Our survey question for the month asked what would you if someone considering the gluten free diet asked for your advice. Here are the results, beginning with the most popular answers: (a total of 132 people answered the survey. Respondents were encouraged to vote for all ‘pieces of advice’ they agreed with)
♦ (79 agreed/63.7% of the responses) “Stress that the gluten free diet requires total abstinence from gluten. It is not enough simply to “cut down. This was the most popular response.
♦ (60 agreed / 48.4% of the responses) “Stress that the gluten free diet requires a life-long commitment to be effective”. This was the second most popular response.)
♦ (48 agreed / 38.7% of the responses) “”State that the gluten free diet is a medical response that should be limited to persons diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.”
PAUL’S POINT-OF-VIEW: These statements were gospel truths when I was diagnosed in 1999. Most of the people who responded to the survey agree with them. Times have changed, our lifestyle is better understood, more frequently diagnosed, and more widely accepted. Should we change with the times??? Here are other responses:
♦ (44 agreed / 35.5% of the responses) “Point out that experimenting with the gluten free diet will make it extremely difficult to get an accurate diagnosis of celiac disease.”
♦ (43 agreed / 43.7% of the responses) “Point out that the gluten free diet may be deficient in fiber and other nutrients.”
♦ (46 agreed / 37.1% of the responses) “Discuss the relatively high cost of gluten free food”.
♦ (54 agreed / 43.5% of the responses) “Discuss the low quality and low availability of gluten free food.”
♦ (26 agreed / 21.0% of the responses) “Remind him that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that it is relatively easy to lose weight on the gluten free diet.
PAUL’S POINT-OF-VIEW. These are serious concerns that deserve to be part of serious conversations. Some of these concerns can be answered by people who live gluten free for several years. Some require expert intervention. All are solvable.
Some of the most useful information in this survey came from the responses that people made. I’ll write about those tomorrow.
What a great way of bringing about awareness of celiac disease and the gluten free diet!
Dr. Mercola published an interesting article in his newsletter yesterday which is especially pertinent to those of us who eat gluten free. The article and the reader comments that follow serve as an affirmation that gluten, even in a whole grain product, is not the best choice for optimal health. You can find the article at mercola.com under “How Bread with Refined White Flour Affects Your Health” (it covers much more than white bread).