War On Science: Gluten-Free Madness Needs to End - The Daily Beast

War On Science: Gluten-Free Madness Needs to End - The Daily Beast:

Anti-gluten hysteria has turned one of the most important staples of the human diet into a grocery-store pariah—with potentially disastrous repercussions.-PAUL A. OFFIT

"...Liberals have their own anti-science biases...liberals appear to be motivated by a belief that all things natural are good, anything with a chemical name is bad, and everything that profits an industry is really bad (unless that industry makes dietary supplements).

...The gluten-free is probably the saddest fallacy—and the most destructive.

...Today, 20 million Americans claim that they are allergic to gluten when only about 3 million actually are. You can buy gluten-free hair products, gluten-free food for your pets, and go on gluten-free vacations. In 2014, the global market for gluten-free products totaled $4 billion a year; by 2019, it will be closer to $7 billion.

...The most unfortunate outcome of the gluten-free revolution is that demonizing food can lead to food fetishes or food phobias causing bulimia and anorexia, which affect about 2 percent of the United States population...

The cure for celiac disease is avoidance of gluten. The cure for gluten mania, on the other hand, remains elusive.

Paul A. Offit, MD is a professor of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the author of Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong (National Geographic, April 2017). 
Read the entire column!