Do you frequently experience bloating, headaches, mood swings, short memory loss, difficulty concentrating, constipation, diarrhea, short temper, hair loss, tingling of arms and legs, joint pain or anemia, skin disorders, gas, cramps, ADD, infertility or chronic fatigue?

All for unknown reasons?

Fed up of sitting in the doctor’s office waiting to be told there’s nothing wrong with you?

Thinking that you’re a hypochondriac?

The chances are that you are one of the many people suffering from a gluten intolerance or even celiac disease.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food.

An estimated 1 in 133 Americans, or about 1% of the population has celiac disease.

It can affect men and women across all ages and races.

It is estimate that 83% of Americans who have celiac disease are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions.

The average person has to wait 6-10 years to be correctly diagnosed!

The difference between celiac disease and gluten intolerance is that celiac disease is with you for life, whereas a gluten intolerance isn’t necessarily a lifelong condition.

Celiac disease requires a 100% gluten free diet and even tiny traces can cause harm. This is not always the case with those with a gluten intolerance.

The trigger for celiac disease and gluten intolerance is in grains such as wheat, rye and barley. These all contain the protein gluten.

When we look at what people ate 2.6 million years ago, until about 10,000 years ago, you wont find grains anywhere on the menu.

We evolved as humans eating predominately wild game, seafood, worms and insects, seasonal fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

The typical hunter-gatherer diet!

It wasn’t until about 5,000-10,000 years ago when the farming revolution began that humans began introducing grains into their diet.

Since that time, there has been a significant increase in the consumption of grains and grain-based products, mainly due to the low production cost.

However based on how our human digestion systems developed, it could be argued that we are not designed to eat grains at all.

Not only is eating grains a problem, but also we are now eating highly processed grains and foods that are also sweetened.

An increase in degenerative diseases is often the result when traditional diets are replaced with diets high in processed foods, usually grain based.

However, if you suffer from any of the mentioned symptoms it may be worth eliminated gluten-containing foods for up to 3 months to see how your body feels.

Bagel, beer, bread, cookies, cakes and most baked goods, crackers, pasta, pizza and pretzels are common gluten laden items.

You have to be careful as items such as cereals and even natural flavorings that are found in so many of our daily foods also contain gluten.

It’s also very easy for food to become contaminated with traces of gluten in the factories where they are produced.

Oats is a common example as the crop is usually grown next to a wheat, rye or barley field and the wind carries the gluten over to the oats.

So this will mean some work on your behalf, checking those labels!

The good news is that there are more and more gluten free options available in stores and restaurants worldwide and the Internet is now an abundance of information on gluten-free alternatives.

People are realising fast that eating like our ancestors is the way to go and maybe they weren’t hypochondriacs after all.