This week, I was lucky enough to collaborate with someone very experienced with the gluten & dairy-free lifestyle.

On the surface, Erica is a 20-year old rising senior at the University of Michigan. She's a health & fitness enthusiast, loves to cook and bake, and is studying to become a nurse practitioner post-grad. Aside from her passion for health, she is actively pursuing a career in the field, dedicating a great deal of her time to internships at some of the most highly-regarded health centers. She is currently spending her summer in NYC interning at the world-renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Although she sounds like a normal college student, Erica suffers from a chronic disease known as Crohn's [learn more]. She manages her symptoms with medication, but owes most of her success to her diet. In order to feel her best, she limits caffeine and alcohol, and lives a gluten and dairy free lifestyle.

If you're reading this, you've likely heard the words gluten and dairy-free, as the concept blew up in the diet world not long ago. The media was quick to hop on the bandwagon, labeling the two as evil, and claiming that GF & DF diets would result in rapid weight loss and overall better health.

So what's the real deal with gluten & dairy? With the help of Erica's medical background and experience with nutrition, let's set the records straight.

Final Takeaway: There is no hidden secret to weight-loss. From a science-perspective, weight-loss is simply having a larger energy output than input. In other words, weight loss occurs when the number of calories burned are greater than the number of calories consumed. At the end of the day, healthy eating is good for your body, but eliminating gluten & dairy products does NOT qualify as "healthy."