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I'm pretty suspicious of Robb Wolf's stuff, because it's almost entirely anecdotal and based on microscopic studies rather than actual data about what's going on inside a human body. He criticizes studies that disagree with his assertions (like The China Study), while promoting studies that are far less convincing that happen to support his opinions. Several of the studies he cites about "leaky gut syndrome" seem to be based on watching chemical reactions in a petri dish, which is nearly nonsensical when trying to understand a system containing billions of organisms. "Leaky gut syndrome" is, historically, an alternative medicine diagnosis, and conventional medicine doesn't really have much science on the subject. That's not to say it's completely fabricated, just that whenever someone is a "leaky gut syndrome" expert, as Robb Wolf is, there will be tons of people who will go see him, get his "treatment" and feel better for a while because of placebo effect. Everybody in the chain believes in the disease and the cures, so it tends to work a lot of the time, at least long enough for it to be considered a successful case study for Wolf's purposes. That said, where there's smoke there's often fire, and there does seem to be a lot of smoke around grains in the human diet, and some of the fire may be caused by gluten. So, in the interests of keeping things simple, I've cut gluten out of my diet during the week. On "cheat day" I eat plenty of grains, mostly brown rice, as it's a food I love (with curry and such), but also pastries and breads and beer. I don't really buy the leaky gut syndrome argument, as wheat has never caused me intestinal distress, while numerous other foods have due to always having had a sensitive stomach, but I'm willing to take a chance on the idea that wheat and gluten might have negative outcomes. Also, eggs are shown to help burn fat and build muscle, so I eat a lot of organic eggs from free range chickens (4-6 per day), and I've also added mussels and shrimp back into my diet (the first meat I've eaten in 17 years, and the only meat I can feel ethically comfortable eating). |