Eating Gluten-Free Is A Growing Trend, But Is It “A Bunch Of Baloney”?

The gluten-free foods industry is valued at $4 billion, but the movement is generating a backlash – some call it “a bunch of baloney” – against the industry and against people who, for whatever reason, avoid eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. One skeptic calls it a fad pushed by food companies "as a way of making money”. Eating gluten-free is growing in popularity though most people on a gluten-free diet don't have the severe intestinal reaction to gluten known as celiac disease. And, oddly enough, most celiac sufferers – about 300,000 people – don't know that they have the disease and should be avoiding gluten. The backlash “reached an apex”, according to a Washington Post reporter, when late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said that in Los Angeles gluten was "comparable to Satanism”.