Let's get this straight, people: Gluten-free is not a fad. It describes what happens to your diet after you are diagnosed with an autoimmune digestive disorder called celiac disease.
It's not an allergy, and it's not some badge of stylish eating. No, it's a painful experience in which gluten (a protein found in barley, rye, oats and wheat) treats your guts like it's glass shards traveling slowly through your body.
I know because I was diagnosed with celiac disease eight years ago, and as the term "gluten-free" has wrenched itself solidly into mainstream culture, I've been shocked at the blowback from people who are alarmingly uneducated about the medical condition.
When a gluten-free dating website was brought to my attention last moth, I was thrilled. Meeting a gluten-free guy is like spotting Bigfoot. What was not so great was the barrage of people I soon spotted poking fun at the site and calling it a fad.
A diet seems like an unnecessary subject when dating and, to be honest, it doesn't hit you till your significant other chokes down some pizza (wheat) whilst guzzling a river of beer (barley, rye and wheat) that you gotta say something. Listen, guys: If you won't do me the courtesy of brushing your teeth after a glutinous meal, then don't let the door hit you on the way out.
I've had boyfriends who carry toothbrushes to beer-guzzling pizza stuffers-including one who discovered he had celiac disease only after we dated-without the help of a gluten-free dating site. But I also appreciate the opportunity to meet a guy whose diet I don't have to check before he gets in my face.
Let's check the facts here: An estimated 3 million Americans have celiac disease, a number that earlier this month prompted the FDA to issue regulations on which foods can be labeled "gluten-free." There are restaurants and entire lines of food products dedicated to people who just say no to gluten.
So what is this silliness, laughing at people who can't or won't eat gluten? Why do people feel the need to pipe up, point out and ostracize those who cannot digest this certain protein? Are we harming you? No. Does it make you look like an insensitive, ignorant jerk? Yes.
Some critics have pointed out to me that people who avoid gluten for reasons that aren't medical necessity take away credibility from the diet, but here's the thing: If you poke fun at them, you mock the majority who have a medical condition they did not ask for. It's like making fun of someone who's diabetic for eating a sugar-free cookie.
Perhaps we're accustomed to the word "diet" as the gastronomical equivalent of a get-rich-quick scheme. But this isn't the Miami Beach Diet. It's the Avoid It Or Else Diet, and to some the I'm Going To Try This For The Health Benefits Diet. So don't hate. Appreciate.
Julia Bohan is one tough gluten-free cookie who doesn't mind if you tell her how much you'd die if you didn't eat bread or pasta because she's busy playing the world's tiniest violin.
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