Gluten intolerant, celiac or just overconsumption of refined grains?

I am puzzled by all the ‘gluten free’ foods that are sprouting up on the grocery shelves lately, and it seems like so many folks are discovering that they are gluten intolerant or have celiac disease. I’m even more puzzled by how many seem to know that they have these disorders, without having actually being diagnosed as such.

I have a friend who is getting her doctorate in nursing, and was diagnosed with celiac disease several years ago. She was diagnosed as such, having done the hard tests - they’re nasty, and invasive. She’s not the only celiac I know, either. These are people with a very serious problem.

However, the gluten intolerant ‘diagnosis’ seems to be going through a kind of vogue lately. And, I’ve begun to wonder, based on personal experience, if it’s really a gluten intolerance or a reaction from all the highly refined grain products - so often combined with too many other harmful ingredients and sugars -  that are manufactured into the American diet, whether they need to be there or not.

The end result may be the same, but the cause may not always be what the gluten free marketing blitz would like everybody to believe. Coming from a marketing background, I’m very suspicious that the food industry would seriously love to start selling gluten intolerance to create whole new markets for products yet to be invented.

Like I said, personal experience is what is driving my suspicions.

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Trying to get that lipid and cholesterol number down? Here's how.

I was visiting my family doc/fellow cancer survivor/friend the other day for the annual checkup. Here’s the joke that he finds so amusing ( I didn’t say that he was ready to take over for Leno, did I?):

“A cowboy rides into town on Friday, stays three days and rides out on Friday. How did he do it?”

( the answer comes later, so keep reading)

Anywho, Doc is looking through the lab reports on my blood lipids and cholesterol. He shakes his learned head. Looks some more, then says:

“Whoa. This is amazing.”

Me - “Huh? What is?”

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Snacking: A necessary evil that can be tamed

Normally, I don’t approve of snacking between meals. I mean, really, if your a normal, reasonably healthy person and you can’t get through three to four hours without feeding yourself …. get real. Snacking is usually a symptom of:

1- Being bored or thirsty.

2- Not having eaten a proper meal, such as a healthy breakfast or sat down and mindfully eaten your lunch or dinner. Scarfing faux food on the fly is one reason you’ll be driven to snacking on unhealthy, unsatisfying choices.

Snacking mindlessly, on unhealthy faux-foods, is where it really goes off the tracks and into the dietary ditch. So, why not arm yourself with the right snacks, if you’re snacking inclined?

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Keeping your New Year's diet resolutions

Joy Bauer, on The Today Show, absolutely knows her stuff and always has great advice. However, here’s a simple one that I’ve found works: whole grains.

Replace - incrementally, if you must - the refined grains in your kitchen and pantry with whole grain products. This is going to require reading the labels - and not the front label which is designed to fool you into buying the product. I’m talking about the ingredients label.

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Tips for eating less: so simple you'll wonder how you missed it

What I’m about to tell you may sound a little crazy, but it’s supported by a lot of expert opinion these days: ditch the diversity and go for the boredom in your meals.

There’s a scientific reason for it.

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Still looking for that 'right' diet?

I don’t think I am anymore, since I seem to be able to loose a few pounds now and keep it off without much effort. But there was a time about a year ago that I was stressed out that my weight creep was so inevitable that I’d better just learn to love it - in a completely unhealthy, neurotic way. Before I threw in the towel, however I went to see the local university nutritionists, and the advice they gave me was hard to accept at first, but I now think they were right.

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