I’m Gluten-Free-Vegan-Intolerant

Your article is the same type of article I have imagined would have been written by the bullies my child with celiac disease has encountered throughout her lifetime in school. No less immature than they are, your opinionated view is devoid of factuality and hopefully will not influence anyone else into reacting as immaturely and selfishly as others will follow suit in doing. Fact: food allergies have tripled in the last decade, 1 in 133 people are thought to have celiac disease, and sensitivities have increased by 4 times. Like it or not, we are here to remain a pain in your rear.

This is really funny!

Being serious for a moment, the numbers posted above may be fact (I didn't check), but numbers don't tell the story.

Ask WHY the numbers have gone up in the last decade? Could it have anything to do with sedentary lifestyles, too many drugs to combat any tiny ailment, and limiting what we eat so that something slightly out of the ordinary makes us sick?

I eat whatever sounds good, don't really abstain from anything, take as few medications as possible, and am completely healthy. . .try it sometime.

Uhhh, it appears this was a tongue in cheek lighthearted article.
Can't understand when folks with thin skin get so butt hurt.

If I am at an event and can't eat something that someone offers me, I simply say "No thank you, I'm stuffed," or simply say "No thanks." I don't announce to the world my diet tendencies, or my hatred of meat, or my disdain of those who don't eat what I eat. I don't get all self righteous with indignation of those different than me.

My little sister has celiac disease. I thought her avoidance of certain foods was annoying because it made it hard for her to eat during family potlucks. Then she told me that people with celiac disease who eat gluten may not be able to carry children and even ingesting a little of it could mean she was sick to her stomach for days. Not to mention the frequency of kidney infections she was getting because it was knocking down her immune system. Now I enjoy the challenge of making something for our potlucks that she can eat that everyone else will enjoy.

Food is an energy source that is supposed to sustain us and some people, for medical and physical reasons, can't eat certain foods. Some people avoid foods because of a lifestyle that they undertake and others avoid certain foods because they just don't like them. I am disturbed at the rudeness and insensitivity of your article...

cycleboy, in my sister's case she has been a "picky" eater since she was little. Later we learned she had allergies to all kinds of foods, including certain vegetables. She does not pop pills, she is not lazy, she has an active life but even so she has spent a lot of her 20s struggling with being sick from food. The recent celiac disease diagnosis helped her to cut out gluten and she is doing SO much better healthwise. It's a real issue with long term consequences if she doesn't avoid food with gluten. Why are you guys so critical of something you don't understand? Is it because you are fortunate to be able to digest everything under the sun without feeling sick and you are so selfish that you can't imagine that not everyone in the world is just like you? I'm disappointed in your prejudice Starshine. What if it was one of your kids that had an allergy to gluten? I don't wish for that but you should think about how you would feel and not openly bash people with digestive problems.

PS, I'm not a vegan, vegetarian nor do I have celiac disease...

Fabulous article Starshine. Diets and food allergies are the most boring party topics! I've been pleasantly surprised by discreet non-narcissistic people with special diets that manage to keep it to themselves and still have fun at a party without boring the entire crowd. Nothing worse than when the entire dinner party has to sacrifice for one individual's latest diet fad, and then hear about it all night. Yikes!

Good grief people... LIGHTEN UP.

Yes of course many people have for-their-own-valid-reasons dietary restrictions and/or flat out persnickety preferences and the point here is that not everyone NEEDS/WANTS/CARES to hear about the minutiae of said subject.

Find your funny bone and suck on it til y'all get it.

Those chocolate chip cookies: Are they GF? Made with organic, non-GMO ingredients? Is it raw cacao or chips from a company that exploits third world countries? Was Mercury retrograde???

I get it. I think it's the approach that some people with food allergies take. They can't just say, "No thank you." You have to hear the STORY. They make it a moral issue instead of a personal health issue. And they make you wrong for eating what you eat.

I'm GF after many years of illness. Getting glutened will knock me out for a good 3 days. However, I always have snacky things in my purse, I always bring something yummy to a party, and when offered something I can't eat, I smile and say, "No thank you." I don't take it as a personal affront if someone offers me gluten. It's not a moral issue, it's a health one. I don't go around telling others what they should or shouldn't eat; how rude.

I had a waiter tell me one time, "I tried a gluten free sandwich the other day. I don't know what gluten is, but apparently it's DELICIOUS." Hahahaha Yes, food allergies are serious. But we don't have to lose our senses of humour! :-) Hali

P.S. I'm a total fan of bee puke. So yummy.

HIlarious ironic commenting by 'irresistiblyglutenfree' and 'santabarbarasand.' Thanks for reading too seriously!

I used to say: Who's worse at your party? An alcoholic or a born again chain smoking chrisitian? These days I would definitely have to add the guest with special dietary needs as another bottom of the list guest. If your diet works good for you, great, but please don't bore me to tears with the details!

There is a difference in something being truly humorous and some subjects being manipulated to feed into the self centered reality that we all find ourselves in each and every day.

I don't condemn those that eat gluten or try to make them gluten free just for the sake of one person. We also tuck away snacks in order to not "impose" our story onto others...But why? Because nothing is more boring than listening to someone tell their health story? Maybe what's really funny is that some people are so utterly shallow that they make fun of people who explain their food issues.

Everyone has their rationalizations don't they - Mine is that when someone writes an article that ridicules gluten free, it just gives the clueless reader who stumbled upon it one more reason to pass a judgement when confronted with it. Here's a list of reasons that personally come to mind from my support group:
1. A 10 yr old girl with anaphylactic peanut allergies gets a peanut butter cookie placed into her school desk because the kid who put it there wanted to see what would happen and thought allergies were like sneezing
2. A 15 year old girl had Doritos rubbed onto her face by 2 other teenager girls which resulted in her face being broken out in hives for 7 days that left splothes on her face for a month.
3. A 7 year old handed a regular muffin in a school cafeteria by the lunch lady who said, "Awww a little bit won't hurt you"
The kid was sick for a week.
4. Parent shows up to pick up child from play date and her 9 yr old was having crumbled crackers thrown onto her on the playground while the sitter washed dishes and didn't notice. When asked why, the bully answered, "Because I didn't think it would hurt her that bad"

So...there's funny, and then there's a line where you make the choice to add to the problem or be the solution.

Would you make fun of diabetics or autistic people? Sorry but you just don't know what you are talking about. One out of 133 Americans is celiac and even tiny amounts of gluten can make us very sick--in both the short term and increase mortality, especially lymphoma risk by six fold. I know it seems like you should be able to poke fun at all the gluten-free people because a lot of people are trying out a gf diet and they are just doing it to feel better (imagine that) but it really is serious business and it's better that more people get wise to celiac and get tested. Ninety percent of celiacs are undiagnosed.

Usually I think that this writer is funny but as a mom this article offends me. I get that she is tired of people who talk about their food diet like it makes them special and I see that at times with vegan's, like their way is the only way, etc. If she stopped there I would have laughed because that's a lifestyle thing in a lot of cases. However, if someone is incapable of digesting gluten, or has another food allergy, it's not funny. CitizenWatchdog, it's a serious topic and I'm disappointed that the Independent is condoning an article that makes fun of something that is serious like this. I know that you think that makes me a downer but irresistiblyglutenfree has solid points and articles like this, by a mother whose kids probably read her stories, just encourages intolerance.

If your friends and their food intolerances or habits annoy you so much then don't hang out with them. I suppose if they read your articles then maybe the problem will be solved and they will just stop hanging out around you instead.

Utterly disgusted at this article. Being fussy about your diet is totally different to having an allergy or intolerance! I get that you don't want to be bored with the details but thats no reason to make fun or slag off the people who have the allergy. My daughter had a milk allergy when she was born which she has now thankfully grown out of but both me and a friend have now developed a lactose intolerance in the past year now we are both in our early 20s, and we both cannot have many foods when we go out to eat.
Think you should adopt a rather different approach rather than moaning about the millions of people who have dietery problems or stop bitching about your friends and politely asked them to stop going on about it!

If I ate only when the Redskins are ahead, I'd have starved to death years ago.

P.S. Star, I'm curious: how do you know what earwax tastes like?

Lighten up people. Food allergies are the new Attention Deficit Disorder--over-diagnosed and vague symptoms/causes. Yes, some people have real problems with food. But the ones that have lack of energy sometimes or trouble concentrating sometimes are not really medical cases. When I think of persnickety, overly picky food people, I think of the ones who constantly talk about ridding their bodies of these undefined toxins that upset their balance. These people are convinced that if they just stop ingesting toxins and cleanse themselves, then they will achieve a pure state of being. It sounds a lot like the premise for Scientology to me, and I have a hunch that like Scientology, these promotors of eliminating evil toxins to restore a pure being are cashing in too. So cleanse away dubiously allergic people, and tell me all about how it increases your life force.
rock and roll

Well, now I am completely convinced that those with special dietary needs (or perhaps more accurately - their relatives) are "pain-in-the-ass, persnickety people."

"Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind."

-E.B. White

I think food allergies is serious stuff (ask Dr. Myron Liebhaber over at SB Medical Foundation's allergy dept. if you don't believe me).

That said, a buddy in college claimed he was seriously allergic to alcohol. So much that he could be hospitalized if he had one sip. So while the rest of us drank booze while playing quarters, he drank ... Coca Cola! It was so 'unfair'! As we slowly got wasted, he'd just get more amped. Guess who was usually the last player standing?

Whole lot of ignorance and just plain hatefulness going on here, from the article on down.

Vegans and vegetarians, I agree, can be a massively sanctimonious pain in the posterior. They've chosen their lifestyle, which is perfectly fine, but the attitudes of most of these people are just beyond annoying and rude.

Those who have celiac, or those of us who are diabetic and have serious food allergies, did NOT choose our dietary requirements as a lifestyle. I HAVE to know if there is sugar or nuts involved before I eat something, or there can be serious and possibly fatal consequences. Same for people with celiac. How this subject can possibly be thought of as funny is completely beyond me. It's about as funny as a train wreck or cancer.

As someone else mentioned, had Starshine stopped at the folks who choose a dietary lifestyle and then impose their sanctimonious nonsense on the world around them, it would have been hilariously funny. When she drifted into bashing people with health problems, it was no longer funny, it was offensive.

She can write and think whatever she wishes, and I can choose to not read it. I can also choose to speak my mind, which I have done.

Not funny, Starshine.

Holly, I don't understand why it matters if you have chosen your diet or not. Clearly the point is that some people don't like talking about the characteristics of food as it relates other people's health conditions or feel uncomfortable hearing about why the foods they enjoy are bad for them.

I and many others enjoy talking about the characteristics of food and how it interacts with our bodies because it is a fascinating topic and a fulcrum of our existence. Whether it is the morality of treating animals a certain way, how the foods affect our metabolism and what kind of nutrients they provide or learning about the causes of why some of these dietary conditions are increasing I think these things are all worthy of discussion.

That said, I saw this as a light-hearted article that went after pretty much anyone and everyone who has ever decided to try any sort of dietary restriction.

Joe-Joe's > Oreos

I loved this - thanks Starshine - I needed a good laugh today - by the way, I am down in Louisiana now and have to pretend that lots of things are vegetables - keep up the good work - you spoke right to me! Salud

"Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”
- Anthony Bourdain, “Kitchen Confidential ,” p. 70

I understand folks that have diabetes, gluten enteropathy, obey kosher and hallal and other strict religious dietary laws or other legitimate medical conditions; the rest of you......well good luck but not around me please!

I am a Registered Nurse, Nutritionist, and I like a good joke or "tongue-in-cheek" pun as much as anyone, however this I did not find humorous in the least. The author and many of the commenters of the article are that bully clique everyone hated in school; unintelligent, uninformed, insensitive, mean, and extremely selfish.
Well bullies, I challenge you to actually study nutrition, to watch Forks Over Knives, or Food Matters, or read The China Study for starters; and then come back here and tell us ONE SINGLE GOOD THING that comes from eating gluten, meat, dairy, or eggs. (don't even try "protein" because along with all of that protein comes the baggage of cholesterol and saturated fat which plant and gluten free protein are 100% FREE of!) There are absolutely all pros and no cons to eating gluten free and vegan, even if you do not have diagnosed Celiac Disease! You are condoning the unhealthiest foods on the planet (go on, I dare you to do the research!) and making yourself feel better about it by condemning the ones who know better! Shame on you! Those of you who condemn, bully, or otherwise "poke fun at" vegetarians, vegans, Celiacs, etc. are ignorant and immature. Plain and simple. Grow up.

I believe this article's intention may have been to be humorous, but instead has gone awry and condones the immature and thoughtless behavior of a racist or homophobe. To each his own? Absolutely! Freedom of speech? Sure? But can't we live and llet live? Must we continuously bash those whose thoughts or ideals are different from our own?

I think vegans are onto something BIG. Eating dead flesh and drinking fluid from a cow causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. More people die each hour from meat and dairy induced diseases than the murders on 9/11. But unlike 9/11, the deaths and the sickness that clogs the arteries of our society keep on striking. Have you seen the documentary "The Last Heart Attack" with president Bill Clinton featured? It is entirely possible for our society to never suffer another heart attack, not even one! But we have to be willing to stop eating other living animals and their unborn (eggs) and drinking their milk. If you think about it, that is simply disgusting!

So instead of us condemning those whose beliefs or knowledge we dont understand and then laughing it off to make yourself feel better about continuing in your ways of eating that are slowly killing you; how about you and I wake up and smell the coffee? Maybe we are the ones who are eating weird, and everytime at a gathering they tell us the health benefits of veganism see it for what it is: they are trying to save our life as well as all the lives of the animals who die for our dinner.

And gluten free, seriously, you would dare condemn a medical condition? I don't see you writing about alcoholics and their "weird" attraction to drink, or condemning Diabetics for avoiding desserts. You can't have it both ways! Either you accept people for who they are and how they eat, or you dont. Don't hide behind your prejudice with humor. It really isn't funny.

I am not a vegan (yet, but considering it) or a gluten free person, but if I were, you would definitely offend me and everyone else who cares about their health. Seriously people, this is not kindergarten, and you should not treat people this way.

I found this article hysterical and after reading all the other comments I went and re-read the article to see where exactly Starshine was making fun of people with celiacs disease. Oh wait...she didn't. Some other person brought it up and the rest of you simply followed...did you even read the whole article or just act like sheep and jump off someones comment? I fully agree with Starshine and her humorus article, I dont believe that its meant to make fun of babies with peanut allergies. Rather to make fun of the idiots who read the latest cosmo and change their entire lifestyles because someone wrote that an orange juice, salt and cayanne pepper clense will cure cancer and cellulite. People need to calm the F down and she is entitled to her opinion just as much as you are.

i rolled my eyes so much while reading these comments i got dizzy and had to lie down.

During my childhood I stayed awake at night from fear of being attacked by glutens.

I posted a response to this article here http://www.glutenfreefaces.com/forum/... after reading it on the Ventura Star. I realize that Starshine did not call out celiacs in particluar but used the phrase gluten-free as some of you pointed out, but it is the same to us. irresistiblyglutenfree made one of the best points here "...when someone writes an article that ridicules gluten free, it just gives the clueless reader who stumbled upon it one more reason to pass a judgement when confronted with it." We already face this type of ridicule daily and not just from strangers. It is a pretty sensitive topic considering it is so new, all the attention it gets and the seriousness for those affected, because for so many people it is not a choice like veganism etc. I admit there are those who do talk about it a lot and it can seema bit much, well it is their daily life. Not to mention I have been in those situations where people are soooo bothered by you not eating that there is no way to get them to lay off accept give them the cold hard facts, some people can not let it go you don't want to eat their cookies. And when you explain, you are now the Debbie Downer. Anyway, I want to thank Starshine for visiting the gluten-free side (my post) and leaving a response to our grievances. I thought it was classy, but I am still mad ;)

This just in ... Tennis fans know that Novak Djokovic won the men's U.S. Open championship this week in NYC and has been on an unstoppable roll all year long.

His secret? One apparently is he changed to a gluten-free diet!

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/arti...

And here's Djokovic's humorous comments about his gluten-free diet voiced during his post-match press conference (starts at 8:20 mins into the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb-cNA...