My best friend and I had our whole plan laid out. We would buy some NoDoz (white caffeine pills)<\/a>, crush them into powder, show our friend the goods and then ask if she wanted a line or two.<\/p>\n Now, my best friend and I had never done cocaine, and we didn\u2019t want to put anything up our noses, so we decided to just act jittery and tell our friend that we already did a bunch of lines and that we were cool, but she could go ahead and help herself.<\/p>\n We dabbed some white NoDoz powder on our faces for added effect. The plan worked like a champ because before we knew it, we were sitting in our friend\u2019s parent\u2019s dark basement, and she was snorting lines of NoDoz.<\/p>\n As soon as she snorted her first line, she got a huge grin on her face, threw back her head full of blonde hair and told us that we had some good shit.<\/p>\n After she did another line, she got up from her chair and started dancing in the dark basement, filling the silence by humming Sweet Jane as she moved her hips in ecstasy. A smile on her face the whole time.<\/p>\n My best friend and I had to run out of the the room because we couldn\u2019t contain our laughter. Our friend was too wrapped up in her dancing and her \u201chigh\u201d to notice our departure. We ran outside and exploded in laughter until tears rolled down our cheeks, washing off any lingering traces of white powder.<\/p>\n The laughter somehow soothed the guilt that was oozing out of us at a fairly rapid rate.<\/p>\n Our embarrassment about the whole situation trumped our guilt, and as shitty as it was, we never did tell her the truth.<\/p>\n Would you say that our friend was a liar pretending to respond to the fake cocaine, or do you think her reality was manipulated in such a way that her core belief was strong enough to manifest a physical reaction to merely a suggestion?<\/p>\n Well, that particular friend did actually lie a lot, so it might have been a combination of the two.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s fuckery is only partly about fake cocaine. The rest is about gluten.<\/p>\n My gluten sentiments are this (and if you name your new band The Gluten Sentiments, no need to give me credit – consider it a freebie).<\/p>\n If you have Celiac disease or are truly gluten intolerant, you should stay away from the stuff. But if you don\u2019t have a sensitivity to gluten, put down the Kool-aid. Gluten isn\u2019t hurting you. It\u2019s a scapegoat for other crap food that is.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s break this down.<\/p>\n Gluten is a group of proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, and all of their derivatives.<\/p>\n People who have Celiac disease (an autoimmune disorder) cannot, I repeat CANNOT<\/span> have gluten because these proteins trigger an immune response which causes a range of symptoms.<\/strong><\/p>\n These symptoms include chronic diarrhea, skin rashes, bloating, weight loss, joint pain, fatigue and anemia to name a few. The only way to alleviate these symptoms is to stop eating anything with gluten in it.<\/p>\n People who have a gluten sensitivity have similar symptoms as people with Celiac disease, but they don\u2019t have the immune response, making it a less severe condition.<\/p>\n And unlike Celiac disease, there’s no lab test that can confirm a gluten sensitivity. The only way to diagnose it is through an elimination diet, eliminating all gluten for a month and then seeing how you feel when you reintroduce it.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s the thing.<\/p>\n Less than 1 % of Americans have Celiac disease. Approximately 6% of Americans are gluten intolerant and yet 30% of American adults steer clear of gluten because they say they feel Is it just me or do these numbers sound like a drunk person came up with them? Why would 30% of Americans take action to help a condition that they technically don\u2019t even have?<\/p>\n Here’s my take.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not that 30% of the American population is lying about feeling better without gluten. It\u2019s that the majority of gluten filled foods in this country are crappy processed foods in the form of refined carbohydrates.<\/p>\n That, paired with the $15 Billion dollar a year gluten free food industry with all its advertising and cheerleaders is enough to make most people (well, 30 % at least) pin their health issues on gluten and close the book.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve experienced first hand manipulating someone’s reality in such a way that their beliefs became strong enough to manifest a misleading outcome. And I managed to do this with a $5 budget. I\u2019m not proud of giving my friend fake cocaine, but it taught me a valuable lesson about the power of suggestion.<\/p>\n What I\u2019m getting at is there\u2019s waaaaaaay too much emphasis on eating gluten free when the conversation needs to be about eating whole, unprocessed foods<\/a> – regardless of what gluten camp you’re in.<\/p>\n When we focus our attention on unprocessed foods, especially unprocessed plant foods, gluten isn\u2019t all that prevalent, so it becomes a non-issue. Veggies, fruits, legumes, gluten-free whole grains, nuts and seeds are naturally gluten free.<\/p>\n In fact, the majority of the plant-based recipes I create<\/a> and most of the food that I eat is gluten free (Except of course when I cheat on plants and shove a piece of chocolate cake directly into my cake hole. Which I highly recommend doing from time to time)<\/p>\n I don\u2019t create gluten free recipes and eat gluten free food because I have a gluten free or bust<\/em> policy. I do this because the ingredients that I use most often just happen to be gluten free.<\/p>\n Let me ask you this. When someone stops eating gluten, what are a few of the first things to go?<\/p>\n Maybe that morning pastry for breakfast, the standard sandwich on white bread for lunch and the usual big plate of pasta for dinner?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing, anyone<\/em> would feel better when those foods are removed from the diet. This is because these foods are nothing but sugary, nutrient void refined carbohydrates that make us feel like shit.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not hard then to understand why the 30 % of people who stay away from gluten feel better. Anyone who swaps sugary pastries for fruit, white bread for salad greens, and refined white pasta for cucumber pasta<\/a> will feel exponentially better, whether they\u2019re sensitive to gluten or not. Maybe, just maybe<\/em>, it\u2019s more about the vessel in which the gluten is enclosed and less about the gluten itself.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you don\u2019t hear from me next week, it\u2019s because the gluten free police have me locked up somewhere and are forcing me to read Wheat Belly and Grain Brain until I can recite them both.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s recipe is naturally gluten free and will very likely become your new go to salad.<\/p>\n It’s exactly like having a crush – you will keep thinking about it long after your first encounter.<\/p>\n
\nbetter without it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nHere’s what I’m suggesting. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/files.cleanfooddirtygirl.com\/20180308045540\/toasted_coconut_kale_salad_coconut_7_1-e1611783024160.jpg\")
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