NYT: Fears over gluten in food overblown?

Will:
The stats are pretty clear that just under 1% of the population has this allergy to wheat gluten. I have no reason to doubt that your son is one of those 3 million persons in the U.S. so afflicted.

Ron,
That is a lot of people.

[Robin Garr]

My son loves it and it allows me to send him to school with a sandwich instead of rice and black beans everyday. Are they making money? Yes. Is it helping people? Yes.

Those are all good things, Will. You'll get no fight from me over this.

I guess I'm more sensitized to the sulfites issue in wine, where an even smaller number of individuals - way under 1 percent - are sulfite-sensitive asthmatics. For them it's very serious business, and it's a non-trivial number of human beings even if it's a tiny percentage of the overall population.

But I know that a lot of producers trumpet "no sulfites" wines (technically an erroneous statement if not an actual lie - they mean no sulfites above the small percentage permitted to escape labeling by law) in full knowledge that a lot of people are confused about sulfites and are willing to pay to avoid something that's harmless to them but that they don't understand.

I'm concerned - and I suspect Ron is coming from a similar place - that some entrepreneurs will take advantage of similar concerns about gluten to extract money from people who needn't be worried.

But none of this is to denigrate your situation, or your son's, in any way, shape or form.

Ron,
That is a lot of people.

I totally agree. I get the impression that you are taking my posts in a manner that I am not intending. I do think that 3 million people is A LOT of people. That is why I think that your son is in fact one of those people who really do have an allergy to wheat gluten.

My other comments were directed at people who jump on the bandwagon when they read or hear about these 3 million people despite never having been diagnosed by a physician as actually having this allergy.

No worries.

Ron,
That is a lot of people.

My other comments were directed at people who jump on the bandwagon when they read or hear about these 3 million people despite never having been diagnosed by a physician as actually having this allergy.

Does anyone actually REALIZE what it means to "jump on the bandwagon" if that truly IS what anti-gluten band wagoneers actually do??

Why would anyone want to exclude themselves from the joy of pasta, bread, pizza, fried foods, beer etc. etc. if they did not feel the bad effects of wheat? I'm not sure anyone really has any idea until you spend much of your day in the bathroom after suffering from hidden or even obvious glutens you have ingested. A diagnosis from an MD certainly helps for justification I suppose, but after a few trial and error sessions.... a diagnosis is really not that important! Remember the old joke? You go to the Dr. and say "it hurts when I do this".... and the MD says... "well don't do that!" It's basically the same thing, in my view. Please don't judge "the band wagon" until you know first hand. I don't wish that on anyone!

Ron,
That is a lot of people.

My other comments were directed at people who jump on the bandwagon when they read or hear about these 3 million people despite never having been diagnosed by a physician as actually having this allergy.

Does anyone actually REALIZE what it means to "jump on the bandwagon" if that truly IS what anti-gluten band wagoneers actually do??

Why would anyone want to exclude themselves from the joy of pasta, bread, pizza, fried foods, beer etc. etc. if they did not feel the bad effects of wheat? I'm not sure anyone really has any idea until you spend much of your day in the bathroom after suffering from hidden or even obvious glutens you have ingested. A diagnosis from an MD certainly helps for justification I suppose, but after a few trial and error sessions.... a diagnosis is really not that important! Remember the old joke? You go to the Dr. and say "it hurts when I do this".... and the MD says... "well don't do that!" It's basically the same thing, in my view. Please don't judge "the band wagon" until you know first hand. I don't wish that on anyone!

Lisa: My post is not directed at people WHO ACTUALLY HAVE THIS ALLERGY. Not sure how many more times or ways I can say that.

If you are taking that position that people CAN self-diagnose this problem and do, then yes, those are the people that I am talking about. Last year they were lactose intolerant. Wonder what it will be next year?