In general, going on any restrictive diet requires careful planning to ensure that what you eat is healthy and nutritious. But many people don’t do the planning.
I have a family member who thinks it causes her sons poor behavior…so she says, if he eats gluten he gets in trouble at school. From what I’ve seen now he goes and eats something “forbidden” and has a built in excuse to behave anyway he wants, the gluten made him do it.
I have a niece that when given something to eat that she doesn’t want claims there must be gluten because it makes her feel bad. And when there’s something she doesn’t want to do, she claims her stomach hurts from something she has eaten and can’t do it. She’ll miraculously recover minutes later. Her mother falls for it every time. This girl eats nothing but junk. She also sneaks treats that are not gluten free while her mother isn’t looking and it does her no harm at all.
I understand people with celiac needing to be extremely careful…but I do not understand how the no gluten thing became such a popular fad with people with no issue.
It’s a triumph of marketing over common sense. Remember the low fat fad, when Nabisco had an entire line of cookies loaded with sugar and artificial garbage that people rushed to buy because they were low fat? This too shall pass.
The article is really not about “danger of gluten free fad for people without celiac.” Crappy processed foods are not good for anyone, celiac or not.
Agree that article does not say gluten free diet is bad but that many products labeled gluten free are not healthy because of sugar and fat in the products. That is a huge difference. First is to find if someone even has an issue.
D did Whole 30 diet where you cut out just about everything in your diet that are common allergy/reaction triggers for 30 days. Nuts, dairy, gluten, alcohol, caffiene. Not easy but worth it as it turned out. . At the time she had thought she was lactose intolerant and tried dairy substitutes, cut out cheese etc which helped. Still felt tired and had headaches.
She bought the Whole 30 cookbook (great recipes BTW and very healthy) and started the plan. The idea is sort of a “re-set” of your system. After 30 days (no cheating) you add back in different types of food one at a time (and I think in a particular order) to determine if you have a reaction to them.Turns out she was gluten intolerant (not lactose intolerant as she first thought) which is a great find because she loves dairy. Gluten intolerance can affect lactose too as it turns out and symptoms masquerade as one another.
She misses bread/pasta but doesn’t miss feeling sick and definitely loves that dairy is back in her diet. Vegetables have replaced the pasta in many dishes and I have to say the meals are great.