Originally Posted by Fat Boy

Maybe avoiding gluten is a knee-jerk approach at eating by me. I honestly have not noticed any big difference since I stopped eating gluten. I don't know that I have any rock-solid reasons for thinking it could be bad for me. I do have some circumstantial things that have lead me to this thought process, though. My mother and my 2 sisters all have autoimmune conditions. One of them has had pancreas issues and 2 have rheumatoid arthritis. Gluten does create an autoimmune response in many people, although you're completely right when you say the science is not settled. Is it related to their conditions? I don't know. I can say that autoimmunity is something that is prevalent in my family, though, so it doesn't seem a large stretch to avoid things that tend to create an autoimmune response. That's my logic, shoot if full of holes if you want.

My basic dietary approach is to eat food that have as little processing as possible and is as close to 'natural' as possible. I don't go out of my way to eat a raw diet. I cook. This does mean that I tend to avoid pre-packaged foods, though. I also get grass-fed meat/butter and eggs from the farmer's market. I eat a lot of produce vegetables, but I get my fair share of meat as well. I try to eat more protein than most people do. If this means more meat, I'm OK with that as long as the meat is good quality. I eat a lot of fish.

Corn tortillas are something I don't want me or my tacos to be without, so I eat them. I make bread with a combination of almond and buckwheat flour and I eat that. I have various types of dairy. All of these are processed foods to one extent or another. They don't seem to cause me an issue, so I don't really worry about it. If they did, I'd reconsider.