Many people have jumped on the gluten free diet for a variety of reasons. They think it will help them lose weight. They think it is healthier. They think gluten is pro-inflammatory. For whatever reason, many people have started a gluten free or gluten lite diet.

For those diagnosed with Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, gluten free diets are not cool or trendy but serious medicine that affects their everyday lives in ways imaginable to the people with regular diets.

Thank you to the fad folks for bringing awareness to a gluten free lifestyle. You have made more products available to those that need them that could be imagined. According to studies, the gluten free food market place will exceed $7B next year. That is great news for us that have to eat this way forever. It means more and better products for us.

Thank you to the fad folks for making restaurants take notice. Shortly after my diagnosis over 7 years ago I went to a very fancy steakhouse. I told them I had Celiac disease in the reservation. When the server arrived he asked who had the celery allergy? Today, I say to servers I have Celiac disease and if I get a blank stare – I say I have a gluten allergy. Then it immediately registers and we have a conversation about the special accommodations I need. It works.

To the fad folks – I am very grateful to you, but I also have a bone to pick with you. At a restaurant or other eating establishment and you say that you require a gluten free item and the server tells you all about their gluten free items – please don’t order from the gluten menu or share someone’s gluten entree. It makes it harder for those of us that need that safety net and want to eat out. It diminishes the ability for us to be taken seriously.

To the fad folks – keep on buying gluten free items. The more you buy the more they will make. The more they make, the better off those of us that use the gluten free diet as medicine will be.

Thanks!