You may or may not have noticed that like everything else in this world, food and nutrition have fashions and trends, vitamin D and kale shake anyone!!!?. This one – avoiding gluten – has been going on for a couple of years.
First of all, there are genuine medical conditions that dictate that a gluten free diet is essential, namely Coeliac’s Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis. There are lots of symptoms of Coeliac’s disease; diarrhoea, vomitting and stomach cramps are the main ones, but they can be as vague as headaches or there may be no symptoms at all. If you have any concerns see your doctor. Some people with IBS will have a gluten sensitivity – but they should always have things like Coeliac disease and Inflammatory Bowel Disease ruled out. Gluten sensitivity in currently being intensively researched and is showing lots of new indications for gluten elimination diets. So who knows I may one day have to eat my words!
So those are the reasons to avoid gluten. The most recent “reason” to not eat gluten is because you’re eating “clean”. This maddeningly vague phrase usually means avoiding trans fat, artificial sweeteners, processed foods and, apparently, gluten. Why, why gluten? The others I get, but how did gluten get lumped in with that lot? I just don’t know. The cynic in me is says; it is so that food production companies can make money out of people who don’t understand that gluten, is a protein, that the majority of the population have no difficulties digesting.
Amusingly, these “gluten-phobes” having been getting some bad press recently, although annoyingly they’re dragging the Coeliac’s down with them…
The above video is from the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, and is obviously not my own, however the tears of laughter rolling down my face very much are! The question he asks is simple, “What is gluten?”, and the answers from these LA’s fitness fanatics ranges from “bread” to “flour derivative!”
So why are people avoiding a protein they know so little about? Got me. Answers on a post card please! Gluten itself does not make you fat and it does not build up to toxic levels in your liver. Last year as part of my “Continued Professional Development” I set myself the challenge of 40 days gluten free. This wasn’t part of any health kick or “detox”, it was purely educational, an exercise in empathy for Coeliac sufferers. Oh my, was it hard! Socially isolating, expensive, awkward and on more than one occasion, tasteless! I have a new found respect for anyone who commits to a lifelong gluten free diet for medical reasons or because it brings them symptom relief, and I question the sanity of anyone who does it because “gluten, is like, really bad for you”!
If you’re are concerned about Coeliac’s disease, the Coeliac UK website is amazing but if in doubt go to your doctor.
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/campaigns-and-research/is-it-coeliac-disease-diagnosis-campaign/
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