Gluten Free Dieting... Pointing to danger?
Saw this article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles... and thought Chowhounders might find it interesting and have plenty of opinions on the topic.
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I worked for several years in the natural foods industry and I came away with real sympathy for celiacs. That said, I sure met (and worked with) some very obsessive people who were always ready to jump on the next alarmist bandwagon. I tend to stray on their side of the equation, though, if I have to choose between them and the chemical hydrogenated fast-food-snarfing sugar-infused prescription-popping crazies.
Was I too harsh? ;-)
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re: sandylc
chicgail
Jan 28, 2013 07:29 PM
There are nutritionists and medical practitioners these days who automatically take almost everyone off gluten as a SOP for nearly everyone who comes to see them. I find that silly and faddish - much like when people were worried about aluminum cooking utensils causing Alzheimers disease a decade or so ago.
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re: chicgail
Oh, yeah, I know so many people who are very serious about their "gluten sensitivity". I keep it to myself, but I just don't buy it in 100% of the situations. It kind of minimizes the seriousness of true celiac disease. Then again, the increased demand for gluten-free products has been great for true celiacs. Silver linings....
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re: sandylc
Sal Vanilla
Jan 28, 2013 10:35 PM
That IS a silver lining. Seems like 3 or so years ago finding gluten free was impossible. Now they label everything. Coke - gluten free!
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re: chicgail
Sal Vanilla
Jan 28, 2013 10:32 PM
Wait. I can eat out of my aluminum pot and pie tin again? For me it never ended my friend. Never ever ended.
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re: sandylc
Sal Vanilla
Jan 28, 2013 10:31 PM
Laughs~ Those two are mutually exclusive? ; )
I too have sympathy for those with celiacs. Terrible.
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Excuse me, Juliejulez, but we've had that discussion already, 165 messages' worth:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/884849
As for the story in the Daily Beast, the headline is hype and incorrect. There is no such dietary condition as gluten deficiency, and billions of people for thousands of years have lived healthy lives without wheat products. If ignorant people wrongly attribute their weight problems to gluten rather than, say, starch and sugars, that's no reason to beat up on gluten-free foods and the people who need or prefer them.
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re: John Francis
Sal Vanilla
Jan 28, 2013 03:05 PM
Huh. I did not see it as beating up on gluten free products.
If Chowhounds forbade any discussions on topics even cursorily discussed well then they may as well pack it in and go elsewhere eh? Whew. Glad that isn't happening.
I believe the article discussed gluten sensitivity and not gluten deficiency.
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re: John Francis
juliejulez
Jan 29, 2013 10:34 AM
That's great that there was another discussion. I was responding to this one.
Whether or not wheat has an adverse affect on us in general (it doesn't on me and I lost 50lbs in 2012 all while eating wheat products) is still unknown. But, it's a pretty common fact that people will jump on the latest fad diet and I really do think that going "gluten free" is one of those fad diets. You say people have gone for billions of years without wheat and lived healthy lives. The same could be said that people have lived healthy lives WITH wheat products. My SO has Crohn's disease, and in an attempt to alleviate some of the symptoms, his doctor put him on a gluten-free diet. It made the symptoms worse so he stopped the gluten-free diet, and the symptoms went back to where they were when he started.
I just think there isn't one end all be all "fix" to people's weight problems, and in order to really be successful at weight loss, you have to have the right mindset, and I don't think people who eliminate an entire food group (unless they really do have a medical issue with it, like Celiacs do) have the right mindset, as evidenced in the quote I mentioned in my post above.
However, I was not "beating up" on gluten-free products, as I said in my first post, the people who actually need them (ie Celiacs) appreciate them, and I think it's great there's options available for them now.
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juliejulez
Jan 28, 2013 11:38 AM
While I do know a couple people who do have actual, diagnosed celiac, who appreciate the glut of gluten-free products on the market, I think for the most part it's just another "fad" diet thing that manufacturers are capitalizing on. Sort of like low fat was in the 80s/90s. Like with low-fat products, a lot of the gluten-free products are still laden with chemicals and other stuff you probably wouldn't really want to eat if you really knew what it was.
People will always want to find a "solution" to their weight problems, because really, heaven forbid they just admit they eat too much. Manufacturers know this, and will keep capitalizing on it.
This quote was especially bothersome for me: "“If this is all some twisted placebo effect, I don't give a damn,” Robertson says. “I feel better. Regardless of whether the change is in my head or my stomach, and I don't intend to mess with that.”" It just shows that people aren't really willing to fix their problems... they want something else to fix it for them. So this person, she admits it might just be all in her head, but she's OK with that.
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