Sunday, November 27, 2011

Gluten-free processed foods for the masses

NY Times published today a fluff piece whose title posed the question whether everyone should go gluten free. Rather than addressing the question in the title, they gave a portrait of a processed food company's endeavor to address this niche market.

I wish they had addressed the question of gluten posed in the title. I'm also baffled by the claim that there's no gluten-free food --- there's plenty of gluten-free food in every single supermarket, and there always has been. The types of processed foods that they address in the article should comprise no more than a few percent of a person's diet. Celiacs used to be lucky for being forced to eschew the processed food-like products that have taken over the standard American diet, such as breakfast cereal, canned soups, cookies, crackers, and frozen foods. With greater quantities of gluten-free processed foods, they are free to be as unhealthy as anyone else.

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