Gluten free: preference or necessity? (Examiner.com)

Chief Marketing Officer Julie Holland Faylor, MHS, CEDS is the National Eating Disorders Examiner. Read an excerpt below from her blog post "Gluten free: preference or necessity?": “Gluten free” diets are all the rage lately. Grocery stores have added “gluten-free” aisles. Nearly every restaurant advertises its gluten-free menu. Universities have gluten-free sections of their convenience stores. Gluten-free eating has become such a widespread trend that there’s even a gluten-free Girl Scout Cookie. For many people, gluten-free eating is a fad. For people like me with Celiac Disease, it’s a necessity. According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, only 1 in 133 Americans are diagnosed with Celiac Disease, a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and restricts the body’s ability to absorb nutrients from food. People who have the disease cannot tolerate any gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. For those of us with Celiac Disease, we must stick to the gluten-free diet or suffer the consequences, which may include abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation and weight fluctuation to name just a few... Visit her blog to read the article in its entirety.