It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo dream

Re:It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo ... by knowtheory on Monday March 18, 2013 @08:53AM (#5393784)

See, that's just fine! It's awesome that you've found a diet that makes you feel better.

But here's the thing. You can't double blind yourself. That's the whole issue with blind trials. Double blind trials require that you do not and can not determine whether you are in the treatment group or not. Additionally, unless you're having an unrelated person prepare the food, w/o any knowledge of which foods are in the "paleo" group vs the control group, you're not operating double blind.

If it's just you and another person, it would be challenging to set up a double blind experiment (although i'd be interested to hear what you tried).

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Re:It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo ... by vitno on Monday March 18, 2013 @08:57AM (#5393797)

I removed that. I figured that I would get some flak. :P

I did have my roommate prepare the food. Another one of my roommates swapped/labeled the food and then went to class, no interaction. It was mostly because he didn't believe that I could feel it and that it was mostly in my head. (which I totally understand, I was pretty worried about that as well)

We switched out white flour for some almond flour. We also did another one where he sweetened something using honey and another using corn syrup. (I could totally taste the difference there though)

Certainly not rigorous, but enough to make me pretty sure it isn't entirely a placebo effect. I'm planning on getting a Celiac Sprue test at some point.

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Re:It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo ... by LaGrange on Monday March 18, 2013 @09:24AM (#5393953)

If you have adverse reactions to wheat products after provocation (even tiny amounts should trigger the effects), then it's indeed likely that you do have coeliac disease. About 1% of population have it, so it's not that surprising. Just remember that a test would require a proper, long provocation, otherwise you'll just get a negative from the biopsy because there's no intestinal damage anymore.

On the other hand, if a diet helps, and provocations after, say, a month (but without your knowledge) make things go downhill fast, you can be sure enough. Welcome to the wonderful life where you get to check yoghurt for trace amounts of wheat products, and pizza is a holy grail (one of my closest friends is coeliac, for people in Amsterdam area, Woodstone in Haarlem makes good gluten-free pizza).

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Re:It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo ... by acangiano on Monday March 18, 2013 @10:10AM (#5394228)

I'll add to this that it is often (not always) possible to detect the presence of Coeliac Disease through a blood test. That should be the first step before going the colonoscopy route.

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Re:It’s a part of my paleo fantasy, it’s a part of my paleo ... by whatusername on Monday March 18, 2013 @10:08AM (#5394213)

Some of the paleo-esque promoters like Gary Taubes have been making similar comments about most "mainstream" nutrition research.

That being said -- you don't need to find the optimal for the population. You only need to find the optimal for you. And so even un-blind testing is reasonably effective at that.

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