Gluten freedom: fear, fad or fix?

This week we see fit to do our own push back against those railing against the public’s increased desire for gluten-free. It seemed OK when people were happy with the cardboard, xanthan-gum filled offerings of Big Food. But now, some feel it’s getting out of hand. It’s just a fad they tell us. We beg to differ. It could well be that it’s not gluten-free that’s the fad.  Perhaps gluten-containing grains as a staple will turn out to be the fad. After all, 90% of our evolution was without the stuff.

Our stories this week are linked. One picks up on the BBC’s attack on the UK’s rapidly growing healthy-eating movement headed by a group of young, very healthy women whose book sales and social media followings would suggest they’re doing something that the public likes. Not the BBC it seems. The second story provides an accessible look at the science justifying going gluten free. All of it underpins our own Food4Health guidelines.

The whole scenario has encouraged us to come up with a new term. It’s allied to common sense – and we’re calling it ‘evosense’. You’ll find out more about it via our social media this week!

We’ll need plenty of both common sense and evosense as we find the best ways of optimising our lives and health in the fundamentally changing political climate of the post-Brexit (with parliamentary sovereignty) and post-Trump eras.

If you haven’t already, and you’re a resident of the UK, please complete our Brexit and health questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Brexit-health. It’ll take no more than 3 minutes of your time. Thank you.

 

In health, naturally

Rob Verkerk, PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director