Ignorant Comments

[Breila]

I'll be honest and I'm not trying to be snarky AT ALL, I promise. I can definitely understand not understanding celiac, I'd venture that most people, at least in the US, have never even heard of it. What I don't understand, and perhaps is a result of being raised by back to nature hippie type parents, is not knowing where your food comes from. I can't remember not knowing that flour is wheat, cheese and etc. come from milk which comes from cows, etc. I grew up knowing which veggies were "leafy", which ones were starchy, which ones were high in iron, whatever. Even if I didn't give much thought to eating a so to speak healthy diet (and I still think I did better than the general population on that one), I really do think I always have known the general source of my food.

I think it is a sad representation of our culture that kids will think chickens have 4 legs or so many people have never made the connection that white flour is wheat, and I'm not judging the people that thought that, more the culture that has caused it, ya know?

[kenlove]

Your so right -- Having been one of those back to nature hippie parents ( now entrenched in nature hippie type grandparent)

I can say how important it is that we maintain an agricultural connection. I'm just sick of this stuff coming in from China with off color runny ink USDA organic printed on the box -- better yet read yesterdays West Hawaii Today letter.

Open Original Shared Link

In a sense, it's kind of a blessing in disguise I have celiac since now I have to eat healthy!

Ken

I'll be honest and I'm not trying to be snarky AT ALL, I promise. I can definitely understand not understanding celiac, I'd venture that most people, at least in the US, have never even heard of it. What I don't understand, and perhaps is a result of being raised by back to nature hippie type parents, is not knowing where your food comes from. I can't remember not knowing that flour is wheat, cheese and etc. come from milk which comes from cows, etc. I grew up knowing which veggies were "leafy", which ones were starchy, which ones were high in iron, whatever. Even if I didn't give much thought to eating a so to speak healthy diet (and I still think I did better than the general population on that one), I really do think I always have known the general source of my food.

I think it is a sad representation of our culture that kids will think chickens have 4 legs or so many people have never made the connection that white flour is wheat, and I'm not judging the people that thought that, more the culture that has caused it, ya know?

[lizard00]

I'll be honest and I'm not trying to be snarky AT ALL, I promise. I can definitely understand not understanding celiac, I'd venture that most people, at least in the US, have never even heard of it. What I don't understand, and perhaps is a result of being raised by back to nature hippie type parents, is not knowing where your food comes from. I can't remember not knowing that flour is wheat, cheese and etc. come from milk which comes from cows, etc. I grew up knowing which veggies were "leafy", which ones were starchy, which ones were high in iron, whatever. Even if I didn't give much thought to eating a so to speak healthy diet (and I still think I did better than the general population on that one), I really do think I always have known the general source of my food.

I think it is a sad representation of our culture that kids will think chickens have 4 legs or so many people have never made the connection that white flour is wheat, and I'm not judging the people that thought that, more the culture that has caused it, ya know?

I have to agree with that. I have always known what my food was and where it came from, and my parents were not the hippie types. But they did always believe that natural was ALWAYS better, no matter what. So, we did have a much better understanding of where our food came from.

But I have a story too: My husband was trying to find a pizza for us, and we found a place that had cornmeal crust. So after some excitement, we called and asked if their pizza crust contained gluten. I guess that was my first mistake... the guy says hold on, let me check. (Inset Jeopardy music here) "Ma'am, our cornmeal crust should be fine for you. It doesn't have gluten in it."

me: "That's great. So, cornmeal is the only ingredient?"

"Well, that and our regular pizza flour."

The reason this disturbed me was apart from the obvious, the fact that their website made this big deal about asking about allergies and how allergy friendly they were. Seems as though they were not nearly as allergy and ingredient knowledgable as they wanted to appear.

[Di-gfree]

Q: Are you anorexic?

Q: Do you want me to pick you up a dozen donuts at Tim Horton's to fatten you up? (Tim Horton's is a donut shop here in Canada.)

Q. What's wrong with you again?

[Tim-n-VA]

Of course they seem ignorant to regular readers of this site because we are so invested. On mandolin websites there are regular threads about "ignorant" people who think a mandolin is a ukelele. There's probably a math website where they complain about people thinking that 1 in 133 is a little over one percent.

[Di-gfree]

Tim-n-VA, I see what you're saying. My questions though: (Q: Are you anorexic?

Q: Do you want me to pick you up a dozen donuts at Tim Horton's to fatten you up? (Tim Horton's is a donut shop here in Canada.)

Q. What's wrong with you again? )

were asked by my own mother repeatedly over the years.

[cupid]

My friend who is a Director @ the Medical Examiners Office said w/ sarcasm"come on you can eat a little, you're not THAT sick" Evidently, she is so focused on her job she can't realize even though you may look healthy on the outside you actually could be very sick!

[home-based-mom]

Ignorant comments from the public at large are understandable. What is appalling to me is the ignorant comments from the two segments of society who should be the most aware: the medical profession and the food service industry.

[TrillumHunter]

Not everyone plays mandolin but EVERYONE eats! How can you get to adulthood without a basic knowledge about what you put in your mouth everyday? None of these folks ever read the back of the cereal box in the morning?

"I would just die!" That one always makes me laugh.....

[Breila]

Not everyone plays mandolin but EVERYONE eats! How can you get to adulthood without a basic knowledge about what you put in your mouth everyday? None of these folks ever read the back of the cereal box in the morning?

"I would just die!" That one always makes me laugh.....

that was kind of my point. I'm ignorant about a lot of things, including mandolins! But I think that the general population should have a basic awareness of what they are putting in their body every day. Just my .02.

[mommida]

My personal favorite.... "You're too young to have Celiac." (let's just say 30 something for my age at the time) said the gastroentronoloist that had just completed my endoscopy with biopsy. Meanwhile... My 16 month old was going through the testing too.

Myhusband and I were just thinking (AGAIN) about getting our kids shirts that say something like~ Don't feed our children!

"Oh you can't have wheat here's some Twizzlers." (red licorice -first ingredient- wheat ) I stopped a father from giving his newly diagnosed wheat alergy son Twizzlers too. I traded him with some gluten free candy I had on me at the time.

I'm sure there is a billion remarks I'm forgetting right now ~ and there will be a billion more to come.

[Tim-n-VA]

Just go in any bookstore and look at the various diet and nutrition books. With very little effort you can find ones that contradict each other. You have books that tell you pick you food based on its color, based on your blood type, based on how many miles it was driven, whether the formerly living thing that is in it is could move independently or not, etc. I would be surprised if people did know instead of being surprised they didn't.

We've all had those half-funny, half-sad comments, I guess "ignorant" rubbed me the wrong way. I've had family members be surprised when I said I couldn't eat fried chicken.

[L.A.]

My favourite comment? But it's been cooked. (Oh, right the gluten content evaporates once cooked and we're good to go)

[Breila]

We've all had those half-funny, half-sad comments, I guess "ignorant" rubbed me the wrong way. I've had family members be surprised when I said I couldn't eat fried chicken.

I apologize, I didn't mean to offend with my choice of words. I freely admit that I am ignorant about a lot of things and have never taken it as an insult, unless of course someone accuses me of being ignorant about something I feel like I know something about, LOL. What would you propose as a better term?

[Calicoe]

I'll be honest and I'm not trying to be snarky AT ALL, I promise. I can definitely understand not understanding celiac, I'd venture that most people, at least in the US, have never even heard of it. What I don't understand, and perhaps is a result of being raised by back to nature hippie type parents, is not knowing where your food comes from. I can't remember not knowing that flour is wheat, cheese and etc. come from milk which comes from cows, etc. I grew up knowing which veggies were "leafy", which ones were starchy, which ones were high in iron, whatever. Even if I didn't give much thought to eating a so to speak healthy diet (and I still think I did better than the general population on that one), I really do think I always have known the general source of my food.

I think it is a sad representation of our culture that kids will think chickens have 4 legs or so many people have never made the connection that white flour is wheat, and I'm not judging the people that thought that, more the culture that has caused it, ya know?

Yeah, I do get what you say about culture, and in fact that was my one of my first points. However, there is a lot of ignorance in our culture about many things, including the many different positions of status and experience within that culture. Food is the beginning.

Of course they seem ignorant to regular readers of this site because we are so invested. On mandolin websites there are regular threads about "ignorant" people who think a mandolin is a ukelele. There's probably a math website where they complain about people thinking that 1 in 133 is a little over one percent.

Oh dear. I was trying to combine two different statistics that I saw and should have inserted "OR". I guess I'll have to do the math next time for discussion on this site.

that was kind of my point. I'm ignorant about a lot of things, including mandolins! But I think that the general population should have a basic awareness of what they are putting in their body every day. Just my .02.

Yes, I agree, but then I also think that the general population should also understand about class, race, and poverty, but they don't. Not everyone grew up on a farm, with enlightened hippie parents. A large proportion of people are trying to get through the day with increasingly shrinking resources for rent, transportation, and yes, food. The urban poor do not have their own land to grow food, and when they do in the form of community gardens, they still have to worry about environmental toxins and the prevalence of lead paint and diesel fumes and how it impacts their children.

So yes, I agree, everyone should be more informed about their food, but not everyone has the same or equal concerns at exactly the same and fair amount of time. And even some of the better informed are not aware that wheat is a

de facto neurotoxin, until they need to figure it out, like myself. I never had to think about white flour or wheat flour, and so I didn't, because quite frankly there were more pressing and ominous threats to my health in a low-income, urban environment that white flour at the time.

However, I have taken the opportunity to inform myself out of necessity and will be spreading the word to people least likely to find out on their own, without the judgments.

[Tim-n-VA]

Okay. I apologize. Apparently I was ignorant of the subtle nuances of "ignorant" at least in terms of formal definition. On another site I read this:

Ignorance - forgivable, we all haven't been exposed to the same "teachers".

Willfull ignorance - still forgivable, we don't have time to learn everything, and so we all have to pick and chose

Proud ignorance - not forgivable, but forgetable, because such a person only hurts himself

Denigrates knowledge of others - not forgivable and not forgetable, just a sad mean example of a person

[UR Groovy]

What gets me is how many of the comments start with,

"oh, you can have this ((insert your poison here...))"

What the heck is the dysfunction in people that makes them think that they should convince me that I can have whatever it is? And, even more than that, what fascinates me is that they just won't give up. My next door neighbor is a baker - when we moved in, I was really stoked about it (that was before gluten-free). Not so much anymore - he's regularly telling me that I can have this or that cookie because it's made with white flour, or that bread because it's rye or whatever, or there's always the ol' - just try one ....

Here's what get's me: What's the issue? Why doesn't he get it? Does he need me to eat the cookie? Does it hurt his feelings? Is it an assault on his baking? Does he think that somehow I'm immune to his cupcakes because they're yummy? Is it that important to him? I don't know. Why do people feel this incessant need to tell others what they can & can't do / should, shouldn't do, eat, wear, whatever? What's it to 'em? People are so weird.

I just smile & take the cookies anymore. He doesn't get it, he's not going to get it, and his cookies will continue to go to my husband's office.

[Juliebove]

At two different restaurants, I asked if the pork chops were breaded or plain. I was told plain. They arrived breaded. In once case I was told it was just flour. Pork chops always have flour. Right? The next time I was told it was some sort of grill seasoning! Gah! What did they think breaded meant?

The lady at the health food store (and some other people) insist my daughter can have sprouted wheat or sprouted spelt because it is sprouted and when it is sprouted it becomes a live food. Yeah. Live gluten! Lady at the health food store also sold me something sweetened with barley malt. This was when daughter was first diagnosed and I didn't know any better. At least I knew enough to look it up before she ate it.

People don't also seem to understand that there are various things in certain foods. We have allergies. Not celiac. For instance, we can't have dairy or eggs. They can understand that we can't drink a glass of milk or eat a boiled egg. But they can't understand that we can't eat a casserole that has eggs and butter in it.

And the one that really gets me! Took daughter to three different allergists and all three said something to the effect of, "She doesn't have any food allergies!", as a reason for not testing for them. Meanwhile she continued to be sick. They told us it was allergies and kept doing more tests for inhalent allergies and giving us more pills, sprays, drops, etc.

[sneezydiva]

Of course they seem ignorant to regular readers of this site because we are so invested. On mandolin websites there are regular threads about "ignorant" people who think a mandolin is a ukelele. There's probably a math website where they complain about people thinking that 1 in 133 is a little over one percent.

Sorry, but I don't think this is an apt analogy. Like TrillumHunter said. " Not everyone plays the madolin, but EVERYONE eats!" I also don't mean to be snarky, but do kids not watch those movies in school anymore where they show you bread comes from wheat and milk comes from cows? I've known since 2nd grade where my food comes from. I'm not that old--32--but I know I was taught where food came from in SCHOOL. You shouldn't need to have hippy parents to know where your food comes from. Not to get on a soap box, but today, they're so busy prepping kids for standardized tests, they've forgotten to teach kids some basic, common knowlege and common sense. The fact that all of use have been on the receiving end of such comments like, "So you can't eat bread, but you can have pasta, right?", is a sad commentary on our educational system.

And my favorite comment? We walked into a Damon's and asked if if they had a wheat allergy menu. The kid said, "I'm pretty sure we don't serve any wheat products." Really?! Not a one, I'm pretty sure you do!

[lizard00]

What gets me is how many of the comments start with,

"oh, you can have this ((insert your poison here...))"

What the heck is the dysfunction in people that makes them think that they should convince me that I can have whatever it is? And, even more than that, what fascinates me is that they just won't give up.

Here's what get's me: What's the issue? Why doesn't he get it? Does he need me to eat the cookie? Does it hurt his feelings? Is it an assault on his baking? Does he think that somehow I'm immune to his cupcakes because they're yummy? Is it that important to him? I don't know. Why do people feel this incessant need to tell others what they can & can't do / should, shouldn't do, eat, wear, whatever? What's it to 'em? People are so weird.

I've wanted the answer to that question for years. Why do you care if I don't eat pizza and you do? I was b**ching about it the other day to my mom and she started laughing and said, just picture everyone else with their arteries clogging when they eat that stuff. Really has worked wonders when people are just starting to get to you...

Maybe people just don't like to see someone NOT eating all the unhealthy foods that they are.

I mean honestly though, cookies and candies don't get pushed on diabetics, why are we so different?

[susieg-1]

Your so right -- Having been one of those back to nature hippie parents ( now entrenched in nature hippie type grandparent)

I can say how important it is that we maintain an agricultural connection. I'm just sick of this stuff coming in from China with off color runny ink USDA organic printed on the box -- better yet read yesterdays West Hawaii Today letter.

Open Original Shared Link

In a sense, it's kind of a blessing in disguise I have celiac since now I have to eat healthy!

Ken

KENLOVE

would like to read westhawaiitoday letter but don't want to create account. can you copy/paste into forum?

[curlyfries]

OK, I've got one for you, although it's not food related. This has happened more than once. When I tell someone I work with deaf children they ask, "Do they know how to read braille?" ???? I kid you not!

Lisa

[susieg-1]

Ignorant comments from the public at large are understandable. What is appalling to me is the ignorant comments from the two segments of society who should be the most aware: the medical profession and the food service industry.

at a picnic at a local college...called ahead to ask for gluten free meal as supposed to have celiac students and gluten-free menu items. One of the food service workers came over and said (in a snotty tone) "hamburgers are gluten free" and I replied (in a nice tone) "yes, untill you cook them on a grill that food with gluten has been cooked on" she gives me a blank stare and walks away. Duh, needless to say the gluten-free meal gave me the big D anyway!!! next year I will bring my own dinner!!

[kenlove]

Hi,

I was told last time I'm not supposed to post things like that or my own web site but they did say it was ok to refer you to my profile which lists the website. On the site you can scroll down to the rant section and find the produce mixing letter, or just send me email from the message section with your email. My real name is Ken Love.

take care

KENLOVE

would like to read westhawaiitoday letter but don't want to create account. can you copy/paste into forum?

[ellen123]

I had minor surgery and had a red bracelet clearly stating that I was "allergic" to wheat/gluten, soy and milk. I asked the nurse who checked me in to make sure to put in my chart that I wasn't to be given anything to eat except what my husband brought in. (I was afraid I might be a bit out of it and would eat whatever they gave me.) The nurse replied, "Don't worry, we don't have wheat crackers, just saltines." She was shocked when I told her that saltine crackers were made of wheat flour, because they were white! After I woke up, a different nurse came in and told me that she knew I couldn't have crackers, so she brought me pudding. I was awake enough to ask where she got dairy-free, soy-free pudding. She was completely surprised to find out that pudding was made with milk! Scary to think that these professionals are supposed to take care of sick people. How could a nurse get through nursing school without even basic nutritional knowledge?

Your story would be funny if it weren't so scary! But it's no surprise to me -- everyone should be wary of the food brought to patients by hospital "professionals." I remember years ago when I was a kid seeing my grandmother's lunch tray while she was hospitalized -- although she was an insulin diabetic and it was clearly stated in her chart, they brought her, on more than one occasion, canned fruit cocktail (dripping in heavy syrup) and vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting. Even as a kid I knew she wasn't allowed to eat that, and I remember thinking how lucky it was that my grandmother (a) spoke English [she was an immigrant] and ( that she had her wits about her.

Now as an adult, my elderly father has been hospitalized on more than one occasion. Last winter, staff at the so-called "skilled nursing facility" he was in continually brought him trays with salad, sandwiches, meat, even though he had a condition that made it very difficult for him to chew, and we told them that every single day. It's hard to know whether people are just plain indifferent or deliberately callous