Telling Others About Gluten...

[mommyagain]

So far I have not told anyone, "Hey, removing gluten from your diet may help with X", but I've thought long and hard about it for my very good friend. She has Crohn's Disease and, as a result, has had years of digestive issues. She knows all about my recent problems and realization that I am gluten intolerant, and she has actually said that my symptoms sound a lot like her Crohn's problems. I keep hoping she'll make the connection on her own, but in my heart, I guess I know that's not going to happen.

She is (in my opinion) definitely gluten addicted, and says that bread is her "comfort food" when her Crohn's symptoms get really bad. She is about 10-15lbs overweight, and CANNOT lose it no matter what she does. She actually gained a couple of lbs on the last diet she tried, which was extremely high in whole-grain (i.e. wheat) foods. I have mentioned that the Atkins/South Beach diet has worked for a lot of people, but she claims that eating too much meat makes her stomach hurt (thing is, she never eats meat without bread...) I guess I was hoping that if she went on a low-carb diet, the first couple of weeks cuts out all gluten-filled foods, and she'd figure out on her own that she had a problem with gluten (the Atkins diet is actually how I self-diagnosed my "wheat allergy" initially).

The problem is, I'm scared of losing my friend. I don't want her to shut me out if I become too "preachy" about the diet. At the same time, I feel like I am being selfish by NOT telling her something that could improve her health.

[trents]

I think this gluten gospel will be heeded by more and more people as time passes. There is a lot of attention and research happening in the last few years with regard to gluten intolerance. The new docs coming out of medical school will be more educated concerning celiac disease and dx will be more common. The problem has been (and to a great degree still is) that we were not only fighting the ignorance of the the public but the medical community as well.

Steve

[darlindeb25]

It's very difficult to get people to hear your concern, even when that concern comes from your heart. My ex BIL died last week. He was only 52 years old, which really hit me hard, being I turned 52 just yesterday. He was a type 2 diabetic, now dependent on insulin because he refused to take care of himself and also was alcoholic. I'm sure he was drunk when he died, probably passed out. They think he died on Monday and no one found him until Thurs afternoon---now, how sad is that? Alcoholism is a disease, as is diabetes, as is all these other problems we are talking about, yet people refuse to believe "they" will be the "one" the disease takes. They think they do not need to change things. They live in this, "its not me" world. Until they decide it's time to listen, then they will never be able to hear.

I was just reading all the posts in this thread. I was reading my own post from Nov of 05 and find that nothing has changed. My own children all go on, all eating gluten--one son has GERD, high blood pressure, hypothyroid, gained over 50# in 6 months, is up too over 300# and his doctor still doesn't think he needs tested for celiac disease.

My own mother is guilty of not listening to concerns. I read everything I can, I read all the medical info I find, I am a member of many medical forums, I talk with very educated people in the celiac field, I have met, talked to, listened too Dr. Peter Green many, many times and any time I try to give my mom some info about celiac disease or something for her fibro, she will tell me, "You do realize you can't believe anything you read on the internet!" I was so hurt Sunday when I talked to her, she thinks I am an idiot and waste my time chasing rainbows. Sometimes you have to just give up helping some people. She doesn't want help, not from me anyways. She doesn't think I am intelligent enough to know the difference between good info and bad, so nothing I tell her is worth hearing. She sends me recipes of foods she knows I can't have anymore, then she adds, "You need to start eating these foods again and stop thinking you can't have them, that's just crazy." Ok mom, I can go back to sitting in the bathroom for hours just so I can eat that tomato, and I can live with that nasty rash and constipation from the corn and soy--the body aches don't matter--it's not like I have a life to live anyways."

Just realize, there are those who will listen and there are those who could have a building fall on them and would not notice. Do what you can! God knows how hard you try!

[tBar-251]

I think you've got to use the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" approach.... you know, where Toula and her mother get her father to agree to something (I forget exactly what it was - letting her go to college or something?), by making it seem like it was his idea in the first place.

So I guess one way is to not suggest directly that THEIR problem is caused by gluten, but to talk about stuff you've learned -- all the problems gluten intolerance has been ascribed to.... Talk about all the people you've met (online counts!) who were suffering from this or that, and how going off gluten impacted them. Sound amazed and happy when you recount this stuff, like you can hardly believe there was a connection!!! Because let's face it, we ARE amazed, and it IS really weird how rashes, runny noses, fibroid tumors and other unlikely issues can all be related to the ingestion of gluten.

And you must admit, it sounds completely nut-case-ish to be suggesting that a mainstay food item/ingredient, a feel-good happy oldtimey cozy ("my mom and I made homemade bread today..") innocent thing, a biblical good thing ("wheat sheaves for the harvest, weeds for the fire") could actually be the devil in disguise.

You can't just come right out and TELL people this, because it completely upsets a lot of philosphical beliefs, and is socially, & almost morally, unacceptable. Marketing is a powerful machine.

You have to give them just enough info to make them wonder about themselves, and let them figure it out.

Well that's my take on it.....