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Miley Cyrus on gluten-free diet
– Reported, January 29, 2013
Miley Cyrus took to Twitter yesterday to refute claims that she’s suffering from an eating disorder. Instead, she says, her weight loss is due to a shift toward gluten-free and lactose-free eating for health reasons.
“For everyone calling me anorexic I have a gluten and lactose allergy,” she wrote. “It’s not about weight it’s about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway!”
While her fans are most certainly aware that Cyrus is not a medical professional, it’s valuable to fact-check her statement anyway. First of all, it is impossible to be allergic to gluten. Those who have difficulty digesting gluten have either a condition called celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. About 1 percent of the population suffers from celiac and about 10 percent have a less specific sensitivity, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Celiac sufferers have an immune response to gliadin, a gluten protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Symptoms range from chronic fatigue, diarrhea, bloating and headaches to “failure to thrive” in young children. Weight gain is not as common clinical symptom of gluten sensitivity as weight loss is.
Celiac disease is diagnosed through a tissue biopsy, but non-celiac gluten sensitivity is both diagnosed through an elimination diet after patients report likely symptoms to their doctors. Gluten is gradually removed from a person’s diet and doctors monitor patients’ self-reported symptoms to see if they subside. But according to a recent editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine, some clinicians are worried that the elimination diet is not an effective way to diagnose the condition. They argue that a “nocebo” effect causes patients to feel alleviation of symptoms because of the popularity of gluten-free eating and celebrity endorsements from people like Cyrus. Instead, they urge double-blind testing in which patients try two different diets, without knowing which is gluten-free and which contains gluten.
The power of suggestion is particularly strong when so many celebrities swear by gluten-free eating. And while Cyrus may suffer from celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, her svelte physique is most likely the result of regular exercise and careful eating. Note that the first photos of her changing figure were captured as she left the gym. And if the new gluten-free diet is responsible for some weight change, it may be because Cyrus can no longer indulge in favorite junk foods. Another Tweet shows the actress and singer inhaling deeply into a bag of fast food, and she wrote, “I can’t eat it. So I’m just gonna smell the shittttt out of it! My mouth is LITERALLY watering.”
She wouldn’t be the first gluten-free eater to speak wistfully about favorite, but forbidden foods.
That we are talking about Cyrus’ body at all — and that she felt the need to appease us with a medical justification for her weight loss on Twitter — is an unfortunate consequence of the way we talk about celebrities and celebrated women in particular. This was most eloquently stated by the actress Ashley Judd, who recently wrote about speculation related to her own appearance (most centrally, slight puffiness in her face) on The Daily Beast:
The Conversation about womens bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted.
Cyrus’ body and what she puts into it are her business. But her medical statements are another matter.
A study published this week in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine has confirmed what most people already know: fad diets don’t work. Losing weight is a tedious process, and it requires major dietary changes and regular exercise. There are a variety of ways to interpret that advice, as the number of dieting options is almost limitless, and some aren’t worth your time.
So, in the spirit of promoting science and ridiculing peddlers of nutritional silliness, here are the 4 worst fad diets to avoid if you want to get healthy and lose weight.
Eat Organic – Advocates of organic eating have made a habit of telling consumers that they are slowly killing themselves by eating conventionally produced food, but they are also fond of the idea that organic food encourages weight loss. The “hazardous toxins” found in conventional food that cause cancer and other assorted maladies also supposedly promote fat storage. The problem, however, is that there is no reason to think organic food is any healthier than conventional food. Indeed, this has been demonstrated many times in the last 50 years, and the reason is that “organic food” is a misnomer. All food is organic; what differs is the method used to grow food. And whether the contents of a salad were sprayed with natural or synthetic pesticides, eating a salad is definitely a healthier choice than eating a snickers bar. Weight loss comes down to the nutritional content of the food people eat, not how it was grown.
Vegetarianism – Vegetarian diets are thought to promote weight loss because they are low in fat and calories, the two nutritional bogeymen most demonized today. If people avoid fat and limit their caloric intake, the thinking goes, they can stay in shape and avoid medical conditions like heart disease. The “meat causes heart disease” hypothesis has been tackled on PolicyMic previously, but there’s another problem with vegetarianism. Because animal products contain a number of important nutrients, removing them from the diet can be dangerous. Furthermore, any weight loss achieved on a vegetarian diet is probably due to the fact that vegetarians rarely or never consume the sugar-laden foods (Twinkies, soda, etc.) that are most responsible for weight gain. There is nothing magical about tofu or carrots as far as weight loss is concerned.
Gluten-Free Diets – Thanks to pop star Miley Cyrus, the health and nutrition world is buzzing about a gluten-free diet as a means to lose weight. Cyrus tweeted this week that she slimmed down by switching to a gluten-free diet, and called the protein “crapppp.” Gluten is found in grains like wheat, barley, and rye; and it gives baked goods the chewy texture that most consumers find desirable. Diets excluding gluten are recommended for people with celiac disease, but there is little reason to think that avoiding gluten by itself will encourage weight loss. Any diet too high in grains raises blood sugar, which encourages fat storage. People on gluten-free diets can consume a variety of grains and starches (rice or potatoes, for example) that raise blood sugar. Eating too much of these foods is a good way to gain weight, no matter how little gluten a person consumes.
“Eat less, move more” – Promoted by everybody from the soda industry to the federal government, call this the fad diet that won’t die. The eat less, move more diet stresses that weight is simply a matter of energy imbalance. Consuming too many calories causes weight gain, so the solution is to eat fewer and burn more. This advice has been gospel for decades despite the contrary evidence that has piled up during that same period. Of course, overeating isn’t a good idea, but the question has to be asked: why do people overeat in the first place? The likely reason is that the human body doesn’t treat all calories the same, and eating too many unhealthy calories will make people fat and keep them that way.
She follows a gluten free diet, loved by stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow.And the bread, pasta and pizza-free way of life seems to be paying off for Miley Cyrus.The 20-year-old star was not shy about leaving her flat stomach on display during her recently trip to Costa Rica.She wore a colourful tube top which drew attention to her cleavage and belly, sharing an impressive picture online at the weekend.
She tweeted on Thursday evening: Tooooo. Muuuuch. Pizzzzzza. back on the health train tomorrow. #cheatnight. You cant always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.I now remember why I never eat pizza. It makes me feel like s**t. #glutenized
Let me clarify “s**t” wasn’t meaning “fat” I mean sick. Because gluten is poisoning me. Your stomach has a brain too & it hates S**T food. Ate to much pizza and French fries. Yoga and a swim in the a.m.Miley covered up in a hooded top and leggings as she took her dogs for a stroll on Monday.
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