In the course of meeting many of my future daughter-in-law's friends, we met one delightful woman who happened to have Ciliac disease. If you're not familiar, here's a little primer:
As I said, she was delightful. Very nice. Very upbeat. But she was very frail and watched what she ate very carefully. Eating a gluten-free diet was obviously a necessary requirement for her to maintain her health. That was my first exposure to Ciliac disease. Since then I've watched the literal explosion of the gluten-free industry. It's been pretty interesting. Today if you walk into a grocery store or a typical upscale restaurant, you'll see "gluten-free" plastered all over the place. And it's amazing how many things can be made gluten free. The thing is...the science is pretty clear. If you have Ciliac disease, you need to remain gluten free. If you don't have Ciliac and you're gluten-free, then you're missing some vital proteins and nutrients. Now, maybe those folks have decided that for whatever reason that being gluten-free is good for them. But this seems to be one of those things that results from media hype, fad diets, and our insatiable desire to do something, anything to make us feel better. "If my neighbor is gluten free and feels better, then maybe I need to be gluten free too."Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine that occurs in genetically predisposed people of all ages from middle infancy onward. Symptoms include pain and discomfort in the digestive tract, chronic constipation and diarrhoea, failure to thrive (in children), anaemia and fatigue, but these may be absent, and symptoms in other organ systems have been described. Vitamin deficiencies are often noted in people with celiac disease owing to the reduced ability of the small intestine to properly absorb nutrients from food.Celiac disease is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a prolamin (gluten protein) found in wheat, and similar proteins found in the crops of the tribe Triticeae (which includes other common grains such as barley and rye). Upon exposure to gliadin, and specifically to three peptides found in prolamins, the enzyme tissue transglutaminase modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the small-bowel tissue, causing an inflammatory reaction. That leads to a truncating of the villi lining the small intestine (called villous atrophy). This interferes with the absorption of nutrients because the intestinal villi are responsible for absorption. The only known effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.
I don't have a dog in this fight so it's okay with me if folks want to not eat gluten for some reason. But I'm pretty sure (especially looking at some of the people I see declaring themselves to be gluten-free) that many, many, many in this category have fallen for some weird hype. But like I said, knock yourselves out. I haven't thought more than casually about this subject until I saw a great piece by one of my favorite writers, Charles Krauthammer. It uncannily reflects my thinking on this and other subjects. So as I've done many, many times in this blog, I'll let someone who is more articulate explain my thinking. You can read it here. And here's the bottom line quote:
"If going gluten-free gives a spring to your step, why not? But please, let the civility go both ways. Let the virtuous Fitbit foodie, all omega-3’d and gluten-free, drop the self-congratulatory smugness."So, if you're gluten-free and deep down wondering what the hell you're doing and why you're doing it, have a donut and live a little. It'll be okay.
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