Report on Gluten #1

It’s been almost a full year now since I decided to reduce my consumption of gluten to an absolute minimum, and looking back I think I have done quite a good job not to cheat on myself too often in that respect. For all who don’t know, gluten is a protein that can be found in wheat, barley and the likes. Although the number of people suffering from medical conditions that don’t allow them to eat even tiny amounts of the protein are increasing, it is (believe me) very hard to maneuver through grocery shopping and restaurants without accidentally buying, or ordering, the wrong stuff.

To be fair, my dedication to staying gluten-free is neither in all parts voluntary, nor does it stem from health considerations only. My gf Tabea (shout outs) is a Coeliac, meaning that she cannot eat any gluten, ever. For the two of us, I do most of the cooking, and in order to not poison her I had to learn how to shop and cook gluten-free under quite some duress. But as time goes by, my ways have become a lot easier. In the following I just wanted to do a little report on a range of health improvements that I noticed.

1. The Cholesterine Scam

Live without gluten for a period of time and watch a significant number of your everyday-ailments perish. That, for itself, should be quite a statement since the bad effects of gluten on health are a very controversial topic amongst nutrition freaks and scientists. It is by far not as undisputed as Dr. David Perlmutter would like you to think after reading his New York Times bestselling book, Grain Brain. After having read that book - that comes complete with the suggestion that if man didn’t eat bread, Alzheimer would never have been created - I decided that I do not want the distant truths that science can give, and that I’d rather try and notice whether there are good things to be taken out of living gluten-free.

Before I get to talk about the actual advantages, let me dive into health politics issues for a bit first. As a substitute for gluten, and carbohydrates in general, I have upped my consumption of good oils (i.e. coconut oil, ghee, walnut oil, etc. etc.) by a fair amount. I’m pretty confident that my current cholesterine numbers must be at the limit of what official health institutions have declared as “still healthy”. The problem with that classification is that it is hypocritical. The maximum value of cholesterine recommended has been lowered time after time and the reason behind this isn’t that scientists have found cholesterine to be more and more dangerous for the human body. It is solely because of the massive lobby efforts the pharma industries are making in order to sell more medicine catering to the cardiovascular system. While it is true that eating an egg every day might eventually result in a stroke at early age, we should realise that these max values determined by politics are an instrument used to nudge citisens into buying certain medicine. The best way to prevent heart illnesses, after all, is not the quantity but rather the quality of fats and oils you consume. I recommend a mix that contains cocoa oil, walnut oil, palm oil and cold-pressed olive oil, all in equal parts. Avocados are good, too.

2. Actual improvements

I suffer from a chronic disease often referred to as AS. Basically, all the bones and joints in my lower back are subject to more or less constant inflammation. There are long periods of good times when nothing hurts - but there are also dark weeks and months.

Inflammable diseases have increased in number and strength over the last century in a very consistent manner. You might know that Alzheimer is also a inflammatory disease, as are many others.

It’s been three years since I’ve been diagnosed with AS. In the first two hours, I would limp at times, I would stay in at times simply because the pain was too much. Even in my better times, I would feel sore - not only my back, but my whole body - and most certainly I couldn’t play basketball without pain. At all.

What comes next might sound a lot like I’m shitting you, but take that into consideration as you judge the glutenfree hype: Ever since I stopped eating gluten I can hit the basketball courts without too much concerns. For what it’s worth, I can run and gun almost like in olden times again.

Also, when I used to suffer from migraine very frequently, it hasn’t happened to me in a looong time.

Exceptions must be made to these two observations. For the past year I have eaten gluten in a number of instances. Almost all of these were triggered by the fact that I had forgotten to prepare or buy food and that I was starving so that I had to rescue myself with a little gnocchi or even a simple hot dog. In every single case of back- or headache in these past twelve months, it can be traced back to consuming gluten within seven days before the pain occured.

Actually, I’m getting very hungry right now so stay tuned for when I find time to write part 2 of my Report on Gluten. So long till then, xoxo, Gossip JJ