I firmly believe it's bad for everyone. The effects are wide-ranging and insidious, even though a lot of people poo-poo the idea that it can be related to gluten. Everyone wants a pill for their asthma, arthritis, anxiety/depression, GERD, irritable bowel, obesity, diabetes, etc; no one wants to believe that they might have to give up their donuts and spaghetti for a true solution. I'm not implying that it's a cause for those conditions all the time, but for many, it's the main culprit.

Gluten proteins basically force open the channels in your gut that are supposed to only let in certain nutrients. This is a real Pandora's box and the crux of leaky gut syndrome.

You're looking for straight science, but you're probably not going to get it, because no one wants to spend money on a trial that results in an intervention that only involves cutting out Kraft and General Mills' grainy garbage, rather than an expensive pharmaceutical.

I also don't believe that celiacs are a "special case": they happen to be people on the extreme end of the spectrum whose intestines have been sufficiently wrecked that doctors decided that this was the diagnosis point. To me, that's a lot like only diagnosing alcoholism once someone is in liver failure. The damage doesn't happen overnight.