Posted by Loulou on Oct 18, 2014 | 2 comments

WHOA…that fresh rosemary focaccia and those farfalle look pretty ominous!!! Watch out.

You know, mama (who, as you know, loves to bake and spread what she hoped was joy and good taste among millions with her bakery’s products) came back from the US concerned about the obsession that so many people have about gluten being a poison that should be avoided at all costs.  So I went to my oracle on the Harvard Health site and did a perusing of their research, which I found more than interesting but not addressing the fact that people who develop problems with gluten often call themselves ‘celiacs’, when actually they may only be mildly intolerant of gluten and need to examine just how much of it is in their diets aside from foods, like bread, that contain wheat, rye, spelt and other grains.  They suggest that one get a definitive blood test if one is seriously worried about having celiac disease.

I was surprised to find that gluten is sometimes used in veggie burgers (!), salad dressings, licorice,  ice creams, hot dogs, pickles (those cured in malt vinegar), flavoured potato chips and more, but whoever heard of REAL ice cream containing GLUTEN? Whoever heard of a nice extra virgin olive oil and wine vinegar dressing containing gluten?  And a diet that often includes potato chips and hot dogs is not exactly in the category of healthy eating.  Has anyone examined the diets of these anti-gluten fanatics (and yes, I am going to call them that) to see if maybe their daily intake of gluten is simply too high and that daily cupcakes, bags of chips, and commercial ice cream could be contributing to the gastrointestinal upheavals they attribute to gluten.  Perhaps a truly healthy diet contains a normal amount of gluten, which in turn maintains a healthy body.

The Roman army, after all, subsisted on spelt and conquered half the known world.  I suppose that one could argue that if they had omitted gluten (replaced by what? red meat? that’s a baddie, too, right?), they might have conquered even more of the planet, haha.

The Roman, after all, army marched for days on end with only faro and spelt cereals to nourish them.

But, seriously, folks, mama observed that almost one in three, maybe four individuals in Texas, are glued to 48-ounce Styrofoam cups of some kind of cola, often so-called ‘diet’ cola, which contain aspartame, which in turn has been associated with diabetes and other problems in the body and brain, and these guys are afraid of a nice, fresh slice of good bread?  Well, that’s another problem, because it appears that artisan breads have not yet become prevalent in Texas.

I think mostly what disturbs mama is that food has become an obsession in itself.  Food is the enemy and in her view, really good, healthy food is not easy to find in the US for most of the population. Papa thinks that because most people’s left hand is clutching a drink of some kind, and often all day long, that the right hand will develop all sorts of new abilities while the left hand will atrophy into a useless claw with webbed fingers that is shaped to the form of a diet drink 48-ounce cup and hold only that!

Mama just thinks that a rounded, healthy diet of fresh meat, fish or chicken, fruits and vegetables will benefit most people and probably taste a whole lot better than the over-processed, chemical ingredient-laden foods that so many people eat for convenience.  And gluten might not be the issue it is if healthy guidelines were followed.

My observation as a French kitty and often-visitor to Italy is that this gluten obsession does not exist in either country and both of these countries have been serving wonderful bread and items that contain gluten to their inhabitants for centuries (such as spelt for those hard-working soldiers!) and the statistics show that both Italy and France have longer life expectancies than the USA, Italy being number 7, France, 13 and the United States, number 34 (!) on the life expectancy list (Wikipedia).

I’ll tell you one thing–I’m not giving up my kibble for anything.  And I’m sorry for those with real, confirmed celiac disease and troubles of the tummy, but until I learn the facts about how healthy eating habits might change obsession and fanaticism with diseases into pleasure at enjoying real, well-prepared food, I’m outta here…