The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat

Fat is bad. Gluten is bad. Sugar is bad. MSG is bad. Every day we seem to see a story about some food that is "bad". We are encouraged to avoid it. Or perhaps we are encouraged to adopt a diet like Paleo, Vegan, Gluten free or something else. These often have advocates. There are people that have success with them. There are also people that do not.

Gluten is an interesting case. Some people do have celiac disease. For them, gluten is very bad. However, for most other people it is not. Earlier, a banana diet was seen as a cure for celiac disease. It worked - because it eliminated gluten as a side effect. However, once the banana relation was removed, low-gluten diets faded. This left gluten out of our minds eye. As gluten has roared back, it has helped people with undiagnosed celiac. However, it has hurt many other people that have adopted low gluten diets that do not benefit them.

Isolated studies often get great publicity. There may be advocates that repeat the findings in the media. This gives the impression that it is commonly accepted - even if there is little scientific basis. People end up yo-yoing around trying to find the latest fad. They may actually feel bad due to a placebo (or nocebo) effect. This distracts as from the important behaviors that will improve health. The villain keeps changing. Sugar and salt each get coverage. Some extreme diets (such as the rice diet) were also covered. 

In the end, he makes a "diet" suggestion. The first is to just not diet. Detox by avoiding reading anything about nutrition for a month. Focus on eating food you like. Don't keep track of it. But, spend time to eat. Devote time to sit down and eat. Don't do any activity while eating (expect perhaps talking to others.) Enjoy varied cuisines. This all seemed good.

Then he went off the deep end. He declared packaging and plastics to be a source of most of our problems. We have become fatter, even after eating "healthy" in various ways. So it must be all the plastics. After all, people would use glass jars previously. At first I thought this was tongue and cheek. However, it did feel real. He trained me in the previous chapters to question studies - especially when they advocated a quick fix. Now he was advocated a quick fix. What? 

What should we do? Eat a variety of food. Don't expect any food to be a panacea. Look for bias in studies. Everyone can have an opinion. There may also be bias in what is thought to be "good". (For example, a study looked at sedentary behavior watching TV and playing video games, but not reading. Aren't they all just as sedentary?) Even the author showed biases in how he reported about biases. When it comes to eating, it is best to eat food you enjoy, but not too much of it. If it makes you sick, you probably should not eat it.