“There is no reason to avoid gluten if you don’t have celiac,’’ said Antinoro, “but plenty of my patients with the condition tell me they feel wonderful after switching off gluten.’’ There’s no evidence that gluten-free diets offer any health benefits to those who don’t have celiac.
People most likely feel better, Antinoro added, because they have improved the quality of their diet, cutting out starchy snacks while replacing them with fruits and vegetables. That could also explain why some successfully lose weight – that is, until they discover gluten-free brownies at the health-food store. DEBORAH KOTZ
Corncakes wrote: Antinoro said there is no reason to avoid gluten if you are not celiac. [But] many families with one celiac or gluten intolerant opt to become a gluten-free household, to avoid making the celiacs sick by accidental cross-contamination.
Narfrolyat wrote: Two seconds after you discover the gluten-free brownies, you discover the price sticker on the gluten-free brownies, and you go home and make them yourself for far cheaper.
Kayti wrote: Gluten is also detected in oats.
Deborah Kotz responds: Gluten has been detected in oats, but that’s because of cross-contamination; oats are often packaged in the same processing plant as wheat products. Antinoro told me that she tells her patients to buy only purified oat products.
Good genes, not lifestyle, may be key to getting to 100 As a health reporter, I wish I could ignore some studies – like the one published last week showing that diet, exercise, and other lifestyle choices do not make a bit of difference in getting people to the 100-year mark and beyond.
Study coauthor Dr. Nir Barzilai, who heads the Institute of Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told me centenarians simply won the genetic lottery, aging slower than the rest of us. “But this population is just 1 out of 10,000,“ he explained. “They’re not us, the poor people who don’t have genes to protect us from smoking, lack of exercise, and a poor diet.’’
The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, did find that men who made it to the century mark were somewhat less likely to have smoked, but women centenarians were just as likely to have smoked as their shorter-lived peers.
When it came to other lifestyle factors – exercise, diet, body weight, alcohol intake – the centenarians didn’t differ from shorter-lived peers. The centenarians were all Eastern European Jews, which may limit the applicability of the findings to others. D.K.
KnobEnd wrote: Outliving your spouse, possibly your children, and spending several decades kicking around without much to do except waiting to be overtaken by the same old-age diseases that eventually get us all doesn’t really sound “lucky’’ to me.
7continents wrote: I always told my Dad he cheated the Grim Reaper out of a good 40 years. He smoked Camel filterless cigarettes, drank, didn’t exercise, ate meat & potatoes (with gravy), eschewed vegetables & made it to 89. OK, not 100 but he sure enjoyed the time he had!
CDC: Hospitals fail to encourage breast-feeding Despite all the attention paid to the health benefits of breast-feeding, fewer than 4 percent of US maternity hospitals give new mothers the services they need to initiate and stick with the practice, according to a report issued last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Although there has been some improvement . . . we’re still a very long way away from where we want to be,’’ CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said at a press conference.
Most hospitals still send women home with freebie bags containing bottles and formula samples. And many fail to follow World Health Organization recommendations, which include allowing babies to room with mothers, providing staff for lactation support, and bringing babies to mothers to nurse soon after they’re born.
Massachusetts does better than the national average for its percentage of nursing mothers: In 2007, nearly 78 percent of new moms left the hospital intending to breast-feed, compared with the US average of 75 percent. By six months, half of the state’s mothers were still breast-feeding, compared with 43 percent nationally. D.K.
Cavery123 wrote: My daughter was born 8 months ago and . . . [at] the hospital she was born in they never “pushed’’ formula on me.
Nincyhh wrote: Often parents are not told, or do not believe, that casual use can have longer term impact. Unless formula is medically necessary, exclusive breast milk is the way to go.
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