Don't Quit Your Day Job Hasselbeck

I recently started a summer position as the Research Librarian for the Canadian Celiac Association. My job involves the collection and organization of current research being conducted on celiac disease and the gluten-free diet. I'm really enjoying my time at the CCA because I have the opportunity to become a research expert on a nutritional issue that effects so many people and yet many health care professionals know little if anything about!

A week before I started my research at the CCA, I landed my hands on a copy of the book The G Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide which is written by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View. Not a fan of The View? You might recognize Hasselbeck, who herself suffers from celiac disease as she was a former Survivor contestant!

Her book describes celiac which is an autoimmune disease that presents itself as an allergy to the gluten protein most commonly found in wheat, but that is also a component of rye, barley and other grains. If a person with celiac disease ingests gluten they will suffer damage to their intestinal wall and experience a range of severe, painful gastrointestinal symptoms. While their is no medical treatment for the disease, symptoms are resolved when patients follow a challenging life-long gluten-free diet. Sound easy? It's not! Gluten has crept its way into a great majority of the products we consume everyday, making total avoidance of gluten extremely challenging for celiacs.

I can't knock Elisabeth for her book's ability to raise awareness for celiac disease which is highly underdiagnosed. Just this past week much media attention has been brought to celiac in Canada following media coverage of a report outlining a 4-fold increase in the number of people with celiac disease over the last 50-years.

The problem that I have with Elizabeth's book is the following excerpt:

...a gluten-free lifestyle can help countless [non-celiac] others as well...Even people with no health issues have a great deal to gain by giving up gluten. The G-free diet can help with weight management. It can elevate your energy levels, improve your attention span, and speed up your digestion.

As the 'Research Librarian' for the Canadian Celiac Association I have yet to come across a single scientific article that makes the recommendation that anyone should give up gluten if they don't suffer from celiac disease. Why would anyone willingly do that? I would be interested to hear Elisabeth's reasoning for recommending the omission of gluten in the diet for weight management. I mean, cup for cup gluten-containing and gluten-free pasta for example contain essentially the same caloric content....Substituting one for the other wouldn't make a difference in an effort to achieve weight loss!

Interestingly, I noticed a recent posting on a blog I follow called 'Small Bites: Bite-Sized Nutrition Information' regarding a similar feeling of unsatisfaction with with Hasselbeck's bogus statement. It is apparent that myself and the author of 'Small Bites' share the same opinion on this one: Hasselbeck only penned that statement to sell more books $$$, as in an attempt to sell her book to fans of The View that watch while sitting at home on their couches. Convincing people without celiac to consume the gluten-free diet for weight loss purposes is misleading and for this I am disappointed in you Elisabeth!!! And I haven't even got to the part about elevating energy levels, improving attention spans or speeding up digestion. Where is she getting this from?!?!? I will also point out that nowhere in her book does Hasselbeck give the references to access the studies and trials she refers to in her book....and as a person who often goes to the source itself for more information, I HATE THIS!

And now that I've reflected on it, I will remember this book when I return to university this fall to begin my masters degree in Nutrition Communication. The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide by Elisabeth Hasselbeck is a classic example of nutrition information being presented in a false (profit-generating) manner....and I don't like it!