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from the chew-on-this...-at-your-own-risk dept.
from the "damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't" dept.
Ars Technica provides the scoop on a new study that should alarm practitioners of gluten-free diets--especially the 1% of Americans that suffer from celiac disease and thus are gluten-sensitive. While admittedly a small study, the researchers found many of the blood and urine samples of the gluten-free participants had elevated levels of mercury and arsenic.
Those just happen to be toxic substances that often accumulate to high levels in rice, a food that is naturally gluten-free. Rice flour and other rice products are often used as substitutes for gluten-containing ingredients in foods.
Exposure to high levels of mercury and arsenic is linked to risks of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and neurological problems.
The study is very small, and it’s unclear if the elevated levels are directly linked to the participants’ self-reported diets or even if the mercury and arsenic levels are high enough to cause health effects. But the researchers say the findings raise concern.
“These results indicate that there could be unintended consequences of eating a gluten-free diet,” Maria Argos, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead author of the study, said in a statement. But it’s impossible to draw firm conclusions “until we perform the studies to determine if there are corresponding health consequences that could be related to higher levels of exposure to arsenic and mercury by eating gluten-free.”
Argos and colleagues reported their findings in the journal Epidemiology.
High accumulation of mercury and arsenic in rice is not a new thing. Previous research as shown that rice plants are at least ten times better at accumulating toxins from the soil than other grain plants. However, it seems that people are putting together the evidence that a high rice diet has its own set of unfortunate consequences too. In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed new regulation restricting the allowable arsenic levels in rice cereals for infants. Chew on that organically grown, fat-free, sugar-free, low salt, gluten-free, flavor-free, nutrition-free, non-GMO, PETA-approved, recycled cardboard for a while.
(Score: -1, Interesting) by jmorris on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:47PM
What? Following fad diets have unexpected consequences? This is my shocked face.
There is a very small number of people with a genetic defect who should avoid gluten, for everyone else it is perfectly fine. It isn't even like lactose where only some of us evolved a genetic trait that allows us to consume the stuff. Excluding a major source of nutrition to chase a fad should have been an obviously bad idea. Eat as diverse a diet as you can do practically and odds are you are going to be ok. Every food source is going to have good and bad aspects, but if you do not eat a lot of any one food source you probably won't get enough of the bad stuff to matter and most good things appear in enough different foods you will get enough of them. Which is why we evolved to eat exactly like that, eating whatever we could get our hands on as we moved about and things came into and out of season, animals migrated, etc.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 14 2017, @07:36PM
Hey, asshole, as dumb as fad diets are no one deserves goddamn arsenic poisoning for following them. You're taking joy in their suffering, going "Good, serves the hipsters right." Screw you.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by jmorris on Tuesday February 14 2017, @09:02PM
Stupid hurts, that is generally the clue that it is stupid. Trying to remove the consequences of being stupid is why we have a broken world tottering on the abyss of chaos. It does not matter whether you approve, the universe will punish stupidity. The goal is to teach people this basic truth so that they will invest more effort into avoiding doing stupid things. The purpose of pointing and laughing at stupid people isn't to hurt them, it is an unavoidable side effect of using them as object lessons to prevent future harm.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:43PM
Typical, no the world is teetering on the brink due to greedy assholes causing lots of problems. People. Just. Like. You.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 15 2017, @05:50PM
That's way the fuck out of proportion and you know it. And you're one of those stupid people, but you're shielded from the consequences of your idiocy by circumstance and privilege. Fuck you twice.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @12:15AM
Allergies can develop, over expose to something and you can become allergic. Have some change in your body, such as the gut bacteria, and you can then develop reactions to gluten. The human body is complicated and overconfident people such as yourself never seem to learn even after a lifetime of corrections. Narrow minded arrogance is the worst!
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday February 15 2017, @01:13AM
Celiac disease is caused by leaky joints between the cells of the intestine. (I forget whether it's the large or the small intestine.) But, yes, it can be developed with age. It's also partially hereditary...e.g. my sister has celiac disease, but I don't, and neither did my grandfather, who died at 94 of anemia because is blood was leaking out through weak joints between the cells of his large intestine. No way to even treat that, at least not then (about 30 years ago now).
Perhaps if the blood pressure is high enough the contents of the intestine doesn't leak into the body. In that case you get your choice of problems.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @07:31AM
It's not caused by leaky joints. It's caused by an autoimmune reaction to gluten.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 15 2017, @07:34AM
"very small number,"
No, it's not a very small number. About 1% of the USA population has Celiac disease. Another 1-2% have other wheat or gluten allergies/intolerances. When you add in family memers who have to avoid gluten as well to avoid cross-contamination of their loved one's diets, you're talking at least 5% of Ameicans.