Gluten Shmooten

This is a good metaphor, as the science is equivalent to retelling a story of mythical beast that never actually existed.

When I eat vegetarian dim sum, I always get a plate of mixed gluten. Protein extracted from wheat sources, it has a nice chew and goes down easy. It doesn't have much flavor on it's own but the various strong sauces along with different processes make the flavors and textures bounce. And yet, me and my dinner companions don't go into any sort of gluten-shock.

Gluten is not a big baddy, and the myth that gluten is some intrinsically unhealthy thing has been embraced by the food industry to sell more crap that isn't making anyone healthier. However, you can't throw a rock on the internet without hitting some anecdotal evidence that cutting gluten is a miracle cure for all that ails you.

A recent piece in the NYT addressed this issue, and postulated some interesting theories. The rise of gluten sensitivity might not have anything to do with gluten at all, really. Typical evolutionary thought says that if you introduce something to the human diet like wheat or dairy, over generations the human body evolves to cope -- it's an advantage to survival. However...

Perhaps the best support for this idea comes from a place called Karelia. It’s bisected by the Finno-Russian border. Celiac-associated genes are similarly prevalent on both sides of the border; both populations eat similar amounts of wheat. But celiac disease is almost five times as common on the Finnish side compared with the Russian. The same holds for other immune-mediated diseases, including Type 1 diabetes, allergies and asthma. All occur more frequently in Finland than in Russia.
WHAT’S the difference? The Russian side is poorer; fecal-oral infections are more common. Russian Karelia, some Finns say, resembles Finland 50 years ago. Evidently, in that environment, these disease-associated genes don’t carry the same liability.

A heightened auto-immune response is actually an evolutionary advantage if you live in filth, or raise feces-spewing farm animals and eat them, and you're body is under assault everyday. While on a rare occasion, the balance will tip into full-blown auto-immune disorder, a chaotic & dirty environment can tamp this down.

I bet she has no problem with gluten.

So perhaps the problem isn't that people with "gluten sensitivity" are eating too much wheat. Maybe the problem is that they're too clean. Maybe we shouldn't establish pig pens in our NYC apartments, but perhaps we can let the hand-sanitizer, anti-bacterial everything and more-than-daily showers go?

An important clue comes from the fact that other disorders of immune dysfunction have also increased. We’re more sensitive to pollens (hay fever), our own microbes (inflammatory bowel disease) and our own tissues (multiple sclerosis).
Perhaps the sugary, greasy Western diet — increasingly recognized as pro-inflammatory — is partly responsible. Maybe shifts in our intestinal microbial communities, driven by antibiotics and hygiene, have contributed. Whatever the eventual answer, just-so stories about what we evolved eating, and what that means, blind us to this bigger, and really much more worrisome, problem: The modern immune system appears to have gone on the fritz.
Maybe we should stop asking what’s wrong with wheat, and begin asking what’s wrong with us.

It's easy to pick one big villain and blame all sorts of everything on it, whether it's gluten, carbs, fat, animal products, etc. It's never that simple. Put down the yoke of false "gluten sensitivity" and simply eat more vegetables and fruits, unprocessed foods and let that push out the stuff that may be making you feel not-so-hot.

WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2740
Worked from home again this week, don't think this lifestyle suits me. It's nice to have access to the kitchen but my regularly scheduled day-food is designed for travel to office kitchenettes....

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MONDAY COUNT: 2970

SLEPT: 12:30pm-6am, 5.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 11am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 1:30pm, Fage with honey, almonds, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1:45pm,  beef patty, pea soup, health salad, pickles, 750 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 7pm, flounder, asparagus, poppa salad with dressing, 650 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, almond butter & chocolate syrup, 2 kid granola bar, +/-650 cal

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BIKE CREDIT: 770 cal
TUESDAY COUNT: 2770

SLEPT: 9:30pm-5:30am, 8hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, homemade granola bar, 150 mg caffeine, 455 cal  

BIKE SNACK: 10am, homemade granola bar, 455 cal

LUNCH: 1:15pm, chicken meatbals, lentil curry, steamed string beans, pickles,  680 cal

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, stouffers french bread pizza, poppa salad, 1080 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, popcorn, +/-400 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 3310

SLEPT: 9:30pm - 5:30am, 8 hrs

AM SNACK: 5:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST: 11am, Steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, grilled chicken breast, poppa salad with dressing, 740 cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, cheezit, 310 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of streetza, +/- 300 cal

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, cashews, 250 cal

DINNER: 8pm, Chipotle Burrito, ice cream can, +/- 1100 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1360cal
THURSDAY COUNT: 1940

SLEPT: 10:30pm-6:30am, 8 hours

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, 2 donuts, +/- 700 cal

BIKE SNACK: 1pm, homemade granola bar, 490 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:30pm, homemade granola bar, 490 cal

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, momma salad, 100 cal

DINNER PT 1: 6pm, beef patty, poppa salad with dressing, 560 cal

DINNER PT 2: 8pm, vegetarian dim sum, +/-800 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2710

SLEPT: 11pm-6:30am, 7.5 hours

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST 1: 7:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, age with almonds, honey. vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat, pickles, momma salad, 610 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, peanut butter crackers, 190 cal

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog, fries, ice cream, +/- 900 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, ice cream, +/- 400 cal