No Need to Go Gluten Free?

“Unless you  have celiac disease or a doctor’s diagnosis of a gluten intolerance, gluten-free is a difficult diet that’s not necessary”, said assistant professor of medicine at NYU, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD in a recent issue of Health Magazine (incidentally, why that publication is called “Health” is beyond me, but I’ll try to keep from going off on a tangent…for now”.

There are so many things wrong with that statement.  If I had listened to all the GI specialists I’d seen before I learned about Paleo who counseled me in the same manner, I’d likely still be experiencing horrendous abdominal pain and GI distress on a daily basis. None asked what I was eating.  One reluctantly tested me for Celiac, for which I came back negative and was then told there was no reason to eschew gluten, as it would also omit many important nutrients in my diet, were I to go gluten free.

I’m very proud of not having settled for a lifetime of pain and pain pills, thank you very much.

The frightening issue, though, is the number of docs who are dispensing this very advice.

Gluten free is not remotely difficult.  Yes, it involves reading labels (but we are not meant to be eating things in packages anyway, so the amount of food we eat from boxes or cans should be extremely minimal anyway) and asking questions… so does that make for the equivalent of ‘too difficult’?

Why and how this is acceptable is beyond me.

Later on in the article, we are told to try anti spasmodic drugs if we have IBS (love that catch- all diagnosis) as well as anti depressants (pardon me?) for associated pain.  We’re also advised to try proton pump inhibitors for heartburn, such as Prilosec and that we should not eat more than a single 3 – 6 oz serving per week of red meat as it will make us far more likely to develop colon cancer.  It goes on to say that it’s normal to be flatulent throughout the day (um, no, it’s not… ) and that if constipation is an issue, it’s Colace to the rescue.

It’s a joke that’s not remotely funny.  This is just one of many publications that who knows how many readers across the US are gobbling up without so much as a question or a second thought.

We’ve got to ask more questions of those who are providing ‘health care’ for us and take it upon ourselves to become self educated on the matter.  If you’ve never considered doing so because ‘you’re not a scientist’ or ‘you don’t like biology’ well, guess what?  You have a body, don’t you?  Shouldn’t we all learn how it really works and how to maintain it properly?  We do that with cars, appliances, even toys, yet for so many, proper maintenance of the body falls by the wayside.

And there’s only one for each of us.

Think.