Lawsuit Breaks Out Over Books
When GFNYC last checked in on Elisabeth Hasselbeck's recently published book The G-Free Diet, it was topping sales charts. Now the book's in the news for another reason: Sue Hassett, author of a book called Living with Celiac Disease, is suing Hasselbeck for copyright infringement and plagiarism, according to TMZ.com.
I'm still making my way through The G-Free Diet, and I haven't read or even obtained Living with Celiac Disease (which Hassett claims was copyrighted in 2008), so perhaps I'm not in a position to offer much insight at the moment. And you know what? I think a lot of the media isn't either. It seems that, at the moment, reporters are basically making hay that anti-Hasselbeck allegations have been made in this letter, even though the allegations as stated don't strike me as very persuasive.
Many of the allegations simply seem to note that both books invoke vaguely similar phraseology without recognizing that the phraseology is common (or at least not surprising) in writings about celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformus (DH). For example, both books use the phrase "Rome wasn't built in a day." But so does this 2005 message board thread about dealing with DH: "The DH will eventually clear up (especially with the assistance of Dapsone), but it takes time -- his body will take a while to clear up the 'histamine' reaction it has had for the past several years -- Rome wasn't built in a day."
Both books warn about possible cross-contamination from meat slicers. So does a 2005 message board thread: "I would say the thing for you to watch is contamination from the meat slicer in the deli. Even if the meat was gluten-free, you wouldn't be able to account for what was on the slicer, unless they totally cleaned it for you...[.]"
Both books offer lists of symptoms. Why shouldn't they?
Get the picture? Both books almost inevitably seem to repackage advice that was already "in the air" before their dates of publication.
Another example: The letter notes that Hassett's book observes that "Wheat-free is not necessarily gluten-free" while Hasselbeck's book observes "'Wheat-free' does not mean the same thing as 'gluten-free.'" But this truism precedes both books by many years: Jax Peters Lowell's 1995 book Against the Grain advises "wheat-free and all natural do not necessarily mean gluten-free." I am pretty sure that this citation is not the earliest that could be found. At any rate, it's another case of both books parroting typical and sensible information.
But the parroted information isn't always sensible: The Hassett letter also draws attention to the books' similar but unfounded warnings about anti-clumping agents in spices. According to the Hassett letter, her book says that "Some spices have a starch put in so it does not stick together you must find out where the starch is derived. Is the starch from a corn or wheat?" [sic], while Hasselbeck's book (misquoted in the letter) says "Spices: Beware the anticlumping agents added to many commercial herbs and seasonings (including those used at restaurants)—they almost always contain gluten." The problem with this can be found courtesy of the reliable resource Gluten-Free Living.
In comments expressing concern about Hasselbeck's book, Gluten-Free Living's Amy Ratner dismisses the spice advice by rhetorically questioning, "Is it a big deal to incorrectly tell someone struggling to figure out the gluten-free diet for the first time that the declumping agents in spices almost always contain wheat...?" Of course, Hassett and Hasselbeck's "declumping agent" warning (succinctly addressed here) also predates both books, as evidenced by this listserv summary post from 2000, which includes the advice that "one must be careful with spices and seasonings because often wheat-flour and other grains are used in them as fillers, to prevent clumping or as a flow agent, and aren't listed on the ingredients." So this instance strikes me as both books parroting typical misguided information.
Considering the weakness of the Hassett allegations, it's a shame that it has taken the mere launching of this lawsuit to return media attention to Hasselbeck and The G-Free Diet. For the moment at least, a far more important and sober (but less sensational) question would have to do with how reliable the information is in both books, how any errors and inconsistencies might have gotten into them, and how much either author might do to address and correct those problems. These are health-related books, after all!
An even more important question for the media to explore (completely in line with the current interest in health care reform) would be how to correctly diagnose the millions of people who unknowingly have celiac disease. But at present, much of the mainstream media merely seems to be sniffing around for the scent of celebrity scandal while giving relatively short shrift to a persistent and serious health concern that's virtually crying out to be addressed in such a way that positive and significant change will follow.
Thanks to Gawker for the lead.
UPDATE On today's The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck made a brief statement that the allegations were without merit and that they were being handled appropriately.
Showing posts with label Jax Peters Lowell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jax Peters Lowell. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A DECADE ON THE DIET
Ten years ago, I was stuffing my mouth with a piece of cake that my mom had baked for me when I got a phone call from my internist.
What he told me changed my life. He informed me that I had been confirmed as positive for having celiac disease. He advised me that, to be healthier, I would have to adopt a gluten-free diet, giving up eating anything made with wheat, barley, rye, or oats.
So much for the cake.
The following months—and years—proved to be a time of adjustment and recovery after ten years of wondering why I was feeling so sick and so very, very tired. I taught myself how to be gluten-free using the resources I could find back then: Jax Peters Lowell’s book Against the Grain, materials from the Celiac Sprue Association (CSA), and visits to support group meetings in New York City as well as Westchester. I also subscribed to the international celiac disease mailing list and did research on what was then called "the information superhighway," where there was much less information than there is now.
Much of the information was consistent, but there were inconsistencies, too. Was vinegar gluten-free? How about buckwheat and millet? What about distilled liquor, like gin and vodka? I figured I would sort through those questions over time. (The answers turned out to be mostly yes, yes and yes, and yes.)
In the meantime, I followed the policy of When in doubt, don’t. I started off on a very limited diet and added foods as I confirmed that that were gluten-free, phoning and emailing companies to get that information for myself. I also did my best to contact restaurants and caterers in advance of a visit so I could heighten my chances of being served safe foods.
So how have I done over the past ten years? All right, I suppose.
I was probably best at avoiding any intentional departures from the diet. I used various strategies to pull that off: I remembered how bad I felt before I went gluten-free, I told myself I would feel better by remaining gluten-free, and I kept myself from getting so hungry (and far away from gluten-free food) that I'd make a bad choice out of desperation. Basically, I accepted the limits of my medical diet and remained open to discovering new and delicious foods within those limits.
Still, I have to admit that I've accidentally gone off the diet. Most of the time that involved tiny amounts of gluten. When I was pretty new to the diet, I had a spoonful or two of a soup before I realized barley was in it and I put it aside. On a later occasion, I had one bite of a fish before questioning a restaurant yet again and finally finding out that, yes, there was some flour in it.
In another case, I was probably eating miniscule amounts of gluten on a regular basis. When I ate sushi, I had no idea that the tiny flying fish roe called tobiko was made with soy sauce until I read about it on the mailing list and confirmed it myself. After that, there was no more tobiko in my life.
Then there were the mashed potatoes at an organic restaurant downtown. Someone at New York magazine had emphasized how accomodating the place was for special diets (writing something like "Gluten-free? No problem!") so I went there optimistically only to find that the restaurateurs actually had no idea what the diet required. But they seemed receptive, so I wrote up a detailed gluten-free food preparation guide that I think they laminated and posted in the kitchen. (This was long before the establishment of GFRAP, the Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program.) I enjoyed eating there on a number of occasions—learning that quinoa goes well with chili—but then visited with some gluten-free friends, one of whom quickly found out that the mashed potatoes were being made with a rice milk or soy milk with some barley enzyme in it. That wasn't supposed to happen at that restaurant, where I had started to take gluten-free awareness for granted! Eventually the place shut down, removing the option anyway.
Probably the most gluten I ate was somewhere in a cross-contaminated loaf of millet bread from Florida's DeLand bakery. Lots of people had said it was delicious but, holding true to the doubt dictum, I avoided the bread for years because of allegations that it contained gluten. However, eventually I felt healed enough to give it a try—two weeks before a doctor appointment when I would get my blood tested. I don't think I can always tell when I've eaten gluten, but after two weeks of this bread I did experience fatigue, grouchiness, and loose bowel movements. Then my blood test turned out to be positive for the first and only time since it had normalized during my first year on the diet. Later I heard that Disney (or somebody) had DeLand bread tested for gluten and found it to be contaminated. The bakery subsequently changed the marketing of its products so that fewer gluten-free people would be deceived, but that only happened after years and years of bad practices (and ill and confused consumers). Bad, bad DeLand!
Other than that, two other instances come to mind. Years ago a girlfriend and I made a detour on the way home from a vacation so we could try out a GFRAP restaurant where I ordered cake for dessert. I couldn't believe how "normal" the cake was, so I repeatedly asked whether it was really gluten-free, only to be assured that it was. Instead of eating all of it, I took it back home, ate some more, and finally checked with the restaurant one more time. I finally got through to the owner, who regretfully told me that I had been served the wrong dessert. (That restaurant is no longer on the GFRAP roster.)
Most recently, I went on a road trip to try out another GFRAP restaurant, Jules Thin Crust Pizza (JTCP), with two other gluten-free people. On our way back, two of us started to feel funny in the ol' abdominal zone. I followed up over the phone and found out that part of our order had not been gluten-free. As is my practice in this kind of situation, I suggested some ways the restaurant could avoid that kind of mishap and contacted GFRAP to let it know my feelings. I'm hopeful that Jules Thin Crust Pizza will do better in the future. Just remember to look for this stamp when you order gluten-free pizza there.
And I think that's about it for my dietary successes and screw-ups over the past ten years.
Of course, I didn't do it alone. Most or all of my experiences have been dependent on those around me, too—from acquaintances and loved ones to restaurant workers and caterers to people who create programs and do research and make policies that make it easier to identify and obtain gluten-free foods. I'm grateful to them all, and I'm also grateful to my internist and my current roster of specialists for helping me stay on my path to improved health.
Photo: David Marc Fischer
Ten years ago, I was stuffing my mouth with a piece of cake that my mom had baked for me when I got a phone call from my internist.
What he told me changed my life. He informed me that I had been confirmed as positive for having celiac disease. He advised me that, to be healthier, I would have to adopt a gluten-free diet, giving up eating anything made with wheat, barley, rye, or oats.
So much for the cake.
The following months—and years—proved to be a time of adjustment and recovery after ten years of wondering why I was feeling so sick and so very, very tired. I taught myself how to be gluten-free using the resources I could find back then: Jax Peters Lowell’s book Against the Grain, materials from the Celiac Sprue Association (CSA), and visits to support group meetings in New York City as well as Westchester. I also subscribed to the international celiac disease mailing list and did research on what was then called "the information superhighway," where there was much less information than there is now.
Much of the information was consistent, but there were inconsistencies, too. Was vinegar gluten-free? How about buckwheat and millet? What about distilled liquor, like gin and vodka? I figured I would sort through those questions over time. (The answers turned out to be mostly yes, yes and yes, and yes.)
In the meantime, I followed the policy of When in doubt, don’t. I started off on a very limited diet and added foods as I confirmed that that were gluten-free, phoning and emailing companies to get that information for myself. I also did my best to contact restaurants and caterers in advance of a visit so I could heighten my chances of being served safe foods.
So how have I done over the past ten years? All right, I suppose.
I was probably best at avoiding any intentional departures from the diet. I used various strategies to pull that off: I remembered how bad I felt before I went gluten-free, I told myself I would feel better by remaining gluten-free, and I kept myself from getting so hungry (and far away from gluten-free food) that I'd make a bad choice out of desperation. Basically, I accepted the limits of my medical diet and remained open to discovering new and delicious foods within those limits.
Still, I have to admit that I've accidentally gone off the diet. Most of the time that involved tiny amounts of gluten. When I was pretty new to the diet, I had a spoonful or two of a soup before I realized barley was in it and I put it aside. On a later occasion, I had one bite of a fish before questioning a restaurant yet again and finally finding out that, yes, there was some flour in it.
In another case, I was probably eating miniscule amounts of gluten on a regular basis. When I ate sushi, I had no idea that the tiny flying fish roe called tobiko was made with soy sauce until I read about it on the mailing list and confirmed it myself. After that, there was no more tobiko in my life.
Then there were the mashed potatoes at an organic restaurant downtown. Someone at New York magazine had emphasized how accomodating the place was for special diets (writing something like "Gluten-free? No problem!") so I went there optimistically only to find that the restaurateurs actually had no idea what the diet required. But they seemed receptive, so I wrote up a detailed gluten-free food preparation guide that I think they laminated and posted in the kitchen. (This was long before the establishment of GFRAP, the Gluten-Free Restaurant Awareness Program.) I enjoyed eating there on a number of occasions—learning that quinoa goes well with chili—but then visited with some gluten-free friends, one of whom quickly found out that the mashed potatoes were being made with a rice milk or soy milk with some barley enzyme in it. That wasn't supposed to happen at that restaurant, where I had started to take gluten-free awareness for granted! Eventually the place shut down, removing the option anyway.
Probably the most gluten I ate was somewhere in a cross-contaminated loaf of millet bread from Florida's DeLand bakery. Lots of people had said it was delicious but, holding true to the doubt dictum, I avoided the bread for years because of allegations that it contained gluten. However, eventually I felt healed enough to give it a try—two weeks before a doctor appointment when I would get my blood tested. I don't think I can always tell when I've eaten gluten, but after two weeks of this bread I did experience fatigue, grouchiness, and loose bowel movements. Then my blood test turned out to be positive for the first and only time since it had normalized during my first year on the diet. Later I heard that Disney (or somebody) had DeLand bread tested for gluten and found it to be contaminated. The bakery subsequently changed the marketing of its products so that fewer gluten-free people would be deceived, but that only happened after years and years of bad practices (and ill and confused consumers). Bad, bad DeLand!
Other than that, two other instances come to mind. Years ago a girlfriend and I made a detour on the way home from a vacation so we could try out a GFRAP restaurant where I ordered cake for dessert. I couldn't believe how "normal" the cake was, so I repeatedly asked whether it was really gluten-free, only to be assured that it was. Instead of eating all of it, I took it back home, ate some more, and finally checked with the restaurant one more time. I finally got through to the owner, who regretfully told me that I had been served the wrong dessert. (That restaurant is no longer on the GFRAP roster.)
Most recently, I went on a road trip to try out another GFRAP restaurant, Jules Thin Crust Pizza (JTCP), with two other gluten-free people. On our way back, two of us started to feel funny in the ol' abdominal zone. I followed up over the phone and found out that part of our order had not been gluten-free. As is my practice in this kind of situation, I suggested some ways the restaurant could avoid that kind of mishap and contacted GFRAP to let it know my feelings. I'm hopeful that Jules Thin Crust Pizza will do better in the future. Just remember to look for this stamp when you order gluten-free pizza there.
And I think that's about it for my dietary successes and screw-ups over the past ten years.
Of course, I didn't do it alone. Most or all of my experiences have been dependent on those around me, too—from acquaintances and loved ones to restaurant workers and caterers to people who create programs and do research and make policies that make it easier to identify and obtain gluten-free foods. I'm grateful to them all, and I'm also grateful to my internist and my current roster of specialists for helping me stay on my path to improved health.
Photo: David Marc Fischer
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