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Do you think that gluten, lactose, or {insert supposed food intolerance here} is really just a fad?

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  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
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    No, it's not just a fad. As much as I would like to be able to eat dairy, I cannot. When I was younger I did not have a problem. Nowadays I just stay away from ice cream, yogurt, etc. I do not like milk, so that's not a problem. I will occasionally have cream in my coffee (maybe 1-2 per month)--cannot do it daily. Even that will give me an upset stomach, diarrhea if it is more that a small bit. Can't eat pizza anymore either--that is just not fun. And I used to love pizza. I can tolerate parmesan and some other cheeses in very small doses.

    I have a friend who is celiac. This is NO joke or fad.
  • LowCarb4Me2016
    LowCarb4Me2016 Posts: 575 Member
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    I think its more important to ask one's self why the eating habits of others are so upsetting. Someone doesn't want to eat gluten and they're not Celiac - so what? Who or what are they harming by cutting out gluten? Considering the foods gluten is found in, they're probably cutting out a ton of calories void of any vitamins or minerals and, if doing things correctly, adding in more fruits and veggies. No one needs bread and cookies to survive. You may want them, sure, but that is not a need. Cutting out gluten (or carbs, or sugar, or fat, or whatever) is not the same thing as jumping on the latest diet pill craze and to equate the two is ludicrous. In my experience the people cutting out foods without a medical reason eventually revert back to eating whatever they were cutting out. Is it annoying when family does it? Sure, but those folks tend to be annoying anyway.
  • purpleannex
    purpleannex Posts: 61 Member
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    Yes.
  • Roadie2000
    Roadie2000 Posts: 1,801 Member
    edited January 2018
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    I don't think it's a fad at all. There are many people with a legitimate gluten intolerance or Celiac disease and others that might have it but aren't even aware of it. If you research signs of gluten intolerance it will list a number of things that are fairly common, so people might assume if they have 1 or 2 of them that they have some sort of gluten intolerance.

    Really you never know if you have it unless you completely cut it out of your diet and you start to feel better. Even then, you might have inadvertently cut something else out of your diet that you were sensitive to.

    As for myself, I have a number of digestive problems and tried to go gluten free for a while but didn't notice a huge change. But still there is something in the back of my mind that tells me that I may still be slightly intolerant, and I'll occasionally pick a gluten free option just because I figure it can't hurt.
  • lorri71
    lorri71 Posts: 95 Member
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    There is a difference with a food intollerance, food allergy, food sensitivity. In proper allergy there is an Ige response in the blood and your body attacks the food as a foreign body. I have been diagnosed with numerous food allergies 23 years ago and have to follow a strick diet and carry an adrenaline injection at all times. I would love to eat all the things I miss but its not just an excuse not to eat foods. I can't even go on a holiday and eat food there and have to take food with me as I can't risk an anaphylactic reaction because it can cause death.
    Yes there are people who say they are allergic without a diagnosis but it is not everyone.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,298 Member
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    Shaumom, I'm so sorry you and your daughter are subjected to all this at each and every turn. I'm sure no one who does not experience the symptoms involved with having a Celiac diagnosis have any idea of what it can entail for you both. I wonder would they have the strength of character to swop their accustomed choices to achieve a reasonable, or at least improved quality of life were it to become their diagnosis.

    In the distant past, one of the people at a family wedding had a celiac diagnosis. As well as ensuring the caterers knew what was required and where she was sitting, I took this as an opportunity to provide a decorated sponge cake along side my traditional decorated fruit cake, only she knew the flour was not wheat and she was safe with it. She was so appreciative of my simple gesture which only required different flour, so very easy, because I would have made an alternative any way. Subsequently I've needed to make my own exclusions in my diet, just to feel and be well. I even took my own food to a family wedding because my needs were too complicated to explain to any intermediary to forward to a caterer.

    Why should it matter to anyone else why someone eats as they do. I'm astounded that so many who have recognised dietary difficulties have it thrown in their faces that, it is only a "fad" in an ignorant person's view, who could even be a doctor. Walk in our shoes and see how you do, I'd rather not need to be different.
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
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    https://youtu.be/4sKcFyBC2Ks?t=46s
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    It's not "just" a fad. Many people have celiac or lactose intolerance (lactose intolerance is quite common) or other food intolerances.

    It is a fad.

    I suspect that it being a fad contributes to people taking it less seriously and assuming someone is just being trendy these days, which is unfortunate for those who have intolerances, but I also suspect that it being a fad probably means it's easier to find food free of whatever (well, except lactose, which seems easy enough to avoid, but maybe it's easier for kids today).

    I don't think I met anyone who was celiac until 2003, and when she and I traveled together (with some other people) the general impression seemed to be that it was of course serious and she was quite unlucky and it must be really hard to do -- no one assumed it was some fad or tried to convince her to eat stuff she couldn't. But she also had a hard time getting some people to understand that she couldn't eat quite common things (part of this was that we were in a foreign country and there was a language issue, but I recall even the group might forget pasta was a problem for her or some such, since people weren't as aware of the whole "no gluten" thing). Now it seems like everyone and their cousin is gluten-free in my neighborhood and I do think many of them are just fad followers, but who cares? I think it's really weird to care that someone else doesn't want to eat something. If someone is making a fuss that they can't eat anything and blaming others, then sure, but just not eating some offered dish, weird. Most group gatherings with food I go to no one is expected to eat everything anyway.

    Hmm, I do think these kinds of things are more common (people with all kinds of dietary restrictions) in some areas than others (just as vegans are more common in some areas than others), and it probably makes a difference. These days, I'd be surprised running into someone in real life in my neighborhood who didn't know wheat flour has gluten (or pasta or whatever) although that oats might be cross contaminated is something I think might be less widely known. But I think some places (and you see this on MFP some) you might find a lot more people who have no clue what gluten is and assume it means no bread or some such and be surprised (and sad) that someone can't have their cookie, even though that seems illogical to me. Unfortunately, I think sometimes people respond to a feeling that they've screwed up by being mad at the person who tells them that (however nicely it happens). (In the vegan context: "oh, sorry, you really can't have cheese either?" may be followed by "seriously, no cheese? Don't you think that's extreme?" It's wrong and a shame, but humans are like that sometimes.)
  • junodog1
    junodog1 Posts: 4,792 Member
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    JustRobby1 wrote: »
    I do not discount at all those who have legitimate medical issues, but I would still contend that the majority of people who have a gluten fixation in 2017 are simply impressionable, attention-seeking rubes who follows silly marketing trends and are buying into the hype. The same type of people that bought a Lance Armstrong bracelet and would of been a prime candidate for purchasing a pet rock when that was trendy.

    This extremely annoying girl that works in HR at my company told me a few weeks ago she thought she was allergic to gluten. She blathered on endlessly about how she always felt run-down and crabby, had a waning sex drive, dry skin and hair, etc .Must be gluten! Yeah, that's the obvious culprit. Because at 25 years old, it couldn’t possibly be a result of the two packs of cigarettes per day and handle of rum she consumes every weekend. She probably got the idea from some stupid magazine article that she is always reading.

    Again, I fully appreciate people who have Celiac disease. This is an autoimmune disorder that occurs in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine and tons of pain. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their body mounts an immune response that literally causes the body to attack itself. This has to suck, and these folks have my sympathy.

    The guy who "discovered" gluten sensitivity was an Aussie by the name of Peter Gibson. Peter is a professor of gastroenterology at Monash University and director of the GI Unit at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His original research yielded results which were not replaceable (a key concept in the scientific method) by other labs . So like any good scientist, he re-launched a far more extensive series of trials and concluded that non-Celiac gluten sensitivity is nonsense. Peter's lab is hardly alone in this conclusion either. Check Medline or PubMed.

    So unless you actually have Celiac disease, gluten has almost ZERO practical effect on you. And when you have Celiac disease, you KNOW you have it very early on in life most of the time. Just because you get sleepy after you eat seven slices of pizza doesn’t mean you’re allergic to gluten. Feeling bloated after plowing through that plate of Fettuccine Alfredo? You should, but not for the reasons you try to delude yourself into believing.

    That said, this level of stupidity does have some economic benefit. $12.5 billion dollars worth of gluten-free products sold in the year 2016. So I guess indirectly it is supplying jobs and an economic boost. Ironically enough, in my day job I work for an ad agency, and this is hardly the only time pure nonsense is able to capture both the minds and wallets of the impressionable public.

    You laugh, but there are many benefits to the pet rock.

    Many cats and dogs have come into my life and left; leaving me with a hole in my heart and the need to seek out another fur leaving, vomiting, pooping, bit of wonderfulness.

    If I had gotten a pet rock it would still be here, as healthy and active as the first day. There is no clean up, no feeding schedule, no exercise requirements, no vet bills and its affection cannot be alienated.


  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited January 2018
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    http://freakonomics.com/podcast/demonization-gluten/

    I found interesting, with info about the mis-diagnosis, self-diagnosis, non-diagnosis, fad aspects, impacts, history, ect.

    With some interesting effects of quitting when not needed.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    georgieamber2 wrote: »
    There's no such thing as "lactose intolerant" ... you're just not a baby cow and it's as simple as that. You can't consume a product not meant for your own species without repercussions. x

    http://scribol.com/environment/animals-environment/10-incredible-tales-of-interspecies-nursing/

    Looks like tigers can handle pigs milk (and, according to the text, vice versa), cats can handle dog milk, rabbits can handle cat milk...

    I'd be the last one to say that these products are 'meant' for the little sucklers, but it doesn't appear to harm them.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    cbohling1987 wrote: »
    My wife gets violently ill if she eats gluten, so no, it's not a fad, and if you keep insisting that it is, then well *kitten* you!

    It's both...yes, some people are allergic...but it's also a huge fad. I have friends who are gluten free who readily admit they have no particular issues with gluten...they just think it's healthier to be gluten free even though they eat a ton of gluten free breads, pastries, etc. They also keep bitching about the fact that they've been doing this for two years and haven't lost any weight.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    edited January 2018
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    I don't feel guilty. I don't enjoy milk either. Never liked the taste without a lot of Nestle Quik added. Cheese, however, is a totally different story.

    ETA: As is ice cream.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    georgieamber2 wrote: »
    There's no such thing as "lactose intolerant" ... you're just not a baby cow and it's as simple as that. You can't consume a product not meant for your own species without repercussions. x

    Is this a strange and roundabout endorsement of cannibalism?
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
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    Dunno about cannibalism - but now I want a steak... and a bowl of Fruity Pebbles with milk.

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