Posted on 11/07/2013 12:14:35 PM PST by george76
Once, pasta and bread were store cupboard staples. Now, many of us are replacing them with ‘healthier’ gluten-free foods. But are they really better for us?
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The new ubiquity of gluten-free products certainly makes life much easier for sufferers of coeliac disease, an auto-immune response to wheat where the body believes wrongly that gluten is attacking it... But coeliacs make up only one in 100 of the population
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Nutritionist Ian Marber agrees that yeast, not gluten, may be the real culprit... Marber acknowledges that gluten intolerance does exist, but probably in fewer cases than is generally believed.
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Gluten-free products are frequently more adulterated and significantly higher in fat than their “normal” equivalents. Gluten helps breads and bakery products retain their shape and softness as they cook, so to make up for its absence, manufacturers often use additives like xanthan gum and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose or corn starch. Extra sugar and fat are often also added to make products tastier.
For example, Warburton’s Free From sliced white bread has 2.2g of fat per slice and 80 calories, compared with 1g per slice and 58 calories in its regular loaf. Young’s gluten-free fish fingers contain 9.3g of fat per 100g, as opposed to 8.5g for the standard range.
Inevitably, in the US, a gluten-free backlash is already under way. “Coeliac: the Trendy Disease for Rich, White People” ... the gluten-free community has even less tolerance for jokes than for pasta.
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Marber predicts that these voices will only grow louder. “Our attention will turn to other diet trends, but the gluten-free craze will grow and grow.” Following a gluten-free diet isn’t actively harmful, he adds. “If it makes you happy, do it!” he laughs. “By buying that expensive stuff, you’ll certainly be making someone else very happy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
At my wife’s insistence I bought and cooked some gluten free pasta. It ended up as 1/4 inch strands. Back to Prince for me.
I get so furious when I see “gluten free” on things like mixed nuts, or roast beef deli meat. OF COURSE it’s gluten free. Modern Americans are more superstitious than midieval peasants.
Food Warnings by Luddites
In 1968, the book, “Population Bomb”, said we’d all be dead by now because we’d all starve to death. Proof positives given in the book.
In 1979 Saccharin was said to give us all cancer. It was all a lie brought on by competing product manufacturers.
In 1974, eggs were attacked by cereal manufacturers that said eggs gave us heart disease. We know better now.
In 1974, sugar was being attacked as a fattening product. We now know it is good for us and more so than sugar substitutes.
Since 1869, Margarine manufacturers have tried to replace butter by making all kinds of claims that butter is unhealthy. We now know that margarine is evil and butter has good health qualities.
In the early 1990s we banned CFCs, the pressurized gases used in canned goods like hair spray. The Luddites told us that it made the ozone hole. They were wrong and the hole is still there. It is a naturally occurring atmospheric phenomenon. Ozone is created by all kinds of things and we ain’t about to run out.
Salt has been attacked for decades as bad for us. We now know that probably isn’t so true. In fact, many people have a deficiency in salt that causes all kinds of health problems like aching joints and muscles.
Gluten has been attacked and has become the food fad of recent years. People that don’t even know what gluten is will recall one web site after another claiming it is killing us all. However, we also know that isn’t true, and thousands of years the human race has consumed gluten products like wheat, and beer. Funny how people claiming to not eat gluten eat plenty of it in many foods they ignorantly do not know contain gluten.
High temperature foods are another latest food fad. Ridiculous things are said about heat such as, “Don’t eat pizza! It is baked at high temps that kill ALL nutritional value of the ingredients. Besides, pizza contains gluten.” Another favorite is, “Don’t eat Corn Flakes cereal! It is puffed at high temperatures that kill ALL nutritional value!”
Ian Marber is full of shiite.
My wife suffered painfully for years with Celiac. She would get yearly sinus infections that were debilitating. Gastro-intestinally she was in pain every day.
She worked out what was happening and has been 100% better since eliminating wheat products from her diet.
Where Mr. Marber gets it totally wrong is the yeast assumption. My wife makes wonderful breads with no wheat products but uses yeast in them. It has no ill effect on her. I cannot testify as to anyone else's reaction to yeast.
“Modern Americans are more superstitious than midieval peasants.”
Never heard that but well said! When ignorance rules a person’s decision they are resorting to superstition. Just found my new tagline! Thanks!
I like it but regular pasta tastes better..
It has to be cooked less than you would regular pasta. I've made the same mistake.
I concur. I have a demonstrated inflammatory response to wheat. No question about it.
Quit screwing with my food!!!!!!
He’s not discounting those with LEGITIMATE Celiac disease. He’s saying that the grand majority of folks without a legitimate allergy to gluten are more likely to be affected by yeasts rather than wheat gluten.
I was tested for Celiac and came up free and clear. I still avoid processed foods, and I feel healthier for it. I don’t eat any carbohydrates that aren’t naturally occurring.
While the fad diets are a load of hooey, the heavily researched and peer-reviewed diets such as Atkins and the Paleo diet are proving to be very helpful to people who have trouble take the weight off, my wife and I included.
My son has Celiacs and we are grateful for the growth of gluten-free items. Our family wishes we could return to the days of walking into any restaurant and ordering whatever, but we realize those days are now past.
The bottom line seems to be that no one really understands the whole gluten issue and why it seems to be manifesting itself with more frequency in the general population.
Yeah, I understand the yuppie fad gluten-free thing, but for a lot of people it isn't a fad. I too used to roll my eyes at people who I thought were being far too sensitive to the whole diet allergy thing as being granola crunching wanna bes, but whatever is happening out there, it's real.
Just because you can ‘assume’ the basic ‘ingredient’, ie meat, is gluten free doesn’t mean it wasn’t processed in some way with gluten.
Example. Raisins. Gluten free, right? 7 years ago when my middle daughter was diagnosed with celiacs we bought her a box of those. BIG mistake. Turns out that although obviously grapes and hence raisins are gluten free they dust the conveyor belt with gluten/flour in the processing plant to keep the raisins from sticking. So they most definitely did contain gluten but since it wasn’t an ‘ingredient’ it didn’t have to be listed on the box.
Eh, there need not be a fuss. I’ve got gluten intolerance, I don’t make a big deal about it, but I did learn to not go asking about a gluten-free beer in a pub in Australia! (”Why don’t you just have a propah pint?” was the response)
You just learn to adapt without whining. There are some pretty good gluten free alternatives to just about everything. Fortunately, for those times when you cannot do without a piece of crusty bread and a Guinness (there is no acceptable gluten free substitute for those) - I found a product - called “Gluten Cutter” which allows me to actually eat wheat-based foods on a limited basis.
As far as nut alergies...peanuts in particular....I have my own theory.
For the past 30 years, more and more kids have been raised by parents who are obsessed with keeping things clean as possible. These children were not allowed to go out and play in the dirt. Where do peanuts grow? In the dirt. Exposure to good old Mother Earth at a young age, allows the body to develop antibodies or antigens to naturally occurring bacterium. Not allowing exposure develops a child with no natural defense against them. Peanuts seem to be particularly efficient at harboring those types of things that the bodies of older folks handle quite easily.
My trip to the supermarket will be a time of laughter and me rolling in the aisles: “Cleanup on aisle six! Man on the floor laughing!” The gluten free craze will soon see such things as tomatoes with “gluten free” signs attached. I wonder when the next diet fad will be obsessed with “oxygen free” foods.
This health foods movement is targeting the Baby Boomers who are starting to feel their immortality. The marketers know the Boomers will pay any price to turn their life into the youthful life of their youth. These are food snake oil scammers who promise the fountain of youth to the vulnerable Boomers who will pay any price and buy into any non-science. The non-science is something not to laugh at.
LOL, makes total sense in some regards, albeit perhaps not strictly scientific. In any case, my kids will then never have nut allergies with all the dirt they’ve incidentally eaten.
Without a doubt you have an exceedingly valid point.
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