I Eat Gluten-Free, GET OVER IT
words of Denise Borders, PWV founder
So this has been bothering me for quite some time now. As I scan my Facebook feed, as many people do each day, I see post after post about how gluten intolerance is “made up” or “gluten-free isn’t healthy” and pretty much accusing anyone that is on a GF diet of being an ignorant person. I don’t do a lot of editorial posts on here but I just want to get some of this off my chest. Here is what I have to say about all of it:
Why in the world do you give a shit? Why do you care what other people eat? If you aren’t scrutinizing vegans, it’s gluten free, if it’s not that, it’s posting about your stupid buzz feed score, ANOTHER selfie, or your feet in the sand or something else extremely uninteresting. But actually, let me backtrack to why I went gluten free:
For years, I have struggled with bad skin. This is something that didn’t develop until my mid-twenties. I tried everything from Pro-Active to pills to various different skin routines and nothing was ever a real solution. After doing enough research, I kept seeing over and over that acne was a side effect of a gluten intolerance. I thought to myself that it was worth a shot because I was so sick of having bad skin, especially at my age (I am now 29). It took a few months to see results but I stuck to it and WOW, my skin cleared up! You know what else happened? My excruciating headaches I used to get at night also went away. I have more energy and I just feel better overall. Do I have a gluten intolerance? I don’t know. Has cutting it out of my diet as much as I possibly can made me feel better and have the best skin I’ve ever had? Yes. I’ve also lost a few extra pounds and I’m wearing sizes I haven’t seen since I was 16. So why in the world would I go back to knowingly eating it? That’s right, I haven’t. And for some reason, this gives the world an open invitation to criticize my intelligence.
On top of being gluten free for a little over nine months now, I have been a pescetarian (I do not eat meat, only some fish) for over four years. OH MAN, BETTER SAY SOMETHING TO ME ABOUT IT! Every vegan or vegetarian gets the normal ignorant “But where do you get your protein? But meat has nutrients that you can’t get anywhere else!” Yes, you’re right! That animal protein and those animal nutrients can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, being overweight, among many other things that won’t be caused by eating vegetables. A little background on why I cut out meat:
Between 24 and 25, I gained weight. I still can’t pinpoint exactly what caused it but I boiled it down to stress (I was planning my cross-country move, pretty much uprooting my entire life and moving to a new city all by myself) and just plain partying. Since I knew I was leaving, I never passed up the opportunity to go out, go out for late night eating afterwards and so on. This slowly made me gain about 25 pounds from what my normal, healthy weight was. This sucked. I tried to cut down calories, I went to the gym multiple times a week, and I just couldn’t lose the weight and keep it off for some reason. I had a few friends that were encouraging me to go vegetarian so I thought, “What the hell?” and gave it a shot. I told myself I would try it for a week and I just never went back to eating meat again. I lost 20 pounds in about five months without even going to the gym once, just your normal run or hike every once in a while. I will say a side note that I went veggie the RIGHT way: I actually eat vegetables and healthy stuff and not just processed crap that happens to not have meat in it. I still try to eat as healthy as I can so that I can cheat every once in a while and not feel bad about it. But anyway… back to the original topic.
Okay so, I am pretty much a gluten free vegetarian (we will say vegetarian for the sake of everyone understanding that I don’t eat meat, even thought I do sometimes eat fish, preferably wild caught in the US). This sucks for me sometimes because I travel a lot for work and I’m plopped down in random no-where land cities that barely have any healthy choices at all. But you know what? I do what I can. I don’t need a bunch of random people, some I know and some I don’t know, trying to lecture me on how my eating restrictions are stupid or whatever your argument is. I could find you ten articles on how eating meat is bad for you and you’ll find me ten articles that say is isn’t bad for you. So, what’s the point? Some people will just never change and I personally don’t think everyone should be so concerned about what another person eats. At least when a vegan or vegetarian is trying to tell you that meat is bad for you, they are sincerely trying to look out for your health and well-being. All the meat-heads seem to be always putting down people that choose the non-meat life as if we are all idiots. I don’t see any gluten free folks going around preaching that everyone should be GF because it’s NOT an easy thing and yes, it sucks sometimes but the outcome I am getting is worth every bit of the struggle. Many foods are naturally gluten free and everyone eats them on pretty much a daily basis. There are only a few simple things that I have to replace with the “gluten free” version, because I try to simply cut it out naturally to be as healthy as possibly. However, many “gluten free” items are just made with rice or coconut flour instead of whole wheat flour, so the health difference is little to none.
Just because someone is gluten-free, doesn’t mean they think it’s healthier, it’s because of the effect that gluten intake has on their bodies (most likely, I clearly can’t speak for everyone but I am definitely speaking for myself here). Instead of posting a bunch of articles about being negative and trying to act like we’re all dummies, why don’t you put your energy into something more positive? How about just making sure that you’re a healthy person? Make sure you’re doing a good job at work and make sure your significant other is happy. Make sure you call your parents often, be nice to your siblings, keep in touch with your old friends . These are all things people need to do more than they need to try to put down people about whatever diet they choose to live by. I am healthier than I’ve been for as long as I remember and that is what matters most. I suggest everyone focusing on bettering themselves a bit more than they seem to focus on pointing out what everyone else is doing wrong in their lives.
That is all.
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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