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Read this publication and you might explode!!!! I encourage you to post your comments to the article by clicking on the "Discuss" link.

http://www.slate.com/id/2223745/

My posting to the article follows below: 

Top Ten Reasons the Author owes an Apology

The information in this article contains so many errors and inflammatory statements that I hardly know where to start. 

1. Celiac disease is not an allergy, it is an autoimmune disease. The two result in entirely different immune responses on a molecular level. Learn the science. 2. To call gluten-intolerance "celiac-lite" is offensive. In fact, the author has incorrectly defined gluten-intolerance, which is really a term coined to encompass individuals with either celiac disease and/or dermatitis herpetiformis...both caused by intolerance to gluten in wheat, rye and barley. 3. "Intolerance" in the case of CD (celiac disease) is a misnomer, as it does not actually mean "relative" intolerance to gluten (as in the case of lactose intolerance, which can be relative to dietary intake/amounts). A person with celiac disease is more analogous to a person who is pregnant. You are...or you aren't. 4. To state that 
"ruling out the official disease requires a gluten-challenge" is wrong on so many levels that I can't help shaking my head. The gluten-challenge is not  recommended (i.e., performed) by any physician who knows CD. In fact, Institutional Ethics Boards/Ethics Committees have historically denied approval (i.e., rejected!) clinical studies using a gluten challenge due to question as to its ethical justification and safety. 5. To say that only 0.75% of people have CD is one perspective. Alternatively you might say that 1 in 133 people have CD. Look around your office place. How many have CD, do you guess? Now that's a new perspective. 6. My son has CD. I guess that means (per the author) that he "gets a free pass for self-denial". Of course, endoscopic biopsy (not gluten challenge, mind you) proved that he had Stage IV celiac disease with evidence of long-term lymphocytic infiltration, but hey...the kids just making it up for attention, right? 7. CD is not "the current vogue". It is a life-long and life-altering medical condition that affects roughly two million people in the U.S. alone. It's unfortunate that U.S. based understanding is so far behind many of the European countries, such as Italy, France, and the U.K...where CD has been known for decades. Long before this "vogue trend" hit the good ol' U.S.A. 8. I'm saddened that CD "annoys others". Aggressive drivers and uninformed authors annoy me too. Still, the latter don't have a medical condition to explain it (or do they? Nah, it's just a "trend".)  9. The author has misrepresented Fasano with the rubbish about down-sides to going GF. Fasano is a world-reknowned researcher in the area of CD. I have no doubt that his intent was that the only down-side to going GF [where not medically necessary] is the inconvenience presented by a limitation of menu diversity. 10. As for the "websites choked with warnings" of false information about CD and living gluten free...don't believe everything that you read on the web. LIKE THIS ARTICLE.

Very disappointed reader,

Teresa Van Nuland, Ph.D.

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