My daughter “has” it. I suspect it’s genetic, and inherited through her father (naturally!). His sister had severe gastric problems, and suffered with them for some 20 years or so. She had reached the point where they suspected that perhaps she had some form of intestinal cancer, but couldn’t find it. She finally went to an internist who said “let’s forget everything that’s been done before, and just start out with the symptoms”. He told her it _could_ be food allergies, and she went on an all rice diet, rice apparently being the most innocuous food on the planet. She gradually added foods back, and when they got to gluten containing foods, bingo – the symptoms returned. Diagnosis: gluten intolerance – also known as coeliac disease.
My daughter started having problems with constant minor illnesses. When she came up with a problem in her eye, her doctor sent her to an arthritis specialist. “In her eye?” you say? Yes, because the problem in her eye was possibly caused by an inflammation in her gut, which was caused by an auto-immune condition. Apparently, if the eye problem occurred again, it could result in blindness. Pretty scary. I started doing what online research I could, and did my own diagnosis from what she had told me. Finally, at our New Year’s gathering, I got her Aunt and her together, and told Aunt “I know you don’t want to talk about your specific symptoms, but you need to – this time. Please”. So they talked, compared notes, and daughter agreed to go one week gluten free. She did. And then, after about a week, we brought home some pizza, she figured “what the heck – just a little bit” – and within 5 minutes, was doubled over in pain. Diagnosis confirmed. The physical changes were apparent, though not major. For her, it made a difference – no digestive problems (although she found out that people don’t know what gluten is, and many restaurant foods contain MSG – which is monosodium _glut_ amate! a no-no) and I saw a change in her appearance that indicated she had been bloated. She also had some mental changes – which is what started me on this long and maybe boring comment. She became much less emotional, and more stable. When I think back on her childhood (she was about 28 when she discovered the source of the problem), I think it probably affected her emotional response to _everything_! but we just assumed it was because she was a she and I was used to “hes”.

So I sympathize with your friend, if indeed her child has coeliac’s disease, and it _does_ affect behavior, imo, at least to some extent. But it _doesn’t_ account for all bratty behavior. What’s more, if she was so convinced, she could have just eliminated the gluten from her child’s diet herself, without all the specialists. We spend a lot of time reading labels in stores, when she’d coming over for dinner. And you’re probably right – your friend is probably a candidate for Munchkins diagnosis…! (I think that’s what it is – when someone gets attention for themselves through the illness of another who’s close to them)

“If God did not want us to eat animals, He wouldn’t have made them out of meat.”

Several years ago we had a couple of such “dietary busybodies” in our office. Usually I and others just nodded politely and then ate whatever we wanted.

One day, my one co-worker had enough. To the vegan girl’s umpteenth lecture about the benefits of a vegan diet, my co-worker said “Animals, I kill them , I eat them, I wear them!”

The dietary busybodies never bothered any of us again.

That’s an interesting claim given that their dietary habits are even more restrictive than Jewish Kosher or Islamic Hallal.

If “secular” Democrats have progressed “beyond” religion, it is only by becoming even more fanatic in their pursuit of religious dogma.

fascists are obsessed with diets as a means of creating the perfect citizen for the perfect state.

Somewhat related personal anecdote: I had a very liberal friend with children the same age as mine. We went out to eat with her family exactly once – she was the type of mom who thinks it’s cute when her 2 year old wanders the restaurant and steals other people’s dinner rolls or french fries. Fast forward to elementary school, when she can’t understand her child’s discipline problems. She took her daughter to eighteen gastroenterologists before she found one who would agree her child might possibly have some signs of Celiac disease. Rather than deal with behavior, she fanatically monitored every morsel the girl ate and blamed all tantrums and other outbursts on gluten. They’ve moved and we lost touch (I didn’t try very hard). I’m sort of glad I’m missing her daughter’s teen years.

(Jesus—a far wiser being than any liberal who ever lived—once said that it is what come’s out of a man’s mouth, not what goes in, that tells you what you need to know about him.)

This preoccupation with food is part of a larger preoccupation with defeating death, thus the endless clamoring for more ritual purity in the form of light carbon footprints, no use of radiation (however benign), utterly clean air, “free” (but expensive) health care, and all the other ritualistic components of a holy secular life.

(I love the look in a liberal’s eyes when she’s busy complaining about how polluted the earth is and I point out how funny it is that on a planet as corrupted and damaged as this she can expect to live to be 85.)

But that’s not enough. Along with the desire for total control over the rest of us is that desire to control death itself. I have no doubt that Obama has taken only the first steps along the road to immortality: the industrialized harvesting of embroyonic stem cells; government subsidization of “savior siblings” conceived with the express purpose of surrendering one of their organs to a diseased brother or sister; the slippery sloping of the definition of brain death to allow doctors to harvest ever more and fresher organs from people who are still very much alive.

Which immediately makes those who pay attention harken back to Obama’s attempt to relate to the common man with his supermarket comment… “Have you seen the price of aragula lately?” HOWL!

Please, somebody, get that man a teleprompter for his every utterance! Oh, I forgot… they’re already on it!

“I’d like to express my deep concern… my DEEPEST CONCERN… for the violence over the last few days in Iran.”

“Mr. President! Do you even know who is committing the violence?”

“Er… does that matter? I just want you to know that I have my DEEP CONCERN.”

“It’s the Basij militia, Mr. President, which is controlled by Khamenei and Achmadinejad. They’re beating and shooting the peaceful protestors, invading dormitories and beating students, smashing cars and windows of ordinary citizens. It’s not clear which of them are 13-14 year old Iranian thug teenagers and which are from Hezbollah, imported from Lebanon and don’t even speak any language spoken by Iranians. Did you know about a million and a half Iranians engaged in a near-silent walking protest for miles in Tehran? Do you support those who love freedom and liberty? Against the dictators of Iran?”

“I don’t want to meddle by saying anything. Anything at all. I’m afraid! Even though Angela Merkl and Nick Sarkozy of Germany and France have spoken up in support of freedom and liberty, and nothing untoward happened… I won’t.”

“But you spoke out strongly against Netanyahu of Israel. Is he a vicious, murderous dictator?”

“Gentlemen, this press conference is OVER.”