“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.”

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.

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.

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….