I thought we broke up with gluten-free diets

I finally understand why people swear by going gluten free

Gluten. The wheat protein we wish would love us back just as much as we love it. But is gluten itself really the problem?

A lot of people say they feel better after cutting it out. But is that because they removed gluten—or because they finally swapped processed, refined carbs for real, whole foods?

Culturally, it feels like we’re hopping back on the sourdough train. The days of “all bread is bad” are behind us. These days, if it’s sourdough, it’s basically a health food. As long as it’s not commercial bread packed with additives, preservatives, and enriched flours—and you’re either making it yourself or buying it fresh and local—you’re in the clear, right?

I recently listened to a conversation on Culture Apothecary with Sue Becker, who’s been baking her own bread since 1992. She swears that homemade bread helped rid her family of chronic health problems.

And yet—we’ve also seen a massive uptick in research on non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). If you’ve ever tried to make sense of it, you probably felt like you were losing your mind. Two well-designed studies can lead to completely opposite conclusions. And when those contradictions hit social media, everyone feels that confusion.

One TikTok tells you to eat more meat. The next says to eat none at all. One podcast says sourdough is medicine. Another tells you to avoid bread altogether.

Maybe we should all just say f**k it and eat the damn cake.

So what’s the deal?!
Should we be eating gluten or not?
Does cutting it out heal the gut—or does making our own bread fix the problem?

What are we supposed to believe when even the experts can’t agree?

That’s where I come in. I’m not here to tell you what to do. I started Untreated to help you think differently—to ask better questions, understand your biology, and challenge the narratives we’ve been sold.

Because here’s the truth: the system we live in was never designed to heal you. There are no incentives to fix you.

This morning, I saw a Neil deGrasse Tyson ad for his Masterclass. I’ve never rewatched a YouTube ad in my life—but this line hit me hard:

“One of the great challenges in this world is knowing enough about a subject to think you're right—but not enough to know you're wrong.”

If you can keep that in mind, you’ll be a lot harder to mislead—and a lot closer to the truth.

So let’s dig into it.

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Wait… what is gluten again?

Wheat contains dozens of proteins, but gluten is the one that gets all the attention. And technically, gluten isn’t a single protein—it’s a complex made of two main ones: glutenin and gliadin. These are found in wheat, barley, and rye.

Like any other protein, our body is supposed to break gluten down into smaller fragments—think of it like cutting a ribbon into pieces. But gluten is unusually tricky to digest.

Why? Because gliadin is rich in glutamine and proline—two amino acids that make it resistant to breakdown by our main digestive enzymes (like pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin).

So instead of being neatly broken down, large fragments of gluten remain intact. And those fragments are biologically active—meaning they can interact with your gut lining and immune system in ways that go way beyond being a simple nutrient.

Modern wheat is not GMO—but it is different

There’s no GMO wheat on the market, but that doesn’t mean modern wheat hasn’t changed.

During the Green Revolution of the 1950s–60s, wheat was bred for higher yields, shorter stalks (for easier harvesting), and stronger gluten (for commercial baking).

This selective breeding made gluten more dense, more complex, and more immunogenic—which means more of it survives digestion, and more of it looks like a threat to your immune system.

Ancient grains like einkorn, emmer, and spelt haven’t gone through this same transformation. Their gluten structure is simpler—and often easier to tolerate.

So why is gluten all the sudden a problem?

If humans have been eating wheat for thousands of years, why are so many people struggling with it now?

I’ll do my best to explain this so stay with me here.

Gluten proteins—especially gliadin—contain sequences of amino acids that mimic microbial antigens. These are the patterns your immune system is trained to recognize as dangerous.

And when those fragments slip through the gut lining intact, they are not ignored. They trigger some alarms.

In a healthy gut, your intestinal lining is protected by mucus (made by goblet cells) and sealed with tight junctions that act like gates. But when the gut becomes inflamed—due to poor diet, stress, medications like NSAIDs, or microbial imbalances—those gates start to break down.

The mucus thins.
The junctions loosen.
The immune system starts to panic.

This is leaky gut. And it’s more common than anyone wants to admit.

Now, instead of filtering and managing what gets through, your gut becomes like a leaky sieve—letting large, undigested molecules (like gliadin fragments) pass through to the immune cells waiting on the other side.

Quick immune system crash course

Meet the troops.

You’ve got two main branches:

• Innate immunity – the first responders. Fast, nonspecific. They look for patterns (like microbial shapes).

• Adaptive immunity – slower, smarter. T cells, B cells, antibodies, memory.

When gliadin crosses into territory it shouldn’t, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on the gut lining light up. These receptors belong to the innate system—and if they detect a threat, they call in backup.

But here’s the catch: our immune system is trained by our microbes. And thanks to antibiotics, C-sections, glyphosate, and overly sanitized environments—we’re losing the microbes that help us tell friend from foe.

Without them, the innate system overreacts.
And gluten—something we should be able to tolerate—starts to look like it could be a threat.

From inflammation to autoimmunity

When exposure is chronic—and the gut barrier stays open—low-level inflammation can escalate.

For some, it tips into full-blown autoimmunity, like celiac disease.

But here’s the key that most people don’t know: you don’t have to have celiac for gluten to be a problem.

Autoimmunity exists on a spectrum. And gluten may not cause the fire—but if your gut is already inflamed, it can absolutely pour gasoline on it.

The gluten-zonulin trigger and how the gates get opened

Here’s where things get interesting.

Gluten actually “communicates” with your gut lining.

One fragment of gluten—gliadin—can bind to a receptor on the surface of your intestinal enteroctye cells called CXCR3. When gliadin fits into this lock, the cell releases a protein called zonulin.

Zonulin is the gatekeeper. It decides how tightly the cells lining your intestines should be held together. When zonulin is released, it tells those tight junctions to loosen up—to open the gates.

Quick pause here: your gut lining is one cell thick. Just a single, fragile barrier with tight seals. It’s meant to keep food, bacteria, and toxins inside the gut and out of your body. Technically the inside of your intestinal lumen is “outside” your body.

Gliadin, a fragment of gluten, binds to a receptor on your gut lining called CXCR3. That tells your cells to release zonulin, a protein that acts like a gatekeeper. Zonulin then signals the tight junctions (TJ) between your gut cells to loosen—literally opening the gates. What should stay sealed inside your gut (like undigested food particles, microbes, and toxins) can now leak into your bloodstream. In the right conditions, this can trigger inflammation, confusion in the immune system, and even autoimmunity over time.

But when zonulin rises, those seals loosen. The gates open.
Stuff that was meant to stay in your intestines leaks into your bloodstream and lymphatic system—now on the “inside” of your body where they don’t belong.

This is what we mean by leaky gut.

The fortress is under attack

At first, your immune system doesn’t panic because it can handle a few foreign protein fragments.

But if those tight junction gates stay open—and your gut stays inflamed chronically—your immune system goes on high alert. Kinda of like if soldiers didn't sleep for days and can’t tell if the enemy or another platoon coming toward them so they just start firing anyways, your immune cells start to get sloppy and start labeling everything suspicious as a threat.

That’s when your adaptive immune system joins in.

Once it decides gluten is an enemy, it remembers.
And because some gluten fragments resemble parts of your own body—like your thyroid, joints, or nervous system—your immune system can start attacking you.

This is called molecular mimicry. And it’s one way autoimmune conditions can begin.

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Gluten isn’t the enemy itself, but it can leave the gates open for one to come in

In a healthy gut, gluten is just another plant protein.

But in a stressed, inflamed, or already compromised gut…
It can unlock the doors.

And once the fortress is breached, your immune system can’t always tell the difference between friend and foe.

What came first, the gluten or the egg?

If you’re dealing with leaky gut, gluten might be a factor—but it’s rarely the root cause. The real culprits are what we expose ourselves to every single day.

Pharmaceuticals

• NSAIDs: damage epithelial cells and weaken tight junctions