Wife wants to go Gluten Free

I am gluten and dairy free, so imagine how happy that makes my fiance . In all seriousness though, he loves the meals that I cook at home, all of which are gluten and dairy free. He knows good and well if he wants something different, he's welcome to have it, for instance, if he wants to heat up a roll with his dinner, or eat a sandwich while I eat a salad, etc. I think it sounds more daunting than it really is. I am a self admittedly huge pain in the a** to go out to eat with so typically we stick with the same few places. However, if he wants to get take out from somewhere I can't eat at, he just does. It hasn't been an issue. Your role is to be supportive of your wife's choices, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your own sanity! She should also be supportive of your decision, give and take.

I think it's funny that people say that going gluten free is a fad...It's actually becoming a very real thing for MANY, MANY people.

Gluten intolerance is becoming more and more prevalent in people and I find it funny that no one is wondering why. I personally think it's because the grain today is not the same as the grain that it was years ago. There is so much hybridization and genetic modification of the grain now that you can't even be sure what is in it.

This. And then look at what wheat is...a seed...what's a seed's purpose? To survive through the gestational tract of creatures so that it can be pooped out, grow, and carry out the survival of that species...if it's hard to digest how can it be good for your body?

I say fad too. Lets look at another angle. we have become such an antibiotic, hand-cleanser, flu-shot-getting, mask wearing society that (and I could be wrong) I don't think we build up immunities like we used to.

We can't really control what gets mass produced but we can get a little more educated on our own instead of villifying everything or jumping on every bandwagon.

YES, there are people with Celiac disease and peanut allergies...I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the people who turn vegan because their friends are or wear red strings on their wrists because now they are now kabbalists (where are they now, Madonna?!); I'm talking about those people who don't think for themselves. Or do soemthing and think that their SO HAS to do it with them.

ON a different note, I give credit to people who can say they are doing something like eliminating gluten and stick to it (honestly, I've wondered for years about gluten and if that's why I have some skin issues). So on that note, if you are one of those, kudos for having the will and stamina.

I love the things like water and fruit that say "gluten free"

I do not understand these things.

Seriously....WTF.

I even saw a tofu labeled as "gluten free" in Albertsons in their "organix section". I think some people equate gluten free to "organic"

haha

Haven't read the thread but I assume someone has already said "Just break up."

I see a couple of misunderstandings being spread in this thread.

If you are eating primarily foods that don't contain gluten in the first place (meats, vegetables, fruits, and there are plenty of grains that are naturally GF) you wouldn't see any difference in the cost of your food. But if going gluten free also meant switching from processed crud to real food, then sure, you could see a jump in your grocery bills. I don't recommend the premade gluten free products that do cost more than their gluten equivalents at all. They are higher in calories and half of them taste awful. What you are paying for is convenience.

Again, I haven't read the book, and probably never will because I agree that some of what it is preaching is just hypothesis, but that doesn't mean that there aren't problems with our current wheat production. Just in the past 50-60 years, plants that produce way more gluten than their predecessors have become the only types available. The way bread is made has cut out a lot of the fermentation process that previously added valuable nutrients in favor of speed and profitability, and you have the issue of chemical toxicity.

Today, 50% of the wheat tested is found to contain one neurotoxin and 20% another. That is chemicals that are known to have negative affects how our brains function! And they kill bees which we need to survive.

There are 14 other pesticide residues commonly found on wheat. And that is just the pesticides. That doesn't include the chemical fertilizers, the herbicides, nor the fungicides applied to wheat after it is harvested. Today's wheat is a toxic stew compared to what our great grandparents were eating when they were growing up. Buying organic does help reduce this problem considerably, not to mention that it keeps all of those chemicals out of the water and earth as well.

It is very likely plenty of people who respond well to a gluten free diet do so simply because it could be reducing the amount of toxins that they are exposed to.

But celiac and gluten intolerance are very poorly understood by many doctors and false negatives are common in testing. Not only are too few who actually have celiac even diagnosed, even fewer who have gluten intolerance are. While guestimates are that something like 3-5% of the population in the U.S. have celiac, some of what I have read projects the percentage who suffer from any sort of gluten issue could be as high as 30%. And in my experience, doctors are so clueless about the symptoms of gluten intolerance and celiac that such a huge discrepancy in diagnosis could actually be happening.

I avoid all gluten and grains. Whenever I do eat them I feel crappy. It has not been hard whatsoever. You can't replace a muffin though with a gluten free muffin. The GF stuff is just more sugary. If you focus your diet on whole fresh foods it really can help you to feel better.

I went gluten free almost a year now after my 3rd little one. I did not do it to lose weight specifically or because I wanted a new diet plan but I was willing to try anything to stay away from medication for migraines as well as I had heard that it can help with bloating. I cook/bake completely gluten free and I make choices away from home gluten free as well BUT my partner is not. Him and our 3 kids all eat wheat and other gluten on a pretty much daily basis, even though they have cut down simply because they still love eating everything I make. It has not effected our relationship for the worse, I'm a big girl I make my decisions and he makes his. I will say though that within the first week he made some toast with butter and it almost made me cry I was craving it so bad.

If she has no medical issues requiring it, your wife is buying into the hype... Eat whole grains, minimally processed foods and you'll be fine.

If she has no medical issues requiring it, your wife is buying into the hype... Eat whole grains, minimally processed foods and you'll be fine.

You can't confirm the presence of gluten sensitivity related medical issues without eliminating gluten grains, and considering the decision is also at the advice of a doctor...so...yeah.

I avoid all gluten and grains. Whenever I do eat them I feel crappy. It has not been hard whatsoever. You can't replace a muffin though with a gluten free muffin. The GF stuff is just more sugary. If you focus your diet on whole fresh foods it really can help you to feel better.

I avoid jalapenos because I get stomach cramps if I eat them. For most people, it's not hard to avoid foods that cause you pain.

I avoid all gluten and grains. Whenever I do eat them I feel crappy. It has not been hard whatsoever. You can't replace a muffin though with a gluten free muffin. The GF stuff is just more sugary. If you focus your diet on whole fresh foods it really can help you to feel better.

I avoid jalapenos because I get stomach cramps if I eat them. For most people, it's not hard to avoid foods that cause you pain.

Yeah, but for most other foods, people don't get accused of falling for the placebo effect.

Only because GF became a fad and is now often used as a marketing scheme. If it weren't for nonsense like "Wheat Belly," we wouldn't be having this discussion. The placebo effect can be as powerful as actual physical symptoms and true food allergies/intolerance.

Only because GF became a fad and is now often used as a marketing scheme. If it weren't for nonsense like "Wheat Belly," we wouldn't be having this discussion. The placebo effect can be as powerful as actual physical symptoms and true food allergies/intolerance.

That theory only holds up insofar as the only issue(s) that clears up is the one for which someone changes their diet and eliminates something. It's quite a bit harder to blame on placebo something you thought was completely unrelated and weren't even expecting to change (and even moreso when the thing you were trying to change was the one thing not affected by eliminating a given food item).

Now, I do agree that Wheat Belly isn't the best book on the matter (there are a lot of logic leaps and some outright falsifications), I do appreciate the raised awareness that has resulted from the publication of it and books like it, because it does make it easier for people who truly do have medical issues with gluten to get the help they need. It's a sad state of affairs when a demographic of people with a disorder that can basically starve them to death from malnourishment has a goal of a 50% diagnostic rate over 2000 years after its discovery (and has been documented multiple times since then), and over half a century after the underlying cause was discovered, and that goal date is still 15 years away, in no small part due to the fact that most doctors are all but clueless about it. The increased awareness in general pretty much means you have to be living under a rock to not at least know about it.

I liken it to dime store trash novels. Yes, some foods can be a problem for some people, but some people can read books then suddenly perceive a problem that isn't really there.

Food manufacturers, however, are keen to provide a product where there's a demand. This is true.