Flaxseeds, glutten-free bread etc - do believe in new age eating habits?

RedTie

I ask because this week I did indeed buy flaxseeds and glutten-free bread. Does it work to help you live a healthier lifestyle? Who knows, but I'm trying it as a continued effort to live a healthier life.

I think any of these new age eating habits only work if you have a good active lifestyle too, which I do.

So do you try any of it? Have you changed your diet drastically in recent years?

ScumLord

There's no point in buying gluten free if you're not intolerant to gluten and most people aren't.

Most of it is a fad, products to make people feel superior because they're buying the healthy stuff.

Raging_Ninja

ScumLord wrote: »

There's no point in buying gluten free if you're not intolerant to gluten and most people aren't.

Gluten "intolerance", as opposed to actual Coeliac disease, hasn't even been proven to be a thing.

Kimbot

I know a couple of people that are Coeliacs and I've tried some of their gluten free foods. I don't envy them at all. Some of it is grand but some of it is just muck in fairness.

D3V!L

I'm "intolerant" to idiots who latch onto the latest diet fad.

It makes me break out in a fit of rage rash

Ubbquittious

€8 for an undercooked veggie burger

Cee-Jay-Cee

My 4yr old daughter is coeliac and I have tasted everything she eats and in 90% of cases there is no discernible difference between the GF version and regular version. The one with the biggest difference is white bread but saying that there are breads available which actually taste very good and it wouldn't bother me to eat them regularly, the only thing stopping us (as a family) from eating it all the time is the price of it as its over €4 for a small loaf.

Cereals and biscuits/cakes taste the same and better in some cases. Many foods are naturally gluten free but are prepared/manufactured in a factory which handles other products containing gluten and so there is cross contamination and so they have to state that on the packaging. My daughter is ultra sensitive to gluten and will vomit violently about 1-3hrs after only a tiny mouthful of a food containing gluten and so she has to avoid anything that has even trace amounts of gluten.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

Gluten "intolerance", as opposed to actual Coeliac disease, hasn't even been proven to be a thing.

Room-mate of mine has the intolerance and he's far from feigning it. Not too bothered about his health either, but if he has a roll/pizza he'll pay for it by spending about a while on the jacks.

He had an awful time of it the year or two before he figured it out. Doubt many people would feign it when you take into account the cost and convenience.

fussyonion

I haven't been diagnosed as coeliac but I do find certain breads and rolls don't agree with me. Then again I have IBS and whenever I eat doughy bakery products it will trigger an IBS flare-up so I avoid particular products.

I do think plans such as Paleo are ridiculous though. It seems so restrictive and fad-like.

fussyonion

Big Pussy Bonpensiero wrote: »

Room-mate of mine has the intolerance and he's far from feigning it. Not too bothered about his health either, but if he has a roll/pizza he'll pay for it by spending about a while on the jacks.

He had an awful time of it the year or two before he figured it out. Doubt many people would feign it when you take into account the cost and convenience.

He might have IBS?

...And Justice

fussyonion wrote: »

I haven't been diagnosed as coeliac but I do find certain breads and rolls don't agree with me. Then again I have IBS and whenever I eat doughy bakery products it will trigger an IBS flare-up so I avoid particular products.

I do think plans such as Paleo are ridiculous though. It seems so restrictive and fad-like.

It's probably all the additives added to food over the years that has caused these problems in people. I picked up a loaf of Brennan's the other day and now noticed that it's "sugar free" WTF!? I wonder what else is in there?

Send In The Robots

I only buy (old age) 'Spelt bread', this is an 'ancient grain', and an ancient eating habit, and so there isn't anything 'new age' about it.
Available in that very good, germanic discount supermarket chain, and for not much more than the other stuff.

Winterlong

I have a problem with my eyes, the tear ducts dont work well enough and what they produce is not enough to keep my eye healthy. Saw an eye disease specialist fella and he has me on Flax seed oil capsules. One a day for life. It seems to have done the trick for me.

He was based in blackrock clinic and apparently they are always right in there.

Fr_Dougal

Send In The Robots wrote: »

I only buy (old age) 'Spelt bread', this is an 'ancient grain', and an ancient eating habit, and so there isn't anything 'new age' about it.
Available in that very good, germanic discount supermarket chain, and for not much more than the other stuff.

Yeah but it has cocaine in it.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

fussyonion wrote: »

He might have IBS?

He's gone to a doctor (several actually) and did the diet-elimination tests (amongst other, including blood tests).
It's been a big problem for him so I'd imagine he's fairly certain at this stage that gluten is the problem. He had to give up a lot too, change his diet and spend nearly double on food, along with obviously avoiding what used to be the majority of his diet.

Samaris

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

Gluten "intolerance", as opposed to actual Coeliac disease, hasn't even been proven to be a thing.

*eyeroll*

Believe me, I would not bother my arse or my wallet with gluten-free stuff if it wasn't for that the normal stuff would come out the other end at high speed accompanied with stomach cramps.

Oddly enough, the coeliac disease foundation reckons it is a thing. You'd think they'd have a good idea.

Fathom

RedTie wrote: »

I ask because this week I did indeed buy flaxseeds and glutten-free bread. Does it work to help you live a healthier lifestyle? Who knows, but I'm trying it as a continued effort to live a healthier life.

I eat a balanced diet. Glutten-free not a factor. Experimented with flaxseeds. Saw no difference before and after. So stopped. Lots of what you called "new age eating habits" are myth.

Samaris

There is no point in going gluten-free if you don't need to though. It's more expensive, bread and pastry are a bit eh still, it's a pain for eating out and you're probably missing out on something you really should be getting.

Send In The Robots

Fathom wrote: »

Lots of what you called "new age eating habits" are myth.

The only thing 'new age' is the typical shop bought 'modern wheat' (also most corns and rice).

Wheat is a 'hybrid' descendant of several ancient grains, compared to actual pure unchanged ancient grains, modern wheat is almost of a 'genetically modified' status that's only become popular since early farming.

Ancient grains, that have been around for literally 'ages' include spelt, Kamut, millet, barley, teff, oats, freekeh, bulgur, sorghum, Farro, einkorn, Quinoa, emmer etc. Early nomadic mankind probably ate a range of these.

Some, but not all, ancient grains are gluten-free, and whilst there isn't any great nutritional advantage between them all. The real difference is that mankind has been eating these ancient grains for much much longer than the modern varieties, therefore more suitable to digestion, thanks to evolution.

I don't buy gluten free, but since I tend to feel a bit bloated if I eat much bread, I might see if it makes any difference. Other than that, I'm often a sucker for sweet things but mainly I eat fairly well and try to buy healthy. I don't think there's anything new age about eating a healthy diet, unless you only eat food produced by fairies in Buddhist monasteries and delivered by angels.

Fad diets are rarely healthy diets, long term.

...And Justice

Candie wrote: »

I don't buy gluten free, but since I tend to feel a bit bloated if I eat much bread, I might see if it makes any difference. Other than that, I'm often a sucker for sweet things but mainly I eat fairly well and try to buy healthy. I don't think there's anything new age about eating a healthy diet, unless you only eat food produced by fairies in Buddhist monasteries and delivered by angels.

Fad diets are rarely healthy diets, long term.

The new age diets are the food that was consumed in the 80's, modern food is full of shít to preserve it for high level manufacturing. Sprayed with food safe varnish to increase sell by dates. I never remember potatoes going to sludge in the pot either, something has changed..

...And Justice

...And Justice wrote: »

The new age diets are the food that was consumed in the 80's, modern food is full of shít to preserve it for high level manufacturing. Sprayed with food safe varnish to increase sell by dates. I never remember potatoes going to sludge in the pot either, something has changed..

More disease resistant strains have been developed and grown since then.

If you've ever been in the US for long, you'd realise how fantastic the quality of Irish/British food is, compared to the antibiotic ridden, growth hormone pumped, genetically modified, tasteless, pesticide laden, but cheap-to-grow rubbish that makes up most of what's on offer in the cheaper grocery outlets.

Samaris

Something that would solve a lot of problems is allowing GMO foods. Sure, make it a well-controlled market, but this outright ban on GMO is, tbh, extremely short-sighted. It's needed. It's been needed before and it has had some fantastic successes (golden rice and dwarf wheat being two major ones). And unsurprisingly, countries that desperately need GMO foodstuffs for the quantity required to feed their people in bad years, are turning it down because the West are making all sorts of flaily nonsense up about it and then turning around to Ethiopia and saying "but we have GMO foods we can send." Yeah, like that's going to work after you've spent the last decade screaming about apples with teeth and other rubbish.

It might well be a workaround for those intolerant to certain traits in current foodstuffs (lactose, wheat) as well.

chrissb8

Working with someone who is coeliac and she has a very hard time of it eating gluten (vomiting, swelling etc.). She would love nothing more than to be able to have a pint of beer or eat a pizza on the weekend. It's insulting to the people who have to go through this hard lifestyle choice when it's thrown in their face literally at any event where there's food. Much like people who go around saying their bipolar (without being diagnosed) but couldn't be any further from it and are just using it as a "hey look at me I'm different" just to be different because otherwise the might shrivel up and die from getting no attention.

sbsquarepants

I think a lot of it is just fad nonsense and you're basically just eating mass produced, cleverly marketed crap anyway. As a basic rule of thumb, if it's sold in a box it's basically poison. By the raw materials and make your own meals and you can't go too far wrong.
We're omnivores after all - unless there's something wrong with you, we can eat pretty much anything - the key is to mix it up, wheatgerm for every meal will kill you, just like sausages will!

RedTie

RedTie wrote: »

So do you try any of it? Have you changed your diet drastically in recent years?

The biggest change I made in my diet was to simply vary it as much as possible. Each day I try to have things I have not had in awhile - and each day I try to have a little of a lot of things rather than more of any one thing.

Seems to work for me. I try not to go for any of those diets that suggest you eat a lot of one thing - or cut out other things. I simply give my body the most variety it can have - and trust that after millions of years of biological evolution it will have a fair idea what to do with it all.

whoopsadoodles

Samaris wrote: »

*eyeroll*

Believe me, I would not bother my arse or my wallet with gluten-free stuff if it wasn't for that the normal stuff would come out the other end at high speed accompanied with stomach cramps.

Oddly enough, the coeliac disease foundation reckons it is a thing. You'd think they'd have a good idea.

Do you have the same symptoms if you eat barley/bulgar/ or as someone mentioned above - spelt?

twill

Raging_Ninja wrote: »

Gluten "intolerance", as opposed to actual Coeliac disease, hasn't even been proven to be a thing.

It is indeed a thing. You'll find it in people with certain chronic illnesses, so the fad argument doesn't really work there.

nearzero

Alot of people think its the gluten in foods that is 'bad' for them somehow! But it can also be yeast or the wheat grain itself - so dont just jump to gluten! Most people say they feel bloated after eating bread - that is usually from the yeast!

Gluten free foods are not healthier in my opinion, when you compare them to the regular version of the same food, they can have more sugar, more salt & more fat in order get them to taste better. So unless you have a solid medical reason to choose them - I would just stick to a healthy diet!

Tar.Aldarion

Seeds have always been really good for you, they just focus on the in fashion one.

I love gluten and am glad I'm not intolerant.

whoopsadoodles

twill wrote: »

It is indeed a thing. You'll find it in people with certain chronic illnesses, so the fad argument doesn't really work there.

Although the USA headline today suggests it's gluten on its own that's the problem, the actual study that it refers to speaks about wheat specifically. So other gluten containing products such as barley and rye are not included.

Therefore, the intolerance is to wheat, not gluten.

seamus

twill wrote: »

It is indeed a thing. You'll find it in people with certain chronic illnesses, so the fad argument doesn't really work there.

There is still quite a bit of debate about it tbh.

While it is well established that eating a reduced gluten or reduced wheat diet tends to yield improvements in people with gastrointestinal disorders, especially IBS sufferers, the nature of this improvement is subject to debate.

One theory is that the discomfort is actually caused by FODMAPs in the diet. And that by changing ones diet to reduce the volume of gluten and wheat, you reduce the volume of FODMAPs in the diet and therefore see a marked improvement in comfort. In that case, people aren't specifically sensitive to gluten, but rather by reducing the amount of bread they eat, they have a knock-on impact of removing the things from their diet that are causing the problem.

My suspicion around "gluten sensitivity" for most people is that it's probably an auto-immune disorder as a result of being raised in exceptionally (and increasingly) sterile environments and eating for more simple sugars than we ever did previously. As a result in some people the immune system loses its **** when they eat large quantities of bread and other simple carbs.

I don't have a problem with fad diets or fashion foods. It happens all the time. Avocados are the thing at the moment. I hate avocados, they taste like grass. But I'm not going to complain that people are loving avocados.

The gluten fad has massively improved the range of foods available to actual coeliac sufferers, and that can only be a good thing. Likewise, there's a growing fad movement towards reducing dairy in the diet. And fad or not, reducing our dependance on animal produce and moving towards a vegan diet is essential for the future. So that too can only be a good thing.

twill

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Although the USA headline today suggests it's gluten on its own that's the problem, the actual study that it refers to speaks about wheat specifically. So other gluten containing products such as barley and rye are not included.

Therefore, the intolerance is to wheat, not gluten.

The study refers to wheat and related cereals (wheat, rye and barley were the cereals used for testing and exclusion) and specifically addresses gluten, or I wouldn't have cited it.

seamus wrote: »

There is still quite a bit of debate about it tbh.

While it is well established that eating a reduced gluten or reduced wheat diet tends to yield improvements in people with gastrointestinal disorders, especially IBS sufferers, the nature of this improvement is subject to debate.

My mother was told by someone who is regarded as a foremost consultant in the area of osteoporosis to cut out gluten as it was worsening her condition. Gluten is linked to illness - I don't see why it should be regarded as a controversial issue.

seamus

twill wrote: »

Gluten is linked to illness - I don't see why it should be regarded as a controversial issue.

Because there's a surprising amount of evangelism about it; people who make a big deal out of their gluten-free diet and make grand pronouncements about how unhealthy you are when you dare to eat white bread.

twill

seamus wrote: »

Because there's a surprising amount of evangelism about it; people who make a big deal out of their gluten-free diet and make grand pronouncements about how unhealthy you are when you dare to eat white bread.

That's a separate issue, though. It doesn't take away from the people who are adversely affected and who get lumped in with those who regard it as a lifestyle choice.

RedTie

Re: Bread

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

"relatively new" in that humans are 200,000 years old.

Any truth in that?

seamus

twill wrote: »

That's a separate issue, though. It doesn't take away from the people who are adversely affected and who get lumped in with those who regard it as a lifestyle choice.

Agreed. I guess that's what the thread is about though.

Where you find people who evangelise about something, you will equally find people calling it all nonsense and calling everyone a faker.

Especially where the research is still relatively new, then you will have people continue to declare it either definitively true or definitely false until we have more data.

seamus

RedTie wrote: »

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

Depends on what you mean by "meant to". We have a digestive system that has evolved to allow for an omnivorous diet.

It hasn't been pre-programmed to only allow certain foods. Mammals in general only express lactase for the first few months of their life, which allows you to digest lactose. Humans have bucked this trend by drinking other animals' milk for longer periods. This results in lactase being expressed for longer (or whole lifetimes) in communities where milk consumption is normal. In communities where it's not, most people are lactose intolerent.

They're all human, but because of environmental factors, one can drink milk and another can't. Which one is "meant to" drink milk?

So the notion that the human body has a finite set of things we're "meant to" eat is flawed in itself. You can't even say we're "meant to" eat things which we can digest. Fibre/plant matter is largely undigestible by human but plays an important role in motility. Just like crocodiles swallow small stones.

What we're "meant to" eat is a wide range of things which don't poison us and things which don't injure us. What those "things" are is largely irrelevant. That's how we've evolved.

nearzero

RedTie wrote: »

Re: Bread

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

"relatively new" in that humans are 200,000 years old.

Any truth in that?

I'd have to find the studies again but I think what they might mean is - there has been studies done which show we dont have the natural enzymes in our digestive system which are designed to break down other animals milk & I think the same goes for wheat.

ScumLord

RedTie wrote: »

Re: Bread

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

"relatively new" in that humans are 200,000 years old.

Any truth in that?

The ancestors of humans swung in a tree and eat fruit. One day one of those apse said he'd eat whatever the **** he wants and strutted off into the grass plains, 2 million years later here we are.

Wibbs

RedTie wrote: »

Re: Bread

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

"relatively new" in that humans are 200,000 years old.

Any truth in that?

Not really, or depends on ancestry. Our ancestors from 40,000 years ago would have been intolerant to lactose in milk(as adults) and somewhat intolerant to gluten in grains(Neandertals were making grain "biscuits" long before that so we've had some grains in our diets).

Since then the human genome has shown a lot of changes and most of them are responses to novel foods in our diets. So for example Europeans evolved lactose tolerance when humans developed agriculture. Widespread gluten tolerance came with it. On the other hand in India because the cow was sacred for so long far more Indians are lactose intolerant. Alcohol was another adaptation. Europeans tended to sterilise water by making alcoholic drinks, whereas many Asian cultures boiled water to make teas. The latter have more individuals who can't break down alcohol as readily as Europeans(and look how alcohol has affected populations like Native Americans and Native Australians).

These changes can be "rapid" enough too. Alcohol consumption hasn't been around that long and we adapted to it. One theory why coeliac disease is more common in Ireland than in the rest of Europe is because after the discovery of the potato and its wide uptake among the population here, it replaced grains as the main source of starch in the diet and even over a few hundred years this was enough to skew the gluten adaptation.

In the last say fifty years more and more novel foods have made their way into the western diet. Personally I would be of the opinion that some may not suit some of us. EG Soya. Irish people have only had soya in our regular diets for a generation, Asians have had it for two thousand years. I'd personally avoid the stuff(even beyond the hormone mimicking it does).

Tar.Aldarion

Literally everything we eat is new in our diets, we have done selective breeding/splicing, radiation mutation and now gmo. Avoiding anything due to it being new is incorrect.


We do not adapt to some things, alcohol is carcinogenic, frying/toasting/browning food is too.

Send In The Robots

RedTie wrote: »

Re: Bread

A colleague of mine said, in one of those post work Friday pub chats where people tend to talk nonsense sometimes, that we're not meant to eat bread or drink milk. That both of them are relatively new in our food habits and our digestive system hasnt adjusted fully to either.

"relatively new" in that humans are 200,000 years old.

Any truth in that?

Some truth, modern farming including (wheat) bread and cow's milk only go back around 10,000yrs, before that it was whatever (nomads) could be pick, hunt or fish. If they did ever bake breads then they were from a wider mix of various ancient milled seeds and grains.

A wide variety of fruit, seeds, fish and meat is the stable of the popular caveman (paleo) diet, rather than hormone, preservative, enhanced and emulsifier laden packaged goods.

There was most likely periods of fasting between gathering foods, which can be useful for detoxification. i.e. There was 'accidentally obese' people back then.

ScumLord

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Literally everything we eat is new in our diets, we have done selective breeding/splicing, radiation mutation and now gmo. Avoiding anything due to it being new is incorrect.


We do not adapt to some things, alcohol is carcinogenic, frying/toasting/browning food is too.

Yeah, we're still not able to breath oxygen without doing irreparable damage to our DNA, and we've been doing that for billions of years.

The body is like a hazard suit, everything damages it to some extent, it has a shelf life.

professore

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

My 4yr old daughter is coeliac and I have tasted everything she eats and in 90% of cases there is no discernible difference between the GF version and regular version. The one with the biggest difference is white bread but saying that there are breads available which actually taste very good and it wouldn't bother me to eat them regularly, the only thing stopping us (as a family) from eating it all the time is the price of it as its over €4 for a small loaf.

Cereals and biscuits/cakes taste the same and better in some cases. Many foods are naturally gluten free but are prepared/manufactured in a factory which handles other products containing gluten and so there is cross contamination and so they have to state that on the packaging. My daughter is ultra sensitive to gluten and will vomit violently about 1-3hrs after only a tiny mouthful of a food containing gluten and so she has to avoid anything that has even trace amounts of gluten.

Sorry but there is a huge difference in taste. Maybe if you eat Brennans warmed up dough but if you eat any kind of half decent baked bread and pastry - even Lidl's bakery - there is an enormous difference. I am the only non-coeliac in my family and let's just say everyone is envious of me. I would not voluntarily eat gluten free bread.

Pizzas are another one. Gluten free pizzas are disgusting.

Wibbs

Send In The Robots wrote: »

A wide variety of fruit, seeds, fish and meat is the stable of the popular caveman (paleo) diet, rather than hormone, preservative, enhanced and emulsifier laden packaged goods.

The joke being that although it is a better diet than the average, precious few of the foods, particularly the veg ever existed in the palaeolithic. Most veg eaten would have been of the root variety. Leafy greens as we eat them today didn't exist in the majority of cases. The diet eaten in that period also massively depended on the environment the person found themselves in.

There was most likely periods of fasting between gathering foods, which can be useful for detoxification.

When localised famine hit certainly. Otherwise they could live in an environment of plenty. Their diets were far more varied and seasonal, with little to no sugar(though some root veg are packed with starches). Their lifestyle was far more vigorous. Every day was a crossfit day. They were slightly different peoples too. Stronger with higher bone densities, bigger teeth and so forth.

ScumLord

Wibbs wrote: »

When localised famine hit certainly. Otherwise they could live in an environment of plenty.

My guess would be that famine wasn't as much of an issue to a hunter gather that could have a range of hundreds of miles. Hunter gathers could have spent their time going up and down a known root planning to be in locations at particular times of year. I think if one food source went bad they had others and even if multiple known food sources went bad they could depend on other tribes telling them other places to get food. We developed our sociability at this time so I'd say hunters could just as easily have been very nice to each other considering there was feck all of them.

Ipso

I wonder what Gwyneth Paltrow has to say on the matter!

AudreyHepburn

The only fad like thing I do is to sprinkle Flax seed on my cereal which I do simply because I like the taste, no other reason.

I don't believe in fad diets and eliminating entire food groups. It's unhealthy and unsustainable in most cases - eat what you want in moderation and exercise accordingly is my philosophy.

The Backwards Man

It's far from putting lint on my Weetabix I was reared.

My girlfriend and myself have both had to experiment with foods a bit because of medical reasons. Hers to try and reduce flares of an autoimmune disease and me, to narrow down a problem.

It turns out that I was likely having a mild reaction to peanuts which I used to eat by the bag raw at least once a week.

There's definitely medical need for some people to do this but it's an expensive waste if you don't need it.
If you think you're feeling better for it, it's probably because of your general self-improvement mood or whatever. My brother went on all that stuff and swore by it till he started moving around a lot and couldn't carry it. He realized it was the other lifestyle changes he made that were helping.

The real problem people have is sugar. You'd be astonished at where you find it.