from the "damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't" dept.
Ars Technica provides the scoop on a new study that should alarm practitioners of gluten-free diets--especially the 1% of Americans that suffer from celiac disease and thus are gluten-sensitive. While admittedly a small study, the researchers found many of the blood and urine samples of the gluten-free participants had elevated levels of mercury and arsenic.
Those just happen to be toxic substances that often accumulate to high levels in rice, a food that is naturally gluten-free. Rice flour and other rice products are often used as substitutes for gluten-containing ingredients in foods.
Exposure to high levels of mercury and arsenic is linked to risks of cardiovascular disease, cancers, and neurological problems.
The study is very small, and it’s unclear if the elevated levels are directly linked to the participants’ self-reported diets or even if the mercury and arsenic levels are high enough to cause health effects. But the researchers say the findings raise concern.
“These results indicate that there could be unintended consequences of eating a gluten-free diet,” Maria Argos, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead author of the study, said in a statement. But it’s impossible to draw firm conclusions “until we perform the studies to determine if there are corresponding health consequences that could be related to higher levels of exposure to arsenic and mercury by eating gluten-free.”
Argos and colleagues reported their findings in the journal Epidemiology.
High accumulation of mercury and arsenic in rice is not a new thing. Previous research as shown that rice plants are at least ten times better at accumulating toxins from the soil than other grain plants. However, it seems that people are putting together the evidence that a high rice diet has its own set of unfortunate consequences too. In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed new regulation restricting the allowable arsenic levels in rice cereals for infants. Chew on that organically grown, fat-free, sugar-free, low salt, gluten-free, flavor-free, nutrition-free, non-GMO, PETA-approved, recycled cardboard for a while.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:57PM
Fundamentally its a story about rice, not a story about GF eating. My son has the medically diagnosed celiac disease and the first few months were rather interesting but in practice a decade later it just doesn't matter much. We mostly end up eating paleo-ish which means pretty much no grains for two reason:
1) The substitute GF products taste like crap and are super expensive.
2) Health in general. We don't really need the empty carbs and obesity that grains provide.
We use google calendar to plan our meals and then generate shopping lists so let me work back in time. Last night was a Fing delicious salad made by my wife with arugula and bacon and onions and nuts and some dried fruit (sounds weird but delicious) and some homemade meatballs (because you can't buy store bought meatballs that are less than 50% additives and crap). Taco seasoned meat on salad with taco "stuff" (sour cream, guac, cheese) again freaking delicious (kinda like nachos but on lettuce OMG I could eat 10 pounds of that stuff delicious). Slow cooked pork with bbq sauce in chunks laying on top of what boils down to homemade coleslaw. Big breakfast (for dinner) which means sausage and bacons and scrambled eggs and omletes no potatos or bread products. Baked chicken with great pile of veggies as side dish. My wife made something like blackened catfish inspired some-kinda-fish (fish has shitloads of mercury, probably worse than rice, so ...). Before that was homemade chili with sour cream and chopped onions freaking delicious. Mole chiicken (OK I was lazy and used a jar sauce) and steamed broccoli so green it almost fluoresced. Pork chops with apples and shallots and a white wine reduction sauce. Marinated skirt steak taco flavor on salad (the other taco salad meal was ground beef, this was better but skirt steak is expensive and harder to prepare). Classic "Italian" or at least "Italian-American" medium spicy italian sausages cooked with halved grapes and a white wine reduction sauce freaking delicious and some vegetable I've forgotten. Classic stir fry a bunch of left over fresh veggies and some chopped up chicken no corn syrup sauce those are tasty but gross, no rice, sorta like fajita without the tortilla I guess. My wife did something homemade with lemons garlic and a chicken that sounds weird but was tasty enough. I made a mexican inspired chicken bake kinda like enchiladas without the tortillas it sounds disgusting and is probably about as genuine mexican as taco bell, but it tasted pretty good, essentially it was spicy baked chicken with salsa and guacamole. Loaded as hell baked chicken, if you're familiar with loaded baked potato this is a butterflied chicken breast with all the loaded ingredients piled on looks like dog puke but extremely tasty and easy to cook. A cassarole my wife made out of thinly sliced zucchini that was kinda lasagna inspired best just call it an italian spiced zucchini bake. Weird as hell yet tasty pizza chicken where you pound out a chicken breast flat like you would for some italian thing I'm forgetting the name of and then 99% bake it and then slop pizza toppings on top and broil until bubbly, another "wife surprise" that was delicious despite looking like dog barf. Stereotypical slowly grilled chicken with bbq sauce. Stereotypical caesar salad with yesterdays grilled chicken and no croutons of course. My wife often cooks this homemade gyro meat (the only way to have it without 50% fillers) and a cucumber heavy salad and its pretty delicious with a bit of seasoned feta cheese. Plain old beef stew slow cooked until fork tender. We slow cook most any meat in the winter and grill a lot in the summer of course, I love homemade vegetable and meat kabobs and steaks and brats and burgers and chickens its just not the season. Pizza burgers not the disgusting things in the freezer aisle but home cooked patties with pizza toppings piled on no bread no bun just slop on plate and eat totally delicious. Some homemade grain/bread free more or less salisbury steak inspired ... things on empty calorie mashed potatoes. I skipped a hell of a lot of side dishes and salads and repetition.
Anyway the above paragraph is what "real" gluten free families eat, none of it involves those disgusting fake bread products that are super expensive and very trendy hipster almost exclusively eaten by people with no medical need unlike my son.
You can eat delicious food that is naturally GF or you can eat GF-substitute food but the overlap is roughly 0% after more than a decade of experience. This rice shit might be arsenic toxic or might not, but I assure you it tastes like styrofoam at best. You want something GF go eat a Fing steak or some prime rib or a delicious fresh salad.
We do occasionally buy the shitty substitute products for social pressure reasons like if they're having cake and cookies at school or whatever.
An interesting side effect of no grains is my kids are somewhat thinner and stronger than their peers and not crazy sugar addicts. I could lose a few pounds but the lack of carb/sugar intake means my blood tests are always none the less awesome.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @06:17PM
The substitute GF products taste like crap and are super expensive.
So, don't eat substitutes? Eat other stuff that doesn't have wheat and related stuff? You know, there are lots of these things called vegetables (including potatoes, beans, tomatoes) and all of fruit. I don't understand why you are trying to substitute grain-like things when you can just not eat them.
things on empty calorie mashed potatoes
1. "empty calorie" is bullshit term.the closest you could apply it to would be something like sugar
2. potatoes are superfoods if anything
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/6-reasons-we-should-be-calling-potatoes-a-superfood_us_57be44b9e4b06384eb3e339c [huffingtonpost.com]
no, not fries (which gets its "empty calories" from oil) but real, boiled potatoes.
(Score: 2) by rondon on Wednesday February 15 2017, @03:45PM
One reason we should not call potatoes superfood - the glycemic index is very high and these types of foods contribute to diabetes. In all fairness, HuffPo does mention this, but it still makes the potato a terrible choice for a "super food." Very few, if any, habitual potato consumers eat them cold with vinegar. Potato chips don't count.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday February 14 2017, @08:52PM
Regardless of the GF-centric nature of your family's diet, it is worth pointing out that the amount of thought that you put into what you eat already sets you apart from the vast majority of families in the world. That is the crucial first-step in any improved diet and being healthier.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:20PM
It's also worth noting that a lot of "gluten intolerant" people are just faddy dieters or want to be special. In cases like your son's, where he's had a proper medical diagnosis and you've *all* had to live with that, the people who prepare the meals would generally eat the same thing as the coeliac patient for the sake of convenience so the "fake bread products" and their ilk that you mention tend to get ignored because you'd never eat that crap by choice! I might be wrong here, but doesn't concrete diagnosis of coeliac disease require a colonic biopsy?
Also, as noted by another response, what your family does in terms of thinking about what to eat is much more than a lot of families do!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday February 19 2017, @05:13PM
but doesn't concrete diagnosis of coeliac disease require a colonic biopsy?
Wrong end, stomach actually. General anesthesia and all that.
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Sunday February 26 2017, @02:51PM
Ah, right. I was only in gastro for 6 months and it was a loooong time ago!