I cannot agree. First because there are not so many people who are "qualified", and second there is no diet that is good for everyone, and third I/you/we know one's own body best.
If I decide to eat less carbs and I go to those "qualified" people, they will explain to me the food pyramid whose foundation is, as we know, carbs (bread, cereals, noodles...), so I will be told my idea is bad, no matter why I decided to cut carbs. (Unless I am diabetic.)
Why?
The wheat today isn't the wheat from 100 or 2000 years ago. The new cultivation contains far more gluten. Maybe the human being needs a bit longer to adjust to this rapid change. Maybe too much gluten really is not healthy - I don't know.
Do you mean eating gluten-free is connected to obesity?
Firstly let me say that I do have access to data that helps me come to my conclusions. Most of this is in the public domain. If you tell me what bits you are interested in I can try and find a public source.
The rise of gluten free products in the UK (I can’t speak for anywhere else because I don’t look at the consumption data as frequently) is documented from till data. What we in the trade call EPOS data.
This shows a sharp rise in gluten free consumption over the last 8 years or so....this is a massive change, not a little 10% yoy ....it’s an enormous shift.
The only thing that moves this quick is fashion...if you compare it to other trends in healthy eating ...people reducing sugar consumption for example the pace of change is much much slower ...like 3% yoy.
What’s interesting is that dairy free shows a similar pattern.
The wheat hasn’t changed in this time, the dairy products haven’t changed, there’s not been price or promotional activity or shortages or normal bread and dairy and there are no health changes that would happen this quickly to make people all be suddenly sensitive to wheat and dairy.
Add to this surveys of consumers and you find that most admit to choosing gluten free for lifestyle reasons (9/10 also don’t have a medical reason to do so). This ties in with the recorded instances of coeliac disease which hasn’t changed significantly over the period.The most popular sited reason why they prefer gluten free food is “because it makes them feel less bloated”. There is very little mention of cramps, nausea, reflux, ibs. Another study showed people associated gluten with more than just wheat and didn’t understand that gluten was a protein so there is confusion there as well.
Now what has happened over the same period of time is that people have got fatter and the rates of obesity are rising at an alarming rate. We know it’s not the type of food that is causing the obesity crisis, just eating too many calories for a number of reasons (availability, lack of cooking from scratch, more eating out, More snacking between meals etc etc.). Interestingly consumption of sugar has been declining yoy over the same period, and consumption of vegetables and protein rich foods (like red meat) is also down. We can then infer by the type of foods that are growing that refined carbohydrates and saturated fat are making up the majority of the calorie overeat.
Gluten free is not responsible for obesity...rather obesity has driven people to choosing gluten free foods under the misconception that they are bloated because of a food sensitivity rather than because they are eating too many carbs/sat fat and calories.
What is worrying is that the retailers are making more money as consumers switch to gluten free , even though the consumer is carrying on eating too many calories and carry on believing they are doing something to help themselves. This is wrong in my book.
At the same time quackish websites are misleading consumers with a whole array of tripe
It is also alarming that the government has targeted taxing food as a way of changing people’s eating habits rather than tackling all the misinformation some of which is also populated by celebrity chefs rather than the governments own scientific resources.
It’s a bit bonkers to be honest.
As i said at the beginning I am not talking about genuine cases of food sensitivity or PWME...I’m talking about millions of people who have neither.
