Over my breakfast of an egg white and overnight hot cereal (1/4c BRM and buckwheat, 1/4c unsweetened vanilla almond breeze, 1/2c water, drop of vanilla and maple syrup, blueberries, 1/2T almond butter) I watched the Today Show per usual.
To my surprise they did a story on being gluten free and I naturally got excited. Unfortunately, my excitement dwindled to frustration and talking back to my TV as the story discussed a gluten free diet (way one eats vs a weight loss diet). You see, this story was all about celebrities who are choosing to go gluten free and touting it as a way to lose weight. Now, I will be the first to admit that I've benefited from an increase in awareness of a gluten free diet as new products, restaurants, and bakeries have entered the market. Yet, so many of their claims painted this way of eating as a trendy way to slim down.
After 2:30 Natalie Morales finally mentioned that over 3 million Americans suffer from Celiac disease and I had a glimmer of hope. I also appreciated that a physician did mention that many gluten free products are in fact higher in calories, fat, and sugars than glutenous products. Thank you Dr. Raj for expressing your disagreement with this!! I've found this to be the case as well which is why it is so important for folks transitioning to a gluten free diet to incorporate fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and other natural foods (like dairy if you aren't allergic) into a gluten free diet. Like main-stream eaters, relying heavily on processed products will leave your shorts a bit snug.
Take a look for yourself though. What do you think of this clip? Perhaps this just hit on a pet peeve of mine regarding gluten free eating...
The morning flew by and I packed up my lunch to bring to a meeting with me. I had the leftover enchilada stuffing with spinach, 1/4c brown rice, 1/4c kidney beans, and enchilada sauce on top.
In between my 2nd and 3rd meeting I snacked on baby carrots and that's about when my day headed downhill. During my last meeting of the day, I started feeling achy, chilled, and beyond tired. I made it through the meeting and was happy to head home from it to try to sort myself out.
I got hungry during the meeting but couldn't eat so I decided that food would really help me. I had my leftover Chinese vegetables
and when I was still hungry 10 minutes later decided to just make it dinner time. Over the course of a couple of hours I grazed on:
Amy's split pea soup with a pinch of rice mixed in
Udi's whole grain toast with red pepper spread and cheese
Frozen blueberries with half a serving of rice milk chocolate chip ice cream
It's only 9:30pm but it's looking like bedtime for me. I took my temperature a little bit ago and I have a fever of 100.1. Here's to hoping I feel better when I wake up!!
I think you're pretty much right on the clip. I did like it when the nutritionist kind of pushed back at everything and said "no, this is a serious illness for people". I've actually GAINED a lot of weight since going GF. That's because one of the symptoms of gluten-intolerance I had was mal-nutrition and it was weight I really needed that the gluten wasn't letting my body have. Still, it's all in the name of HEALTH, and not a fad for weight loss.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better.
ReplyDeleteI hated how they used gluten free as a fad diet...so frustrating. I agree all those foods they showed were still processed junk out of a box. There is a better way to approach gluten-free living if you are trying to loss weight. You know? ugh