Health, thanks for sharing your opinion. My daughter did indeed have an endoscopy which confirmed a diagnosis of celiac disease. I would not have committed her to a such a restrictive lifetime diet otherwise (and her physician would not have advocated doing so either), especially because she experienced no GI symptoms.
That said, if people do experience relief from IBS symptoms on a GF diet, I would not tell them to stop, even without a diagnosis of celiac disease. It’s possible their is link between gluten (or a similar substance) and celiac, and that this link is not well-understood. For years scientists thought chronic fatigue syndrome was psychosomatic; new research links it to the XMLV virus, which is associated with prostate cancer.
I’ve never met anyone who committed to a GF diet because it’s a “fad”. According to Dr. Alessio Fasano, about 1% of Americans have celiac disease.