The rapidly increasing interest in the gluten-free diet has been labeled by many as a fad diet. I disagree with this assumption. Fad diets tend to be weight loss diets, for the most part, or detox diets (which are usually promoted as weight loss diets). The gluten free diet isn’t about weight loss. It’s about feeling better. It’s about healing. It’s about getting to the bottom of what ails you.
The amount of people who have transformed their health—and improved an astonishing variety of health conditions all over the body—by removing gluten from the diet is truly amazing. That kind of health improvement is impossible to ignore.
Unfortunately, not everyone is on board with the gluten-free diet. Certain “experts” are trying to call foul play on the whole thing. A recent New York Times article addressed gluten sensitivity and gluten-free diets. While the article did point out the validity of gluten sensitivity as a real health condition for which many people find relief with a gluten free diet, it also stated, “Experts have been skeptical. It does not make sense, for example, that someone would lose weight on a gluten-free diet.” Someone at the New York Times needs to read Dr. William Davis’ book Wheat Belly (incidentally, a New York Times bestseller)!
The article didn’t quite advocate the gluten-free diet, but it certainly didn’t write it off. In fact, it provided a number of important points in support of the diet in people who are gluten sensitive. It did recommend that people visit a doctor before going on a gluten-free diet for the simple reason that celiac disease, a more serious condition similar to gluten sensitivity, may not be detectable in people who have been following a gluten-free diet, and thus, may go undiagnosed. What the article did help to point out was that you can still have gluten sensitivity even if celiac disease has been ruled out. And the treatment for both of these conditions? A gluten-free diet.
The bottom line is if you try a gluten-free diet (and that means no gluten for at least six weeks; three months is even better) and you feel better, what does that tell you? The proof is in the pudding folks (the gluten-free pudding).