Gluten - The World's most Controversial Protein

The other day I had a little dinner party at my house. Not knowing exactly what dietary needs I would need to accommodate, I made mock-duck curry. Fresh, delicious, vegan and (I thought) gluten-free. However, it occurred to me just as I was dumping the marinated mock-duck into the pan that mock-duck is most definitely NOT gluten-free - it is in fact MADE of gluten. Luckily, none of my guests had any aversion to gluten, and everyone enjoyed the curry without complaint. But it made me think, just what is gluten anyway, and why is it on everyone's dietary blacklist?

The enemy?

I found this article in Eat and Run that helped me expand my knowledge of gluten. Let me summarize a little here if you're not interested in reading the whole thing:

What is it? Gluten is the storage protein of the mature seed of cereal grasses, like barley, wheat and rye. It is what gives most bread its chewy texture and provides elasticity to dough.

Is it bad? Well, that's debatable. For people with full-blown celiac disease who are unable to absorb gluten, it causes pain, diarrhea, and other systemic problems. Around 2010 or so, new research was published, including an oft-cited 2009 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, stating that more people today than ever before have a latent sensitivity to gluten, which can manifest as 55 "diseases" running the gamut from MS to autism. Thus the term "gluten sensitivity" entered public consciousness. The concept of gluten sensitivity was proliferated by everyone from doctors, dieticians, and nutritionists, to advertising gurus looking to cash in on the trend.

And therein lies the problem. Nearly all anti-gluten blogs and articles seem to cite the same New England Journal of Medicine study, and there doesn't seem to be much follow-up research that I could find published on the subject. Online searches for "gluten bad," "gluten study," and "gluten research" tend to bring up plenty of impassioned arguments from both sides of the camp, but a lack of peer-supported studies.

There are some, shall we say, "gluten enthusiasts" who argue that around the same time the anti-gluten message exploded, the paleo diet started to grow in popularity. Check out this blog entry from Outlaw Fitness, which suggests:

"Have a look for yourself. Google 'are grains bad for you.' Low and behold, the first 3 results that pop up are Paleo. The first results that pops up for me? Marks Daily Apple. This is a blog run by Mark Sisson, one of the more famous pro-Paleo bloggers. He has written a book called the Primal Blueprint, and he makes his living by promoting the Paleo ideology."

One of the main ideas behind the paleo diet is that mankind evolved in a gluten-free world, hunting, gathering, and fishing for our dinner, and therefore our bodies work best when we eat more meat and less grain. Personally, I tend to approach this idea with the same dose of skepticism that I approach all fad diets. After all, refrigeration within most homes didn't exist until around the 1940's, at which point the consumption of meat skyrocketed. Personally, I can't exactly see a correlation between the public eating more meat and becoming less obese.

Pretty sure this isn't what they have in mind...

So is it bad or what? Ultimately, it's up to you to decide. There are plenty of people out there who have dropped gluten and have lost weight, gained energy, and claim that their overall health has improved in miraculous ways. And then there are people like me, who thrive on a diet emphasizing whole grains, who feel sluggish on a high-protein diet but never met a bun or loaf of bread that didn't love her back. And people like my grandmother and great aunts, whose staple diets consist of Rye Crisps with cheese and pickled herring, who are full of life and vitality at well over 80 years old.

The bottom line: If you've been suffering from a lingering health issue, like chronic headaches, fatigue, poor digestion, depression, etc., there is no harm in trying an elimination diet to see if going gluten-free (or lactose-free, or meat-free) makes you feel better. However, if you're just looking to lose weight and feel healthier, a well-balanced diet containing a wide variety of food is still your best bet.

Enjoying the present moment... even when winter seems never-ending!

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/frted/

The uncommonly cold weather is a favorite topic of conversation right now here in Minneapolis. Waking up to subzero temperatures when the calendar officially reads "springtime" is taking its toll on everyone - especially when we consider that we had green leaves on the trees by this same date last year! Even though I can usually find a lot of reasons to love winter, I'm with you all - I'm officially "over it." Done with snow, done with slippery streets, fuzzy boots, even cocoa and a roaring fire on the hearth. Mostly I'm just done with hibernating.

But maybe this long winter can teach us all something. Patience is the ability to wait graciously. In that sense it's a lot like mindfulness - living with awareness in the present moment. After all, impatience sure seems like the opposite of mindfulness. If you're impatient, you're dwelling on the future and overlooking all of the precious gifts that are within reach right now.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/frted

One of my favorite quotes, which guides my life (and I'm sure will also guide the path of this blog), comes from the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, arguably one of the few people on the earth who can be called a "living Buddha." He writes, "If we want to enter Heaven on Earth, we need only one conscious step and one conscious breath. When we touch peace, everything becomes real. We become ourselves, fully alive in the present moment." We come to realize, "It is a miracle to walk on the Earth." We don't need to take a vacation to experience beauty, or receive a promotion to feel validated. We don't need to wait - what we are waiting for is already happening, right now, under our feet and all around us. 

It's not easy to live mindfully. It's like trying to improve your posture: you sit up straight and feel how good it is to have your body fall into alignment. And yet, one minute later, your shoulders are hunched, your back is bent... so it goes with mindfulness. You breathe in one conscious breath and see how beautiful the world is around you, feel your mind fill with a sense of deep peace. And then, some little thought drags you away again, and next thing you know you barely remember how you spent the last half hour. 

Here's a short summary of Thich Nhat Hanh's five steps to mindfulness (you can find the full article in his own words here). I will be challenging myself to put these last (I hope!) days of winter to use, trying to follow these steps towards a more mindful lifestyle.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/frted/

Step 1: Mindful Breathing. The first step is deceptively simple: breathing consciously. Basically, this means recognizing your in-breath as your in-breath and your out-breath as your out-breath. Knowing - really knowing - that you are breathing in as you breathe in and breathing out as you breathe out helps anchor your mind within your body. When you're fully focused on your breathing, you don't dwell in the past or future. Hanh writes, "The in-breath can be a celebration of the fact that you are alive, so it can be very joyful... The greatest of all miracles is to be alive, and when you breathe in, you touch that miracle. Therefore, your breathing can be a celebration of life."

You don't need to turn mindful breathing into a formal meditation. The beauty of mindful breathing is that you can do it any time you have a minute or two, as a way to, as Hahn puts it: "bring your mind home to yourself." 

Step 2: Concentration. This can be seen as an extension of the mindful breathing exercise. As you breathe consciously, let your mind follow your in-breath all the way in, and your out-breath all the way out. You don't let your concentration be interrupted by random thoughts or stimuli around you. Over time, this becomes second nature. But in the beginning it may feel more like you need to separate yourself or go to a special, quiet location in order to fully quiet your mind. Whatever you do, don't become frustrated. If your mind wanders, just bring it back again - back to your breath.

Step 3: Awareness of your Body. As you are practicing mindful breathing, say to yourself: "As I breathe in, I am aware of my body. As I breathe out, I am aware of my body." Simple, right? Feel what it's like to be in your body. One thing that I find helps is to try to feel your clothes on your skin - these sensations are there, all the time, but we rarely pay any attention to them. According to Hanh, "This exercise is simple, but the effect of the oneness of body and mind is very great. In our daily lives, we are seldom in that situation. Our body is there but our mind is elsewhere. Our mind may be caught in the past or in the future, in regrets, sorrow, fear, or uncertainty, and so our mind is not there."

Try sending your consciousness to different body parts: your hands, your heart, your eyes. If you want to take it a step further, try to cultivate a sense of thankfulness as you do so. "Breathing in, I feel my heart. Breathing out, I am thankful for my heart," etc. 

Step 4: Releasing Tension. It's impossible to live in our society without holding tension in our bodies. For some of us, it manifests as pain. Some of us experience it emotionally, as anxiety or depression. According to Chinese medicine, "where there is blockage, there is disease." It's possible to start releasing those blockages by practicing the following meditation, at work, in the car, on the couch: "Breathing in, I am aware of my body. Breathing out, I release tension from my body." Sometimes it helps to visualize black smoke leaving your nose as you breathe out, representing the tension or negativity leaving your body. 

Step 5: Walking Meditation. Hanh states, "When you practice mindful breathing you simply allow your in breath to take place. You become aware of it and enjoy it. Effortlessness. The same thing is true with mindful walking. Every step is enjoyable. Every step helps you touch the wonders of life."

Right now, I've been missing my walks outdoors. It's been a bad year for ice and I've found the sidewalks too treacherous for any kind of meditative walking. But you can apply the same principles to any easy task, tasks where you usually tend to "zone out" and think about other things: "Breathing in, I wash this dish. Breathing out, I rinse it under the sink." Practicing awareness as you go through the simple routine of life is what mindfulness is all about. It transforms every mundane task into a celebration.

I will continue to write about the subject of mindfulness in other entries. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your stories about mindfulness, patience, or hibernation. Have you ever experienced a period where you were just waiting for something to happen? How did you make the best of it?