http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/0 ... ngine&_r=0
I suspected at first that the gluten-free craze was an attempt by some to find a physical explanation for emotional problems, similar to the “epidemic” of hypoglycemia in decades past. But a growing body of research indicates that many may be suffering a real condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity, or NCGS.
It is not celiac disease, a far less common autoimmune condition that can destroy the small intestine. Indeed, no one has conclusively identified a physical explanation for gluten sensitivity and its array of symptoms.
Recent studies have strongly suggested that many, and possibly most, people who react badly to gluten may have a more challenging problem: sensitivity to a long list of foods containing certain carbohydrates.
In 2011, Dr. Peter Gibson, a gastroenterologist at Monash University in Victoria, Australia, and his colleagues studied 34 people with irritable bowel syndrome who did not have celiac disease but reacted badly to wheat, a gluten-rich grain. The researchers concluded that non-celiac gluten sensitivity “may exist.”
Many of their subjects still had symptoms on a gluten-free diet, however, which prompted a second study of 37 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and non-celiac gluten sensitivity who were randomly assigned to a two-week diet low in certain carbohydrates, collectively called Fodmaps.
All patients on the special diet improved, but got significantly worse when fed gluten or whey protein. Only 8 percent of the participants reacted specifically to gluten, prompting the researchers to conclude that Fodmaps, not gluten, accounted for most of the distress.