by Melissa Diane Smith

Three types of genetically modified (GM) corn that have been approved for human consumption have been linked to organ damage in mammals, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Committee of Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN) and the Universities of Caen and Rouen in France analyzed data that had been previously obtained to assess the effects on various organs in rats of three approved types of GM corn eaten for just 90 days. The corn varieties studied were NK 603, which had been genetically engineered to tolerate Roundup herbicide, and MON 810 and MON 863, which had been genetically engineered to produce two new insecticides. According to the researchers, these types of GM corn are potentially eaten by billions of people and animals worldwide.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) The decade of 2000 to 2009 was a breakthrough decade in our awareness and understanding of gluten intolerance.

In 2000, celiac disease was considered very rare and non-celiac gluten sensitivity was hardly on anyone’s radar screen (except for a few researchers’ and doctors’ – and mine as well. I published Going Against the Grain in 2002.)

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by Melissa Diane Smith

If you know wheat bothers you but have never been tested for gluten sensitivity or celiac disease and continue to eat wheat, you likely are putting your life at risk. A large 2009 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that people with diagnosed, undiagnosed and “latent” celiac disease (also called gluten sensitivity) have a higher risk of death, mostly from heart disease and cancer.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

If your doctor thinks there is no research to support gluten sensitivity that is not celiac disease, three new scientific abstracts published in a Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition supplement and presented at the annual NASPGHAN pediatric gastroenterology scientific meeting in mid-November might change his or her mind. Leading gluten researchers Alessio Fasano, MD, of the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research was involved in two of the research reports, and Rodney Ford, MD, of the Children’s Gastroenterology Clinic in Christchurch, New Zealand, authored the other.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Gluten sensitivity is much more than celiac disease: It is ten times more common than celiac disease and it is a brain and nerve disease, not a gut disease, New Zealand’s Dr. Rodney Ford said at the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group general meeting in Tucson on November 7th.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Dr. Rodney Ford, who is known as “Dr. Gluten” because of his expertise in gluten sensitivity, will present evidence to support his breakthrough idea that gluten sensitivity is caused by neurological harm, not gut damage as is commonly thought, at the Southern Arizona Celiac Support Group meeting in Tucson, Arizona, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, November 7, 2009. The event will take place at the Pima Community College District Office Campus, 4905 E. Broadway, Building C, and it is free and open to the public. To view a map of the location, click here.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

People with gastrointestinal symptoms who test negative for celiac disease have long known that they are apt to get a diagnosis of “irritable bowel syndrome” (IBS) from a doctor rather than a diagnosis of gluten sensitivity. But gluten sensitivity provides a trigger that can explain at least part of the spectrum of symptoms that constitutes IBS, a group of doctors from the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute in Canada and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota propose.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) - It used to be that I was the only one writing about non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a condition largely dismissed by mainstream doctors. Major newspapers wouldn’t come close to touching the subject. Now, seven years after my Going Against the Grain book came out, the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper with a circulation of three-quarters of a million people, has run a story “Gluten sensitivity: A long road toward discovery” and a follow-up story a few weeks later, “Going gluten-free – for many reasons.”

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Ever wonder how gluten can cause such a wide array of symptoms in so many different people? Dr. Rodney Ford, a doctor from Christchurch, New Zealand who is known as “Doctor Gluten,” just may have the answer – that gluten causes symptoms, in both celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, by directly and indirectly injuring nerve networks that control various organs and systems in the body.

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Last week Natural Products Expo West, the country’s largest natural, organic, and healthy products trade show, was marked by gluten-free products at virtually every turn and an astounding array of new products sweetened with agave nectar. The trends toward more gluten-free and agave-sweetened products both sound like positive developments, but consumers need to beware of the unadvertised pitfalls of these foods.

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