I am having trouble optimizing Hibernate queries to avoid performing joins or secondary selects.

When a Hibernate query is performed (criteria or hql), such as the following:

return getSession().createQuery(("from GiftCard as card where card.recipientNotificationRequested=1").list();

... and the where clause examines properties that do not require any joins with other tables... but Hibernate still performs a full join with other tables (or secondary selects depending on how I set the fetchMode).

The object in question (GiftCard) has a couple ManyToOne associations that I would prefer to be lazily loaded in this case (but not necessarily all cases). I want a solution that I can control what is lazily loaded when I perform the query.

Here's what the GiftCard Entity looks like:

@Entity
@Table(name = "giftCards")
public class GiftCard implements Serializable
{
 private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

 private String id_;
 private User buyer_;
 private boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested_;


 @Id
 public String getId()
 {
  return this.id_;
 }

 public void setId(String id)
 {
  this.id_ = id;
 }

 @ManyToOne
 @JoinColumn(name = "buyerUserId")
 @NotFound(action = NotFoundAction.IGNORE)
 public User getBuyer()
 {
  return this.buyer_;
 }
 public void setBuyer(User buyer)
 {
  this.buyer_ = buyer;
 }

 @Column(name="isRecipientNotificationRequested", nullable=false, columnDefinition="tinyint")
 public boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested()
 {
  return this.isRecipientNotificationRequested_;
 }

 public void setRecipientNotificationRequested(boolean isRecipientNotificationRequested)
 {
  this.isRecipientNotificationRequested_ = isRecipientNotificationRequested;
 }
}