Gwyneth Paltrow is no stranger to fad diets and she’s now revealed her kids aren’t either. The actress has admitted to making her two children follow a strict gluten-free diet, as well as restricting other food groups, prompting criticism from dietitians who say her actions are unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
Based on the advice from “every single nutritionist, doctor and health-conscious person I have ever come across”, the 40-year-old actress has signed her entire family up to a gluten-free diet, including kids Apple, eight, and Moses, six.
A recent health scare — ‘I thought I was having a stroke’, she writes — prompted Paltrow to seek medical advice and undergo food allergy testing for herself and her whole family.
Gwyneth says she was found to be anaemic and vitamin D deficient, which caused her to overhaul her diet, and her family’s, cutting out coffee, eggs, sugar, shellfish, potatoes, wheat and white meat.
“Every single nutritionist, doctor and health-conscious person I have ever come across … seems to concur that gluten is tough on the system and many of us are at best intolerant of it and at worst allergic to it,” she writes in her latest healthy eating cookbook It’s All Good.
Gwyneth says her children are allergic to some surprising foods, and tells of how the new eating regime leaves her family hungry.
“Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.”
Gluten-free eating is a common trend among health conscious eaters and followers of dietary trends, despite nutritionists and dieticians warning of the dangers cutting out food groups and imposing such eating habits on children unnecessarily.
A recent US survey found that 30 percent of adults said they wanted to be gluten free
Nutritionist Karen Inge told The Weekly that gluten intolerance is overstated by celebrities, and most people should have gluten and grains in their diet.
“Gluten-free eating is becoming more mainstream, and it’s almost becoming a fad,” she says.
“A lot of people believe that gluten free means healthy and that’s not true for everyone.”
While coeliac disease and gluten intolerance are serious issues for a lot of people, Inge stresses the importance of diagnosis, saying that for people who don’t have an intolerance, prescribing to a gluten-free diet can be dangerous.
“You will be eliminating very important food groups, namely grains, from your diet,” she says.
Inge was also unsurprised that Paltrow mentioned her children were left hungry.
“Carb-rich foods are the best source of energy for the muscle or brain, and if you’re avoiding those foods you’re going to be lacking energy,” she says.
“Besides that, look at the social implications. Restricting kids unnecessarily in what they eat can mean they’re not going to be able to go for pizza with friends unless it’s a gluten free pizza.
“We see that it’s difficult for children with nut allergies and for kids with genuinely necessary restrictions, so why put your child through that if it’s unnecessary.”
