by Melissa Diane Smith

Good news for those of us who eat against the grain of the Standard American Diet: Trends we saw last year – locally sourced meat and seafood, locally grown produce, sustainable foods, healthful kids’ meals, and gluten-free cuisine – continue to be on the top ten list of restaurant trends for 2012. According to the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot in 2012” survey of more than 1,800 professional chefs, the top ten menu trends this year include:

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by Melissa Diane Smith

The gluten-free diet is one of the most talked-about and followed diets these days for good reason: It’s the nutritional answer for the growing number of people who learn they are gluten intolerant. However, few people realize it, but eating gluten free can harm health in other ways when we focus only on “gluten-free” and end up eating a gluten-free version of the Standard American Diet that leads to ill health. Many people are doing that, unknowingly making mistakes with their diet that lead to weight gain, elevated blood sugar, heart disease risk factors, new allergies, immune system problems, and more.

I will address these issues and the little-covered topic, “It’s Gluten Free but Is It Healthy?” at the Southern Arizona Celiac Support (SACS) general meeting on Saturday, January 14, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. In my presentation, I’ll explain the most common mistakes people make with the gluten-free diet that lead to health problems and cover key food concepts that promote better health. My presentation will take place at Pima Community College, 4905 E. Broadway Blvd., and will be immediately followed by book signings of Going Against the Grain and my follow-up book Gluten Free Throughout the Year.

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Reprinted from the “Just the Facts” Q&A with me in the January 2012 issue of Better Nutrition magazine.

We’re a few years into the “gluten-free” diet revolution in this country, yet many people still don’t understand the basics about celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, and the ins and outs of going gluten free. To give us the answers, we posed commonly asked gluten-related questions to Melissa Diane Smith, our Go Gluten Free columnist – a leading nutritionist and author of Going Against the Grain and Gluten Free Throughout the Year – who has been counseling people on the gluten-free diet for more than ten years.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Consumer demand has led to the growth of gluten-free personal care products.

If you’re gluten intolerant, you’re well aware of the need to avoid ingesting this problematic protein. But what about topical applications? Nearly all doctors, researchers and organizations in the celiac community will tell you that external application of a product that contains gluten is completely harmless because gluten is not absorbed through the skin. But many everyday people are rejecting that information and seeking out gluten-free products for their face, skin and hair.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

How to avoid genetically modified organisms when you also avoid gluten.

When Marcia Popp, a 50-year-old graphic artist, began a nutrition coaching program with me last year, she had numerous health problems, including multiple food and environmental allergies. She also had been diagnosed in 1990 with a systemic immune condition known as eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), which she developed after taking tryptophan supplements that were later found to be tainted.

Marcia had already cut gluten out of her diet nine years earlier, so I advised some different dietary changes to cater to her other food intolerances. I knew that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were implicated in allergies – and that the tryptophan that was linked to EMS had been produced using genetically modified bacteria – so I also recommended that she avoid the eight major genetically modified (GM) foods to see if it made a difference in her condition.

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I am happy to announce that Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival, which has a special Health and Wellness focus this year, has selected me to speak on two different but related topics. My first presentation will be about “Going Against the Grain to Combat Obesity and Diabetes” on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, at 3 p.m. The second one, “It’s Gluten Free, but Is It Healthy?” will be the next day, on Sunday, October 16, 2011, at 3 p.m. Both presentations will take place in the lower level of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library at 101 N. Stone Ave. in downtown Tucson and will be followed by book signings of both my books, Going Against the Grain and Gluten Free Throughout the Year, at the Southern Arizona Celiac Support (SACS) booth in the Jacome Plaza that is virtually next door to the library.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) – On August 2, the same day the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reopened a public comment period on “gluten-free” labeling, ABC ran a segment on its Nightline program on the gluten-free diet. With the title “Gluten-Free Nation,” you would think the piece would cover the real reasons why the gluten-free diet has become such a phenomenon: that many people, not just those with celiac disease, are gluten intolerant and that removing gluten from their diet relieves symptoms and ailments far better than any type of medical treatment. That’s because many people’s conditions are, in fact, diet-induced from eating gluten that makes them sick.

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