Our February '16 Meeting

Tim talked to me several times and I said he had the right to use whatever he needed from my blogs. When the meeting started on February 20, Tim took time to thank Sue, Brenda, and me for the discussion we had about a few of Sue and Bob's friends that were promoting gluten-free foods. He asked for a show of hands of people that did not know what gluten was. Seven hands were raised and Tim said not to be afraid to admit this, as most people may not know about gluten.

This caused three more people to raise their hands. Tim said that most of the longer term members knew about gluten and those that had been in the group from the start definitely knew about gluten, as this had been a topic of discussion many times. Gluten is the tough, viscid, nitrogenous substance remaining when the flour of wheat or other grains is washed to remove the starch. Tim said the wheat and other grains are the important words and they contain the gluten.

Since celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, it is generally the people with type 1 diabetes that develop celiac disease. There are a few other people that can develop celiac disease, but this would be a very small number and even smaller number that have type 2 diabetes, but it is possible.

Tim said some people with type 2 diabetes do develop an intolerance for gluten, and when this happens, not eating wheat or grain products can really help. As he was talking, Tim was rotating some slides and pausing when people were asking questions. Among the newer members, there were quite a few questions and Tim was taking time to answer every one. When he put the slide up with these statements, (Celiac disease is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed diseases by doctors. A doctor should monitor the diet in order to prevent complications. The diet will also help people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.), this raised several questions.

Tim explained that many doctors don't think about autoimmune diseases and don't see celiac disease that often and many doctors never see a person with celiac disease.

Tim then started on gluten-free foods and that several people are presently promoting gluten-free as a weight loss diet. Yes, they're heavily promoting gluten-free and hoping to make a sale of their products. Tim called on Sue to explain what she had seen in products.

Sue said they had several cereals, pasta, and other products that were labeled gluten-free. Most of the other products could be found much cheaper in the grocery stores and wouldn't have the sugar added that their products included. All products were over-priced and had more sugar or fructose than comparable products. And they say this is a weight loss diet – right.

Tim stated this is what they are promoting and even some of the foods in the grocery store that claim to be gluten-free also have added sugar and high fructose corn syrup and this is why we don't recommend these products for people that have diabetes.

Then Tim showed his last slide, which said “LCHF.” He turned to me and asked what this meant. I said that it meant we did not eat high carb foods that included any grains and other foods heavy in starch. By doing this most of us would never have any problems with gluten and even is we were gluten sensitive, we did not need to worry, as we would be eating foods that did not contain any gluten. I finished by saying that the low carb, high fat way of eating was better than eating gluten-free foods.

Tim said this is correct and concludes my presentation. We will take time to answer more questions, but the meeting is over. Questions consumed the next thirty minutes and the members started leaving. When we finished cleaning, Tim stated that he could not believe people would try to promote gluten-free foods to people with type 2 diabetes. Sue said this is what her husband said and that is why they told them about LCHF way of eating which costs less and results in easier weight loss.