Gluten free, receive wine only?

[PetraG]

I’m not a gluten expert at all. I have been told that the grains have been genetically altered to have bigger yields, to be resistant to disease, and they get sprayed with chemicals. Along with everything else we put in our bodies, like fumes from cars, and indoor air quality, it seems to me something has got to give. If someone removes gluten from their diet and feels a lot better, that is a pretty easy fix compared to something like diabetes. With pollution and plastics, and poor eating habits, our health is on the decline.

“…something has got to give” does not imply “anything could happen.”

I don’t think the case can be made that our health is on the decline, either. On the decline compared to what? Human beings getting regular medical and dental care in developed countries, particularly those who do not ruin their health by the choice of a sedentary lifestyle or over-consumption of a narrow portion of our abundant and safe food supply, live longer and have a quality of life for longer than at any time in history.

Infant and child morbidity and mortality is far lower, too, if family choices such as lack of exercise are excluded and only the safety and availability of the food supply is considered. That’s not to say that we don’t need to worry about pressures on our health due to efforts to extend the shelf life of foods (such as trans fats) or things of that nature, but saying that some efforts to make the food supply better had the opposite effect is a long ways from saying it is the worst.

I know older people who have finally been diagnosed with gluten intolerance. In the old days, they were simply considered to be people with “sensitive stomachs.” No one knew to even try excluding gluten as a means of treating that. That doesn’t mean these same people weren’t suffering as children back in the 1960s and being told, “oh, you’re just like your mom and your grandma. Sensitive stomachs, it runs in that family…”

 

[Maximilian75]

How do you receive the Precious Blood in the context of the TLM?

 

[OraLabora]

If someone removes gluten from their diet and feels a lot better, that is a pretty easy fix compared to something like diabetes. With pollution and plastics, and poor eating habits, our health is on the decline.

Placebo effect, in many cases.

Gluten is a complex of natural proteins present in wheat and some other grains and has been every since God invented wheat. Removing it from the diet, except for people with celiac disease demonstrated intolerance, is actually what is un-natural. For most folks a gluten-free diet is a fad. For those who are truly gluten-intolerant, it’s life-saving. As my wife, and MD says, “when I see someone who is truly gluten-intolerant, I see someone very ill with weight loss, anemia and generalized weakness”.

With pollution and plastics, and poor eating habits, our health is on the decline.

And yet our life expectancy, until recently, kept increasing. It apparently is now on the decrease, but largely because of the opioid crisis.

We do get more cancer now… because we live longer.

 

[Titivillus]

Well, since they would have asked Him to just cure them of their mysterious horrible abdominal cramps that no physicians of the time had any idea how to treat, probably not.

 

[InThePew]

Rather than get into a debate about the fad-ness (if that’s a word) of gluten free diets or the particular forms of the Roman Rite I’ll just address this simply.

1. The host must be made of wheat flour - other flours like rice flour are not permitted. This means that it must contain at least some (detectable) gluten - doesn’t matter how small. So 0.01% is acceptable.
2. For celiacs (which, incidentally is a genetic condition) and others who, for whatever reason, cannot take the host, receiving from the chalice is perfectly acceptable. You may however get some strange looks and the occasional comment from the extraordinary minister.
3. Alternatively, low gluten (note: not gluten free) hosts are available (e.g. https://altarbreadsbspa.com/altarbreads/low-gluten-breads/). Unless you’re part of a very small congregation or have a distinctive appearance the difficulty with this is making sure the minister knows who to give the host to. Receiving, first or last (or having a distinctive appearance) helps with this. Imho you shouldn’t have to pay for the hosts yourself but you may need to source them yourself. Regardless, this can cause difficulties when travelling, when you parish as a visiting priest or when you’re visiting other parishes.
4. Finally, depending on your level of gluten sensitivity, you may be able to receive a regular host given that for most people it’s only a once a week thing. You should however discuss this with a doctor and not just rely on some guy on the internet…

 

[SpearOfMichael]

I agree, instead of bickering, let us all pray that everyone is afforded the health to receive the Lord’s body in the form of the Eucharist.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

It does seem like a lot more people are getting it nowadays, however. Turning on TV nowadays, there are several ailments like ADHD, autism, COPD and ED which you never heard about back in the day, but now just seem common. I am sure that there have always been some people with celiac, but the numbers just seem to be increasing at a rapid pace for this, and it makes me wonder why.

Is this really an increase, or is it just being recognized more?

Well, speaking as the mom of a child with Autism, some of it is just better diagnostic tools. Autism is a spectrum disorder. Some children are mild some are very severe. Many of the very severe used to be institutionalized. The moderate were often labeled as imbeciles/institutionalize/abandoned and the mild were called the “awkward kids” and were bullied. Those who could not speak were probably just labeled mute and sent to special schools or kept home.

Thank God diagnosis has improved so that these children can live lives of dignity. I am frequently astonished by what my child can do. His mind is fascinating, and his intellect is above average.

 

[MaryTeri]

Yes it may just have been not diagnosed. I have a friend who for years thought she had gall bladder problems and the like. SHe tried going off gluten and felt better. She tried it again and was sick.
I do think it has become a kind of fad too but that doesn’t negate that there are people who truly suffer with the intolerance