The perfect diet

Recently I was forced to witness an exchange of emails between a couple of ladies sharing ideas about gluten intolerance in their children. I say forced because it was sent out as a Yahoo Group message, so reading their e-mails felt like unintended eavesdropping.  And this is where I restrain myself against launching a rant about the gluten-free fad.

I do have to mention, however, that several months ago a friend was confiding in me about her weight loss struggle, and said that she was going to try going gluten-free. Because this is not a very close friend, all I felt comfortable doing was nodding and smiling. What I wish I could have said is this: "Gluten is wheat protein. Protein is good for you. Unless you are have a diagnosable condition in which your body cannot tolerate the substance, then gluten is good for you." That is only part of what I wish I could have said, actually. But it's the most innocuous portion, safe for public consumption among friends.

Back to the email exchange mentioned previously. I didn't really want to read those messages, but it's hard for me to ignore words that are in front of my face. In the final response, the mother who asked for advice thanked the other woman for sharing her advice, and then wrote (read carefully):


I am going to start looking into a glutton free diet. 

I read that and immediately thought, "Now that's the diet for ME!"

Forgive me for being insensitive to her child's health challenges, but I found this typo to be laugh-out-loud funny. And seriously, purging my diet of gluttony would do just the trick for improved health and body composition. I have actually saved the conversation in my email box since it was received over 3 months ago, supposedly to remind myself to write a blog post about it, but perhaps also to serve as a frequent reminder of the perfect diet.