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The comments about this subject just keep coming in.  This one just came 
from Heidi.  I thought  it was too interesting to keep to myself.  First is 
quoted part of my original post on this topic, followed by Heidi's comments.

~Valerie in Tacoma, Feeling great! GF since 2000, low oxalate since July 
2007
---------------------
>I think we who follow the diet religiously are a unique bunch.  I never had
>life threatening sympoms or diarrhea, I just had debilitating fatigue,
>depression & chronic infections for many, many years.  The relief I
>experienced on the GF diet is enough to motivate me to follow the diet.  I
>hate being sick.  I hate pain.  I hate depression.  I hate fatigue.  I'm a
>total baby.  I would rather die than live with any of these symptoms, if
>that makes any sense.  In fact, all those years I was sick, I sometimes 
>used
>to wish I could just die & get it all over with rather than continue life 
>as
>I was experiencing it.  I want to live life to the fullest as enjoyably as 
>I
>can.  I guess other people have the ability to enjoy life even though they
>are tired, hurting or depressed.  I can't, or at least never learned how, 
>so
>I don't understand them.


Glad to hear your son is still doing well!

But "total baby"? Myself, I wonder at the motivations of the folks who eat 
gluten even when they KNOW it hurts them. I've met or heard of so many folks 
who "know" they get headaches or IBS or whatever with gluten, but eat it 
anyway. It reminds me a lot of folks who go out to a party, KNOWING they'll 
get a hangover, but they do it anyway. Or smokers who have emphesema, and 
still smoke.

OK, so what, exactly, is the motivation, if you know gluten hurts you but 
you eat it anyway? Addiction? Social pressure? Lack of other food options?

I can't say. I think I'd feel differently if I lived in a different social 
environment. I work NEXT
to the kitchen, and the kitchen is FULL of food, all of which is fine to 
eat. Which is a lot different than, say, being at a party where very little 
of the food is ok to eat, or at a restaurant where only
a few items are marked "GF".

I feel really sorry for kids going off to college though, for that reason. 
Besides the gluten, they are also surrounded by alcohol, sex, late-night 
parties, drugs ... whatever their peer group is into ... which makes a lot 
of non-celiac kids crash and burn. (not to mention working to pay your 
tuition and lack of sleep). We make it really hard for kids to get through 
college!

-- Heidi

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