How can it be that such a simple thing could raise so much ire, and provoke so much wrath, in so many people. The news headlines are loaded with stories in which everyone from doctors to sanitation department workers hanging on the back of a garbage truck are given free access to the media to pontificate to their heart's content about the dangers and the sins of following a gluten-free diet without a celiac diagnosis. The fact that no one is holding a gun to their heads in order to force them to follow the same diet obviously has nothing to do with it. And it's equally clear that logic has nothing to do with it, since there's nothing inherently harmful or sinful about anyone cutting gluten out of their diet. Clearly, gluten must poison the brain. How else can we explain such irrational behavior?
Why does it matter to them so much that they feel obligated to promote a crusade to eradicate all free-lance gluten-free dieting, when it doesn't even affect them in any way? And for several years now, researchers have been working valiantly to "prove" that non-celiac gluten sensitivity doesn't even exist. And of course as we all know, if you cherry-pick the data, you can prove virtually anything you want, and these days, most researchers appear to be certified "cherry-pickers", because it gains them plenty of research money from funding organizations that have an agenda to promote.
Could this be part of the pathetic "tweeting mentality" that has arisen in the world today, where once-logically-thinking people now seem to believe that it is their duty to have an opinion on virtually everything that happens anywhere in the world today, and they actually believe that everyone else in the world is waiting anxiously to hear or read that opinion? And of course those who fall victim to the "tweeting mentality" syndrome quickly "learn" that all they have to do to solve the world's problems is to tweet about it or retweet it and they can go to bed at night confident that they have done their part to make the world better.
So I'm expecting a hashtag and retweet frenzy to occur any day now, as the geniuses who frequent twitter decide to stamp out the gluten-free movement once and for all.
And if that doesn't work, it wouldn't surprise me to see some idiot legislator propose a bill to impose a fine and/or prison sentence (for repeat offenders) for anyone caught not eating gluten at every meal (without an official celiac diagnosis).Is the world going nuts? Or is the problem simply that we are more likely to hear from the nuts. Unfortunately, reporters who work for the media, seem to love nuts, which is understandable, since radical ideas (no matter how distasteful or corrupt) tend to attract more viewers/readers. Logical, common-sense, every-day articles don't sell newspapers and magazines, or attract tv viewers. The stories that attract attention have to be controversial and/or off-beat almost to the point of absurdity.
But I digress. To get back to the point of this post, not since the days of Nazi Germany have so many people been persecuted for no logical reason. That kind of radical behavior can't possibly be categorized as normal. Either there is a lot of money to be made by opposing the gluten-free movement, or gluten poisons the brain, and causes irrational behavior. What other explanations could possibly exist for this phenomenon where seemingly-normal people turn into crusading zealots?
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