The other day I found a detailed 10 page article titled, "Gluten-Free: Is It For Me?" on Oprah.com written by Daphne Oz.
"Who the heck is Daphne Oz?", was my first reaction.
Well, a little Google investigation led to photos of her with her famous dad Dr. Oz! Yes, the doctor that visits the Oprah show regularly and now has his own show.
In the article she relates her personal experience with gluten and it sounds like she has a "gluten sensitivity" and not full blown celiac disease. Celiac disease is never defined as an autoimmune disease, although it is explained as setting off an autoimmune reaction.
I wish she would have clarified earlier on in the article the importance of getting tested for celiac disease before trying a gluten-free diet. Who knows, though, maybe the editors didn't want to scare people and thought it better to put the "warning" and "caveat" snuggled within the article so as not to scare people by mentioning it too soon?
It was very interesting to see the actual figure of 15% attached to gluten sensitivity within the population. Does anyone know the source of this figure?
I also wish that the importance of not ever cheating had been mentioned. Those with celiac disease especially can't risk the heightened chance of developing additional auto-immune diseases, cancer, depression, etc. Is it really worth it to cheat on special occasions? Even those with only gluten sensitivity may want to re-think cheating after the recent study showing that they too have an increased risk of death compared to the general population. Along with that the study shows most patients now are asymptomatic, meaning without symptoms. Then again, I guess cheating is a personal choice each of us is entitled to make.
Even though there were a few things I wish she would have worded a little different, overall I think it's awesome that the gluten-free snowball is rolling closer and closer towards the Oprah Empire and I'd like to thank Daphne for helping out with celiac disease/gluten sensitivity awareness. Who knows? Maybe this will be a topic on Dr. Oz's new TV show someday. I hope so!
