Why are so many people allergic to gluten?

The answer isn't a single "smoking gun." Instead, it is a perfect storm of biological, agricultural, and industrial changes that have fundamentally altered what we eat and how our bodies react to it.

1. We Aren't Eating "Grandma's Wheat"

When we talk about 5,000 (or 10,000) years of bread consumption, we often make the mistake of assuming wheat has remained a constant. In reality, the grain that sustained the Pharaohs is genetically distinct from the wheat in a modern grocery store loaf.

Historically, humans ate "ancient grains" like einkorn, emmer, and spelt. These are diploid or tetraploid wheats, meaning they have a relatively simple genetic structure. Modern bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is hexaploidy, a complex genetic hybrid designed for high yields and industrial processing.

During the "Green Revolution" of the mid-20th century, spearheaded by Norman Borlaug, wheat was selectively bred to be "dwarf wheat." This shorter, sturdier version of the plant could support massive, heavy seed heads without falling over. While this saved millions from famine, it also changed the protein composition of the grain. Modern wheat has been bred specifically for high viscoelasticity, the "stretchiness" that allows for fluffy, airy bread. This stretchiness comes from higher concentrations of glutenin and gliadin, the two proteins that make up gluten. Specifically, modern wheat contains higher levels of "D-genome" proteins, which are the most reactive for people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity [^1].

2. The Death of the "Slow Rise"

It’s not just the grain that changed; it’s the way we prepare it. For thousands of years, bread was a slow-motion miracle. Whether it was a sourdough starter or a long-fermenting yeast dough, bread was usually allowed to rise for 12 to 24 hours.

During this long fermentation, bacteria (lactobacilli) and wild yeasts do something incredible: they "pre-digest" the flour. They break down the complex starches and, crucially, they begin to dismantle the gluten proteins and FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols). These are short-chain carbohydrates that are notorious for causing bloating and gas [^2].

In the 1960s, the "Chorleywood Bread Process" revolutionized industrial baking. By using high-speed mixing and chemical additives, bakeries could produce a loaf of bread in about two hours. While this made bread cheap and plentiful, it stripped away the fermentation process that once made wheat digestible. We are essentially eating "raw" gluten that hasn't been properly broken down by microbes, forcing our modern guts to do the heavy lifting that the sourdough starter used to do on the counter [^3].

3. The "Vital Wheat Gluten" Explosion

If you look at the back of a package of processed food, even things that aren't bread, like salad dressings, soups, or "veggie burgers", you will often see an ingredient called Vital Wheat Gluten.

Because gluten is a fantastic binder and stabilizer, food scientists have started adding concentrated, isolated gluten back into almost everything. This means the average American is consuming significantly more gluten per day than their ancestors did, even if they eat the same number of slices of bread. We are effectively bombarding our immune systems with a protein that is already difficult to digest, leading to what some researchers call "loss of oral tolerance." Essentially, our bodies get tired of seeing so much of it and eventually flag it as an enemy [^4].

4. The Microbiome and the "Hygiene Hypothesis"

Our internal environment, the gut microbiome, is the frontline of our immune system. In the last decade, we have begun to realize that our "gut garden" is under siege.

The Hygiene Hypothesis suggests that our modern, ultra-sanitized world has left our immune systems "bored." Because we aren't exposed to the same variety of soil bacteria, parasites, and microbes as our ancestors, our immune systems have become hyper-reactive. Instead of fighting off a parasite, the body mistakenly attacks a protein like gluten [^5].

Furthermore, the widespread use of antibiotics and the Western "Ultra-Processed Diet" have thinned out the diversity of our gut bacteria. Certain bacteria are responsible for helping us break down gluten; when those bacteria are wiped out, the undigested gluten fragments can irritate the gut lining, leading to "leaky gut" (increased intestinal permeability). When the gut leaks, these proteins enter the bloodstream, triggering a full-scale inflammatory response [^6].

5. Environmental Triggers: The Glyphosate Controversy

A controversial but widely discussed theory involves the use of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup). In the U.S., glyphosate is often used as a "desiccant" to dry out wheat crops just before harvest, making them easier to mill.

Some researchers hypothesize that glyphosate residue on wheat may disrupt the gut microbiome or inhibit the enzymes required to detoxify the compounds in wheat. While the scientific community is still debating the direct causality, many people report that they can eat wheat in Europe (where glyphosate use is more restricted and different wheat varieties are grown) without the same symptoms they experience in the United States [^7].

6. The "Gluten Iceberg": Diagnosis vs. Prevalence

Finally, we have to consider that "the last decade" might be a bit of an optical illusion. For most of those 5,000 years, people didn't have "gluten allergies", they had "failure to thrive," "wasting disease," or "chronic stomach troubles."

Before modern blood tests and endoscopies, Celiac disease was often a death sentence for children, and non-celiac sensitivity was simply misdiagnosed as IBS or "nerves." We are currently living through an explosion of awareness. We have better diagnostic tools now than at any point in history. This phenomenon is often called the "Celiac Iceberg": for every person diagnosed, there were likely dozens "under the water" who suffered in silence for generations [^8].

Summary: A World Out of Balance

We didn't suddenly evolve to hate wheat in the last ten years. Instead, we changed the wheat, we changed the way we bake it, we added it to every processed food on the shelf, and we altered our gut health through antibiotics and chemicals.

Humanity survived on bread for 5,000 years because that bread was a fermented, whole-grain product made from simple seeds. The modern, ultra-processed, high-gluten, fast-acting "bread" of today is a different beast entirely. We are essentially testing the limits of human biology in real-time.

Would you like me to look into the specific differences between European and American wheat regulations to see why many travelers find they can eat bread abroad?

Sources:

[^1]: The Truth About Gluten! | British Journal of Nutrition | Cambridge Core

[^2]: What’s driving the rise in dietary wheat sensitivity? - Research Features

[^3]: Growing Intolerance | Sustainable Food Trust

[^4]: Gluten intolerance is on the rise - Healthright

[^5]: The Unfolding Story of Celiac Disease Risk Factors - PMC - NIH

[^6]: Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity - PMC

[^7]: Glyphosate and Celiac Disease: A Hypothesis Worth Testing | The BMJ

[^8]: Dr. Schär Institute - Prevalence of Celiac Disease