This post originally appeared on The Glow.
By KATE SPIES
This morning I very nearly shed a tear when I read a quote from a recent interview Jennifer Lawrence, 24, did with Vanity Fair magazine. Everyone’s favourite Cool Girl told the American glossy that gluten-free eating is, “the new cool eating disorder”. Adding, “It’s basically, ‘I just don’t eat carbs’.”
Wow.
I fan-girl over J-Law as much as the next living, breathing female, but today…not so much.
Jennifer (yes, I’m using her full name: I’m angry) has me pissed. Really pissed. The one thing Jen forgot to mention during her food shaming, is that for people who do actually suffer from coeliac disease, like yours truly, it’s not just a fad diet. It’s not fun (it’s actually really bloody boring). It’s most definitely not just an excuse to avoid carbs. And it’s not cool.
And you know what’s even more uncool than running scared from anything that has come from a bakery? When people – who won’t get violently ill if they nibble on a bread stick – avoid gluten just for the sake of it (“I feel a teeny tiny bit bloated when I eat a loaf of bread”, “I think I once saw a pimple on my face after I ate pasta for 30 days in Italy”, “Gwyneth doesn’t eat bread, so neither do I”).
And that’s why I’m angry at her, because while she’s focusing on all the fakers, she’s forgotten about all of us who are suffering a very real, very annoying condition. She doesn’t get it.
While everyone is worried about analysing whether JLaw’s comments are her throwing shade on (gluten-free enthusiast and her new BF’s ex) Gwyneth Paltrow, I’m stressing out if her remark will mean a hospital visit for me after the next time I eat out.
You see, every time a faux sufferer enters an eatery and says “Does that, like, come in gluten-free, I’m not really doing wheat right now,” or “Um, sorrrrrrryyyy, I can’t eat that brown rice because I’m gluten-intolerant,” another chef adds an extra tablespoon of flour to their sauce because they assume said person is just another, like, totally on-trend fipster. (Newsflash: there’s no gluten in rice.)
Dropping the c-word used to help, but saying you’re a legitimate Coeliac doesn’t even have the same cut through anymore. People just don’t really believe you, particularly when you’re a young woman who looks like she cares about eating healthily.
There’s so much distrust and cynicism surrounding food allergies these days. And I’m laying the blame firmly on you, you liar. The more you fib about being allergic, or even worse, actually admit you’re avoid gluten “just because”, the more you make it extremely difficult for people like me.
Studies undertaken by Monash University found only 14 per cent of people on gluten-free diets were actually told by a doctor they should stop eating it. In fact, almost half of GF people just stopped eating it because they “felt” like it. Lucky for them, they can decide to enjoy the cake at a friend’s wedding, or eat the biscuits given to them as a gift if they “feel” like that, too.
I can (kinda) handle the snide judgement from strangers who don’t believe I’m actually suffering, I can even handle not being able to eat the same thing as everyone else, but I can’t handle the fact that I never really know if something I eat in a restaurant is gluten-free or if it will make me sick.
Case in point: not so long ago I was promised by a waiter that some tempura veggies were battered with rice flour. They weren’t. I spent a night at RPA. How do you like that, fipsters?
I might get hats printed, or a t-shirt. Anything with a huge C on it that will make people believe that I’m not talking shit when I say I really can’t just have even a sliver of cake. But in the meantime, I appeal to the fipsters of Australia: please stop using my disease to be hip.
In the words of Jimmy Kimmel, ”Some people can’t eat gluten for medical reasons, which that I get. It annoys me but I get it.” I can forgive him this quip because he went on to say…”But a lot of people don’t eat gluten because somebody in their yoga class told them not to.” And that my friends, is so not cool.
These are some celebrities who are gluten free and their reasons why.
Do you know anyone who “pretends” they’re gluten-intolerant?
Top Comments
I had someone who wanted to go gluten free because they wanted to lose weight. I told them no. The reason is because I suffer from gluten big time I throw up I either need really really low levels like less then 3 percent that's usually in the sauce alone. Too much my body can't it feel like I'm having a anaphylaxis reaction I cannot breathe I feel absolutely awful. This is what I told the person do not go gluten free if you don't need to because your body will intolerant to gluten and therefore eventually you cannot have gluten. I told him how unhealthy it was too I've actually managed to gain weight I was extremely constipated all because gluten was staying near the intestines it's like my body will not process it. I usually say I'm celiac because I cannot have any and they cannot test me anyway because I cannot eat 6 weeks of gluten without me skipping work or tafe to me eating gluten is almost life threatening
I hate this stigma because I have been sick for about 4 years now. Nothing worked or made me better. I feel nauseous all the time and would go to the bathroom 10 times a day, experience terrible cramps and just couldn't function. After many tests it looks like its IBD. Meds only made it a little better and fodmap diet had little impact. So I went gluten free. So far its actually working but I miss gluten and wish I could eat all the things with gluten. Im not celiac so my doctor and specialist didnt even suggest going gf. But I feel like I have my life back. Plenty of people think because im not celiac that going gf is a fad diet im on. But its the only thing that has worked to date.