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I’m sure that by now you have all heard of the gluten-free diet. This is a diet that does not include wheat, rye, barley, or unclean oats. The gluten free diet has lately been a sort of fad diet that people think is a joke. I can’t even keep track of the amount of times I’ve seen someone treat it that way. It’s used as a punchline in comics, birthday cards, in commercials, and even on television shows. Disney Channel had to pull an episode of their show “Jessie” after people complained because it contained a scene where a child who was allergic to gluten was made fun of and had gluten-containing food thrown at him.
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I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about the gluten free diet. My mother and sister were diagnosed with Celiac Disease soon after I was born. This is an autoimmune disease where the body cannot digest gluten. The only treatment is to eat a gluten-free diet. Even a crumb can get them sick. I grew up learning to always read labels, what cross-contamination is, and to always be careful with crumbs. However, I was lucky compared to my sister. I could still go to birthday parties and eat the cake; I didn’t have to bring my own cupcake. I could go to school and eat with my friends, sometimes even getting the school meal. I didn’t have to always bring my own lunch and have my own placemat to keep crumbs out of my food. There’s one incident that always comes to mind when thinking of my sister growing up eating the gluten-free diet. When we were pretty little, her favorite cereal changed its recipe, one that added gluten. We stocked up on the old recipe, but we knew that it wasn’t going to last forever. I can remember seeing her cry over her cereal one day, sick of not being able to eat what she wanted to. In my eight-year-old brain, writing a letter to the company and asking them not to change the recipe would be a perfect solution. So, I did just that. They sent me coupons.
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A little-known fact is that 1 out of every 133 people in the United States has Celiac Disease. The gluten-free diet isn’t just a trend for them. These people have to eat gluten free in order to not constantly be sick. I’ve never heard someone make fun of a peanut or tree nut allergy. This is the same thing. Gluten free isn’t a joke, and treating it as such is harmful to the gluten free community. Not only do they have to defend their diet, but they also have to deal with restaurants thinking that it’s okay to not watch out for cross contamination. In fact, Domino’s created a “gluten-free pizza” that isn’t actually gluten free. Situations like this can cause celiacs to get gluten by accident, causing them to get sick. A gluten-free diet is the only way that a good portion of our society can survive without being sick every single day of their lives. My mother was sick for 10 years, and my sister almost died from being so malnourished before being diagnosed. People who have to eat a gluten-free diet already deal with enough difficulties every day. They can’t just grab food anywhere; they have to read every label, question every waiter about cross-contamination. Worrying about whether or not they’ll also be made fun of for just trying to eat is not something that should be added.