Like cycles of the moon, fads come and go. Pokemon©, Hula Hoop©, Frisbee©, and Paris
Hilton, are all examples of fads that had their heyday and thankfully vanished
into has-been status.
This also happens with foods. Liquid chocolate fountains, chicken wings,
fondue, and burned-tasting over-expensive coffee, are another few examples of
fads that are going the way of the dodo.
Even medical woes have their days on the fad list. Peanut allergies, kid’s braces, and
over-tanning, have been added to that list.
And so has celiac disease, aka. CD.
Never being a fad kind-of-guy, chicken wings are about the
only one with which I got involved, and it shows.
But today, nearly everyone you meet has CD.
“I can’t eat bread because it has wheat flour,” is often
heard being uttered by simple morons.
“Do you have celiac disease?” queries the deli owner.
“Uh, no. But I heard
wheat flour contains gluten, and gluten is bad,” proudly states the moron.
No, it’s not.
CD is a digestion problem that is caused by the ingestion of
gluten in the form of wheat. These
vehicles include pasta, bread, cookies, cakes, and anything else made from wheat
flour.
An estimated 100,000,000 American fad-followers are
attempting to go gluten-free because they heard gluten was bad for you. It is not, unless you have CD; otherwise, you
are simply proving you are a sheep.
Only 1% of the population suffers from CD, and I sympathize
with them. It must be a terrible thing
to live life without pizza or brownies.
I, too, suffer from allergies, including one from the spice
sage. Violently ill, would be the best
way to describe my personal reaction to even smelling sage, much less eating
it. I do understand about real allergies.
But, people who merely want to join the fad of CD may
actually be hurting themselves in the long run.
Your stomach may hurt because of your reduction of
fiber. You’ll be extra tired because you
are ingesting fewer carbs. Gluten-free
foods often use rice as the filler; rice is a source of inorganic arsenic, and
can contribute to lung cancer, bladder cancer, and type-2 diabetes. Congrats!
In summation, businesses are trying to capitalize on your
perceived medical issue of CD and are offering everything from gluten-free lap
dances, to gluten-free haircuts.
Caveat emptor. For those reader living in Philadelphia
Next month it will be something new. Just keep in mind that lead, uranium, and
cocaine are gluten-free, too.
