Is Gluten-Free A Lifestyle Or A Diet Craze? - Usa Today

[Scott Adams]

Open Original Shared Link USA TODAY Some people want to go on a gluten-free diet to lose weight because they've heard that's what celebrities are doing, says Andrea Levario, executive director for the American Celiac Disease Alliance. "What people don't realize is that many gluten-free ... Open Original Shared Link Mountain Xpress Open Original Shared Link Regina Leader-Post Open Original Shared Link Crestview News Bulletin Open Original Shared Link

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[Takala]

Here we freaking go again.  Now in USA Today.  

 

This marketing group, "NPD" did a survey of 1000 adults back in January. Open Original Shared Link  And now they are trotted out to say STUPID THINGS when someone wants to point to a gluten free diet as a "fad."

 

(here is another article in Forbes.com from 5/23/11 which quoted NPD Marketing's "Diet Monitor" surveys, and also slanted the article to imply that eating gluten free is frequently a sign of an eating disorder - there were a lot of comments pointing out the flaws in it 

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Back to the USA Today article:

 

"Clearly more people are interested in a gluten-free diet than really need it," says Harry Balzer, NPD's chief industry analyst.

He thinks the trend is about people's interest in health and wellness, possibly more than weight loss. "This is the health issue of the day, based on the increase in the number of Americans interested in this subject."

 

There are lies, d***ed, lies, and statistics.   Anyone can design a survey, and then use the results in a certain way.  Because 29% of those surveyed claimed interest in the gluten free diet, he states "that's too many." 

 

Oh, and here's our little friends at the Wheat Foods Council chiming in (of course, it is a "Registered Dietician")

 

 

Registered dietitian Judi Adams, president of the Wheat Foods Council, says, "we respect all those people who have to go gluten-free, including people with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity and some people who have irritable bowel syndrome.

"But the people who are using it as a cleansing diet or calorie-controlled diet are using it as a fad diet, and as we all know fad diets do not work longterm," she says. "People often gain weight when they go on a gluten-free diet, particularly if they substitute products that are higher in calories, fat and sugar."

Fiber is just one of the main nutrients people miss out on if they eliminate all grains, she says.

 

 

There's the obsession with fiber again.   

Oh, look, we're making incremental progress here, they now add a disclaimer before repeating the wheatpropaganda about how bad a gluten free diet is, in general.  

Gluten free labeling rules (has anyone actually SEEN these rules, as I looked at the Federal Register where they were supposed to be, and they were not there when I followed a link from another news source (twitter feed of another well known RD who specializes in celiac), then I found the reference number, but it says "not public" yet ?) allegedly are pending study at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) "which it will need to pass through before being enacted."   This is the link that I have found referring to this rule going to OIRA   Open Original Shared Link

So, I am expecting lots of negative pushback from various stories planted in the media about how gluten free is just a fad, which would then negate more stringent labeling requirements. 

[kittty]

gluten-free diets can make you fat, even if you're counting calories? What kind of sense does that make?

 

More propaganda please!

[kareng]

More and more, I think it is a lifestyle or even a culture or community for us. You don't see hearing people debating if deaf culture / community is a fad or unhealthy. Why should they be debating our lifestyle?

If hearing people want to learn to sign, no one says that is stupid or unhealthy for them because they can hear. If someone wants to eat gluten free or gluten lite for no medical reason, why not? It's still about eating a rounded, healthy diet.

If someone chooses not to eat meat, they have to make sure they get the nutrients they need from the rest of their food. No one really give vegetarians trouble ( anymore). If someone hates broccoli, they can get the nutrients from a different place. No one says they are faddish or unhealthy.