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Anybody else here getting fed up with all the "gluten-free is fattening, over-priced and you don't need it anyway" articles that have run in the mainstream media lately?

Very few of these writers seem to understand that this isn't about fad diets, it is about SURVIVAL. So many of them seem to resent that there is now GF food in their supermarket! There have been some articles that actually state a gluten-free will cause malnutrition - and many of these pieces are written by people who call themselves dietitians!

Today's idiocy is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42883944/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/ - this writer lists GF bread as one of the "7 worst supermarket rip-offs" and further states that "A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology followed a group of gluten-free dieters with celiac disease for 2 years and discovered that 81 percent of them actually gained weight." 

Talk about garbled! Is he saying these were weight-loss dieters who happened to be gluten-free, celiacs on a gluten-free who gained weight or what? Many celiacs do gain weight on the GF - generally because they have been underweight and malnourished prior to going GF.

Gluten-free was never meant to be a weight-loss program, it's a survival tool for celiacs, and for a large number of people who aren't celiac but find their health improves when they stop eating gluten. 

Why are there so many articles coming out that minimize the rate of celiac disease and gluten intolerance, and suggest that anyone GF now is just on a fad diet? These pieces really do make our lives harder. They make it harder to convince stores that we aren't just "fad diet" customers, they make it harder to get restaurants to take our needs seriously - hey, if it's just a fad, then cross contamination doesn't matter, does it?

I have begun emailing the writers of these hit pieces, the editors of the sites they appear on and posting on boards to complain about the half-truths and hostile nature of these pieces. I urge everyone here to do the same. We need to stand together and clearly state that this isn't a fad, it is our lives at risk.


Maureen

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