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There was once a foolishly naïve girl, Cassie, living on the Pacific coast. Each day, she would wake up, work out, grab brunch, get a massage, get dressed, go out, pass out and sleep, all to do the same thing over again the next day.
As Wednesday afternoon arrived, or hump day as she would call it, Cassie, waited in the lobby of Massage Envy for her daily massage appointment. While taking the last crucial sips of her pumpkin spice latte, Cassie's name was called. Her ears perked at the sound of her name and she eagerly jumped up to follow her usual massage therapist, Jolean.
Cassie went through the typical motions of getting a message: took off her clothes, got under the blanket face down and waited for Jolean to re-enter the room. Finally, the warmed oil met her skin and was massaged throughout her body sending her into a conscious slumber. Still half awake, her muscles slowly relaxed one by one, feeling as if she had flipped to her side hours ago. Nonetheless, she offered little protest as it was proving to be the best massage she had ever received.
Just when the scent of lavender was about to cushion her slip into unconsciousness, Jolean softly jolted her awake. Once dressed, Cassie offered her gratitude and went on her way to check out. As she approached the lobby desk she noticed the woman behind the counter was wearing a T-shirt that read "Gluten is Evil."
Cassie, confused by the general broadness of what gluten is, questioned the woman running her card. "Excuse me," Cassie said, "but your shirt, why and how is gluten even evil? Isn't it in a majority of what we eat?"
As Cassie continued to avoid eye contact to scroll through her Instagram, the woman behind the counter explained that "going gluten-free is now the best diet to follow for it promises to reduce bloating and ultimately cut weight down, just by avoiding glutenous foods." As she pondered why this one restriction promises large advantages, Cassie froze. She was embarrassed about knowing so little about the hottest trends, so she left Massage Envy to spread the word in order to seem like she was on the diet trend's cutting edge.
Cassie inserted the idea of going gluten-free into all of her social circles. Shortly after, Cassie's friends, family, Instagram followers, were all ditching gluten. Cassie continued to tell anyone who was unaware of gluten's evils reasons to ditch the substance in order to sound knowledgeable about the trend. Soon, the truth about gluten began to blur for so many people were spreading falsities.
Each new follower of the gluten-free trend began to lose their childish humor and take themselves too seriously for diet trends consumed much of their free thought. That was until Cassie's little sister, Stacie, became fed up with the new restrictions that her sister imposed on her family.
"So, why exactly can I not have pasta? I haven't noticed much difference in my appearance, which is what you promised me for not eating gluten, Cassie."
Shocked by her sister's utter lack of respect for trend dieting, Cassie quickly responded, " Because, Stacie, eating gluten is bad for us and not eating it will make us skinny. I read it on a T-shirt."
"A T-shirt?!" exclaimed Stacie. "So you're telling me that I haven't been eating bread, oatmeal, pasta AND PIZZA because you read it on a T-shirt. Have you even researched this stuff, Cassie? Or have you been spreading false facts to seem "trendy"?"
"Well... I asked the woman wearing the T-shirt a question. She said not eating gluten will reduce bloating, which will make us skinnier," explained Cassie.
"Okay, but why, Cassie? Why will it reduce bloating? I'm sorry, it just seems too good to be true, because why wouldn't everyone be doing it?" asked an impatient Stacie.
Unamused by the answers she was getting, Stacie decided to do her own research. She found that, yes, cutting out gluten is a healthy lifestyle choice, but it did not guarantee weight loss and it is most beneficial to those with an allergy to gluten.
So, fed up with these dietary trends, Stacie decided to call it quits to enjoy all that she wanted, within reason, and lived happily ever after, unlike her sister Cassie.
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Author's Note:
My story is based on one of the Jataka Tales, The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. I took the original idea of the story which was to act on or listen to a rumor without having proper knowledge. At first, I was going to use the general idea of having a friend spread a rumor, but then I wanted to think of a rumor that was spread throughout society. For this purpose, I chose to use a dietary trend that celebrity-type people promise will result in great weight loss. This goes far beyond going gluten-free. There are many diets proposed to people that often ask you to cut something out. However, after much research of my own, I have found that the best diet to follow is intuitive senses. Intuitive eating is the most beneficial to your specific body. Following a lot of these proposed diets is often difficult as far as results go due to everyone's body being so different.
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