The goodness in gluten - Hindustan Times

[Scott Adams]

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Open Original Shared Link Hindustan Times A new US based study says that having to follow a restrictive diet that limits the consumption of foods like bread and pasta has been shown to cause depression, disordered eating and impaired quality of life in women suffering from celiac disease. ... Open Original Shared Link

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[rosetapper23]

Well, this was an extremely idiotic piece of "journalism." Not only does it attribute only tummy troubles to eating gluten (said nothing about nutritional deficiencies and the huge number of serious symptoms associated with celiac), it implies that eating gluten might be better for our mental health than not eating it. What complete nonsense!

[beebs]

Hmm, would I rather be depressed or dead? What a stupid thing to do a study on....its not like we have a choice about being gluten-free...

[pricklypear1971]

I wonder if we'd be depressed if we didn't have to screen everything?

Translation: if the world wasn't "wheat centric"?

Are we supposed to take antidepressants WITH or WITHOUT gluten in them????

Yes, Celiac is also a disease of social ostracism. Sad thing is that it doesn't have to be.

The author is clearly ignorant about Celiac if s/he thinks one can just "give in" and have a bowl of pasta.

See, reading this just made me depressed....

[Roda]

This was a stupid article. I get the point they were trying to make, but a it could have been executed SO MUCH BETTER!

[Skylark]

The journalist is an idiot. On the other hand, the research paper is quite interesting. The researchers don't suggest abandoning the diet. They say the study results mean health professionals treating woman with celiac disease need to be aware that the diet creates considerable psychosocial stress that needs to be addressed. (Duh!)

As we would expect, women who weren't responding to the diet as well had both physical symptoms and more signs of depression.

The interesting part is they found that women who perceived the diet as stressful had a higher incidence of depressive symptoms and eating disorder symptoms, even if they reported sticking to the diet well and had few physical symptoms. The few men in the study didn't tend to perceive the diet as stressful. There were clinical eating disorder symptoms in 22% of the celiac women, vs. only 6% in a normal female population.

[auzzi]

Not only does celiac disease impose a slew of dietary restrictions, the illness also increases

[Skylark]

Not the same. Religious restrictions are voluntary and everyone in a social circle follows them. Same with vegetarianism/veganism. Gluten-free requires people to give up a food so fundamental it's been labeled the "staff of life".

You argue about the word "slew" but the ingredients list to avoid with celiac disease is pages long and gluten is so common that it's impossible to walk into a mainstream restaurant and eat anything other than salad and a skin-on baked potato, or pick up a bag of processed food without reading every single ingredient. There are hundreds of foods we can't eat in a typical supermarket, and dozens of restaurants in a typical city where there is so much flour and CC we don't even bother to look at the menu. It's nothing like avoiding shellfish (been there, done that) or tree nuts. About the only allergy with a similar impact is corn, another common grain, and the people I've met with severe corn allergies also had a difficult time.

[pricklypear1971]

Not the same. Religious restrictions are voluntary and everyone in a social circle follows them. Same with vegetarianism/veganism. Gluten-free requires people to give up a food so fundamental it's been labeled the "staff of life".

You argue about the word "slew" but the ingredients list to avoid with celiac disease is pages long and gluten is so common that it's impossible to walk into a mainstream restaurant and eat anything other than salad and a skin-on baked potato, or pick up a bag of processed food without reading every single ingredient. There are hundreds of foods we can't eat in a typical supermarket, and dozens of restaurants in a typical city where there is so much flour and CC we don't even bother to look at the menu. It's nothing like avoiding shellfish (been there, done that) or tree nuts. About the only allergy with a similar impact is corn, another common grain, and the people I've met with severe corn allergies also had a difficult time.

I've actually been out to eat with Vegans and Vegetarians who didn't eat a thing, or were stuck with a crappy little salad because of their voluntary restrictions about their diets - no meat cooked on the same grill, etc.

People with religious food restrictions aren't always in the company of others with similar restrictions and are also stuck in similar situations.

I imagine there are correlations.

Funny though, I remember two Vegetarians getting indignant about the lack of food. The Vegan just rolled with it.

[tarnalberry]

The primary difference between voluntary restrictions and medical restrictions is freedom of choice. Vegans, even if they're stuck with nothing to eat at a restaurant, have made that choice with little coercion. The celiac is coerced by the health ramifications to make that choice against their desires (in some cases, anyway ). The choice makes a HUGE different in psychological impact.

[Skylark]

I still don't think it's the same. Vegetarian/veganism is VOLUNTARY. They choose the dietary restrictions. Sure, a lot of vegetarians like to act indignant when there aren't many food choices but in my experience it's usually because they are trying to impose their beliefs and agenda on those around them, not because they will go home and have days of misery if there is a little chicken broth in the soup or they eat food cooked on a shared grill.

Keeping kosher or Islamic Halal must be hard in America and I imagine it has an impact. There is still a built-in support group, though, as most people keeping kosher are spending at least part of their time in a like-minded community. They also generally grow up with the restrictions, not have them suddenly imposed in adulthood. I have a much easier time on the gluten-free diet than some celiacs seem to have because I had a childhood wheat allergy (which was probably celiac disease). Many of my "comfort foods" are gluten-free/casein-free. Again with religious diets, there are no serious physical consequences for eating food that is not kosher in a pinch. Islam even explicitly permits consuming non-Halal food if the alternative is starvation.

[mommida]

It was a fluff piece.

The truth, people with dietary restrictions are treated like crap. Proper nutrition is very important for a body's well-being.

[Skylark]

Don't even get me started on nutrition. Eating actual, nourishing food is so far out of the American mainstream it's mind-boggling.

[ciamarie]

To me the stupid-est part of it, was when it said that being gluten-free can or does have a negative impact on one's quality of life. But it completely ignores and fails to mention that being sick from eating gluten would (in my mind, anyway!?) have more of a negative impact on one's quality of life. Sheesh.

[pricklypear1971]

It was a fluff piece.

The truth, people with dietary restrictions are treated like crap. Proper nutrition is very important for a body's well-being.

Exactly.

Most of the Veg/Vegans I've known have all said they feel better eating that way than eating meat. After they've done it a while the "animal-cruelty free" part is far down the list. So, while it was a choice, they seem to get a health benefit from it. A few even said they tried meat again, and just couldn't do it. I wonder, for many of the long-timers, how much is choice? A few of them said it made them ill.

That said, I've seen them eat some pretty hideous stuff (processed foods), so I don't exactly think it makes a healthy diet if you're eating cookies and chips instead of whole foods.

And I have seen people on a religiously imposed diet go hungry many times instead of eating, or just refuse to go to a function. I think they are usually the ones I see pass on social events more often.

[Skylark]

To me the stupid-est part of it, was when it said that being gluten-free can or does have a negative impact on one's quality of life. But it completely ignores and fails to mention that being sick from eating gluten would (in my mind, anyway!?) have more of a negative impact on one's quality of life. Sheesh.

The point of the RESEARCH, not the stupid press article, was that going gluten-free can have a serious impact and that we need support. Hopefully studies like this will improve things for folks whose doctors completely lack empathy for how big a change the diet really is.

[pricklypear1971]

The point of the RESEARCH, not the stupid press article, was that going gluten-free can have a serious impact and that we need support. Hopefully studies like this will improve things for folks whose doctors completely lack empathy for how big a change the diet really is.

Would be nice, but I'd put my money on doctors using it as an excuse to tell women not to trial a gluten-free diet.

But I'm a sarcastic woman on a gluten-free diet so my pov is probably skewed.

[beebs]

I was a vegetarian for 10 years by choice, and yes - when I ate meat it made me feel sick, you get used to not eating it. But having said that - there is a massive difference with the way I feel about vego and coeliac. There is no choice with coeliac - I couldn't even cheat if I wanted too. I think thats what makes it worse. Just the whole - finality of it iykwim. Even as a veg it was always a conscious decision - therefore I never felt annoyed or angry about it. I feel annoyed about the gluten thing all the time. Anyhoo -thats just how I feel. I know there are others out there that will feel differently.

[Ollie's Mom]

Would be nice, but I'd put my money on doctors using it as an excuse to tell women not to trial a gluten-free diet.

But I'm a sarcastic woman on a gluten-free diet so my pov is probably skewed.

Bingo. I think you nailed it.

Mind you, I have the same skewed point of view as you.

[Gemini]

The journalist is an idiot. On the other hand, the research paper is quite interesting. The researchers don't suggest abandoning the diet. They say the study results mean health professionals treating woman with celiac disease need to be aware that the diet creates considerable psychosocial stress that needs to be addressed. (Duh!)

As we would expect, women who weren't responding to the diet as well had both physical symptoms and more signs of depression.

The interesting part is they found that women who perceived the diet as stressful had a higher incidence of depressive symptoms and eating disorder symptoms, even if they reported sticking to the diet well and had few physical symptoms. The few men in the study didn't tend to perceive the diet as stressful. There were clinical eating disorder symptoms in 22% of the celiac women, vs. only 6% in a normal female population.

Most of the foods mentioned that celiacs supposedly cannot eat are the grains, of course, and grains are nutrient rich in B vitamins, which keep the neurological stuff happy and healthy. I guess these people have never had really good gluten-free bread and pasta! That may account for the results this study came in with. Bread and pasta are comfort foods and without them, many people have a tough time. They are comfort foods for a reason.

For me, at least, starting and following a strict gluten-free diet has been easy. Then again, when you have one foot in the grave from Celiac, it makes staying gluten-free really easy. It was like I was never supposed to eat wheat and I never crave it. I make really good stuff at home and live in an area where gluten-free menu's and restaurants abound. That does make a difference. I also think you have to be predisposed to developing eating disorders.....they don't just happen.

It's not about the food...it's about control.

Maybe if these people were tested for nutritional deficiencies, post celiac diagnosis, it may give answers for the depression we are supposedly so prone to. I bet their B's are in the gutter!