Haven't made a post vilifying something in a while, figured I would shed some light on the implications of gluten or more specifically gliadin and it's effects on humans, without celiac sprue.
I wanted to start with some unrelated illnesses that many suffer from and work my way towards a "healthy population" whatever that is. below are PMID's which if entered in pubmed will bring you to the studies i am summarizing, if you would like to form your own conclusions, below are mine.
1.PMID: 22564339
2.PMID: 20406576
3.PMID: 19033217
these studies amongst numerous others look at gluten and casein wrt autism and spectrum disorders (adhd, pervasive developmental disorder, aspergers, high functioning autism and autism), both double blind and case reports as well as a mechanism of action for the issues caused. I raise these issues because it's related to the digestion of these peptides and not on sensitivity as per celiac. In this patient population it appears they cannot fully digest gluten which creates something called an exorphin, functionally similar to an endorphin our endogenous opiod. These exorphins are created via the improper digestion of gluten and can gain access to the CNS and bind opiate receptors amongst other things. This in turn can case a host of issues, gi inflammation and abhorrent gut motility, anxiety, stupor, hyperactivity, depression and as one author suggested brain damage (neuronal death, not retard level

). these patients urinate high levels of these peptides when challenged compared to controls and brain traces of gluten can be found, crazy.
Now the reason i bring this up is that alot of people suffer from ibs and digestive issues, while nothing like a spectrum illness can be potential areas where gluten and similar peptides are exerting strong negative influences on more then just digestion.
PMID: 22519894
this study looks at non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and again found similar effects of gluten on mood and somatic (body) symptoms compared to people who apparently can digest this peptide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/magazine/Should-We-All-Go-Gluten-Free.html?pagewanted=allthis paper highlights the study i cannot find for some reason, but gluten is inherently difficult to digest, for anyone. Also, until recently it was not thought to cause inflammation in non celiac patients, this is not the case. Gluten inflames the intestines inherently, it is difficult to digest and does cause intestinal issues regardless. What does this mean, well it means that if you suffer from low inflammation you probably won't notice anything (i doubt it though) and can keep eating it without noticing (i doubt it). I have no doubt that eliminating this from one's diet will provide benefits regardless of illness.
PMID: 22516148
schizo's have high levels of antitissue transglutaminase
PMID: 20626025
again in psoriasis patients.
PMID: 21586414
showing that gluten free diet has some benefit (much more research is needed) for things ranging from arthritis to IBS to HIV related pathologies.
anyone else care to shit on gluten? or praise it even.