Originally Posted by tical

unless you have a gluten sensitivity, which is somewhat common. this will typically cause an auto-immune response that will damage the villi in your small intestine and actually create small "holes" in your stomach, allowing larger molecules of proteins, etc. to enter the blood stream.

so you enjoy a double whammy

1. you can become malnourished due to a the damaged villi in your small intestine
2. you can also have an immune system response to the molecules that have escaped your "leaky gut" basically creating an environment where your body is continuously attacking itself and foreign antigens

if you eat oats, it's a good idea to make sure they're gluten free. pure oats don't typically contain gluten, but they are cross contaminated with it during processing (they are processed in the same place that wheat is processed)

unless you've done testing (stool, blood) to ensure you have no immune response to gluten, it should be avoided