My email inbox exploded this week. Okay, not really, but I got so many google alerts about Miley Cyrus’ new gluten free diet that it almost did. In case you don’t like getting daily updates about Celiac Disease and the gluten free diet, or don’t skip straight past the headlines on MSN to read the celebrity gossip (not saying that I do, but … yeah, I totally do) Miley announced on Twitter last weekend that she’s allergic to gluten and lactose.
She could very well have intolerances for both and feel much better not eating them – in which case, that’s great for her. I hope that she’ll use it as an opportunity to actually educate her fans about what gluten is and how to avoid it. But given that she’s tweeting about how crappy gluten is and using incorrect terminology (which you know, because we’ve already established that allergies are reactions to proteins – which lactose is not), I have my doubts.
What’s interesting and a little strange to me is that every single article said that the gluten-free diet is a really good diet … for those of us who have Celiac, but discouraged others from trying it. Personally, I have mixed feelings about people trying GF – I roll my eyes at the ones who try it as a diet to lose weight, but I know a few people who have other autoimmune disorders and have found that avoiding gluten eases their symptoms, or who’ve gone gluten free as an experiment to see if it would help ease their chronic rashes or migraines and those are definitely good reasons for trying the diet.
I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, what makes the gluten-free diet healthy is not the absence of gluten, but the level of attention it requires. Reading ingredient labels and carefully researching restaurants to make sure they have something appropriate and learning to cook. But just swapping gluten-free bread for sandwiches and gluten-free cookies for dessert isn’t going to have much of an impact.
All right, now that I’ve shared my two cents, here are a few recent articles that caught my attention.
“Cereal Offender” about Celiac research in Australia. What caught my eye was this quote: “we need more research to find out whether those who don’t have the disease [celiac] actually benefit from food that does not contain gluten.”
“Should Doctors Ignore Body Mass Index To Better Diagnose Celiac?” discusses how as more people are diagnosed, the symptoms have become more wide and varied, especially weight.
“Gluten Free Does Not Have Long Term Legs” I agree with the “trend expert” that within a few years, the world will move on to the next weight loss fad. But just like there are still people who do Atkins or Weight Watchers, there will always be people who do gluten-free. Some of us might stick with it a little longer than others, though.
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interesting post. i recently had drinks with a gluten intolerant friend and he was talking about his frustration at gluten free diets as popular and ‘cool’. it is interesting how food trends fad like this and i can only imagine the mixed feelings someone like yourself has about it.
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I agree with you 100% – I even posted something similar a couple of weeks ago! I hate to judge, but it really makes me worried when people who do not have a medical reason not to eat gluten decide to pursue a GF diet – I firmly believe that my diet was healthier for the “average person” before I went gluten-free. It was filled with whole foods and whole wheat products – it was really hard for me to find the balance and all of the nutrient (and fiber) in a gluten-free diet and I still struggle with it (read: I’m sick today because of a gluten mishap)!
Love this post – so spot on. GF shouldn’t be a fad diet, but a plan that leads to careful evaluation of what we are putting in our bodies and why!
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How have I missed all your posts?! Are your emails subscriptions still down!?
Anyway, my current thinking on the gluten front is as follows: (I measure my ‘symptoms’ just in terms of how much energy I have and whether I get brain fog in the morning). I’ve found that true sprouted bread I do really well on (you know the pure kind just made from ground sprouted wheat and cooked at low heat? NOT zeikel which looks totally processed to me). Plenty of energy, good mood etc. Sourdough I do okay on, although I have a tendency to feel a bit groggy and to not get that full (that’s possibly because I like it so much though!
). Oats I do pretty well on, especially if they’ve been soaked in yogurt or something before. Most other grains don’t really fill me up AT ALL and kind of disrupt my metabolism and I just dont feel that wonderful when I eat them (this includes gluten free grains like brown rice though). Since I don’t really get that excited about eating them anyhow it seems sort of pointless to. Regular bread I do quite like and that is definitely the worst though… if I avoid it for a bit and eat I get really bad stomach cramps and I just genuinely feel pretty bad… so I just don’t anymore! But yep – Ive found there to be real truth in that it seems to matter how the grains have been prepared and I think that, generally speaking, people would always do better to pay attention to the quality and source of their food rather than specific macronutrient (apart from in the case of allergies of course). A REALLY high proportion of sickness can be linked to processed food, so surely it makes more sense to try to totally eliminate that than to assume that because some people are celiac eliminating gluten is what you should focus on…
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