Myth: Even if you don’t have celiac disease, there’s a good chance you could have gluten sensitivity.
Then, there are the people who don’t have CD but may experience symptoms (usually joint pain, fatigue, “foggy mind,” or numbness of their extremities) after ingesting gluten. This is referred to as non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), a condition that remains a matter of considerable debate. One study about NCGS, conducted at Australia’s Monash University, received lots of attention. It was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study — the “gold standard” of dietary studies — and it found that “irritable bowel–like symptoms of gluten sensitivity” were more frequent in people treated with gluten (68%) than in the subjects who did not have gluten (40%). Many people took this to confirm that just because you don’t have CD, it doesn’t mean your "gluten sensitivity" is all in your head.