Some Thoughts on Restricted Diets
May. 25th, 2020 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorThought I'd give some short comments on this since I often mention preparing food that would be suitable for various restricted diets. My position is that there are a number of reasons someone might have a restricted diet, from allergies to health concerns or beliefs/philosophy. My particular reasons for preparing any particular kind of restricted diet food are mostly [redacted], but some of it stems simply from wanting the possibility to share food recipes that I think taste good to people who may have various restricted diets. I'm not presently very good at doing the actual sharing part, but to get to that point I do have to manage the cooking and eating part first (which I am somewhat better at).
My thoughts on gluten free diets in particular are that for too many people this is a fad diet they believe is inherently healthier, whereas for some people it's anywhere from greatly unpleasant to life-threatening to consume gluten. I don't think gluten-containing products are inherently unhealthy, though they are not inherently healthy either. Whole grains are healthier than refined grains whether or not they contain gluten. I think it's unfortunate that gluten is so *consistently* put in so many things it doesn't *need* to be in. One huge criticism I have of grocery stores is that they present the illusion of choice, but when you actually look at the ingredients for food, you see that in fact many unnecessary ingredients are consistently used in almost every brand, and they are rarely or never changed out or substituted even though there are often many possible substitutions. This is very bad for people who want or need to avoid certain commonly used foods, and simply unnecessary for the rest of the population who doesn't.
Anyway, there's a lot more I could say on the topic of restricted diets, but I've been wanting to talk about gluten-free diets in particular for a while now.
My thoughts on gluten free diets in particular are that for too many people this is a fad diet they believe is inherently healthier, whereas for some people it's anywhere from greatly unpleasant to life-threatening to consume gluten. I don't think gluten-containing products are inherently unhealthy, though they are not inherently healthy either. Whole grains are healthier than refined grains whether or not they contain gluten. I think it's unfortunate that gluten is so *consistently* put in so many things it doesn't *need* to be in. One huge criticism I have of grocery stores is that they present the illusion of choice, but when you actually look at the ingredients for food, you see that in fact many unnecessary ingredients are consistently used in almost every brand, and they are rarely or never changed out or substituted even though there are often many possible substitutions. This is very bad for people who want or need to avoid certain commonly used foods, and simply unnecessary for the rest of the population who doesn't.
Anyway, there's a lot more I could say on the topic of restricted diets, but I've been wanting to talk about gluten-free diets in particular for a while now.