Jennifer Lawrence calls the gluten free diet, "The cool new eating disorder."

photo credit: boxyblogs

Actress Jennifer Lawrence has come under fire for calling the gluten free diet the "cool new eating disorder." She made this statement in the November issue of Vanity Fair.

The gluten free community is now speaking out against the actress. Cynthia Kupper,the executive director for the Gluten Intolerance group, made a statement to FOX411:

"When I think of an eating disorder, I think anorexia, bulimia or strange eating patterns. Jennifer’s comments make me angry."

Kupper has Celiac Disease and also stated that there are 2 digestive disorders that cause gluten intolerance: Celiac Disease and Dermatitis Herpetiformis. She stated that these are "well-acknowledged and documented medical conditions."

People on social media have been fuming at the actress's comment about the gluten free diet. People have told her to stick to acting because she doesn't know anything about eating healthy. Major fans of the actress are disappointed in her nonsense.

My opinion:
Since I cannot cuss on this specific blog, I'm going to try and word my opinion carefully.
I was among the millions of people who liked Jennifer Lawrence movies. My favorite one is "Silver Linings Playbook." She was amazing in that.
However, as a Celiac, I am deeply offended by her comments. The gluten free diet is NOT an eating disorder. It is our only treatment. It is our prescription that we need to take for the rest of our lives. We have no choice. We eat gluten free foods in order to stay alive. I watched my grandmother deteriorate from having Celiac disease during a time when there was no gluten free food available in the area. When the only store within a 200 mile radius closed, she was SOL. She went back to eating food containing gluten. She was skin and bones. When she died in 2007, she weighed 60 pounds! She shrunk half a foot during the 1980s and 1990s. I was one of her caregivers in the 1990s, and I was only a teenager! It killed me to watch my grandmother go through hell because of this disease.
I inherited this disease from her. Since my diagnosis, her being gone has been exponentially rough on me. We share this unfortunate bond, and she is the only one in my family that could have understood how hard it can be to be gluten free for life.

I hope that Jennifer Lawrence educates herself on what Celiac disease, DH, etc are all about. Many folks are prescribed the gluten free diet because it alleviates many uncomfortable (and life-threatening) symptoms.
If it weren't for the gluten free diet being so popular right now, we wouldn't have much at our disposal. Granted, most of the baked goods are chock full of carbs, sugar, and fat, but at least we have that option for a sweet treat. Gluten free food from the 1990s, 1980s, and before then: that food was God awful! I remember trying one of my grandmother's muffins, made completely from scratch. I thought I was eating cardboard. It was horrendous. But, I knew that those muffins were keeping her alive (and helping her put on weight. She was doctor-ordered to put on weight. She never could. She did get up to near 100 while being gluten free. She was still skin and bones then. You can imagine what she looked like before she died).

Celiac disease, DH, and other illnesses are nothing to joke about. They mean business. I still suffer symptoms every once in a while. I have some complications from the disease. Gluten free food has alleviated most of my symptoms. I remember the months leading up to my diagnosis. I was very very sick.

Just like there is no cure for cancer, there is no cure for Celiac disease. The gluten free diet is our lifesaver. It is NOT an eating disorder!!

Scientist creating "gluten-friendly wheat;" says it will be revolutionary.

photo credit: pri (dot) org

A scientist in Italy is creating gluten-friendly wheat by lowering the amount of gluten protein in pasta and bread.
Carmen Lamacchia wets the wheat grains with water, puts the grains in the microwave, which lowers the amount of ppm in wheat. After years of research, she has been able to lower the amount of gluten to 80ppm, which is 10 times less than normal wheat. (Us Celiacs can only tolerate 20ppm or lower)

We all know the drill about gluten. It is that protein that creates the soft and chewy texture of bread and other kinds of dough.
In recent years, we've been hearing how unhealthy gluten in, and Lamacchia is stating that the news is false.

Lamacchia does have a concern about us Celiacs. She understands how bad gluten is for our intestines and immune system, but her discoveries will change all of that.
She states that the toxic part of gluten will be hidden. The enzyme in our intestine won't recognize the gluten protein and will not cause us harm. She has patented her discovery as "gluten friendly."

A Celiac researcher in MA is impressed with the findings, but he is not convinced that the 80ppm will fly with Celiacs.

"They want zero. I mean, zero is something not attainable in biology. We had to really fight and fight hard with the celiac community here in the United States — and it took nine years of debates — to convince the celiac community in the United States that 20 parts per million, it’s OK, because the immune system doesn’t see it.”

Lamacchia stands behind her research. She said that the immune system in Celiacs will not recognize the gluten protein. She states that 20 or 80ppms will not matter if the quality of gluten has changed, and she believes it has:

“We did [an] experiment on t-cells [white cells from the immune system] coming from the intestine of celiac patients. And on those cells, we tested extract from the modified flour. These cells didn’t produce the inflammatory cytokine."

In layman's terms: the immune system did not respond to the gluten.

My opinion:
While her research is impressive in theory, I find it to be an oxymoron. Gluten-friendly wheat? I mean, wheat is our kryptonite. You can't make it safe, no matter how hard you try. Also, any experiment has its risks. If she has successfully modified the gluten, what are the drawbacks? What will happen to our system when we consume the modified gluten? Will it increase our chances for cancer, or auto-immune diseases connected to Celiac Disease?

I do appreciate Lamacchia's hard work. However, I worry about potential risks. I would definitely like to know more about her research. As someone who has Celiac Disease, I don't trust anything unless I do research and have hard evidence that it is safe. I'm like that in every aspect of my life. I need concrete evidence that something works or doesn't work.

I agree with Lamacchia's stance of gluten not being unhealthy. It isn't unhealthy, unless you have Celiac Disease or a gluten/wheat allergy/intolerance.
Gluten is perfectly fine and healthy for the general population.

Celiacs: What do you think about this revolutionary research? If she has been able to modify the amount of gluten in wheat, would you try it?

Event Alert: Celiac Blood Screening in Chicago. Pre-Register NOW!

photo credit: Examiner via The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center

Greetings again, folks! I just wanted to let everyone know that the University of Chicago is holding a FREE Celiac Disease blood screening. You can pre-register now by going to the University of Chicago's Celiac Disease Center. Pre-registration ends this coming Monday 10/6/2014.

The FREE screening will be held on 10/11/2014 from 9am to 1pm. There will be a Q&A with experts at 10:30am. The screening is FREE, but you MUST pre-register in order to take advantage of this event.

Celiac Disease affects 1 in 100 people here in the United States. Testing for it early can save you years of hell. If someone in your family has Celiac Disease, please get tested for the gene. This disease has been known to be deadly if left undetected. There are also some scary complications to not getting diagnosed early: Osteoporosis, infertility, and many different types of cancers.

If you are in the Chicago area, PLEASE pre-register for this event. It could save you years of hell and it could even save your life.

You can pre-register HERE.

South Park's Gluten-Free Ebola Episode

photo credit: southparkdigital

Greetings Celiac Warriors!

Recently, South Park did a gluten free episode that got a lot of attention in the gluten free and Celiac communities. For the most part, the reaction has been positive. Many folks, including myself, found it hilarious.

You may be wondering what the episode was about. I'm going to give you the cliff notes version:
The episode starts off with the kids returning to school after their start up company fails. Then the show cuts to the teachers lounge where the teachers are discussing Mr. Mackey who has gone gluten free. Mr. Mackey comes back and starts blaming all the world's problems on gluten. A co-worker becomes annoyed by all the gluten free talk and starts screaming at Mr. Mackey to shut up. Mackey states that behavior problems are due to gluten consumption. A female teacher expresses interest in going gluten free.
Later on, the boys are on the radio promoting an "epic" party. Callers ask the boys if there will be a gluten free option at the shindig. One caller says that they've been gluten free for one day and she feels so much better. Another caller expressed outrage because he had recently gone to a restaurant and ordered a gluten free quinoa salad, and the guy next to him was eating a sandwich. He started expressing his grief that the restaurant seated him next to a gluten eater. Cartman becomes intrigued and asks the question that most usually ask: "What is gluten?"

After the commercial, the show cuts to a gym full of people and a nutritionist begins speaking. He starts explaining what gluten is, while he extracts pure gluten from a loaf of bread. He concludes that gluten is not evil. Mr. Mackey dares him to consume the pure gluten. The nutritionist takes the dare and consumes it. Suddenly, the nutritionist begins to transform into something scary. Lightning bolts are around him, he becomes irritable, and then his male anatomy flies off. His body becomes torched from the lightning.
The gym evacuates and the nutritionist's dick demolishes one of the folks running away. One escapee runs past a Papa John's and screams through the door that they need to leave the town.

The townspeople return to their homes and throw out everything that contains gluten. When Stan sees his dad throwing out wheat thins, he asks his dad why, since he wanted to serve it at the party. His dad tells him that wheat thins will make his dick fall off.
An angry mob comes together outside of Stan's house and begins throwing gluten foods in a bonfire.

Next, the show cuts to a wheat field and the angry mob starts torching it. At the USDA, they monitor the situation closely. They begin to suspect that gluten is the cause of the worldwide panic over gluten. They test the gluten on lab rats, whom end up dying (and the rat dicks fly off upon death).
The military begins quarantining towns folk who have come into contact with gluten. They use Papa Johns as the quarantine building and tell the folks inside that they can eat pizza toppings as their only source of food. A few hours later, they run out of pizza toppings and one guy loses his cool. He runs into the back of the building, where the pizza dough is. He consumes the pizza dough, and then succumbs to the gluten poison.

 Meanwhile, the kids go on the radio once again to send out an SOS, stating that the gluten is toxic and they don't know how much time they have left on Earth. People call in and curse them out for canceling the party.
Cartman has a dream that Aunt Jemima tells him how to fix the situation and save all of humanity from certain death by gluten. He calls the USDA and tells them that the world can be saved if they flip the food pyramid. The USDA agrees and flips the pyramid (Fats and oils become the most important part of the diet, and grains become the least important).

With the pyramid upside down, the crisis ends. Cartman and the boys hold the party and serve sticks of butter, and also steak.

My thoughts:
When I first heard about the episode, I groaned because I figured that everyone was going to go crazy and put the producers of South Park on blast for giving the wrong impression about gluten. I was surprised at the reactions.
I really liked the episode. I thought it was pretty hilarious. Of course, when us Celiacs come into contact with gluten, we don't get hit by lightning, and I'm sure guys don't experience their wee-parts flying off. We do become irritable, but we also become very ill. Sometimes, our symptoms can become life-threatening.

Folks, gluten is not something that will cause an ebola-like crisis. In fact, grains and gluten are a healthy part of a general diet. Wheat has so many health benefits. Unfortunately, people like me cannot have wheat. We make do, though. There are so many alternatives, that we shouldn't feel like we are going without.
While this South Park parody was meant for laughs, there was also a small aspect of truth to what was being told. The nutritionist explained gluten pretty well, for about 30 seconds.

I know that the reason behind this episode was to target the gluten free fad dieters. Even though I enjoyed the episode, I think that there should have been a little something about Celiac Disease.

What did you guys think about the episode? If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here.

PS- The "gluten makes your dick fall off" was the most hilarious part of the episode. I nearly cried from laughter.

photo credit: southparkdigital