Gluten-free foods are the fashion of the moment, even if in fact no one could prove that apart from celiacs, the lack of gluten is beneficial to the diet. In fact, all this media bass drum about gluten-free foods comes mostly from the United States, where the population seems to have declared war on foods with gluten, especially wheat, convinced that they make you fat , and supporting aberrant and groundless theses that are been brought forward by news reporters and nutritionists. According to the reports on the celiac census, in Europe, just like in Australia, celiacs represent one percent of the population. The thesis according to which it would be pasta to have produced more celiacs is false: in Italy celiacs are 0.7% of the population according to the estimates of 2012 (presented in 2013) and among the most affected regions are Lombardy, Lazio and the Campania. Much more likely the consumption of refined grains, increasing worldwide, and apparently more glutinous than poor and whole relatives, could instead play a key role in this intolerance, as all industrially produced foods could one day be called in cause for other intolerances. But this thesis is not very attractive.
Why did I mention Australia? Because in spite of 1% of celiacs, in Australia the consumption of gluten-free foods covers 2.5% of food products or more than double. And Australians, unlike us, are starting to ask themselves a few more questions. Who doesn’t eat gluten without being celiac? Well, all those who declaring war on gluten with the false belief that it makes you fat buy products based on corn and rice, much more harmful and fattening than traditional pasta or wholemeal bread. In short: the boom in gluten-free foods does not reflect the real needs of celiacs , but is due to unconfirmed theses that gluten alone would make you fat or create intestinal disorders that in reality have actually worsened, but which have other causes, such as reveals this study . The same study confirms that many people believe they have a sensitivity to digest glutenor to undergo fattening or other malabsorption phenomena due to the same are in the wrong . As this other article suggests, the gluten-free food industry doesn’t protect people’s health, it’s a money-making machine. Many foods that are normally gluten-free (or which in theory should not have any), such as some types of ice cream, now have the “gluten-free” inscription visible in Italy as well: to protect those, the 0.7 percent of Italian celiacs who are they already fully informed about it? Of course, celiac disease is a serious intolerance, but lactose intolerant people are many more: in northern Italy they reach more than 50% of the adult population. Why hasn’t the trade in lactose-free foods hit mind-boggling figures?