As for the challenge test you describe, abstention from gluten usually leads to recovery of proper intestinal and immune function and repletion of deficient vitamin and mineral stores. Once that is achieved, the body naturally resists the worst effects of a small and isolated dose of gluten.
For celiacs though, with sufficient gluten over enough time, the structure and function of the intestines deteriorate and a range of celiac symptoms may reappear. Yet there are many asymptomatic celiacs who test positive for celiac antigens even though they believe they have been gluten free. Trace amounts of gluten can easily slip in via obscure components in processed or restaurant foods.
In addition to celiac disease, there is an emerging disorder called non-celiac gluten sensitivity, with gluten a problem in various other intestinal disorders as well. Some medicines can also interfere with routine digestion, as my father found out with Clopidogrel. The problem became evident first with bread, then other carbohydrates. Yet my father does not have celiac disease.
The test I described WAS for “non-celiac gluten sensitivity. (NCGS)” Here’s what really happens:
As you quit being a child, sugar and a lack of fiber cause irregular bowel movements (which actually PREVENT colon cancer) and IBS. With the hysteria about NCGS, people stop eating traditional pasta and sugar and start eating fiber. They cure their IBS and get more regular and say “OMG! I had Celiac’s disease!” or “I had Gluten senstivity!”
Bull. Gluten is good for you. And for half of these hippies, it’s the only real protein they get. Cut out their protein, and they get weak-minded and subservient. Maybe its because hunters and gatherers needed to be less aggressive than hunters. I don’t know why, though. But I do know that every society that wanted subservient, mindless peasants cut out their protein, from King John who banned hunting to the Maoist Chinese who said eating animals was decadent, to Adolf Hitler who promoted veganism. If you recall, even in Oliver Twist, the orphanage riot began with a nice, new lady who gave the orphans meat.
And that’s why this Gluten-free epidemic occurs in the same strains of affluenza as the crusade against meat.