When Christy Luedtka first learned it was necessary to eliminate gluten from her son’s diet, she felt sadness for the loss of what could have been.
“I was going through a kind of grieving period, where I was mourning the loss of this perfect childhood that I had envisioned for my baby,” said Luedtka, president of Arizona’s chapter of the Celiac Disease Foundation.
Her son had been diagnosed with celiac disease. For a mother who had no knowledge about how to remove basic foods — including pasta, bread and pastries — from her 1-year-old child’s diet, this was a daunting term.
“He was very, very sick until that point, and when we got the diagnosis, I had no idea what gluten was,” Luedtka said. “I had no idea what celiac was. I had no idea what I was doing.”
Today, five years after the diagnosis that initially forced Luedtka to face a difficult transition to completely gluten-free meals, an unexpected trend is on the rise.
As celiac disease patients long for normal diets, increasing numbers of people are independently choosing to eat gluten-free foods, often citing their belief in the diet’s healthiness as the reason behind their decision.
This has not only caused various effects for patients of celiac disease and gluten intolerance, but it has also led to changes in the products businesses offer.
The medical side of the trend
Celiac disease affects less than 1 percent of the population, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, causing allergic responses to gluten, bowel problems and more issues throughout the body.
“You can become anemic and you can become fatigued,” said Dr. Matt Anderson, a celiac disease expert and primary care physician at HonorHealth. “That’s because your body is recognizing gluten as a foreign substance. If you think about the classic allergy responses, like when pollen gets to your nose and you have an allergic response, that’s essentially what’s happening when you eat gluten.”
Non-celiac gluten intolerance, a basic sensitivity to gluten that Anderson likened to lactose intolerance, has also caused uncomfortable responses to gluten.
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He said the rise of the gluten-free diet trend does not correlate with a change in the number of diagnoses of these medical conditions, which has not increased significantly. Instead, Anderson said an increase in mass media coverage and marketing about the potential consequences of eating gluten have made people more aware of potential damages associated with celiac disease.
“Any time people are more aware of something, they’re going to be talking to the doctors more,” Anderson said. “They’re going to be looking for gluten-free products. I don’t think the actual incidents of celiac disease have increased. I think people are just recognizing it in themselves more and talking to the doctor more. I think more people are having that conversation.”
Despite the widespread belief that gluten products can bring negative health consequences, Anderson said eating gluten-free generally brings no true health benefits.
“You don’t have to worry about eating gluten-free,” he said. “There’s no specific health benefit to eating gluten-free for your average person who doesn’t have celiac disease and doesn’t have any type of gluten intolerance.”
Anderson said gluten-free products are likely perceived as healthy nowadays because of their low quantities of carbohydrates, especially sugars. This has made the inclusion of gluten-free foods in new diets more common.
“In general, we tend to eat too many carbohydrates with our American diet, so anytime you’re limiting carbohydrates, it’s a good thing,” Anderson said. “The benefits of eating gluten-free for your average person is just your decrease in carbohydrates. There’s no specific long-term health benefit to eating gluten-free.”
Businesses and gluten-free options
The continued perception of gluten-free products as nutritious has caused a rise in the number of gluten-free options nationwide. Downtown Phoenix is no exception.
At least five vegan eateries, which commonly provide a wide assortment of gluten-free meals, opened in the downtown area in the past five years: Bragg’s Pie Factory, The Coronado, Nami, Treehouse Bakery and Vegan House.
While Bragg’s recently closed, The Coronado and Vegan House both opened their doors this year.
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In addition, fully vegan restaurant Green New American Vegetarian has been a downtown staple since 2006.
Diana Torres, an employee at Green, said she has seen an increase in demand for gluten-free foods.
While some customers seeking gluten-free products do have celiac disease or gluten intolerance, Torres said some are simply following the diet trend.
“Because there is a lot of processed wheat, a lot of people are growing a sensitivity to it, but I also think that it’s a really big fad,” Torres said.
With the rise in vegan restaurants offering gluten-free foods, many franchises are also offering gluten-free or gluten-friendly options. The latter is susceptible to cross-contamination, the mixing of gluten products into otherwise gluten-free foods, and often geared toward people who choose a gluten-free diet.
Chipotle and Pita Jungle are just two franchises with downtown locations that are known for their gluten-free options. Earlier this year, Pizza Hut started selling gluten-free products as well.
Torres said she believed the increase in demand for gluten-free options is due to perceptions about what gluten is, in addition to hype about gluten-free products providing a clear mind and body.
“People perceive wheat as being bread, which people deem as being bad, so I think that’s why a lot of people are going gluten-free,” she said.
Effect on celiac disease patients
For people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, the rise of the gluten-free diet trend has increased the accessibility of gluten-free products.
“There’s been a lot more interest in it,” Luedtka said. “Companies are more willing to produce gluten-free products. There’s much more availability of gluten-free items now, which makes life a lot easier.”
However, as restaurants increasingly thrive off the trend, the fad comes with a darker side for people with gluten allergies. With the perception that all gluten-free eating is an unnecessary fad, cross-contamination (often associated with the gluten-friendly label), has the potential to cause major damage, Luedtka said.
“The problem with it is that people that aren’t eating gluten-free out of medical necessity generally aren’t concerned with cross-contamination,” Luedtka said. “When they have a cheat day, people see it and don’t think it’s all that serious and that it’s not a big deal. For people with celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, it’s a really big deal. Even a few crumbs in an entire meal can make a celiac patient really ill.”
This has brought increased importance celiac support groups, much like the Arizona East Valley Celiac Support Group, which Luedtka joined when her son was diagnosed.
“In the beginning, when someone is diagnosed and they’re just starting out gluten-free, it’s really hard to change gluten in almost everything,” Luedtka said. “It’s really hard to learn to navigate that, especially if you’re worried about cross-contamination. It makes it really difficult, so it’s really nice to have a support group with someone who has walked in your shoes, who understands what you’re going through and can talk you through it.”
Luedtka said the support group also helps people who are on a gluten-free diet for medical reasons feel less “alone and alienated” in the midst of parties filled with pizza, beer or cake.
“Other people don’t always understand, so it’s nice to have people who have been there, done that and totally understand and make you feel like you’re not the only one with this issue,” Luedtka said.
Future of the gluten-free trend
While the trend currently has a strong hold in consumer behavior, Anderson referred the trend as a “cyclical fad diet,” making it highly doubtful that the gluten-free diet will continue to rise in popularity over a long period of time.
“Honestly, I think there’s going to be something else in the horizon that will pop up and take a little bit of that share of the diet,” Anderson said.
Related: Vegan and vegetarian options are expanding for downtown Phoenix foodies
But because the trend has brought awareness to gluten-free alternatives, the physician also noted that the current availability of gluten-free foods is likely to persist, providing options for celiac disease and gluten intolerant patients.
“It’s going to stick around, because there are people who have true celiac disease, so you’re always going to have some gluten-free alternatives at restaurants and grocery stores,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if the trend is going to continue indefinitely, so at some point in time, it’s going to plateau.”
With the number of people choosing a gluten-free diet still at its peak, Luedtka encourages people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance, as well as parents of kids with these conditions, to look toward support groups for help. She calls her support group her “saving grace.”
“Being able to meet other moms whose children had celiac or were on a gluten-free diet really helped me figure out, number one, how to take care of him, and number two, that it would be okay and life moves on,” Luedtka said. “It gave me a support network to be able to manage everything that needed to happen.”
Contact the reporter at Emily.Liu@asu.edu
