Dare I use the word "fad?!!" This is almost a fighting word to label this new gluten-free trek for health a fad. So, this leads me to talk about coconut oil. What you say? We are talking about wheat and you chase a rabbit about coconut oil. For you old timers, you might remember coconut oil was pulled off the shelves and deemed not only unhealthy for us but the oil of a sure heart attack! We were warned that to use the coconut oil we would be clogging our arteries and be in line for a certain heart attack. You might chuckle at the lack of education and knowledge at the time would cause us to lose the very oil that is now herald as heart healthy choice. Coconut oil is considered the oil of choice not only for the heart but a whole gammet of other nutritional benefits. Those I won't go into as I would be truly chasing the rabbit. The point is that 20+ years ago, we all jumped on the band wagon following the 'certified studies' proving that we should not eat coconut oil. Hum....today, everyone is jumping on the band wagon to cut gluten from our diet because 'studies show' the validation. Really?
Again, let me reinterate, I am NOT addressing those with celiac who must get off gluten products. This is to the masses who have simply jumped on the band wagon to go gluten free not even knowing why.
In my last post, I mentioned questions/comments that were given me which I will address yet another one today.
"I feel so much better since I have gone gluten free and I have even lost weight!"
To answer this I appear to chase yet another rabbit. My husband, Robert, is a financial adviser with Parsonex Financial Services. He helps people with all types of financial services from living trusts, college funding, life insurance, 401K rollovers....okay the advertisement is over! lol. Anyway, he also does financial counseling and helps people set up a plan to get out of debt. We are Dave Ramsey advocates and Robert uses the snow ball approach to help people get out of debt. The first thing Robert does, when counseling someone, is for them to write down every dime and nickle they spend for two weeks. The in debt person will balk and tell Robert they really don't spend that much money, but will commit to tally their spending for two weeks. The result? The in debt person comes back shocked at how much money they nickled and dimed themselves to death.
Now, transfer this same scenario to diets and eating. None of us would readily admit that we eat processed food nor that we really eat that much. We just don't know how this extra layer of fat got on our bodies. We just woke up one day and bam...there was this 'love' handle! What is the method of all diet programs? Track what you eat!
When you go on a gluten free diet, suddenly you become aware of everything you put into your mouth. You start asking..."Is this gluten free?" It will definitely limit the food selection you can consume. No longer are you able to snatch the cookie, the cake, the doughnut, the multiple other snack foods. Another interesting fact, the gluten free restaurant portions are normal size, if not smaller. There are no 'super size' meals in the gluten free selections! So what happens, when you no longer super size your meals? You lose weight!
Most who go on the gluten free diets also are told to cut out sugar, pop (soda if you are from the east!), saturated fats, all processed foods. No wonder you would feel better! Anyone would feel better skipping the doughnut and the bag of chips and the pop and the....
The problem with the gluten free diet is it is not a long term good diet for you. As I said in my last post, the gluten free diet depletes you of many necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber that the gluten grains have because the gluten products readily available are made from refined gluten free grains. If you jump on the band wagon that the current gluten free fad is calling you to do, you have to make a concerted effort to reintroduce those missing nutrients into your diet. The average person/low information person hasn't even considered the nutritional loss. There are a lot of people who are going to be suffering other health symptoms due to lack of nutrients.
Will this 'fad' be something we laugh at like we do the coconut oil fad of yonder years?
For those who are finding their ears steaming reading my post, my only plea is to research for yourself the facts and not to jump on the coat tails of Dr. So n' So said nor let the verbiage 'studies show' sway you. Read the information for sure but don't believe everything you read! Just as all the studies and doctors assured us that coconut oil would kill us, take today's info with a grain of salt. Hum? There is that pun again using the word grain! :) Till we meet again on yet another commonly asked question.
"They" said nuts were bad for us too.
ReplyDeleteSo true!! I forgot about the info bashing nuts. There is just way too much misinformation out there bombarding us. Thanks for the reminder. :)
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