"Should you go Gluten-Free?" article on Active.com
 

http://www.active.com/nutrition/Art...tm?cmp=17-1-393

The main problem I have with this article is the insinuation that gluten is somehow an essential nutrient and that it should only be avoided by those who have Celiac or gluten intolerance:

"Field warns that a poorly planned switch to gluten-free can backfire, leading to an inadequate intake of complex carbs, vitamins, and minerals found in runner staples"

and I really love this statement about going gluten-free:

"but a runner who isn't careful could end up eating a lot of refined carbs and added fats, leading to weight gain."

:confused: I thought most gluten containing products were refined carbs!

Once again, I remember why I a registered dietician is the last person I would look to for nutritional advice :bash:

Most gluten free products are refined carbs....

An adequate intake of complex carbs is zero.

Yes, this is true of processed gluten-free products.

Hmmmmm:
Really? And just what vitamins and minerals do you lack when you eliminate gluten? And seek guidance from a registered dietician before changing you diet? How many people actually do something like that?

But a man I sing in the church choir with told me that his wife was recently diagnosed as celiac, and he went with her to the nutritionist, who was trying to explain the wife's new diet for her, but then turned to the guy I know and said to him, "but don't you go trying to eat what your wife eats. It would be very dangerous for you to go gluten-free." Dangerous? Give me a break. And someone it's *healthy* for his wife, but *dangerous* for him?

Oh yeah. The overpriced university textbooks are still teaching people studying medicine no less that you'll die without enough carbs and that grains are absolutely required food. It's nauseating.

PJ

People have been conditioned to believe that processed foods containing gluten are required nutrients. That is unbelievable. Just the fact that gluten causes so much damage to those with a gluten intolerance or celiac makes me think it's probably not so great for anyone. It certainly isn't "dangerous" to go gluten-free.

I wonder if that will ever change? Probably not as long as Dr. Oz is America's doctor.

Yes they are...I'm in nursing school, I have to read them all. If I have to read one more time that the necessary diet for type 2 diabetics is composed of 65% carbs I'm gonna scream. :bash: The only book I've had to read that says otherwise was my microbiology text.

Not to mention that she will never be truly gluten free as long as gluten is still being prepared in the house.

I can see some merit to going gluten free being bad for someone IF they are only substituting corn, rice or soy flours for wheat, since you could theoretically be substituting more refined flours for whole wheat ones.

But that's a stretch and I fully claim it as being one.

What does your microbiology text say, and have your teachers noted the contradiction?

Hmm...microbiology...a field run by scientists who watch reactions...or dieticians...a field run by a panel of government authorities...

Decisions, decisions.

So true.. the question then is where does that leave doctors? Personally, I would be no more likely to take nutritional advice from my doctor than I would a dietician...

The last person I'd check with for nutritional advice is a Doctor.... with the exception of my wife, who is my Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor.

Doctors today have lost the belief that we will take responsibility for our own health, so they are too quick to dismiss our questions with shallow answers and quickly push us to take the seemingly easy way out with a pill for this and a pill for that.... Most of us on these boards don't fit into the profile of an average patient, but it is the profile of the average patient that has had the biggest negative impact on the entire medical community and why there is so much greed, mistrust, misinformation, etc.... We (patients in general) are our own worst enemy.