The other night my husband and I were enjoying ourselves at his company Christmas party. We were talking casually as we ate our catered meal and jokingly visited with our friends next to us about our “gluten-filled” dinner and how much our oldest son would have enjoyed the menu. (He gets excited to eat gluten when he goes to friends houses and I think the neighbors wonder about him when he closes his eyes as he takes a bite of pizza, savoring each bite while he says, “this gluten is so good!” Haha! He cracks me up!)
Sitting across from us another couple that we had just introduced ourselves to that evening joined in the conversation and commented on the silly gluten free fad.
“You know, for some it is a fad diet, but for others it’s a necessary diet.” my husband remarked casually.
It’s not like we were upset that they were dissing our gluten free life style, after all they didn’t know anything other than our names and my husband’s occupation. Read more about our experience here. Then they asked the question that I’ve been trying to answer for the last 9 months since my youngest daughter Miah, then two, was diagnosed with Celiac disease. “What is gluten, anyway?” and “what’s so bad about it?”
Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, barley, and rye. Over the last several thousand years since grains and their corresponding gluten was introduced into the human diet, people have been consuming it as {Homemade} bread. In Italy, they were probably enjoying made from scratch pizza, foccacia bread, pasta, pasta, and more pasta! If you follow my links then you’ll know that I was happily and healthily following in my ancestor’s footsteps and enjoying every bite.
Gluten isn’t inherently bad and eating gluten free isn’t necessarily healthy. So why all the fad diets and seemingly sudden influx in gastrointestinal problems related to wheat/gluten? If you’re interested here’s some crazy statistics. So here’s my theory. The problem as I see it is the way in which these otherwise healthy grains are being grown and processed has changed over the last century. Pesticide laden, genetically modified, and chemically altered wheat products has pushed people who genetically have a predisposition to gluten sensitivity over the edge. Chemically altered gluten is labeled as “preservatives”, used as fillers, and is in no way close to the organic and natural food our ancestors used to enjoy.
Is that to say that all wheat is bad? No. Not unless, like my daughter, your body has had an autoimmune response and attacks itself in response to gluten. I, myself haven’t experienced what my daughter does when she gets gluten, but this is an excellent article about what it feels like when someone with Celiac gets gluten in their diet. Another big indicator that Miah has accidentally ingested gluten is her mood. If you think your three year old is moody, meet mine when she’s had gluten! You’ll be motion sick from the roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs that lasts for days after.
I guess the point I’m trying to make – the idea I wish I could have conveyed more clearly to our new acquaintances at dinner that night and to everyone else who wonders what the big deal with gluten is, is that what you put into your body is personal. The kind of oil and fuel you put into the tank effects the engine (to use an overused metaphor). That’s why as a family we have not only chosen to eat gluten free to support Miah, but I have tried my best to also remove from our diet things like refined sugars, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and over processed food that our society has deemed edible. Nothing against fast food chicken nuggets…but everything against them!
The experience we went through to discover Miah has Celiac disease is only the first part of the journey. Bringing awareness to this condition is a large part of what I hope to accomplish through sharing my recipes, but mostly I want others to realize how important they are. How important it is to know what you’re eating. Understanding how it effects you personally. Eating what YOUR body needs to survive and thrive. Can my oldest son’s body handle eating gluten. Yeah, it can. But just because his body isn’t going into crisis mode when he eats chemically altered gluten preservatives doesn’t mean its not effecting him.
My healthy eating interest didn’t really start until my husband had a rough year and needed to lose some weight after two major knee surgeries, but it took nearly losing my daughter to a misunderstood disease to really solidify my resolve. So when someone asks me what gluten is or what’s so bad about it, I want to tell them that it’s not just about this protein called gluten. It’s about how far we’ve come from eating natural, whole, beneficial food and how much more we have to learn.
That’s kind of a lot to fit in a casual dinner conversation.
About Melissa
Speak Your Mind