Should I follow a gluten free diet?

[Irene]

This is the question posed yesterday in The Guardian. We've popped the link on our facebook page as well. Did you read it? What's your view? bit.ly/Vye5il

[HiveMind]

I've read it. Do you think, as this is an American article, it is biased toward promoting eating grains? Call me cynical but isn't Americal the grain capital of the world? Coincidence?

[Hidden in reply to HiveMind]

I believe that it's an article by Luisa Dillner, who is a Guardian writer, so not American unless I'm missing something - ?

[Apricot]

Read the article...and thought there is a world of difference between NOT eating gluten out of choice..and for medical reasons.

Agree with BerkshireLadyBird...grain capital might have a wee bit of bias..(shock horror)

Many people..simply dont have a choice.

Apricot

[Hidden in reply to Apricot]

Well, everyone has a choice. There are people with coeliac who eat gluten, and lots of people consume products which can hurt or kill them and still they continue to consume them.

[Hidden]

The reason many people don't take my gf diet - and yours - seriously is because they assume I'm on it for frivolous reasons. Women go on diets and diets are silly.

I have a friend who freely calls herself a coeliac who had antibodies but never bothered with a biopsy because her life was transformed by a gf diet, and she couldn't bring herself to go back on the gluten for the test. Should we judge her as a crank because some NHS services will be withheld from her without that diagnosis? Another friend did an elimination diet under her rheumatologist and found her RA greatly improved without wheat. Is she a food faddist? What about the people who get zero help from their doctors despite feeling like pants so they are taking their health into their own hands?

And what if you have the CD dx but you're asymptomatic and occasionally a little gluten slips in but it's hard to take it seriously when it doesn't feel like it's affecting you? Will we judge you as harshly?

My take on this article and the ilk is that it is yet another tiresome take on telling women what to do. It is nothing more than noncommittal waffle anyway.

[Ruth462]

My annoyance with the article is the blase way we are told to "see a doctor" or not to do anything until we have "sought medical opinion"

My doctors have ignored me, not wanted me to be tested (as I could push up the prescription demand if found positive?) quibbled over results, pushed drugs on me and been basically no help at all

Hence my fondness for forum such as this one.