better? Researchers at Columbia University recently asked
this very question, and studied patients who did not have
celiac disease or a confirmed traditional wheat allergy.
However, they did have symptoms such as fatigue and
cognitive difficulties after eating wheat. The researchers
placed the subjects on a wheat-, rye-, and barley-free diet,
and after six months, signs of immune activation and
intestinal cell damage had disappeared. This was associated
with significant improvement in both gastrointestinal
symptoms and cognitive function, as reported by the
patients via detailed questionnaires.^26 While the medical
community has been debating and disputing the very
existence of wheat sensitivity, this exciting research is
among the first to validate nonceliac wheat reactivity with
objective measurements.
HOW DO PROBIOTICS WORK?
Though it may seem like probiotic drinks, supplements, and
even probiotic-infused foods are all the rage today,
probiotics are by no means a new phenomenon. We’ve been
fermenting foods and harnessing the power of live bacteria
to preserve perishables for millennia. The earliest record of
fermentation dates back more than eight thousand years–
and nearly every civilization since has included at least one
fermented food in its culinary heritage. In Japan there’s
natto, in Korea kimchi, Germany loves its sauerkraut (as do
I), and modern yogurt, now ubiquitous, holds on to its