Big Bad Gluten...Really?

 It's official - Gray Area Fitness is two weeks old!! Woohoo! And, Happy Shamrock Day!

 Ok, kids, gather around and I'll tell you a story. A few weeks ago I was happily shopping through Costco ('cause there isn't any other way to shop through Costco) and I noticed something suspicious. Product packaging has changed. Remember when EVERYTHING used to say 'low fat' on it, to the point where people would buy up crazy quantities of Skittles, Twizzlers, Snackwells cookies, white pasta, and 'fat-free dairy-like dessert food' so that they could go home and eat around their cravings all night? And it wouldn't matter because everything they ate was low-fat or fat-free? Never mind the fact that they were eating their weight in petroleum by-products and drywall dust...

The fact is, and we are starting to get it, that fat is not evil. Fat is actually good for you, in the right proportions and the right varieties. The problem with fat is that gram for gram, it has a little over twice as many calories as its other two macronutrient counterparts (namely, protein and carbohydrates) so it's really easy to get too much of it. Because fat is DEELICIOUS.

mmmm...fat....

But I digress. There is a new villian out there, folks. Another totally evil compound in our food that will make you fat and miserable and sluggish and impotent and give your children nightmares and make your dog poop on the carpet for all eternity. Its name is GLUTEN.

 Everything that's gluten-free is labeled. "Eat this, it's GLUTEN-FREE!" crows the packaging. THIS is the product that will break the shackles of ill health!!

I was driving my giant shopping cart down the aisles of Costco growing increasingly aware of this new phenomenon, and becoming increasingly irked by the patronizing nature of it all, when I rounded a corner and drove by a lady behind a sample table. She smiled at me and said, "Try some coconut! It's GLUTEN-FREE!"

I'm not kidding. This happened. And it was the last straw. I wanted to shout at her, "Of course it's freaking gluten-free, it's COCONUT!" but I didn't because I am a nice person (on the outside, heh heh) and I can't yell at people who are just doing what they're told. So instead, and in hopes that the doofus who came up with the idea to try and sell coconut based on it's virtous gluten-free-ness reads this one day, let's dig into this, shall we?

What is gluten? Wiki says:

Gluten (from Latin gluten, "glue") is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye.

Right then. So can we all agree that products that are not grain-based are probably gluten-free? (As a side note, if the food is heavily processed then it wouldn't hurt to read the label, but if it's that heavily processed then you probably shouldn't eat it anyway). BUT, there is a small portion of the population who really do need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are putting in their mouths is really truly gluten-free, and those are the people with celiac disease, an auto-immune condition that affects about 1% of the population. Another growing chunk of our population figures that they are gluten-intolerant. This is true for some...but most of them are simply figuring out that they feel better with less starch in their bodies.

Here's a good rule of thumb for grocery shopping: if it has no nutrition label, it's good for you (and gluten-free! Huzzah!). Things like vegetables, fruit, legumes, eggs, meat, and nuts. If it has a nutrition label, check the ingredients. Are there more than 5 ingredients total? Leave it on the shelf. You'll feel better, you'll be healthier, and hey, you'll save a few bucks!

That's the end of my rant for today! Next time it might be fun to talk about exercise - stay tuned!