Health and Diet Online Support Groups - A Caution

Online support groups are very popular these days for the Gluten Free movement as well as just about any other health condition. They're popular mainly because it's nice to be able to vent about your health issues with other people who're going through the same thing and "get it." They don't think you're crazy, or making it up. They can be a good place to be heard.

However, there's a dark side to many of these support groups.

Narrow Focused:

Some are rampant with people who have made some positive changes, but will only go so far, and no further. And they want desperately for other people to agree with them. They'll shout that anyone who challenges them is a bully, or being mean.

Let me give some examples.

We've all heard about the FDA rule that products can be labeled gluten free if they contain less than 20 ppm of gluten.

Some people will use this as a license to eat ANYTHING that's labeled gluten free. But they'll refuse to accept that there's any validity to the fact that much of what they're eating is very unhealthy. They'll eat gluten free bread, loaded with food additives, fillers, GMOs. They'll drink beverages loaded with sugar and artificial flavors. They'll eat cookies and cakes and pastries by the bucket full. They'll eat fast food, with toxic oils and loaded with unhealthy carbs.

Then they'll complain they're sick, and their illness (Celiac, gluten sensitivity, or any other condition) is to blame. They'll jump up and down and say "it's safe, see, it's labeled gluten free, the FDA said so," and completely not want to hear any other feedback. They say they "don't have time" to cook from scratch. They'll say they're too tired. They'll say they "just want to feel normal, like everyone else." Sort of like it's some sort of human right to eat anything.

In the case of Celiac Disease, gluten may be the main CAUSE of their problems, but it absolutely, completely is not the only thing that's needed to get well. Yes, you MUST get rid of gluten. But if you want to actually get well, you must do a number of things that actually will heal your body.

What are those things? We'll get to that in a moment.

Let's get back to the support groups.

Only Offer One Solution:

They're also rampant with people doing the most bizarre things, and swearing everyone else should do exactly the same, and NOTHING else. They'll say, oh, you need THIS specific probiotic, or THIS specific vitamin.

Or they'll swear they have one or a dozen other terrible diseases. The wearing of disease labels is rampant in these support groups. Many people are justifying their continued unwellness due to all their diseases. If they have 2, 3, 20, etc. diseases... well, that's why they're sick. That's why they can't be well. They won't actually do the work that would be required to get well. Part of it is they don't want to. Another part is that they truly don't know they can actually make changes themselves to get well.

Some of this lack of doing the work does come down to one of the hallmarks of our current western culture, where people have been taught that only doctors can make us well, and there's nothing we personally can do about it.

Medical System has Little Food Knowledge:

Our culture, and our current medical system is also virtually clueless on the absolute power of food, and it's importance in our health. So few doctors have more than a very small amount of training about food. And even less doctors have any training on other environmental toxins such as agricultural chemical toxicity, pharmaceutical toxicity, industrial toxicity, heavy metal toxicity, etc.

Our modern medical system is trained to give a pill or cut out a part of our body. But they are not trained to heal. They are only trained to treat symptoms.

With Celiac, they really are at a loss. There is virtually nothing within their training on how to deal with Celiac. Yes, many know that people need to remove gluten. But they only know that because that's what they were told. They don't know why. They don't understand the actual mechanism of what's going on.

They don't understand the other things that go hand in hand with Celiac disease. They don't understand that those with Celiac and those with various gluten intolerances and sensitivities actually have nutrient deficiencies. And that those nutrient deficiencies cause disease. They don't connect the 2, 3, 4 + other diseases to the nutrient deficiencies.

These other diseases may have some pharmaceutical treatments, that they'll give for those things. But they simply don't know that if they solved the nutrient deficiencies, those other disease would be gone or massively reduced.

Yes, I said gone. Legally, the word cure is not allowed to be used except for very specific treatments, usually drugs, that have gone through an extensive beaurocratic process, and been registered in a very specific way with the government. But, from a logical perspective, from the perspective of the way the average person understands the word cure, a nutrient deficiency disease is cured by getting rid of the deficiency. It's true that that deficiency must not occur again, so you'll continually need to keep that nutrient at the proper level by what you eat.

This lack of understanding about this mechanism about gluten, and what it does to the body, is so far removed from the medical system's way of thinking. Let me say that again another way... The medical system is NOT trained on what food does to the body. They cannot put the pieces together. It flies in the face of everything they know.

Solutions and Conclusion:

But now you know how important it is, and that there's lots you can do to recover and improve your health. I do recommend joining support groups, just be aware that they won't have all the answers, and you'll need to use some discernment in what you hear. You also have the power to learn about food, what's good and bad about all of it, how it affects your personal health situation and you can work towards improving it, and seeing how you feel.

If you want some tips on things to look for sign up for the

10 Steps to Healthy Gluten Free Eating Guide!

Even if you're not eating gluten free, there's lots of tips that'll help, since it really is designed to go beyond just gluten free. The 10 Step Guide is packed full of tips, tricks, recipes and regular updates to get you started on the road to living healthy with or without gluten.

Eat and enjoy!

Thora Toft