2019-05-01_Discover

64 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM

BY DOUGLAS G. ADLER

containing gluten remains a staple of the

human diet around the world, providing

sustenance to billions.

So why this apparent backlash against

gluten?

While the protein is a vital part of the

human diet, for some people, it really is

unsafe. The path to this seemingly simple

discovery was long and tortuous, dating

back to a particularly bleak period of

World War II.

Holland was suffering in the winter of

1944-45. The country was under siege,

and the Nazis had cut off vital supplies.

Starvation was rampant. The combination

of extreme cold and famine came to be

known as the Hongerwinter, Dutch for

“Hunger Winter.”

“It was an act of war, Nazi retaliation

after a railroad strike by Dutch workers,”

says Anne van Arragon, co-editor of The

Hunger Winter: The Dutch in Wartime,

Survivors Remember. “Grocery stores

were empty, and soup kitchens served

only a thin, watery soup. Those who still

had some physical strength traveled a

hundred miles or more to rural areas,

mostly on foot, to beg or barter for food.”

Yet out of this horror came a medical

breakthrough, one that still reverberates

around the world today and helps mil-

lions of people every year: the treatment

for celiac disease.

THE CELIAC SITUATION

Celiac disease — also known as celiac

sprue, or sometimes simply sprue — is a

chronic autoimmune disease that affects

the small intestine, the main organ that

absorbs food into the body. People with

classic celiac disease can’t digest the

gluten found in wheat and other grains.

Untreated, this intolerance can interfere

with overall digestion, leading to severe

diarrhea, malnutrition, weight loss and,

eventually, death.

People with celiac disease can literally

starve to death in the presence of food.

Their reaction to gluten blocks absorption

of what nutrients they can safely consume.

Celiac disease, which is hereditary and

can develop any time after a person starts

eating gluten-containing foods, has been

The Grim

Origins of

‘Gluten-Free’

It took an act of war for doctors to learn

how to treat celiac disease.

The term “gluten-free” seems to be everywhere these days:

food labels, restaurant menus, cookbooks, even water bot-

tles. While it’s become trendy to avoid gluten — a protein found

in popular foodstuffs like bread and pasta — humans have safely

and enthusiastically consumed it for thousands of years. Food

People

with celiac

disease

can literally

starve

to death

in the

presence

of food.

O«

HISTORY LESSONS

During the 1944-45

“Hunger Winter,”

a man searches for

fuel and food at an

illegal rubbish dump

in Amsterdam-Zuid.

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