What are the benefits of Gluten Free?
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I understand that gluten free looks to be like the latest trend in the nutrition world though it is very real, a small percent of the world suffer from it. So if you do have an allergy/intolerance to gluten, you will see great benefits in your health if you go gluten free.0
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A fad, my *kitten*. Pay attention to others, and maybe just maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
Food intolerance is felt by a large number of people, most of whom will never realize it. In our house, we have 2 of our 3 daughters who struggle with food insensitivities. Their symptoms have been basic GI type issues: Chronic constipation, nighttime stomach pains, things like that. Stuff that people would say, "You should eat less cheese or bananas". After years of this, things became so bad for one of our daughters that she ended up in the hospital. They had to put her on an iv and totally clear her stomach out so it could start healing.
We've been struggling with this for My God, years. We started thinking early on there's probably some food issues involved and started experimenting with the removal of various foods. Never with any luck. Doctors (and we took both daughters to MANY!!!) told us "Don't worry they'll grow out of it. Till then just keep pumping this drug in them". Oh no no no no no... FINALLY we found a doctor who ran some food insensitivity tests on our second daughter. Turns out though she doesn't have celiac's, she is sensitive to gluten. Amongst other things. The "other things" include corn, soy, dairy, citrus, apples, and grapes just to name a small handful. Holy cow was it a long list.
We removed all the offending foods from our family's diet. This was NOT easy. And in no time flat, both children's symptoms disappeared. We found foods that are designed to help build GI health. It's taken a year, but we've slowly been able to reintroduce the offending foods one by one. It took a while for success to start, but with patience and diligence, we've gotten everything back on our daughters' diet but wheat. This one we're waiting a while before we start tackling it.
While all this was going on, we started finding loads of people - young and old - who have various food insensitivities. Most of them have pretty severe problems. One person can't have corn, rice, or gluten. Another can't have dairy. Many have celiac's. My daughter has had a classmate with celiacs in her last 2 years. And all our kids know people with peanut/treenut issues. A friend just contacted me to say her son was just diagnosed with celiac's. I've been giving her tips and tricks that we've been able to figure out over our difficult journey. It's what the old pros do with the terrified newbies.
This isn't a fad. This isn't some new weight loss diet. This isn't the cool new way to eat. This sure as sunshine isn't stylish.
This is difficult. It's occasionally nightmarish. It's battles and yelling. It's crying because your kids can't have what everybody else has. It's not understanding why what's happening is happening. It's missing endless time from work and school visiting one doctor after another. And being endlessly frustrated with the lack of answers. It's not being able to go to restaurants anymore. It's constantly worrying if the person who said, "Oh no, there's no dairy in that" really knows what the hell she's talking about. It's starting to feel queezy and wondering what you did wrong. It's spending 2 hours at a grocery that should only take 30 minutes because you have to read all the labels. On EVERYTHING. It's paying 4 times the price for gluten free pancake mix. It's going down a grocery's brand new "Gluten Free" aisle and noticing that much of their stuff isn't gluten free at all, and wondering what kind of screw up got put in charge of this. And in my family's case, it's sitting on my child's bed stroking her hair as she cries in pain, trying really hard to not let her realize I'm crying too.
Fad. I could only be so lucky.
Trijoe, What a compassionate and caring father! Thank you for showing what it means to love your child and the sacrifices you make as a parent. Your girls are lucky to have you!0 -
To the OP: If you are thinking of going gluten free for whatever reason, keep in mind that simply replacing your bread with a gluten free bread filled with sugar and other junk will not be healthier, or just because a box of cookies says gluten free on the label, it does not make it "healthy" for those with zero problems digesting gluten. It is the people who think that gluten free = healthier for those who can digest gluten (my father is one of those people) that have made it a "fad."
All that being said, if you have chronic digestive issues, or headaches, or sinus problems, "brain fog," etc. then trying an elimination diet (including gluten) is not a bad idea. As others have mentioned, celiac and gluten intolerance are not the same thing. I was diagnosed years ago with IBS and had migraines and chronic sinus problems since I was a child. My GP never took my complaints seriously and told me I just had to live with it while prescribing various medications. I also used to have a severe cow's milk intolerance, which I apparently grew out of because I was no longer violently ill at the slightest taste of cow's dairy. (Note: this is not lactose intolerance.) After trying an elimination diet at the suggestion of my chiropractor (I was seeing him for migraines), I found that my IBS got about 90% better and my sinus problems cleared, as did the brain fog (I'm still working on the migraines). HOWEVER, in my case, the intolerance for me was not gluten, which I discovered by reintroducing the foods. I can still eat wheat and other grains that have gluten in them, but not "junk" breads that are highly processed. I do not have any reactions when I eat sprouted grains and I also don't eat a lot of wheat in general. So...my point is, going "gluten free" for "health" reasons is a good idea just to see how your body reacts (and then reintroduce them), BUT, that's not the only thing you should be eliminating, in my opinion.0 -
There is more public awareness to celiac's disease. That is why some may want to label it a fad. However I went through 10 uncomfortable years of visits to the specialist before anyone thought to test me for celiac. And guess what, I am celiac, and now that I eat gluten free I no longer have unexplained rash, constant intestinal discomfort, compromised immune system, brainfog, and tiredness.
There are many gluten sensitive or wheat sensitive people out there as well that do better without a diet heavey in wheat.
Reasons why it is more common? Our diets have changed, our food sources have changed. In the past, we ate many types of grain, and many different types of wheat. Now most products in the grocerey store are from one type of genetically modified wheat, specificaly modified to contain more gluten.
Also in speaking to a proffesional baker he admitted that most healthy breads contain added gluten. For the reason that people want their healthy bread to be the consistancy of the white fluffy wonder bread. In order to make the loaf rise and not fall apart, you add more gluten.....
If gluten has no affect on you then be happy, but please don't make people feel small or "fadish" for investigating what makes them feel healthier and happier.0 -
lol who said they were grains themselves? simply said they contain gluten, which they do. relax, and get off that high horse for a split second.
Orzo can be made GF, its just pasta in the shape of rice.
Farina is well... a kind of flour. And again, not dependent on the type of grain, its a style. Schaer makes a GF variety.
As for who said it, you did.Gluten is found in a number of grains:
Barley, including barley malt
Bran
Bulgur
Farina
Kamut
Orzo
Semolina
Spelt
Wheat0 -
side note to the poster above me. I too was mis-diagnosed as IBS before being propperly diagnosed as Celiac.0
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Wheat is no longer wheat as God intended. Man has re-engineered it. I grew up on pastas and breads.
I brought my children up on both made from scratch.
Then one time I was hospitalized for a proceedure. So I did not eat for a run of maybe 48-72 hours. I was shocked to see that the arthritis in my hands had all but disappeared.
I guessed correctly that something I was eating was inflaming my arthritis, so I began just eating things that people usually have no issue with, greens, meat. The arthritis stayed calm, I could still bend my fingers without pain.
I added back rice, ok,
Anyway,it turned out that I could not have wheat, potatoes, nuts, eggs, corn, cured or processed meat products (nitrates), dried fruit (sulphates), MSG in prepared foods, the night shade vegetables. Also Celebrex and Aleve. I took them for pain, but they were causing the inflamation.
They put pepper in topical meds because the pepper opens the pores to let the medicine in.
As we get older, our senses dull, vision, smell, taste, hearing, so we tend to add hot pepper to our food.
Mean while, doctors discovered something called leaky bowel syndrome.
My theory is that pepper opens the walls of the intestine just as it allows meds to absorb through the skin, it causes undigested food into the body through the much thinner than skin intestine walls.
The immune system goes on the attack for these foreign particles, then go after the joints.
Now I have added back all foods except hot pepper in any form, peanuts, and wheat. No disease, just can not tolerate either.
So now, without hot pepper in any form, the only two things that will still inflame the arthritis are wheat, peanuts, and those poison chemical additives.0 -
Farina:
http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/grains/rice/organic-farina-gluten-free.html
For pasta making -- http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/farina/
Orzo -- http://www.delallo.com/products/delallo-gluten-free-pasta-–-corn-rice-orzo
Bran is just the hard outer layer of cereal grains, not all of which are in the wheat family.
Semolina -- there are alternatives made with buckwheat.0 -
It is not a fad to people who are diagnosed with celiacs and to people who are not diagnosed but who had results/relief from other GI symptoms.
My GI doc told me gf was "a fad"; in fact, he was pretty dismissive about a food based approach to treating ulcerative colitis other than a low residue, low fiber diet. He is the president of a medical college- I went to him because I heard he was the "best"!
However, I spoke to my primary doc and she encouraged me to try a food based approach. Hell yeah I have improved. Been flare and symptom free for 2 years now. WITH NO MEDS. And I eat high fiber foods now that my intestine has healed!
GF is not easy at first, not cheap and you will not lose weight if you use the gf products which are often made with potato or rice flours.
OP, finally, DO I care what other people think, maybe like you who wonders if it is a fad? Nope. If you think it's a fad, fine... but really, if someone else is doing it for their health or their own reasons, they why should it matter to you?0 -
Gluten free is totally a fad. Most people can safely eat gluten! People have been eating wheat, rye and barley for thousands of years. Gluten free foods are trendy and profitable because everyone wants to think they're doing something extra for their health, but in reality, there's nothing significant going to be gained from going on a gluten free diet unless you are part of the small percentage of people with a serious gluten sensitivity or a disease.
If you're wanting to do something to improve your health, do something you KNOW will- like more organic foods, more whole foods.
the wheat we ate thousands of years ago is essentially a completely different species than the wheat we've genetically engineered today. there are very few similarities, and today's wheat is much more difficult for the human body to digest.
If this is so, why were the statistics I learned in, what was it, 2008, in my sophomore year in high school biology, so different today? Seems as though this "gluten free" thing picked up the last few years, not the last 50.
because where did that information come from? the FDA and USDA, who have a vested interest in the selling and consumption of wheat. 0 -
Farina:
http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/grains/rice/organic-farina-gluten-free.html
For pasta making -- http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/farina/
Orzo -- http://www.delallo.com/products/delallo-gluten-free-pasta-–-corn-rice-orzo
they CAN be made as gluten free varieties, but the typical orzo you buy in stores, see on restaurant menus, etc contain gluten.
you're splitting hairs for no reason. there's gluten free pasta too!0 -
Farina:
http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/grains/rice/organic-farina-gluten-free.html
For pasta making -- http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/farina/
Orzo -- http://www.delallo.com/products/delallo-gluten-free-pasta-–-corn-rice-orzo
they CAN be made as gluten free varieties, but the typical orzo you buy in stores, see on restaurant menus, etc contain gluten.
you're splitting hairs for no reason. there's gluten free pasta too!
Yes a reason, because people get confused which makes my life difficult when ordering gluten free food. I know this isn't your problem, but it IS one for many of us.
Seriously, I think your posts border on conspiracy theory. There is no new wheat order forcing people to eat wheat. Yes, the food industry has latched onto gluten free as a fad... after exhausting the hell out of the organic fad. They also raise the prices on GF foods, I pay more now for many products than I did only some years ago. (quinoa, I am looking at you)0 -
I think GF replacement foods are a bit of a fad. Being "gluten free" is not.
I'll tell you my situation. I had cramping, bloating and chronic constipation my entire life. I saw GI docs, and had tests done. Nada.
Then about 2-3 years ago I decided to cut out WHEAT to see if my nasal allergies would improve (because I always got stuffed up and sneezed when eating).
When I gave up wheat I noticed my stomach cramping and bowels improved immediately.
So I stopped eating all gluten. And instantly, my stomach was happy.
Now I eat some, very limited, very whole grain breads. I still get some issues from that, but by an large, my problems are solved.
For me: soy sauce isn't a problem (it has gluten). My issue was gluten in breads.
Will I always avoid it? I think yes, by and large (with some lapses, I'm sure). We're all human. We all do things we know to be bad for us, so I know I'll "break down" and eat some unknown bread with a meal from time to time. And then I'll pay for it.
But in general, my diet doesn't include breads, and only includes quinoa or rice based pastas (I don't eat a lot of pasta)
It also doesn't include any of the replacement foods. No GF breads, cookies, snacks, etc., except the occasional pasta.
I talked to a holistic doctor (who specialized in nutrition). She said what others have said: the gluten/wheat breads and pastas you buy at safeway bares little resemblance to those we used to eat. They've been genetically modified, over processed, over farmed, you name it.
Perhaps that's why a really simple "ezikiel" type breads cause me fewer issues.
ps: I think GF as a weight loss diet IS a fad, and one that doesn't make much sense particularly if you eat all the replacement foods.0 -
Farina:
http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/grains/rice/organic-farina-gluten-free.html
For pasta making -- http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/farina/
Orzo -- http://www.delallo.com/products/delallo-gluten-free-pasta-–-corn-rice-orzo
they CAN be made as gluten free varieties, but the typical orzo you buy in stores, see on restaurant menus, etc contain gluten.
you're splitting hairs for no reason. there's gluten free pasta too!
Yes a reason, because people get confused which makes my life difficult when ordering gluten free food. I know this isn't your problem, but it IS one for many of us.
right....... and your initial post that says you facepalmed at orzo and farina could have lead people to believe those DON'T contain gluten!
do you see what I'm saying here?
yes, there are gluten-free varieties of pretty much all the things I listed. Wanna bake? Use almond flour. Want pasta? There's quinoa pasta. And like you mentioned, there are gluten free versions of orzo and farina. Great. But the question wasn't "What gluten free options are there to substitute for grains?", the question was "is gluten in anything besides wheat"? And yes, orzo is made up of wheat and isn't a separate grain, but ask a random person what orzo is? They probably won't know.
What a silly argument this is...0 -
I can safely eat gluten but the fact is I feel so much better when I don't eat it. Just because I don't have debilitating stomach issues when I do eat it so medically... sure I can get along with it. BUT I feel absolutely amazing when I don't eat it! My skin is clearer (less breakouts), I have more energy in general, I perform better during workouts and I PMS less. Medically do I need to do it? No but why wouldn't I? I thought it was just a fad too and did it just to shake things up a bit and I was more then surprised at the results!0
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Farina:
http://www.nuts.com/cookingbaking/grains/rice/organic-farina-gluten-free.html
For pasta making -- http://www.schaer.com/en/gluten-free-products/farina/
Orzo -- http://www.delallo.com/products/delallo-gluten-free-pasta-–-corn-rice-orzo
they CAN be made as gluten free varieties, but the typical orzo you buy in stores, see on restaurant menus, etc contain gluten.
you're splitting hairs for no reason. there's gluten free pasta too!
Seriously, I think your posts border on conspiracy theory.
simply because you disagree with me doesn't make my opinions a "conspiracy theory".
if anything, my views are based in sound business theory and the realities of capitalism. wheat production and consumption is a driving force to the economy, so the government and the free market supports it and keeps the costs low, while raising the costs of the alternatives. logic - not conspiracy.0 -
right....... and your initial post that says you facepalmed at orzo and farina could have lead people to believe those DON'T contain gluten!
I facepalmed because those are styles, not grains. While you didn't even mention rye at all, which is in a significant amount of bread products. (less here in US than Europe, but still a bread grain nonetheless) And barley is absolutely not an issue for most people who are not celiac. I doubt highly it's all that much of an issue for people who are self-diagnosed gluten intolerant.
Rice farina is pretty common. Rice bran is too. These items are gluten free, will always be GF. Rice farina can be found in the infant food aisle, this is a typical first baby food.0 -
A grandson of ours has celiac disease. Since he has been on a gluten free diet he has grown so much!! His body was not able to absorb the nutrients he was getting from his 'regular' diet.
As his Grandparents we are very aware of his special diet needs when he comes to our place for a visit. Some of his gluten free foods are delicious; some taste like cardboard.
We've learned the importance of reading labels. We were surprised that even red licorice has gluten in it.0 -
right....... and your initial post that says you facepalmed at orzo and farina could have lead people to believe those DON'T contain gluten!
I facepalmed because those are styles, not grains. While you didn't even mention rye at all, which is in a significant amount of bread products. (less here in US than Europe, but still a bread grain nonetheless) And barley is absolutely not an issue for most people who are not celiac. I doubt highly it's all that much of an issue for people who are self-diagnosed gluten intolerant.
Rice farina is pretty common. Rice bran is too. These items are gluten free, will always be GF. Rice farina can be found in the infant food aisle, this is a typical first baby food.
you're arguing for the sake of arguing. how bout you say "what a good list, although technically orzo and farina are made of wheat, and you forgot rye" instead of all this BS?
I would have replied "ah forgot about that one, and good point as to the orzo and farina"
see how easy that would have been?0
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