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After reading through the thread, I want to address gluten, specifically.
I do agree that this trend of going gluten free as a weight loss strategy is fairly silly. Eliminating gluten will not necessarily cause you to lose weight, especially if you're just replacing wheat products with corn and rice products.
However, there are people who are genuinely sensitive to gluten and are better off eliminating it from their diets. And yes, it seems like the numbers of those who are gluten intolerant are increasing very rapidly recently. But I think that's largely due to increased awareness. People are hearing more about gluten and many of them are finding that it may be behind their own ongoing ailments. I'll use myself as an example ...
For years, I've always had some level of gastric distress. I won't go into detail, but it was enough to be a nuisance, but not enough that it was a disruption to my life or that I ever went to a doctor to address it. It just sort of became what I thought was my reality. In the past few years, I've been hearing more and more about gluten intolerance. Last June, I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet. No more gastric distress. No more waking up in the middle of the night with stomach cramps. So no, I haven't formally been tested, but if eliminating gluten has caused all the symptoms to go away, and an accidental exposure causes distress, I have to come to the conclusion that I am gluten intolerant.
What I don't get is the new trend to completely dismiss gluten intolerance. I've seen it all over Facebook lately ... people saying that unless you have celiac, then all the other gluten claims are BS. What does it matter? Me being gluten free only affects me. And it works for me. So why are people hell bent on telling me I'm wrong? Why does it matter to them? If you want a big plate of fettuccine, go for it. I'll order the rice pasta, thank you very much!
Me being gluten free only affects me. And it works for me. So why are people hell bent on telling me I'm wrong? Why does it matter to them? If you want a big plate of fettuccine, go for it. I'll order the rice pasta, thank you very much!
But if all the people who eat gluten-free diets were like you, no one would be complaining. You don't seem to be trying to impose it on others. But too many gluten-free people talk about it constantly, criticize other people's diets, or loudly demand accommodation in restaurants and even in social gatherings. Also a lot of them seem to only be on the diet so they can talk about it at length just to get attention. I'm sure there are lots of gluten-free people like you who just live their lives, and don't bother anyone. But it's the loud-mouths that create all the resistance you're seeing.
But if all the people who eat gluten-free diets were like you, no one would be complaining. You don't seem to be trying to impose it on others. But too many gluten-free people talk about it constantly, criticize other people's diets, or loudly demand accommodation in restaurants and even in social gatherings. Also a lot of them seem to only be on the diet so they can talk about it at length just to get attention. I'm sure there are lots of gluten-free people like you who just live their lives, and don't bother anyone. But it's the loud-mouths that create all the resistance you're seeing.
Then ignore the loudmouths. I do with no problem. But I don't get dismissing ALL gluten free (except celiacs). It's inaccurate, and frankly, no one's business but mine whether or not I legitimately need to be GF. It does, however create a dangerous situation for me. If my waiter has this idea in his head that gluten free is all bull****, there are no guarantees that he will bother to ask if a dish I order is safe for me to eat.
Then ignore the loudmouths. I do with no problem. But I don't get dismissing ALL gluten free (except celiacs). It's inaccurate, and frankly, no one's business but mine whether or not I legitimately need to be GF. It does, however create a dangerous situation for me. If my waiter has this idea in his head that gluten free is all bull****, there are no guarantees that he will bother to ask if a dish I order is safe for me to eat.
I do try to ignore them. I was only trying to explain why so many people get ticked off with the peanut allergy activists and the gluten-free cultists. You have a legitimate reason for eating gluten-free, and you apparently don't go around imposing it on the people around you. Others are not so considerate, and they are sometimes impossible to ignore.
When restaurants don't accommodate you or blow off your concerns, market forces will ultimately prevail, and they will lose business. Restaurants that prepare gluten-free dishes will win your business. Restaurants that ignore the concerns of customers with bona-fide health conditions will pay the price via lawsuits and bad press. I'm sure you probably get that, but many of the loudmouths (many of whom don't have bona fide medical conditions but just need attention) like to demand that private businesses change their practices and some even try to get legislation passed to further control others. You seem like a reasonable person who says "my medical issue, my concern."
When restaurants don't accommodate you or blow off your concerns, market forces will ultimately prevail, and they will lose business.
"Ultimately" and market forces and everything else is fine and all, but personally I have to be more concerned with immediate. How do I avoid getting sick tonight. And sadly, that means trusting that my waiter didn't read some diatribe on social media declaring all GF to be BS.
I agree. I had a student who almost died. He was always careful but there were peanuts in a sauce
and he always asked about any foods when he was out, they assured him there were no peanuts
and he ended up in the hospital ER.
There are also many people allergic to shell fish. My son is one of them. He was never fond of
shell fish but on occasion would have a few pieces of shrimp. Around the age of 12, his
throat would swell up and it only got worse as he got older. Why, I don't know.
Its because as a baby you never took him to the ocean and forced his head under
Allergies of ALL kinds are more prevalent now. I heard a fascinating report on NPR that explained one possibility: all autoimmune problems -- including allergies, MS, Crohn's disease, and type I diabetes -- went from rare to very common dating from the time the public health service made recommendations that eradicated hookworm from the American population. Living in a world full of minor parasites apparently gives the immune system something concrete to work on; without that challenge, they are likely to turn on the body's own cells or something else harmless -- like peanuts. They haven't proven the parasites/allergies link but I hope it's being seriously looked into.
I think this is it. Whenever I see anyone, new mom's especially, whip out the sanitizing gel, i have to hold my mouth closed. A friend of mine who used it all day everyday w her new baby recently had the kid dx w autism (Im not saying that is the cause but I don't think it helped. )
I also have autoimmune disease yet I'm the only one in my family w one- on either side. I probably have the same one as one of the OPs- related to a specific HLA- but one of my parents must have this same HLA and yet no autoimmune diseases (Although one older study has connected the HLA to schizoaffective disorder which my dad has.) But u like the other poster, i WAS often sick as a kid, just like every other kid.
I can't imagine I was anymore clean as a kid than the rest of my fam, but I was the only one to still be developing while eating GMOs, using antibiotics every time i was sick, drinking primarily from plastic and spraying bug spray and sunblock all over me. (Same w my friend born early 80's and her autistic kid.)
It's my personal hypothesis that this all kicked up my immune system out of necessity because it might have killed me if not.
I also have some strong views regarding the lack of sunlight and the rise in autoimmune disease and cancer (a lot of info on line if anyone is interested. )
(FWIW- I was also the only one of my fam not breast fed.)
When I was growing up, in the 1970s and 80s, I don't recall ever even hearing about peanut allergies, much less having to adjust my public eating habits in response to them. People ate peanut butter sandwiches and peanut snacks with abandon -- in schools, on airplanes, pretty much everywhere.
And yet, fast forward to today, and its almost like peanuts are on the same level as cigarettes. Lots of schools have completely banned peanut butter, not only from their menus but from the lunchboxes of those who bring their own food as well. You can't even get peanuts on most planes. And there are signs everywhere saying that this or that product was made in a facility that also handles nuts, or not.
What happened? Has the rate of peanut allergies been the same, but sufferers just had to grin and bear it in the old days? (And if so, how did sufferers cope with the ubiquity of peanut products in the larger society?) Or has the rate skyrocketed precisely because kids aren't exposed to peanut products nowadays, and thus their internal systems haven't had a chance to develop an immunity to it?
We didn't have CNN and other 24 hour news like we did now. Many were becoming sick with allergies but were discounted as having a psychology problem. Which is laughable because allergies show up in a skin-test, so there is nothing psychology about it. When a child or someone died from a food allergy, for example, it didn't get the attention it does not because we have such ubiquitous mass media and the internet. When an inmate died in jail who had asthma because he couldn't escape the smoking that was allowed, it didn't get much attention because at the time people were allowed to smoke where they pleased.
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