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Hi All,

I remember the certitude and vigor with which I was criticized for my
terrible diet. Some of these critics were medical professionals, some of
them were family and friends, and some were just acquaintences who were
very sure of themselves.  From childhood onward, when I was sick,
regardless of the cause, I would only eat rice and milk with sugar on it. I
can't tell you the number of times I heard about how nutritionally
inadequate that food was.

 I also remember the certitude with which one doctor dismissed my claim
that eating bran in the morning made me sick. He was so sure of himself
that I doubted myself. I wondered what else I was eating,  along with the
bran, that could be making me sick. I was determined to get healthier, so I
ate bran every morning. I switched to bran muffins, thinking the sugar or
the milk might be the cause of my problems. But they still tasted awful,
and I felt like throwing up.... sometimes I did.

I remember, too, someone suggesting that I get tested for celiac disease.
I approached a doctor requesting such testing.  He chuckled and gave me a
prescription for antibiotics.

Several years later, an endoscopy revealed celiac disease.

You may imagine my upset when I realized that despite all the certitude of
the folks who had criticized my diet, my instinctive desire to avoid gluten
was much healthier, for me, than any of the many dietary recommendations I
was given. They often sounding more like religious dictums.

Now, I understand that they were well-meaning, and they were just trying to
help. The problem is that they didn't have their facts straight. They were
oversimplifying a very complex issue, and arriving at simplistic solutions
for me. Maybe they followed their own advice.  I don't know.  What I do
know is that they spoke with such conviction about diet, although their
information was limited by a lack of education, by a powerful pro-gluten
bias, and by other preconceived notions that had little to do with the
complex operations of the human body.

As I have learned a little about diet since my diagnosis, I have moved
increasingly toward a paleo-diet perspective. I suspect that my
hunter-gatherer genes are better suited to a diet dominated by meat,
accompanied by vegetables, and some fruit. Is this an answer for everyone?
I can't say. I don't want to make the same mistake that was made with me.
I can't know all of someone else's bodily needs, imbalances, special
circumstances, etc. All I can say, for sure, is that gluten was devastating
to my health, and after excluding it from my diet, I've experienced a near
miraculous improvement in my health.

I'm also convinced that a significant portion of the world's population
would be much better off without gluten, but I am not going to post
invective against the consumption of gluten. I am quite prepared to issue a
warning about the health hazards of gluten, but I am not prepared to say it
is an evil substance that inflicts an autoimmune reaction on everyone who
eats it.

Neither am I prepared to believe that high protein diets cause kidney
stones, calcium leaching for buffering increased acidity caused by
increased protein consumption, and that Barry Sears' "Zone" diet is
deficient in calcium.

These are simplistic perspectives that contain limited truths. If folks are
gullible enough to accept such statements without critical evaluation, I
suppose there is little I can do about it. However, I am saddened by my own
memories of being chastized by those indignant souls who just knew that
bran couldn't be making me sick, and rice with milk and sugar couldn't be
good for me. I hope that my comments here will be taken as suggesting that
certitude may not be the best basis for evaluating vegan doctrines, and
fervor should not replace facts in a quest for understanding.

best wishes,
Ron Hoggan