Gluten is a protein found in grain products such as wheat, barley, rye, oats, and spelt. It gives dough more elasticity, which translates into a better chewing sensation when we eat the final product, including most breads, pastas, and cereals.

Unfortunately, gluten can trigger inflammatory problems and autoimmune reactions. Many ailments — including Hashimoto’s disease and celiac disease — can be traced to gluten allergy or sensitivity. Other neurologic disorders have also been linked to the ingestion of gluten and an abnormal immune system response.

When I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, I don’t recall any of my classmates suffering from food allergies such as gluten sensitivity. But today, food allergies have become commonplace.

Each generation of children seems to complain of more and more food allergies or sensitivities. I have seen it in my children’s classmates as well as in my medical practice.

From my observations, I would say that the two most common food allergies are gluten and dairy. It’s rare that I go through a day of seeing patients without talking about food allergies to at least one patient. And I usually have that conversation with multiple patients.

The question is, why are so many people (especially children) suddenly developing allergies to gluten?

Some blame GMO grain crops for this rapid increase. But I think something has happened to our grain crops to cause a large swath of the population to have difficulty ingesting foods made with those crops.

It has been suggested that because grains have been bred for higher gluten content over time, that is what’s responsible for increased gluten sensitivities.

I disagree. We actually eat less wheat flour now than we did in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rather, something has been done to grains. And that’s what is responsible for the rapid rise in gluten sensitivities/allergies. This problem has only occurred in the last 20 to 30 years.

The use of glyphosate (found in the pesticide Roundup) on wheat could explain the issue. After all, glyphosate use began in the 1970s, and by the mid to late 1990s I started seeing more and more people showing signs of gluten sensitivities and developing illnesses related to gluten.