Glyphosate is a very controversial chemical and the science at this point says that its safe. This information may change over time, but at this point Celiac and glyphosate are not proven to be related.
Jennifer Espisito posted an article about how Glyphosate causes leaky gut. The article makes a few claims. First it talks about how the lawsuit that awarded a landscaper that used Roundup daily ended up with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. I’m not sure if Roundup caused his disease or if it didn’t, but they found enough evidence to say it did. Good enough for me. The article talks about how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise and is also related to glyphosate again without support.
Next, the article discusses a meta-analysis of six different studies regarding glyphose-based herbicides. The study talks about how Glyphosate disrupts the gut microbiome and that could “impact the immune system, promote chronic inflammation, and contribute to the susceptibility of invading pathogens.” Also, according to the study glyphosate may act as an endocrine disrupting hormone to alter sex hormones in rats.
Couple of things here – I can’t find the original study. The link in the article takes me to another summary – which is fine, but seems less than scientific. Other links in the article lead to other articles by this same group reinforcing their the same argument that glyphosate is bad – kind of like a circular argument. We all learned that circular arguments don’t prove your point.
Animal studies in fish and rats indicate that glyphosate does disrupt the gut microbiome. I’ve found several studies that talk about glyphosate and fish. The studies indicate that glyphosate in low doses does affect the fish in a variety of ways from the way they eat to the number of eggs produced. However, in the few studies I looked at, it seems that all of these fish species recover without long term effects.
The truth is that to this point, there have been no human studies linking glyphosate to problems in the gut microbiome or as an endocrine disruptor. Animal studies indicate that while there may be a temporary effect, in the longer term (weeks not years) the animal recovers and adapts.
Other Common Myths around Glyphosate
Celiacs can eat wheat in Europe – This is not true. Celiac is an autoimmune disease that does not respect geography. Some claim that because glyphosate is banned in Europe and that we really are gylphosate intolerant. This is not true at all. If it were, I’d move to Europe and be done.
Europeans don’t get Celiac – Really, up until about 20 years ago, medical science thought Celiac didn’t exist in America. They’ve always known Celiac existed in Europe and Scandinavia but thought it was rare in America.
Celiac is a new disease that has only started with the advent of glyphosate use – Nope. Celiac was described in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and the first clear description of Celiac was given in 1888. Glyphosate was not around before the 1950’s, so Celiac was here before glyphosate.
Glyphosate causes food allergies – Nope, food allergies have been around forever. Most children outgrow their food allergies but up to 3% of adult have anaphalactic type reactions to food. This number has remained steady over the past 50 years. Nothing has changed.
Conclusion
I’m not saying that glyphosate is good. My argument is that at this point, the science does not indicate it has any affect on Celiac or the human gut microbiome.
Jennifer Espisito posted an article on Friday about how glyphosate or RoundUp causes leaky gut which leads to Celiac and food allergies. Ms. Espisito has a big platform, much bigger than mine. She has helped raise awareness for Celiac and has been an advocate. However, her post has turned to fear mongering and spreading inaccurate information, which is unfortunate. Please be careful where you get your information, including from me.
If you can afford it, always buy less processed, organic vegetables, free range chickens, and grass fed beef. Participate in a Consumer Supported Agriculture or CSA subscription or find a local farmer’s market. My CSA starts shortly and I cannot wait!!