Jesus feeds the fad thousands

This comic strip went viral a number of years ago. But it’s still one of my favourites! It hits on so many areas of fad diets and food beliefs over time especially. If Jesus was feeding the 5000 today, he may encounter some of these questions from the crowd. Wheat and gluten has been demonized for a while now. It should only be completely avoided by those who are officially diagnosed with Celiac. There are some individuals with gluten intolerance, but probably not to the numbers as people may assume themselves to be. A lot of times when someone goes gluten free and feel their gut function improves, it could very well be something else that they’re avoiding which is FODMAPS. Nutrition science is very complex, and there are probably more things we don’t understand than what we know currently. Believing that gluten-free diets are healthy is overly simplistic, and may not actually be improving one’s health.

Going vegan these days seem to be very cool. Again painting animal protein as bad against plant protein as good can be problematic. Nutritionally speaking, animal protein is a complete protein with vital nutrients like iron and B12. Both of which could be deficient in a vegan diet. Nothing is black and white. Balance is key, and jumping into a vegan diet without a deeper understanding can also be dangerous, especially if someone doesn’t normally eat a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, and plant proteins. Adding in plant proteins in to your current diet is probably a better practice. It takes time to build on healthy habits. Be kind to yourself, and stay far away from fad diet trends!