[PopeOfNope]

I really don't understand the whole "hate," in particular on the internet, for people who eat Gluten free food. Who really cares?

You get the same reaction from any kind of health based diet. It makes people feel judged, like they don't eat healthy. It's also a diversion from the normal, which allows an "us vs them" line to be drawn. People are still, at their heart, tribal. It's instinct to draw those lines because, in theory, at one point in time those instincts kept their ancestors alive.

tl;dr: it's human nature to hate the unusual.

As for gluten-free specifically, I was gluten free for years. Eating it would provoke a systemic inflammatory reaction, yet I don't test positive for any wheat allergy, gluten intolerance or celiac.

After many years of feeling pain when I eat my favorite food (pizza), I tripped on some research that suggested it may not be the gluten that was causing the problem. The research suggested that the supplementation of iron may be causing issues with some people. I also stumbled on anecdotal reports of gluten intolerant americans traveling overseas and being able to eat french pastries and italian pasta without issue. Armed with those two facts, I decided to do an n=1 experiment.

I bought some italian flour and used it to make bread and pizza. My allergic-like inflammation symptoms went away and I lost 10 lbs in a week. When I ran out, I went back to store bought bread. My inflammation symptoms came back immediately.

Just food for thought.

[kazinator]

Italian flour has gluten. Gluten is the stuff that makes the dough rubbery so you can stretch it out with your fists. Pizza flour has less gluten than some other kinds, so that the elasticity is lower, which lets it be stretched flatter with greater ease, with a less of a tendency to shrink back. But the gluten is there, nevertheless. Without this gooey protein, it would probably tear and fall apart. (Imagine trying to roll out a pizza crust made out of nothing but starch and water.)

[alistairSH]

I'm not sure why people have down-voted this response. All wheat flour contains gluten. Gluten does provide much of the texture to baked goods (try some gluten free bread - it's mouth-feel isn't the same).

That isn't to say different varieties of wheat or flour might cause different reactions in people. But that isn't the gluten; it's something else.

[PopeOfNope]

You missed the point. The gluten isn't what was causing my problems. It was whatever monkey business american companies do when processing their wheat. I don't know if it's the iron enrichment, the bleaching or the GMO stock, but I can tell you this: something is rotten with american wheat and it isn't the gluten.

[mattzito]

I think GP is saying that in his case the iron supplementation in U.S. Flour was the cause of his problem.