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Frigging Woo
So one problem with having lots of chronic illnesses and food intolerances is constantly crossing paths with health quackery. Sometimes by sheer chance they can actually offer some helpful recipes. Paleo blogs are a good souce of recipes with meat but not dairy, for example, even if their reasons for eating that way are ridiculous. But often I just get pissed off when I think of how sick I would be if I actually listened to these charlatans, and how much harm they do to the genuinely sick people who are taken in.
A relatively minor irritation from today I just feel like ranting about:
I am looking up recipes for colonoscopy prep, right now ginger jelly/jello. I came across this recipe, which seems about what I want except with honey instead of sugar. It started out ok: like me she's following some special diet, and ginger is good for settling upset stomachs. Sure. But "breaking down toxic buildup in your organs"?
I decided to check out this GAPS diet. It claims to heal digestive and neurological issues, which is a stretch, and the side bar is full of woo about Leaky Gut and "Tumeric: better than medications?". But there's worse health food ideas than a diet that "incorporates the simplest foods for the body to digest".
Except I scrolled through and it's terrible. The faddish emphasis on red meat broth and coconut is silly, especially since a moderate amount of people have digestive issues with them. But onions and garlic?? Those are super common IBS and reflux triggers and a huge proportion of people with gut problems are going to have trouble digesting them. There's a bunch of other common IBS triggers too, like honey and cauliflower. Making the diet pretty much useless for anyone except those who are (a) basically healthy but taken in by woo or (b) happen to have a specific food intolerance not included in the starting diet.
I tried looking up proper elimination diets but got inundated with woo. Afaict they generally consist of chicken and white rice. Here's the list of low FODMAP foods suggested to people with IBS. And I mean, even though there's scince behind those diets being helpful in the right context they can still be used as part of bad medical advice. But if you want a diet for people with digestive issues they're a good place to start. Except that's too mainstream and boring for fancy quacks selling apple flavoured bone broth protein for $40 a jar.
And now I'm hungry :)
EDIT: I'm not actually in the market for an elimination diet, I was just curious.
A relatively minor irritation from today I just feel like ranting about:
I am looking up recipes for colonoscopy prep, right now ginger jelly/jello. I came across this recipe, which seems about what I want except with honey instead of sugar. It started out ok: like me she's following some special diet, and ginger is good for settling upset stomachs. Sure. But "breaking down toxic buildup in your organs"?
I decided to check out this GAPS diet. It claims to heal digestive and neurological issues, which is a stretch, and the side bar is full of woo about Leaky Gut and "Tumeric: better than medications?". But there's worse health food ideas than a diet that "incorporates the simplest foods for the body to digest".
Except I scrolled through and it's terrible. The faddish emphasis on red meat broth and coconut is silly, especially since a moderate amount of people have digestive issues with them. But onions and garlic?? Those are super common IBS and reflux triggers and a huge proportion of people with gut problems are going to have trouble digesting them. There's a bunch of other common IBS triggers too, like honey and cauliflower. Making the diet pretty much useless for anyone except those who are (a) basically healthy but taken in by woo or (b) happen to have a specific food intolerance not included in the starting diet.
I tried looking up proper elimination diets but got inundated with woo. Afaict they generally consist of chicken and white rice. Here's the list of low FODMAP foods suggested to people with IBS. And I mean, even though there's scince behind those diets being helpful in the right context they can still be used as part of bad medical advice. But if you want a diet for people with digestive issues they're a good place to start. Except that's too mainstream and boring for fancy quacks selling apple flavoured bone broth protein for $40 a jar.
And now I'm hungry :)
EDIT: I'm not actually in the market for an elimination diet, I was just curious.