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After reading the posts about Daniel Engber's article "Throwing out  
the Wheat' in Slate, I was ready, as a long-time Slate subscriber, to  
fire off an angry missive.

After carefully reading the actual article, already primed to look for  
inaccuracies, I found none. On celiac disease, Mr. Engber states in  
the third paragraph:

  "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. (The  
human gut can't fully process gluten. At best, it's converted into a  
set of indigestible protein fragments that pass uneventfully through  
the gastrointestinal tract. If you've got celiac disease, these  
fragments set off a damaging immune response.) This can show up as  
diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, skin rash, anemia, fatigue, or  
osteoporosis—and the long-term prognosis isn't so good, either: Celiac  
patients have almost twice the normal risk of cancer, and one-third of  
them suffer from another autoimmune disease, like Type 1 diabetes,  
lupus, or multiple sclerosis. (They may also be susceptible to  
schizophrenia.) As far as we know, the only way for people with celiac  
to stave off these dangers is to eliminate gluten from their diets— 
entirely and without exception—for the rest of their lives."

The fourth paragraph, which summarizes what the article is about,  
states:

"But diagnosed celiacs only account for a small fraction of the  
bloated and still-expanding market for gluten-free products. (In  
total, the disease affects just 0.75 percent of the population.)  The  
remainder are those consumers who believe, for one reason or another,  
that gluten is hurting them, too. According to Alessio Fasano,  
director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of  
Maryland and a leading expert on the disease, almost half the people  
who show up at his clinic are on the gluten-free diet before they've  
even been tested for celiac. For every patient whose intestinal biopsy  
turns up positive, he says, nine or 10 more test clean but commit to  
going G-free all the same."

As one who often engages other shoppers in the gluten-free aisle at  
the local Wegmans in conversation, I am not at all surprised that  
people are adopting the GF diet for non-celiac related reasons. Quite  
selfishly, I am happy about this since the larger the market, the more  
motivated food manufacturers and vendors are to make more GF products  
available and ultimately more affordable for us.

So, read it yourself and form your own conclusions.

http://www.slate.com/id/2223745/?from=3Drss

Joel
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