Gluten-Free! Meat-Free! Dairy-Free! Vegan!
These code words are all over the place, inducing panic into omnivores everywhere. Before you freak out and rid your diet of everything except the plate, do a little self-inventory and figure out if you really need to buy into any of this (of course - BUY into it is exactly what the food marketers want you to do). Like the people who have stopped spending during the recession even though their income hasn't changed a bit (therefore making the economy worse), you could actually compromise your health by cutting out supposedly "bad" foods that actually aren't bad for YOU (even if they are bad for someone else).
If there is anything the disastrous fat-free craze taught us, it's that most people do not replace the new "bad" thing with fruits and vegetables, they replace it with a different good-but-turns-out-to-be-worse thing like margarine or refined sugars. I could generate hundreds of blog posts on the dangers of refined carbohydrates and sugar but I think most people get it. If not, here is a quick resource.
Here is one example of why you should question those code words: If you are not a vegetarian or vegan, vegetarian or vegan options are not necessarily a healthier choice for you. In fact, soy-based products are now under fire as much as hormone-laden animal products for causing various health issues. Like most subjects in nutrition, the jury is still out on soy, but in various studies it has been linked to thyroid disease, infertility and breast cancer (this is because soy is loaded with plant compounds that mimic estrogen and therefore can disrupt the endocrine system). For more information on possible dangers of soy, check out The Whole Soy Story by Kayla Daniel. If you don't want to read that much, just follow this simple advice: eat natural forms of soy (edamame, tempeh, natto, organic soy milk) in moderation, avoid processed soy "meats" and genetically modified soy as much as possible. A lot of vegan products also replace the eggs and butter with loads of vegetable oil -- unless you are allergic to eggs or a vegan, this is probably not the better choice. For more information on the dangers of processed vegetable oils, read this. In short, unless you are allergic to the natural food (or have a moral opposition to consuming it), the natural food always trumps the processed replacement.
As for diary, far more of the population is probably lactose intolerant than we realize (an estimated 30-50% among Caucasians and nearly 100% among African-American and Asians) BUT if you are not sensitive to dairy, you might not want to replace it with soy or leave it out of your diet completely, especially if it is your key source of calcium. The best way to figure out if you are sensitive to diary is to eliminate it for a few weeks and see if you feel better. Many people notice a decrease in congestion and digestive issues, but you might not. Because so many people have decreased their dairy consumption and replaced it with soy, soy is becoming a common allergen as well so rather than just replacing your dairy with soy versions, try to get your calcium from leafy green vegetables instead. Your body actually absorbs the calcium from those better than it does from milk or cheese!
As for the gluten-free craze, I definitely think this country is wheat obsessed and that most people could benefit from eating less of it, but rather than jumping on the bandwagon and buying more processed products like gluten-free pasta or bread, just try to cut out the processed foods in your diet overall and eat more fruits and vegetables. About 1 in 133 of the population has Celiac's disease (more may be wheat-sensitive but this is different) so before you cut out gluten and go crazy on crackers made with who-knows-what flour and fillers, either get tested if you are really concerned or just replace the gluten-containing products in your diet with more unprocessed foods like veggies and beans and nuts. This is a win-win diet change.
Now you may feel like all I've done here is induce panic about different foods, but my point is that nutrition is a young and fledgling science and that if we pay attention to history, we see that a lot of what we have been told is healthy is not, especially if it is made by industry and not by nature. I have said this before but when in doubt, follow the Michael Pollan rule of "If it comes from a plant, eat it, if it was made in a plant, don't."
And, as always, take everything you read (including this blog) and hear with a grain of salt ... unless you think that's bad for you too. ;-)
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