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?

I'm a bit at the people calling it restrictive and I won't even respond to the child abuse comment.

Gluten is in lots of processed crap, but stuff you make at home if its fresh then its easily avoidable.

I do know what some are saying with serious allergic reactions. That's why I never say they can't have it, just that we tend to avoid it. What I said about the oat cakes was because we don't react to these, but obviously if we are buying them for home we allwqy choose gf.

I'm actually pissing myself at the amount of people commenting on a sour element of a dish as if it's the 60s!

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

If you don't ever 'say they can't have it', why do you need people to 'respect your choice' in the first place?

Either you are making it a big deal with other people, or you aren't.

That's right OP, you keep telling yourself we're all jealous of your sour chick peas and your holier than thou attitude to processed food.

In the UK a gluten free diet IS a restricted diet. It's absurd for you to claim otherwise.

No bread, no cakes, no pizza, no pasta, no biscuits, no pancakes, no breakfast cereal. Unless they're GF. If that's not restrictive in the context of the diet of the average child in the UK, I'd love to know what is.

Op, why have you posted on aibu if you are against everyone who says yabu (which is the vast majority)?

OP have you heard of the nocebo effect? Telling someone that something can cause unpleasant side effects makes it more likely that those side effects occur. It's psychological.

So if you tell your kids that gluten is bad, that it will make them feel bad, then it's more likely to actually have that effect.

OP - my ds would be allergic to your curry because of the chickpeas (and anything containing treenuts and sesame seeds). It's people like you with your imaginary in tolerances that may make life a problem for people with real allergies/coeliac because they are not taken seriously. I also have relatives that are coeliac and it's not easy.
Restricting food unnecessarily is a psychological problem and you are imposing it on your children.

I am have a family get together in a few weeks. If i make a nice gluten free cake with almonds for for my nephew then my ds cant eat it. I will have a nut free section, a gluten free section and a vegetarian, going to be fun .

I haven't read the entire thread but an 'ethical' approach to eating might be to minimise the amount of animal produts you eat. You therefore need to eat a combination of pulses and grains in order to get the required amount of protein.

By cutting out wheat and other grains containing gluten, you're mainly going to be eating rice, millet and quinoa. The West's desire for quinoa has actually had a disruptive event on the societies that grow it - making what was previously a staple crop, unaffordable for the masses.

Since you clearly think YANBU, it is difficult to see why you posted this thread. However, I would just repeat that it is precisely this jumping on non-existent intolerance bandwagons that causes problems for people who are genuinely intolerant. I have at least two friends with coeliac disease. They are finding that gluten is they can opt in and out of rather than something that makes them seriously ill. Also, they find it astonishing that anyone would willingly put themselves through the difficulties of a genuinely gluten-free existence.

So to impose this regime on children who are not genuinely gluten-intolerant strikes me as irresponsible at best. Eat what you want at home. But be prepared for people to be mightily pissed off when they discover that you've labelled your children gluten-free and made a big old deal about it when the reality is quite different! You'd be very popular with most Brownie/Cub leaders I know who are more than happy and very willing to cater for any dietary requirements but wouldn't expect a parent to make their lives harder at camp by insisting on catering for imaginary food intolerances!

Ironfistfunkymum - have you noticed the posters who have pointed out that restricting gluten now, in your children's diet, might actually cause them to become intolerant/allergic to gluten in the future?

Given how unpleasant the symptoms of intolerance can be - and how serious the health implications of an allergy can be - do you really want to risk that for your children?

Particularly if you have girls, anything which adds any emotional baggage to food is a seriously bad thing. The aim is (real allergies and intolerances excepted) to make food an enjoyable thing we need to live. No more, no less.

Will they be allowed some pasta or a sandwich if eating out and about when they are old enough to decide? My daughter currently has a restricted diet and I am desperate for her to grow out of her milk allergy because I really don't want her to have to worry about what she's eating and miss out on those ice creams and cakes.

www.culinate.com/books/collections/all_books/world_of_the_east_vegetarian_cooking/very_spicy_delicious_chickpeas

This looks bloody delicious, to be fair. The sourness is from lemon juice and mango powder. What's not to like?

I think 'sour' makes some people think sour milk first, rather than the good sour tastes. And in dairy products it can mean off or bad. Maybe that's why, ouryve?

Healthy to not eat huge amounts of gluten, faddy and a bit precious to try and enforce a gluten free diet on your children's lives when they don't even have an actual intolerance. I suspect their 'reactions' to eating gluten may be in your imagination.

Ds had allergies/ intolerances to 3 foods. One he has now grown out of, no issues, two are partially grown out of where he can eat controlled amounts and forms of his triggers (as the proteins are denatured during processing which put them within his ability to digest). This puts us in the position where we look faddy because he can't have milk, but can have cheese etc. I've also noticed that when I follow his diet, my IBS behaves well, when I don't, I can predict the unfortunate consequences on my own system.

In terms of nutrition and digestive/immune health it is better for us to eat the forms that our bodies accept rather than continue to exclude all forms of our trigger foods. Family cooking is standardised or simply adapted for practical reasons, but to ban other family members from eating these foods would be unfair and nutritionally poor.

Gluten isn't an issue in our household, but my experience of label checking tells me that to arbitrarily cut out gluten is massively restrictive to all kinds of unexpected foods. To extend an unnecessary ban outside the home is totally unreasonable and also rude to other people that you inconvenience when they have to cater around your whims, particularly if that is at additional expense.

OP, you're being utterly ridiculous. Firstly, you're forcing a stupid fad diet on your poor kids. Secondly, you're making it FAR more difficult for people who are genuinely intolerant or allergic to be taken seriously, because people like you are what springs to mind when someone says they're intolerant to something.

You're like the person who makes a big fuss in a restaurant about being "allergic" to something when really they just don't like it but then scrapes it off the plate and eats the rest of the meal. Why do you think people don't understand things like cross contamination?

Ludicrous.

(as the proteins are denatured during processing which put them within his ability to digest). This puts us in the position where we look faddy because he can't have milk, but can have cheese etc

That doesn't make you look faddy, and it isn't a food intolerance, it is completely normal. most people can't digest milk but can digest cheese, it is only a small number of mutants that retain the enzyme that digests lactose into adulthood.

I won't even respond to the child abuse comment.

a child abuser wouldn't

I don't think this is a wind up tgread.

I think it's an 'I am annoyed at my mil' thread.

The op isn't on a gluten free diet as she is unsure about what foods contain gluten, so the diet isn't gluten free, which probably means the reaction her kids have to pasta has nothing to do with gluten (because they ARE in fact ingesting some gluten).

Despite the fact that she allows her kids to eat gluten on occasion and hasn't done much research into what a gluten free diet is, she has told her mil the kids are gluten free. The mil has done her best to comply and the op is still annoyed and sees her as not accepting her choices as she complains about having to buy expensive bread.

OP your children do not have a gluten free diet. So asking other people to cater for a gluten free diet is very very unreasonable.

The points about it being abuse should be considered. Although I don't think eliminating gluten from their diet is abuse. You are alienating them, add on to that, the fact that you don't follow that diet at home is odd. Again I am not saying it's abuse, but a plan moving forward maybe worth thinking about.

YABU fine to feed your children whatever you want to at home but for the rest you sound so precious. It's a fad, what's more it's a UK fad. You do realise that it is a privilege to be able to buy some of the ingredients you mentioned and that a lot of parents are happy to be able to put any food on the table.

That you want your children GF at home fine but do not try to make it sound as if you are holier than thou.

Charis1 lactose-digesting mutants might well be the minority worldwide, but the majority of those with European, North African and Central Asian descent do have that mutation.

The op isn't on a gluten free diet as she is unsure about what foods contain gluten, so the diet isn't gluten free, which probably means the reaction her kids have to pasta has nothing to do with gluten (because they ARE in fact ingesting some gluten).

Spartans - yes! This is what I was trying to get my head around with the sniffly noses thing - surely if they are having bits of gluten in stuff then they would have sniffly noses all the time, if it was, you know, making them unwell.

yes I know fifth, that doesn't mean someone without the mutation has a food intolerance, they are still part of the majority.

Eating too much gluten makes me feel crappy and ill so I limit it. However I would never made out I am intolerant to it it let alone allergic because that makes life harder for those who genuinely suffer.