Zizek famously pointed to caffeine-free diet coke as “nothing in the guise of something” — a drink that provides neither nutritional value nor good taste — nor quenches thirst, for that matter. And while coke may’ve gotten “it” first, drinking and eating nothingness seems to’ve become the new health craze.
Gone are the days when companies promoted its healthy ingredients — or new “scientific” additives. Today, “healthy” and “natural” foods seem to be defined primarily by lack: Not by what’s in the product, but by what’s not.
Where I saw this trend toward nothingness most clearly: At Natural Products Expo West — an annual event showcases “the newest and most innovative products in natural, organic and healthy living,” which attracted 53,000 attendees last weekend. What was conspicuously missing at many exhibitor booths at the Expo: Gluten.
Judging by the sea of booths sporting gluten-free logos, it seems gluten’s become the latest trans-fat — and gluten-free, dairy-free pizza the new caffeine-free diet coke. Yes, there are in fact multiple gluten-free, dairy-free, ready-to-bake pizzas in the frozen section today: Amy’s and Glutino both proudly make gluten-free soy cheese spinach pizzas, along with other gluten-free products.
Yes, I realize there are people with celiac disease who can’t eat gluten and people who have less severe gluten sensitivities who’ll benefit from this growing gluten-free market. But there are also many more people who have no gluten issues whatsoever but have convinced themselves they do after reading a magazine article. There are others who’ve been told by rather questionable nutritionists / kinesiologists that they’re “allergic” to wheat or gluten — despite the fact that allergic reactions to wheat are extremely rare and are unrelated to gluten sensitivity.
Add to that group the people who just follow fad marketing gimmicks — people who’ll think of the words “gluten-free” on a package as a bonus health benefit despite the fact that they themselves have no actual gluten issues — and we’ve got a huge market for gluten-free foods indeed.
That means a helluva lot of gluten-free pizzas, pizza shells, and pizza dough mixes. Venice Baking Co, Ener-G Foods, Gluten Free & Fabulous, Conte’s Pasta Company, French Meadow Bakery, Barkat, Chebe Bread Toro, Kinnikinnick — Those are all companies eager to fill your need for gluten-free pizza.
Then you’ve got gluten-free pastas, breads, cookies, pastries, cupcakes, chicken nuggets, and much more. Hain Celestial has an entire new line called Gluten Free Cafe — featuring a bunch of gluten free ready-made meals!
I have nothing against people who avoid gluten — I just find it increasingly odd and funny, especially since I too’ve wondered if I have a gluten sensitivity — though after a chat with a real doctor, I’ve ruled it out.
I also find it telling of our times, when people often seem more concerned about avoiding ingredients than getting nutrients. Part of this we’ve brought on to ourselves, since our crazy world’s put more crazy stuff in our food than ever — and also has made more people allergic to more things than ever. And certainly, I like foods with no harmful chemicals or pesticides, genetically-modified ingredients, trans-fats, high fructose corn syrup, and other common “conventional” ingredients. Still, the “lists of lack” proudly displayed by so many health and natural food products today seems crazy too. A sampling:
>> Chebe Bread. No gluten, yeast, corn soy, potato, rice, nuts.
>> Lucy’s. No gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, milk, butter, or wheat.
>> Nickanedit. No gluten, dairy, soy, potato, corn, processed sugars.
>> 1-2-3 Gluten Free. No dairy, soy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, sugar.
To be clear, I did taste and like some of this stuff. Of the pizzas, Amy’s gluten-free soy cheese slice, I must admit, was quite tasty. And Coconut Bliss is one ice cream I’ve already recommended that boasts a long list of lack….
I guess this is again one of those posts where I’m not quite sure where I’m going. I find the “lack-marketing” phenomenon bizarre, yet sometimes useful and kinda tasty….
So let me leave you with a question. A few companies announced that their products were free of corn or potato. Why? Are people developing corn sensitivities? Will corn-free become the next gluten-free?
I agree with you. I heard about celiac disease probably less than 10 years ago. The article/story I saw used an extreme example of a 5 year old girl who could die from eating a cracker. I thought, “How terrible! Wheat is in everything!” So I guess it’s really nice for her that there’s lots of stuff, like pizza, she can eat. But I have no idea how common it is. Probably less common than veganism, which makes up something around .1% of the population, and much, much less prevalent than lactose intolerance. Though that isn’t deadly, just uncomfortable, which I gather is what most mild gluten sensitivities are as well.
I did see somewhere that there’s a new pepsi product out that has added “vitamins” and touts health benefits. But I rarely drink soda, except the occasional microbrewed rootbeer, so I wouldn’t really know. I also completely agree about the lack of taste and thirst quenching abilities in diet soft drinks. They taste salty to me. I’d much rather have REAL food in moderation, thank you. The kind of things people have been consuming for centuries if not millennia. Not something someone came up with in a lab during my lifetime.
Comment by Meredith — March 13, 2009 @ 6:54 pm
I have celiac disease (diagnosed as an infant, doctors used to think kids “grew out of it”, and symptoms reappeared in my 20s) and corn intolerance. Avoiding corn is at least as hard as avoiding gluten because so many common ingredients are corn derived. I refused to believe that I was so sensitive to corn that I couldn’t have products made with xanthan gum until I just kept getting sick and finally eliminated it. My symptoms dramatically improved.
Corn is also not considered one of the common allergens that have to be listed, so there are still times when I get sick but can’t completely determine what caused it.
The number that I have read (from NFCA, http://www.celiaccentral.org/, I think) of the prevalence of celiac disease is 1 in 133 which makes it about as common as autism.
I am glad that celiac disease (and gluten intolerance/sensitivity which is different) is getting more visibility. The vitamin deficiencies that I suffered from years of eating gluten are taking quite a long time to fully identify and correct, so I would be happy for others to not have to suffer for quite so long. My chronic migraines are finally starting to improve to the point where I might be off daily medication within the year. I will still have a higher than average risk of certain cancers, but I try not to obsess since there isn’t anything that I can do other than remain diet compliant.
However, I have recently encountered people that don’t “get it” and seem to think that avoiding gluten has some benefit for those who do not have celiac or gluten sensitivity. I have tried to explain that provides them with no benefit, but I don’t think that my words can overpower whatever marketing induced madness they had acquired.
I mostly eat foods that I cook myself from naturally gluten-free ingredients, but it is impossible to completely avoid processed food. Raw nuts, beans, and lentils can run on machines that also process wheat; and bulk bins are almost never safe from cross-contamination (personally, I don’t take the chance). Spices used to be a big hazard, but greater visibility has led to companies cleaning up their practices.
It is nice when something like frozen falafel that has no need to contain any gluten is identified as gluten-free just to save me the trouble of doing all of the research. And I like that I can eat a frozen pizza every once in a while.
Comment by Erica — March 13, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
I agree with the fad craze. Now it’s Celiac disease. When we had Lyme disease, that seemed to be the “in” thing. People want to ” belong” – whether it be religion, clothing, or new fad illnesses.
In our case, it was a truly remarkable phenomena – both my wife & I were diagnosed with celiac – the chances of us both having it are quite amazing.
We believe that like peanut allergies, etc. there are degrees of intolerance. Some peanut intolerance individuals get very sick ingesting small amounts of peanuts, and some celiac people get very sick eating small amounts of gluten. While other people may have less severe allergies and can handle small amounts of peanuts or gluten with little or no allergic reactions.
Of course it goes without saying that if you have a food allergy avoid allergen foods, but all the info. on the Internet is only for the “worst case scenarios.”
Comment by Ken — March 14, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Erica – Thanks for the link and info. Celiac disease is much more prevalent that I thought.
As a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I wish the US were more into official food labeling in general. There should be symbols for gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, vegetarian, vegan and GMO ingredients, in my opinion. Sounds like a lot, but they can be easily places in a corner of a package, and people will only have to identify when they need to. For example, if you have a peanut allergy, you’ll only need to look for the peanut symbol.
Comment by Meredith — March 14, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
I’m a little amazed that the author accepts food marketing based on no GMOs and trans fats, but can’t understand the same marketing based on more specific ingredients. Now I am with you these things, but the evidence makes a much better case for labeling gluten-free than gmo-free or pesticide free if health of customers is our concern.
When you need to avoid some of these ingredients, the recent “fad” of marketing based on what is not in processed food is a blessing. I think many of these products are a response to the one size fits all food production systems we have. I wish that we could move to more local food production where local producers communicate with their customers to make prepared meals that satisfy the needs of both parties. Until that happens, I am happy that there are a dozen companies offering gluten-free pizza and marketing as such. If a bunch of people want to eat it too because they think they should avoid gluten I am all for it.
So please, for the sake of those us us that need to search for gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, trans fat-free, non-gmo, hormone-free, pesticide-free food, let these companies and delusional customers keep doing what they are doing….
Comment by owen — March 14, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
Ken, I think that one reason it is important to distinguish people with celiac disease from people with gluten intolerance/sensitivity is that even non-reactive celiacs must be VERY careful about diet compliance since there can be intestinal damage even without symptoms. That damage can be cumulative and increase chances of many kinds of cancer.
However, gluten intolerance/sensitivity doesn’t have that risk. The same is true for most food intolerances (as far as I know), so I can choose to eat something with corn and know that at most I will have some reaction symptoms later but no bodily damage.
I am highly reactive to gluten, so I don’t have any temptation to “cheat”. The last time that I ate something that turned out to have gluten as an ingredient (unlabeled) was a little over 2 years ago. I was unable to consume any food for 4 days and missed almost a week of work. I have learned my lesson and am very careful whenever I introduce new food now. I only eat at most one new thing in a day and if possible, I don’t eat new foods multiple days in a row. This helps me to figure out where I might be getting cross-contamination gluten.
I say all of this just in case someone is reading this who hasn’t known a celiac. I know that some people that I have met are shocked to realize what life changes that I have made to live in a way that lets me be healthy.
Despite all of this, I think that my life is better now. I never liked cooking and had a very love/hate relationship with food. I had to learn to cook or be forced to eat highly expensive gluten-free packaged food, and I discovered that I enjoy cooking once I stopped eating meat. I have been a vegetarian for years now and am a vegan most days. I know a few other veg*n celiacs, and it is surprising how many celiacs think we should “get over it” and just eat meat. Sigh.
This is quite long again, but I think it is important speak out on legitimate cases of celiac. Especially with the growing fad, I would hate for people to get the idea that it is ALL hype. I think we have a lot of digestive problems in the US (probably due to our high consumption of processed food and other factors), so over the years there have been “in” reasons. I remember when everyone had acid reflux, then it was IBS, and now Crohn’s and celiac seem to be common diagnoses.
Comment by Erica — March 14, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
In Denmark, where I’m from, Celiac is really common and when someone is sick, it gets diagnosed within about 4 months. It takes 11 years on average in the US after they’ve usually been prescribed medication or had surgery for issues that could have been resolved by avoiding gluten. In my family, my grandmother, my mum and I have it; my grandmother is 87 and was diagnosed in her 20’s. Europeans are mainly affected; it hasn’t seem to affected Asians or Africans. So maybe it’s just awareness in the US thanks to alternative medicine becoming more normal here that is why Celiac diagnosing is up.
Having Celiac absolutely sucks and if I could eat gluten, I would. I’m worried about the “gluten free trend” as opposed to someone like myself who HAS to avoid it. A lot of people think gluten free is wheat free and, as Siel said, healthy.
Gluten free baked goods have way more calories than its gluten counter parts, so those on gluten free diets who consume pizzas, cookies, cakes usually gain weight and also gain new problems like Candida and Diabities because of the surgar overload. And this is often what people turn to when they’re going “gluten free.” What also concerns me, is that those who choose to go gluten free are often lax; they don’t realise that soft drinks, ketchup, some chocolate, that creamer, etc. can have gluten in it. They just think gluten=wheat. So being lax out of choice can make it harder on those of us for whom it’s life or death because they’re not going to be really vocal to servers, restaurants, grocers or the public about what is and isn’t gluten free. If people start to think gluten free or celiac is a choice or not real (and there’s a lot of US medical doctors who think this), then that hurts those with celiac in the end.
That all said, I’m thankful for all the new packaging, labelling and awareness because it’s so much easier for me to eat safely but really, if you’re going to live gluten free, you have to give up convenience, packaged food, condiments and buffets or open food. It’s a really hard lifestyle I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Comment by alex — March 16, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
Thought you’d all find this Slate article interesting: “Are we being too tolerant of gluten-intolerance?“:
“The lavishing of attention on wheat alternatives is wonderful news to the sufferers of celiac disease, for whom any amount of dietary gluten can inflame and destroy the lining of the small intestine…. But diagnosed celiacs only account for a small fraction of the bloated and still-expanding market for gluten-free products.”
“The mere fact that someone who cuts out gluten feels better doesn’t mean that he has an autoimmune disease or a wheat allergy or some other medical condition. Any kind of restrictive diet can help alleviate gastrointestinal distress. If you’re paying more attention to what you eat, there’s a good chance your symptoms will lessen. That’s not because gluten or red meat or another food is damaging your small intestine; it’s because eating less makes it easier for your gut to recover. Then there’s the placebo effect of starting any treatment, which might well address some of the more abstract symptoms of gluten intolerance, like fatigue, mood swings, and depression.”
Comment by Siel — August 4, 2009 @ 7:41 pm