“I’ve been ‘glutened,’” Devon O’Brien said to her friends after indulging in sushi last April.

After taking one bite, she immediately knew that the sushi contained gluten.

“You have to be careful because soy sauce and tempura both contain gluten,” O’Brien said. “I told them [the restaurant] I had a gluten allergy and there may have been a language barrier because I got served sushi with tempura.”

O’Brien, who graduated from Iowa State in 2013 with a degree in journalism and mass communications and a minor in culinary science, said that getting “glutened” is what they refer to accidentally eating gluten in their community. The community O’Brien is talking about is people with celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, or NCGS.

O’Brien was diagnosed with celiac disease and NCGS, but she believes that she has celiac disease.

“Seven people in my family have celiac and it is hereditary,” O’Brien said.

And O’Brien isn’t the only one. Today, 18 million Americans report to have gluten sensitivity and 3 million people have been diagnosed with celiac disease, according to Business Insider and Real Clear Science. These numbers have increased immensely within the last decade; before then, the issue was practically nonexistent.

NCGS, less formally known as gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerant, is where your body cannot tolerate products that contain gluten, but the nutrients are absorbed and digested normally. Having gluten sensitivity causes your body to have similar symptoms to celiac disease, which is why people think they go hand in hand, but they are completely different.

“Celiac is an autoimmune disorder,” said Sally Barclay, a licensed dietitian at Iowa State. “Celiac is a condition that doesn’t allow you to digest gluten because the villi in the small intestine are not able to grab the nutrients out of the food and put it into the bloodstream. This causes your body to lose any nutrients that you are taking in.”

Because both of these conditions are so new, she said, doctors are still doing studies and tests to find out more information. Recently, doctors and scientists have reason to believe that NCGS doesn’t exist.

Gluten is a protein that is found in barley, wheat, rye and some oats. There is enough evidence to prove those with celiac disease cannot digest this protein, but in cases of NCGS, there is no proof that gluten is what ‘s causing the gastrointestinal distress.

According to The New York Times, a recent study by Dr. Peter Gibson, a gastroenterologist at Monash University in Victoria, Australia, examined 37 people with NCGS and irritable bowel syndrome. The participants were put on diets that restricted gluten and FODMAP — carbohydrates found in foods — and their symptoms improved. Some of the participants were then reintroduced to foods that contained gluten, without their knowledge, and they experienced no symptoms.

Doctors’ and scientists’ most probable hypothesis is the pain people are experiencing isn’t from gluten at all, but is caused by FODMAPs. FODMAPs are carbohydrates found in many foods and stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. These carbohydrates pull water into the intestinal tract and when not properly absorbed, they can cause gas, diarrhea, abdominal pain and fatigue.

There also may be a connection with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. IBS is a disorder that causes the structure of the bowel to be abnormal because it affects the large intestine. It’s possible that people who suffer from both of these ailments are feeling symptoms of NCGS because of IBS. The symptoms are so similar.

“FODMAPs are something they are looking at now, for the treatment of IBS,” Barclay said. “This is fairly new research and maybe this is what some of these symptoms were caused by not being able to completely digest these things. At least now they can suggest this to people.”

ISU Dining Services recently added Simple Plate to dining options at Union Drive Marketplace, which helps serve students who believe they have gluten sensitivities. 

“However, we caution customers with a severe allergy to gluten to beware that it is a big production area and cross contact, while we do everything we can to prevent it from happening, may occur,” said Lisa Nolting, dietitian for ISU Dining Services. “It really fits the needs of those who can’t have gluten but don’t have the high sensitivity of someone with ciliac disease.”

Nolting said Dining Services also provides students with the option to use the Special Diet Kitchen for which they need a doctor’s note and to be registered with Disability Resources in order to use. There are 45 students who use the Special Diet Kitchen on a regular basis in order to avoid the top food allergens, such as nut and gluten allergies. 

Others can become very unhealthy by avoiding gluten. They go to great extremities by cutting out entire food groups.

Nolting said gluten-free diet services are the most popular diet requests she receives, whether from students who have celiac disease, have sensitivities or are choosing not to ingest gluten.

“When people knock out all grains, they’re missing out. Our muscles and our brain’s primary fuel is glucose,” Barclay said. “Glucose is generally broken down from grains and also from fruits and veggies. Sometimes when people knock out grains altogether they get constipated because they aren’t getting much fiber. Other times, people feel very sluggish and they won’t be able to think properly. This is because they have restricted their carbohydrates so much that their brains aren’t getting enough glucose.”

ISU graduate, Maddie Crawford, was diagnosed as gluten intolerant in 2006 and she had a hard time adjusting to the new diet.

“For me, it took awhile to adjust my diet to get all the nutrients I was missing. I lost 10 pounds because I didn’t know how to supplement my nutrients,” Crawford said.

According to Business Insider, the gluten-free industry will reach $15 billion in sales by 2016. This industry’s come a long way since it first started and nowadays, you can buy almost anything in gluten-free, but may cost you a lot more.

“I don’t know why people would choose to eat this way. I would never choose this lifestyle. It is expensive and difficult,” said Andrea Garvey, an ISU graduate who has celiac disease. “But I think it is just a phase and soon enough, another diet trend will replace the gluten-free diet.”

Maybe the next trendy diet will be a FODMAP-free diet.