Posted 04 February 2013 - 03:27 PM
My sister and her family (my two nieces included sadly) went on a diet rampage about two years ago (stemming from marital issues apparently) and both went out of their way to eat grass or something only...they literally shunned everything (including dairy, which they adore to tell me is horrible for you) and over time they (of course) lost scads of weight. It was unsurprising simply by nature of their caloric intake being WAY less. Well then my sister got her hands on this book called WHEAT BELLY...which has this Doctor eschewing eating wheat because he says (unproven scientifically) it's been genetically modified since the 1980's and is terribly bad for you, that you don't need it in your diet, and that by cutting it out you will lose weight, and alleviate multiple health ailments. He makes some decent points as we should not overdo our wheat intake...and eating meats, veggies, fruits, nuts ect. is obviously better for overall diet...but the argument is that cutting them out completely helps you no more or less than cutting out another entire food group would.
Anyways, long story short, my sister literally lectures me every time she sees me about it...and the rest of the family too. My 17-year old niece told me "rice is like little pellets of sugar" and she "wouldn't put that into her body". Attempting to tell her that entire continents in Asia have had rice as a staple of their diets for thousands of years...and that it's quite nutritious and unmodified...fell on deaf ears.
My 6-year old niece got in trouble at school for attempting to tell the nutritionist who came to speak to their class that what she was talking about was not good for them...FFS!
I'm boggled. My sister and her family have fallen for the latest "war on *insert vilified food here*" and instead of the age-old "eat less and exercise more" they are espousing this garbage that wheat is some kind of enemy because it's been changed over the years at the cellular level and therefore is horribly bad for us. Being a crop we didn't always grow and eat (prior to probably a few thousand years ago), wheat consumption isn't required...but I also don't feel it's a villain either.
I guess it upsets me because my sister, especially in the case of this book with its untested, unscientifically studied "blanket statements", has bought into something without researching it fully. And it's bad enough that they think to tell a nutritionist (a person who spent years in school learning the ins and outs of nutrition) their job and that they are wrong...on the word of a doctor hawking books and cookbooks.
I thought she was smarter than that to be honest. Arguing with her about it is stupid, for last night...at the dinner for my friggin BIRTHDAY...I got lectured once again (at the dinner table and in front of everyone), and the only reason she stopped lecturing me is that my brother in law told her "now was not the time"....but she would have been happy to go on and on.
It's, therefore, messing with my groove heavily. I just WISH she'd do a little research, or at the very least CHALLENGE the author to back up his statements with something more concrete than "wheat looks different now" and "look at these people who have had successful effects from dropping wheat!"
Sigh.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Help
Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 03 February 2013 - 07:21 PM, said:
