 3) there is awareness around gluten intolerance now, whereas there wasn't for years and years; so in the past if people DID actually have it, they were often sickly and lived with it because that was just "how they were."

I'm not providing any links or anecdotal evidence. By now, I'm sure people have read enough about people from other countries coming to America and not being able to stomach the food; and also, that America allows all kinds of shit into their food that other countries have banned because of their adverse affects on the human body. That alone should show you that this country doesn't care a SHIT about the health and wellness of its people and only thinks of you as a money making automaton.

American’s don’t believe in paternalism when it comes to food. I’d attribute that more to hostility to government regulations as to indifference. We can choose to pay more for organic wheat if we want. Most prefer less expensive food.

OP is several decades late in this “discovery.”

The symptoms of gluten intolerance are varied and common, so there is a lot of inaccurate self-diagnosis as awareness of this issue has gone up. Less than 1% of people have celiac disease, but the incidence is rising. Another 6% of people have various degrees of intolerance. Yet 1 in 3 people are avoiding gluten. They are either totally misinformed or just like to feel “special”

Wheat was also bred to have more gluten to make it a hardier crop. So there is a real effect happening.

I'm not but my dog is. amongst other things.

I’d bet my dog that R’s 2-3 is a Canadian.

Tell me about my new dog.

Gluten gives me headaches and diarrhea. It has never been classified as an allergy, but more of an intolerance. Is that an acceptable explanation, OP? Or should I just eat it and suffer the consequences?

I think it is gmo

I'm not allergic to gluten, but I do feel a lot better when I don't eat it. I get very bloated and gassy with it. I think America hasthe absolute worse flour and it is processed to death and just has no nutritional value.

Wheat today has 4? times as much gluten as it did long ago due to hybridization. Stuff is added to it later and put in bread that never was before. Some of that is outlawed in Europe. There's more like that.

I ate pasta and wheat once, and it nearly killed me.

I was GF way before it was trendy. My grandma was celiac, cheated all the time, had horrible health issues from it and died at only age 70. I inherited it from her, it skipped a generation.

I won’t die from a small amount but it causes horrendous G/I distress — and some real damage.

So no, I don’t commiserate with those of you who feel all resentful and put out because some of us have to eat GF.

During the COVID quarantine my partner and I decided to get a small flour mill and bought some hard red wheat berries on line. After we ground them into flour we made homemade whole wheat bread It rose really high and it was the most delicious bread I have ever had. For a while we would make it semi regularly. But then we got bored (and fat) and stopped. That stuff was addictive.

r6 - I'm r2 and I was born in Hawaii, raised in the U.S.

I did date a Canadian for 3 years back in the 90s, though.

Does that count?