Happy & Healthy

THE GLUTEN-FREE HYPE

Aren't we all going a bit overboard?

The hype is enormous. If you don't participate in ‘shredding’ zucchinis or rolling your own almond flour wraps these days, you just don't belong.

In fact, it's now a no-go to serve anything that contains gluten. Especially in the big cities. Walk into a local deli in NYC and the shelves are guaranteed to be half filled with ‘gluten-free’ options. Aren't we all going a bit overboard?

‘I personally eliminated gluten from my diet for a year.’

Which was quite good timing as a newborn Londoner, because let's be honest: London it's a paradise for gluten-free hipsters.

I worked out like crazy and got my carbohydrates mainly from vegetables, fruits, lentils, and beans. I felt like I was already swelling just by looking at a plate of pasta. Not okay. I had that slim figure, but after a year I noticed my body was screaming for, yes, for something I wasn't giving it. I had become afraid of bread, rice, pasta, and everything that contained the word gluten. No, everything that contained the word wheat. And I think that's where it goes wrong. We confuse gluten with wheat. Slowly I started eating a slice of bread again and complemented my plate of vegetables with rice or noodles. And I actually quite liked it.

In short: I was indeed swept up by this hype.

 ‘And I was also immediately freed from the rolling eyes when I asked at the Italian restaurant if there was a gluten-free version of the stuffed cannelloni.’

‘Here we go again.’ You can feel that people think you're a bit of a drama queen. Or a hipster who goes along with the latest health craze. I don't know which I find worse, by the way. Now, I would never claim that I'm allergic, because there are people who get seriously ill from just a trace of gluten. The condition celiac disease is indeed serious. It's important to separate the condition from the hype. There is now a thin line between people who are sensitive to gluten and those who think they are.

Gluten-free hipsters, drama? I think we should mainly continue to eat what makes us feel good. Do you feel better by reducing wheat or lactose? Go for it. Eating gluten-free without it being medically necessary? Why would you? That means spending more money on gluten-free products while you can also eat ‘normal’ products without getting sick. And then there's also the question of whether people with celiac disease among us are still taken seriously in a restaurant nowadays. If you ask me, we should ask ourselves that. Perhaps out of respect for people with celiac disease.