“I’ll take A Gluten Free category for $1000, Ken” – Yep, there was a Gluten Free Category in the first round of Jeopardy last night.

The clues were clever, like this one for $600 – “This actor won’t trigger your celiac disease”. Answer – Wil Wheaton. This one was fun too for $400 – “These tasty bits of info stored on a computer can help maintain a user’s browser session”. Answer – Cookie. Did you expect them to ask hard questions about what gluten is or what celiac disease is? It would be nice but nobody would have gotten the right answers.

The reality is that we live in a bubble. Everything we do is affected by gluten. It shades everything. EVERYTHING. But most of the world doesn’t live like us. They eat freely and don’t cry in the grocery store. They don’t look at menus before eating or interrogate servers about the contents of the food. Most people read a menu, think that something sounds good, order it, and eat it without another thought. But that’s not us.

We have to stop believing the world revolves around our particular food issues. Would I like everyone to care about my gluten issues? HELL YEAH, but that is not the reality. And in a world of almost 8 billion people, only about 1% have celiac disease. We are the minority by a lot!

So, my answer to Jeopardy is thank you. During celiac awareness month, you put together a gluten free category. While it wasn’t what I had hoped, it still brought up celiac in a respectful, yet playful manner. Was it perfect? No. Was it good enough? Yes.