Its fine to bring my children up gluten free

[Ironfistfunkymum]

I've been gf for 6+ years, not alergic or anything but feel so much better for it. People seem generally fine with this.

However now I have children people do seem to judge bringing them up gf. But why would if feed them something that I dont think is very healthy (grains hard to digest) and something that I don't think is very ethical (wheat production is causing more deserts due to its growing conditions).

Aibu to expect people to respect my choice and leave it at that?

And this:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21224837

Although how the subjects didn't know which they were eating is beyond me.

I think I've got quite used to my gf (not through choice) stepdaughter's needs.

It helps that we do a fair amount of home cooking and that I used to work in vegetarian restaurants and wholefood stores.

We always have some rice cakes around, that she can eat when the rest of us have bread.

Some meals we might have rice, polenta or quinoa grain, alongside a main dish. Or potatoes.

I have a couple of good recipes for gluten free biscuits and cakes, so that if the rest of us have something sweet, she is not excluded.

On some occasions we have buckwheat flour pancakes for breakfast.

But as you say, an exclusively gf diet is not one that most of us would choose.

Given the brutal violent instincts of human beings, I have a lot of doubts that men and women were ever 'equal' in the ancient world. Rule of the strongest for sure.

Good piece here. theconversation.com/the-myth-of-flying-peanuts-not-so-deadly-after-all-44687

It is your choice and your right but you will piss people off. Simple.

If you want to avoid pissing people off, here's a few tips

1. Don't say GF when you actually mean avoiding gluten when it's convenient ( as I suspect you do ).

1. Let your children eat normally outside the home , unless you have a medical reason . So they can join in birthday parties, play dates, eat fish and chips with their friends , have school meals , go on school trips

1. Don't tell your hosts that you are GF, expect them to provide a Gf meal for you then say " oh I'll just have a small piece of this Gluten containing chocolate cake , I'm sure it will be ok . "

1. Don't try and take the moral high ground by telling everyone that it's about " eating healthily " or " avoiding junk food " or " looking after the planet " . There are many ways of doing all of these without going GF.

1. Don't expect the school to provide Gf school meals without a medical report . Most schools allow packed lunches

1. Don't tell people who are actually allergic to gluten that it's easy being GF. Because it's not, it's a PITA.

1. Don't tell parents who struggle with managing their child's coeliac disease that they are just lazy .

HTH

Kr1stina - it's already been suggested to the OP that there is a big difference between a diet that is gluten-free, and one that simply avoids gluten where possible - but she cannot see the difference (or if she can, she hasn't acknowledged it here, that I have seen).

She is definitely not raising her children gluten-free, and she would be well advised not to say that she is - for the very good reasons you and others have given.

Of course, it is very easy to eat 'gluten free' if you aren't actually bothered about a bit of gluten contamination - but much harder if that tiny contamination could cause long term damage to your intestines. She hasn't acknowledged that either.

I'm just staggered that anyone would intentionally make life so difficult for themselves like this and deprive children of so many delicious and nutritious foods. Life is difficult enough. Food is essential but also a pleasure and a social activity. YABVU and creating unnecessary problems for your poor children.

"CoteDazure's link shows what a lot of the nonsense there is on this thread. The study shows that only one third of those with self-diagnosed gluten 'sensitivity' (i.e. not coeliacs) were actually able to identify which flours contained gluten and which didn't."

Yes, the point being that 2/3 clearly did NOT react to the flour with gluten. Actually, about 1/2 reported having reacted to the flour without gluten.

"In that study of only 35 people. I don't think a study of that size can necessarily be taken as gospel as applying to the whole population."

Nothing in science is "gospel" (obviously), but it is pretty damning that 2/3 out of the 35 people diagnosed with NCGS could not identify the flour without gluten after having eaten it. Especially considering that even if they flipped a coin to guess, they would have the correct answer 1/2 of the time.

Did you read the other studies in the links I posted? Possibly no better, but with different conclusions.

Prima - I don't know about that first study, because it talks about intake of gluten increasing overall symptoms. That is, gluten intolerance symptoms persisted even when subjects were NOT eating gluten. Which suggests to me that there is another factor at play.

I don't know how that second study is double-blind, either.

As in, because it is easy to tell which is which?

In the study you posted I guess it could be because the amount they were given was so small (less than 1 tablespoon of flour per day, as far as I can tell) that it could take some time to build up. DD can take small amounts for a while, but would eventually vomit or be in a lot of pain if she ate that amount every day (been there, picked the puked-up meatballs out of her hair).

Although I do suspect that if we pursued it again then we'd get a different result on a coeliac test. I know someone who was given the all clear, as was her son, after the blood test at the same hospital. They needed the biopsy to confirm CD.

"because the amount they were given was so small (less than 1 tablespoon of flour per day, as far as I can tell)"

Not really.

Previously, we had established that 20 patients with CD were all unable to distinguish the flours by sight. Each sachet contained 10 g of flour, and instructions were given to the participants to sprinkle the contents of the sachet over pasta or soup; one sachet to be consumed each day for 10 consecutive days.

Yes, less than a tablespoon per day, for 10 days.

The concerns about gluten are more than just gastro issues though. There are also suspicions it could exacerbate or cause autoimmune conditions like hypothyroidism. Some of its effects might not be immediately apparent.

Before I gave up gluten, I hadn't really suffered from significant stomach problems. I did have chronic sinusitis, a higher than optimum TSH level and fatigue.

1 tablespoon of flour = ~ 8 g , so 10g is 25% more than a tablespoon. (Not that it matters, but I like numbers )

1 slice of bread = ~ 28 g
Assuming ~ 70g of flour to 100g of bread > 1 slice of bread = ~ 20g flour

So, the study is comparable to eating two slices of bread per day.

Do you think that NCGS sufferers would be just fine on 2 slices of bread every day?

P.S.: It's not even just that the subjects didn't get symptoms from gluten. They also claimed to get symptoms from the placebo. In total, they were wrong 2/3 of the time which is pretty damning.

In that small study. Others show different results.

Re tablespoons, it depends what source you look at. This one has it at 14g.
www.answers.com/Q/How_many_grams_of_flour_are_in_a_tablespoon

I don't have to look at a "source".
1 cup = 16 tablespoons.
1 cup of flour = 120 g
120 / 16 = 7.5 g per tablespoon of flour.

If you prefer a more practical approach, you might like to just fill (not heap) a tablespoon with flour and then weigh the contents.

FYI the second answer in your Answers.com says 8g. That stranger on the internet is correct and the first stranger on the internet is wrong.

Anyway, we digress

I watched that show, farming grains and having spare food did seam to take the power away from women.

Grains are also responsible for a lot of tooth decay as they are very sticky, even though sugar away gets the blame lol

On the TV show, yes it was quite an i nteresing programme although I had hoped the first programme might have been 100% about say 200,000 years ago to say 20,000 year ago. instead most of it was relatively recent which was a pity. I suppose the problem is we were so few and so good for the planet and moved so much we left few traces for all those thousands of early years.

I am very keen on good science. There are lots of myths out there about food and the like and think people should always challenge everything although a massive fortune goes into science by vested interest companies (as I say above I was writing a contract for one this week) and very little into studies where there is no economic advantage. I think however we have reached a tipping point - in that costs fo the NHS in legs and eyes lost through diabetes etc etc means it will become financially necessary to improve what we eat. Money is always the deciding factor with Governments. So there is hope for improvement.

I am much more interested in people moving to a generally healthier diet than arguing over gluten. All I can say on the latter is I feel infinitely better without it and that it seems to be linked to all kinds of conditions. Even childhood epilepsy studies show is improved through diet in at least 30% of chidlren. The Newcastle study on diabetes found eating less (and obviously less/no sugar) led to massive improvements and it just seems to me pretty lotical that if we revert to how man ate for a million years (including pre homo sapiens in that) you cannot go far wrong although I will not be out in the garden today picking up insects to eat ...... I draw the line somewhere.

Experiment. Change things that you eat. See what works. if it's just a placebo effect that doesn't matter if you feel better anyway. Even my brain works quicker when I don't have much sugar. Now that might be all in my mind but I don't think so.

Some of these changes are very cheap. If those with little money did not eat until lunch (intermittent fasting) and only drank water and walked instead of taking a bus where possible the health of the nation could be transformed. Those changes cost nothing.

Does anybody know is it possible to get gf prescription food for a wheat/gluten intolerance rather than coeliacs (sorry for hijacking, I did ask in chat but got no replies and thought somebody on this thread may know)

Not as far as I know. Plus it costs the NHS a fortune and is totally unnecessary now that GF is so readily available in supermarkets.

Gluten free food in supermarkets is pretty shit anyway nongrain but there are plenty of great recipes online

janet I think you are spot on. Now I eat pretty well, I am amazed how shit I feel when I eat crap food.