Celebrity-Emulation : De-Selecting Primary Food Sources

"I lived on beans and gluten-free pasta, which was disgusting, but Gwyneth was a role model -- her life seemed bright and wonderful, while I was sluggish and unmotivated."
"It was like waiting for a bus that never came. Even though I wasn't getting where I wanted right then, I kept thinking I'd feel better next week, or month."
"It was very sudden, as far as my friends and family were concerned, and eventually they got fed up and stopped inviting me out. I got very isolated with it, but at the time, I couldn't see what the problem was. I was too immersed to see logic."
Haley Wallbank, London teacher, 52

"I wasn't impressionable but when you're young, you take control over your diet for the first time; and gluten-heavy foods did make me feel really bloated."
"[The transition was expensive, up to four times more than standard foods, but] I felt better in myself."
Hanna Caldwell university student, 25

"There are food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances, and they're not all the same thing."
"There aren't many good tests for sensitivity, and a lot of people suffering with complaints don't feel they are getting satisfactory explanations from their doctors."
"It's easy to denigrate people for eliminating food groups, but if cutting something out makes you feel better, I fully understand why people do it."
"[Elimination diets] can be done to extremes. [What's of greater importance is that] our microbiomes have been decimated by modern living. The bulk of the problems I see are from people eating diets that are harming their health [from consuming highly processed foods, chiefly]."
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, author, The Four Pillar Plan

Gluten – good or bad? Photograph: Alamy

Most people don't like to admit, even to themselves, that they are suggestible, that if a recognizable name often in the news comes up with a novel theory about a brave new diet, claiming it to have altered their health immeasurably, giving them more pleasure in life while leaving them feeling in control, healthier, with more energy and a more sculpted appearance -- whatever it is they're touting finds instant recognition in people dissatisfied with their lives and a new cultish fad is born.

Alternately, someone with a series of alphabetic academic credentials following their name who writes a book claiming to have studied the issue of nutrition and human health and to have synthesized all the acquired and available data to a conclusion and sets out the do's and don'ts of dietary nutrition, what is permissible for optimum health outcomes and what will guarantee a setback, finds instant acclaim and a faithful following.

Food processors are swift to signal that they get it, and they switch instantly to giving their clients what they want; assurances that there is no saturated fat for example, in products that don't, in any event, carry any fat -- leaving the indelible impression that the corporate entity thinks the consumer is rather doltish so what harm is there in assuring such connoisseurs of fine foods that their canned peas are void of saturated fat and MSG? Reduced salt content in products remains one of the reliable indices on the other hand of good choice.

Some of the UK’s best-selling ultra-processed foods. Photograph: Jill Mead for the Guardian

Just as populations are no longer reliant on whole foods to make up the major content of their diets, one food fad after another and constantly evolving processing of food products removing them further and further from the nutrition that whole foods once bestowed on us, brings us to a situation where "free-from" foods are now enjoying vast popularity as consumers claim to themselves their allergies and disposition to certain food products are to be avoided as people continue to self-diagnose their food intolerances.

Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, monosodium glutomate free, and other once-prominent nutrition elements of good, balanced diets are now the rage and those foods are earning huge profits for the food processors and distributors taking advantage of people's gullibility and anxious search for solutions to whatever ails them; mostly cosmetic in nature. There's a new word that aptly describes the host of people who consider themselves fairly knowledgeable about food, and avoidance and that's 'nutrichondriac'.

Gluten, as an example, is a vital protein source and it is present in just about all types of foods; to avoid consuming gluten -- not only in bakery products but a whole slew of other products using various types of flours and grains, the fine art of label inspection must be undertaken, constantly and unremittingly to ensure whatever is put on that particular person's dinner table is absent gluten. And those products that do absent gluten are quite expensive in comparison to gluten-containing products that usually taste better and contain vastly more food value for a diminished cost.

One in five people, by popular urban legend's influence, believe they are lactic acid intolerant; allergic or intolerant to cow's milk, according to Food Standards Authority figures, while in actual fact a mere five percent of people derived from northern European descent are in fact lactose intolerant. Allergies are immune system reactions to a specific food which the body erroneously perceives as a threat. On the other hand, sensitivity or intolerance speaks to digestive complications; diarrhea, bloating or stomach cramps absent allergic reaction. The former can be life-threatening, the latter not.