The Gluten Free Craze

People seem to always be jumping onboard the newest health craze.  In a society so concerned with appearance, people constantly look for the latest trend to get them into shape.  Many of these fads go away and people discover they are not true.  However, some health trends get backed by research and are part of our lives today. 

A popular health trend in our culture today seems to be all about going “gluten free.”  Gluten is a term used for a family of proteins containing wheat, barley, and rye.  The gluten itself can be found in the seeds of these nutritional sources.  In the past, people who were restricted to eating gluten free foods were people with Celiac disease.  This disease affects about 1% of the population.  Now, new claims are being made which state it is possible to be “gluten sensitive.”  Based on little evidence, approximately 6% of the population is gluten sensitive.  When patients are diagnosed as being gluten sensitive, they are instructed to follow a gluten free diet and see if they feel better.  In the past year, I have had a couple of close friends who tell me they have been diagnosed as gluten sensitive.  At first, I was convinced it was an actual disease, but over time, I became more skeptical.  I couldn’t understand how most of their diet consisted to gluten free food, but they would order an occasional burrito or burger when we would go out to eat.  The facts didn’t add up to me.

A couple months ago, the Diane Rehm Show brought in a group of six experts, including doctors and registered nutritionist to talk about the new gluten free craze.  To confirm my previous skepticism, every expert claimed “gluten sensitivity” to be a fad except one.  For the one who thought it was an actual disease, he gave a vague argument and agreed that there is no way to test if it exists.  According to these experts, most people are undergoing a placebo effect and have the ability to pretty much self-diagnose themselves.  In most cases, it’s a fact of a person just eating healthier and improving their diet.

Think about it – If your daily diet consists of bad carbs such as pizza, pasta, bagels and burritos, and you cut those out of your diet, you will probably feel better because you are replacing them with other food groups which have nutritional value.   Is it possible that being “gluten sensitive” could one day be an actual diagnosis? Possibly.  But as of right now, there isn’t any scientific data or evidence for it to hold true.  This is a fad that will pass with time.