To Cheat or Not to Cheat: Chapter 3
Posted by Mike in Mike's Journey, Misc, RandomOct 3rd, 2009 | 12 responses
Do you play in traffic, blindfolded?
Have you ever played Russian Roulette?
Do you pray for cancer?
Do you eat gluten? Yes or No? Simple question.
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Terina, the author of Gluten Free Reality, recently wrote an article about cheating on a gluten free diet. Check it out HERE.(I’ll call that one- Chapter 2) To say the least… it got me a little fired up at 2:30AM, so I decided to write a Chapter 3. Her recent article was actually a follow-up on one of her previous articles: HERE. (Chapter 1)
Here are a few excerpts from Terina’s articles:
- “I’ve been relistening to the CD’s from the 2009 CF Conference and Dr. Peter Green says that he surveys his patients with celiac disease and that American’s with CD cheat 80% of the time.”
- “We risk long-term permanent damage if we cheat. In America only 14% of us regain full villi growth as adults. Children do (because adults don’t let them cheat!) That means most of us are risking all of the diseases from malnutrition.
- “This is why there are no good long term projections for Americans with celiac disease. Why do we feel it our constitutional right to eat whatever we want? Statistics project that most celiac patients are going to die early and do it miserably.“
- “Dr. Peter Green says that when CD patients cheat, incurable diseases ensue. America has tremendously high rates of contributory disease due to malnutrition and our inability to control our GF diets. Diabetes, Cancer, Crohns, Arthritis and Osteoporosis to name a few.”
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This is serious people! Really! Why the fcuk would you cheat????
Answer that and I’ll argue with you all day long. Actually, I should probably just end it by putting you out of your future misery now, as a favor to you and your children.
Someone once asked me: “Would you knowingly eat poison?” That question seems a little extreme or exaggerated, at first, but it really isn’t!
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How do you want to die?
Personally, I’d like to die comfortably at a really old age and not die young and suffer from years of diseases and various complications. You have a choice to make.
UNFORTUNATELY, we are a select group diagnosed with Celiac disease and daily must make tough, uncomfortable, embarrassing, and inconvenient choices and ALWAYS pick the hardest one!
FORTUNATELY, we were diagnosed with a curable disease. It is curable by our own choices and not with medical help. It doesn’t cost you a penny or need some Obama-failure plan to save your life.
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80% of you cheat! WTF People! You have a sick side that likes torture and death! Just the word “miserably” scares me enough! I don’t want to pay for your health care, especially if it was your choice to put yourself in that situation. Don’t get a “contributory disease” and “die early and do it miserably.”
My story: For a few years after I was diagnosed, I didn’t stick to the diet. I had NO symptoms whatsoever. So, I continued to live the college life of beer, pizza, and McDonalds double cheeseburgers. At the time, I didn’t really realize the future consequences, and I was too cheap and fast-paced to think about alternatives. Now I know it was stupid, and I have changed. It hasn’t been a fraction of how hard I thought it was going to be to eat gluten free. It has been little, or no, inconvenience to friends or family. Actually, it has made them reconsider their diet and eat healthier. It isn’t that hard to do.
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OK- All right-wing and potty-mouthed joking aside… this is serious business. This article was intended to be a little(or big) wake-up call. Help spread gluten free awareness and make the right choice for yourself. And do one thing for me… when you see someone cheating- slap’em in the face!
Goodnight!
Mike
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PS: I appreciate all types of comments, questions and conversation(good and bad). If you are going to repost or write a follow-up on my article(thank you), all I ask for is credit and a link back to my original. Keep spreading awareness!
12 Responses to “To Cheat or Not to Cheat: Chapter 3”
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good post mike, ya i have a 2 friends who are celiacs, one of them AFAIK sticks to it very very well, the other could give a shit less and she always looks tired, for sure should have been taller, and just seems “off” a bit and i really think its cause she doesnt stick to the diet.
i got Dx’ed april of 08, went gluten light until july/august 08, but of course kept accidentally using things that had gluten in them. at this point ive even stopped going out to eat most places cause it just doesnt work for what ever reason, be it CC or im just eating other stuff that doesnt agree with me. the 5 guys here some times is pretty good about keeping it all separate if they have a food allergy but the other night the idiot manager was touching bread and making my food at first i was just going to let it slide but then i just said “Screw it, ive been working 12 hours straight today the last thing i need is to get sick cause some dumbass cant understand the idea of a food allergy” so they remade it right and i was fine.
the longer and longer i go GF the less i would even think of cheating, i think its been some where around 10 months since i stopped accidentally glutening ever and i honestly would have to get paid a lot of money of be saving some ones life to take a bite of anything gluten.
maybe im lucky being in a city where vegans and vegetarians are a dime a dozen, and go to a liberal university and am in the art department so that its not “what the hell is wrong with you” when i say i cant eat gluten its “o wow, that sucks” with the occasional “my ~friend/relative~ has that”… also helps to have a bunch of nursing friends so i dont have to explain every damnt thing to them
-matt
Hi Mike – I don’t cheat. My sister doesn’t cheat – she just still eats soy sauce and oats! It isn ‘t cheating, she does it with full awareness.
So do I really not cheat? I don’t. Except the time …. except the 5 days I was in Hong Kong for work and got so frustrated finding food I gave up on the soy sauce. And a bun. And sometimes, since I travel 5 days week for work, I break down on a plane and pull an airplane sandwich apart to get at the meat…ultimately getting glutened on the way.
So I cheat but not for the reasons the word “cheating” implies. I never cheat to have say, a great brownie, a piece of pizza, or something more desirable. I eat gluten out of desperation sometimes…
And guess what? I feel awful about it mentally and physically. What am I 110% strict 99.5% of the time but let the other stuff get in..which may have just as large an impact on me as eating gluten every day?
So, I guess I needed to confess as a step towards stopping – because guess what? My sister and I still fell crappy 50% of the time. We also realized recently that this is the first thing we have ever dealt with that isn’t mind over matter. You can’t just say “oh soy sauce is so small I am not going to let it bother me”…
All I can do it keep trying, right?
Yep, I’m a cheater. Maybe once a month… BUT, in my defense…
I had a CD test, which came back negative. I thought it was a mistake. My kiddo also had a positive IgE reaction for wheat, and since the Rx is the same, I never pursued it further. Of course our house immediately went GF, the kiddo needed it. Another physician has since reviewed the results and interpreted them as inconclusive, only part of the test was run.
I’ve since mentioned it to our family doctor, my endocrinologist, an allergist, and even my OBGYN, who all look at me like I’m a hypochondriac when I say, “I think I’m Celiac.”
I’m 99% GF, because I cook that way for our munchkin. Maybe my CD test was right, and it’s only an IGG reaction. Another CD test isn’t covered under insurance and I’ve been GF for a year, so it would probably be negative anyway.
Every once in a while I cheat. Sometimes, get painful heartburn that lasts for weeks, especially with baked goods, like angel food cake or a bite of biscuit. Sometimes, though, nothing happens, esp when it’s a thin crust pizza, and I’ll end up cheating again.
@laurabosak i think it was something like 20% of people who really have cd will test negative, and even then thats not counting those who are just intolerant
-matt
I was diagnosed 3 years ago and at first I would cheat every once in a while but not very often. Now?? Oh, so different. I haven’t cheated in over 2 years. I have enough medical problems, I don’t need to make myself have more. Also, I have major side effects when I do cheat (probably like most people) and so why would you do that to yourself? My uncle has celiac as well and cheats all the time. It drives me NUTS. Thanks for your blog.
Hi Mike,
Since I started my gluten-free diet the weekend after I was diagnosed last year, I have not knowingly had any gluten. (I don’t get digestive problems, so I don’t know what cross-contamination I’ve encountered.)
For some people who cheat, it is a simple matter of willpower. It is not an easy thing to change diet habits. If someone wants encouragement to go completely gluten-free, I’ll give it to them. On the other hand, if they have made a conscious decision to cheat occasionally, I don’t have a problem with that.
Consciously cheating on a gluten-free diet is a value decision based on risk. Different people have different value systems and what they consider an acceptable level of risk is. Some people who are overweight consciously do not attempt to lose weight because they don’t consider it worth it. Many people live in cities with bad air quality or a big crime problem because other personal things make it worth the risk.
Hi Mike,
I think it’s easier not to cheat if you are very sensitive. I react to small amounts and just cross contamination can make me feel lousy for 2 weeks. I don’t even want to know what a deliberate piece of cake or pizza would feel like.
It is a big change and really puts a dent
in travel and social occasions. I guess each person has to weigh the risks in the
situation they are in. If you are older like me though, you know your body needs a
long time to heal. Maybe that makes a difference too.
I’ve been gf for 3.5 yrs and NEVER cheated since the day of my gold standard diagnosis. I’ve been glutened once (no gut pains prior to diagnosis, a bit of gut pain with the first glutening). I felt so bad before diagnosis I was ready for the funny-farm; when DH brought home pizza for the kid and himself the first week I was going gf, I wanted to cry and instead basked in the smell. I learned to appreciate the smell of food. HOWEVER, we NEVER had gluten in the house after that! LOL! NOT FAIR! My home is my gf sanctuary.
When I go to banquets, socialize, eat out, it’s a pain worth enduring to NOT cheat! But dang, sometimes those gf bars do not suffice – lol.
I have a celiac friend who cheats and she says it’s none of my business. I had to step back and agree to a point. It’s none of my business my mother smokes and yet, there she is dying of lung cancer (and still smoking). Insanity exists. It’s my job to cope with that; but it’s selfish and it’s not fair to your loved ones. No one said life was fair.
I’m not sure some people really understand the seriousness of CD. It’s not just a matter of gluten intolerance, it really is a poison to the body’s system. Maybe it all depends on a person’t outlook on life as to how they see the seriousness in what they do to their bodies.
I never even think about cheating. I used to be extremely sensitive, and even a crumb or a little cross contamination would make me sick. That taught me how careful I have to be. Now, I don’t seem to react as much, but I know I would react to an actual bite of something. I don’t think I could even enjoy it for fear of what I would go through.
It has to be harder for people who don’t have obvious symptoms.
Never thought about cheating…once though I did try chewing a piece of pizza then spitting it back out…got sick for a week because I know there was no way to possibly get it all out. Doesn’t help that I’m extremely sensitive and I get a reaction to just touching the stuff (skin rashes).
I’m so surprised to see people actually cheat? I dread ever accidentally ingesting some gluten since I know I will have a wide variety of bad effects for about a full 7 days
Though if I did not get such bad effects I do wonder if I would stick to it as much
- Jessika : Celiac Speaks – Symptoms, Recipes, Restaurants and Daily Life
[...] I honestly can’t say I’ve been 100% gluten free. If you step outside your house, I doubt anyone can honestly know they have not ingested any gluten. There are lots of times I make my best effort to know what I am eating, but sometimes you are only 90% sure and you eat it anyway. It is next to impossible to be 100% gluten free. I can only count a few times, where I have suspected that something might contain gluten and eaten it anyway. If I have an alternative, then I always pick that, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Only once, have I knowingly eaten gluten. I was in a tough situation, with someone I had just met, and to save time, confusion, and other complications, I ate it anyway. Looking back, I regret it. Don’t cheat! [...]