After six months gluten free, I couldn't believe the effect it had on me after one piece of pizza, thanks to a poor decision late at night while drunk. To think I spent 45 years of my life habituated to that. Frightening.

I have celiac disease, and a good friend who does not have celiac disease, but has had enormous improvements in her life after going gluten free and sticking to it, so I have to say gluten.

Any starches turn into sugar in the body. Dairy in milk form has a lot of sugars. I have issues with lactose than can be combated with a lactase enzyme pill very successfully, and no problems with hard cheeses.

An area of contention not mentioned so far is soy... some claim benefits from the phytoestrogens, others say that's bad (but rarely why) and lots of other people are allergic or have some other issue with it. Is that because of soy's innate properties, or genetic engineering, or pesticides used in its growth? Too many questions to sort out, and the scientific literature hasn't narrowed any of those factors to a degree I'm comfortable with.

Maybe it's just that all the stuff we think of as "food" is so royally buggered that it disagrees with us in some way or another. We're very far from truly living off the land, even those of us like me who have home gardens because the crops are so distorted from when our ancestors ate them in their wild growing state.

for obesity, i think it's a tie between industrial seed oils and fructose because those two have more of an impact on leptin signaling and hypothalamic inflammation. if you're a celiac, have severe gluten intolerance or have an autoimmune condition, gluten could be worse.

What is, Monsanto?

I think sugar is far worse. I feel like its impact is a lot more direct on insulin production.

Not too concerned with dairy. I know its not strictly Paleo, but I don't know where else to get calcium without the oxalates. And lactose doesn't have much of an effect on insulin either.

Gluten, sugar, seed oils, any frankeinfood - all are ebul !

I think it's different for everyone...bio-individuality...though they're all evil to my body, personally.

For me the things to be shunned, are in order

1. Gluten

2. processed oils

3. added or concentrated sugars

4. overproduced / fake foods

5. most other grains

sorry but did you just downvote this answer of mine?

http://paleohacks.com/questions/40562/whats-worse-gluten-or-sugar/40599#40599

What are the chances that I would get a completely random downvote on an old thread and then have almost an identical question pop up moments later (which is a duplicate by the way).

Me thinks you did a search, read some answers, and then posted this question.

If I'm wrong, tear me apart with scathing comments insisting otherwise!!! Muah ah ah!!

Anyone have a gander on which is the most inflammatory?

I have no problem at all with dairy, though i understand other folks too. For me the largest evil of all is seed oils and generally almost all cooking oils, besides good-or-better grade olive oil (even cheap olive oil is bad for me). This was probably my most important discovery.

Aside from that, gluten and empty carbs are the second and third worst offenders. I am not able to maintain very low carb for more than a month or so, but if i eat moderate carbs that are nutritious vegetables i seem to do great.

By far it would have to be sugar.

Can you think of anything more disruptive to metabolism and hypothalamic nutrient sensing than directly ingesting the core signaling molecule - glucose.

I think that's a question that going to have a different answer, based on the individual. :)

I find I have no problem with full-fat dairy, raw or fermented (I try to avoid the pasteurized or skimmed stuff), but that's me. A good number of people who have problems on the grocery-store stuff can tolerate raw milk much better (still has all the natural enzymes and everything to help your body break it down). I also don't find that I have a problem with small amounts of white rice or oats (by small amount I mean a serving a few times a month).

For me, gluten is the worst, followed by excess refined sugars, and then the nasty oils (soybean, canola, corn oils, that sort). I've never really eaten many non-fermented soy products, so I don't know what kind of effect they would have on me personally, but I'm happy to continue avoiding it as much as possible.