I don't know if this has been posted--didn't see it. Interesting about the tax deduction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/healt ... ml?_r=1&em
NYT Article on expense of eating gluten free
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Hazel,
It certainly is more expensive. I don't eat many of the GF products but I do buy them for my son.
When I read articles or hear people talk about gluten free being "trendy" I often cite the cost. No one would maintain strict adherence to this diet if they didn't have to. I believe a paleo diet is less expensive, but most people opt to mimic their former diet patterns by consuming GF replacements.
From what I understand, the tax deduction isn't worth the bother, and most people wouldn't qualify.
Thanks for sharing.
Mary Beth
It certainly is more expensive. I don't eat many of the GF products but I do buy them for my son.
When I read articles or hear people talk about gluten free being "trendy" I often cite the cost. No one would maintain strict adherence to this diet if they didn't have to. I believe a paleo diet is less expensive, but most people opt to mimic their former diet patterns by consuming GF replacements.
From what I understand, the tax deduction isn't worth the bother, and most people wouldn't qualify.
Thanks for sharing.
Mary Beth
Kathy,
Thanks for posting that link. That article contains a very insightful observation, that had never occurred to me before:
With that in mind, I'm going to predict that when Dr. Fasano's "anti-zonulin" pills hit the market, celiac disease diagnostic rates will skyrocket, (and probably NCGS diagnostic rates, also, soon afterwards. Doctors love to write prescriptions for pills.
The really scary part of that observation above, is the fact that just as we've always suspected, drug companies, (together with insurance companies), do indeed determine our medical treatments - doctors are simply middlemen, performing according to the whims of Big Pharma.
I agree with Mary Beth, that trying to deduct GF food on an income tax return, is not likely to be worth the effort. First off, not many people are justified in itemizing their personal expenses, (it's hard to find enough qualified deductions to exceed 7.5% of the adjusted gross income - though anyone with large out-of-pocket medical expenses can certainly qualify), and you can only deduct the difference between the cost of "regular" food, and GF food. Besides, you would need to save all those receipts, to defend your deductions, if an IRS agent should decide to challenge your claim. All that makes the standard deduction look pretty appealing, for most taxpayers.
Tex
Thanks for posting that link. That article contains a very insightful observation, that had never occurred to me before:
That sentence that I've highlighted in red, says it all. We usually just assume that physicians get their training in med school, and finish it with an internship, and residency at a hospital. Once that's behind them, though, they do indeed get most of their further training from Big Pharma, on a routine basis. It's no wonder that gluten sensitivity is virtually ignored in the medical community. Why would a drug company rep bring it up?Some doctors blame drug makers, in part, for the lack of awareness and the lack of support. “The drug makers have not been interested in celiac because, until very recently, there have been no medications to treat it,” said Dr. Peter Green, director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. “And since drug makers are responsible for so much of the education that doctors receive, the medical community is largely unaware of the disease.”
With that in mind, I'm going to predict that when Dr. Fasano's "anti-zonulin" pills hit the market, celiac disease diagnostic rates will skyrocket, (and probably NCGS diagnostic rates, also, soon afterwards. Doctors love to write prescriptions for pills.
The really scary part of that observation above, is the fact that just as we've always suspected, drug companies, (together with insurance companies), do indeed determine our medical treatments - doctors are simply middlemen, performing according to the whims of Big Pharma.
I agree with Mary Beth, that trying to deduct GF food on an income tax return, is not likely to be worth the effort. First off, not many people are justified in itemizing their personal expenses, (it's hard to find enough qualified deductions to exceed 7.5% of the adjusted gross income - though anyone with large out-of-pocket medical expenses can certainly qualify), and you can only deduct the difference between the cost of "regular" food, and GF food. Besides, you would need to save all those receipts, to defend your deductions, if an IRS agent should decide to challenge your claim. All that makes the standard deduction look pretty appealing, for most taxpayers.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I saw this article yesterday. When I first went GF, I bought all the expensive products, and yes, there's definitely sticker shock! Now that I eat mostly Paleo, except for rice, I've found that my grocery bills are less than they were before I went GF, despite the fact that I almost always buy organic products, which are generally more expensive. There was an article in our local paper about a woman who feeds a family of ten on $120 a week. She had a good point, which was that the same people who say it's too expensive to buy healthy food are often filling their carts with processed foods that cost far more. I have to confess, though, that I'd probably still be buying the GF "replacement" items if they didn't include so many of my other intolerances.
Courtney
Courtney
Hypothyroid 05/05
LC/CC 07/08
Celiac 07/08
LC/CC 07/08
Celiac 07/08
Joan,
I loved the line about being the healthfood stores "new best friend!" Ain't it the truth!
Interestingly, my brother-in-law commented that their grocery bills had gone way down once my sister went on the gfdfefsfyf diet a few years ago. Basically, they both ate the same things in the evening, so there was no duplication there.
Agreed that eliminating the specialty gf, etc. processed foods is much less expensive, but I think it would be much more difficult if it were a child I was having to feed instead of myself, due to things like peer pressure and kids wanting to eat the same things that their friends eat, or at least something that looks like it.
Speaking of taxes, an accountant recently told me that it wouldn't be worth it to figure up the extra expense of a special diet such as gf. She wasn't even asking if I would be willing or had the time to run around to the regular groceries to check on the differences in price.
I think that if one has a legit expense, there's just a tendency for people to not always list them for fear of an audit. It's a shame, but that's the way it's gotten to be -- honest people fearing the government while the crooks get away with murder, hopefully, not for long.
I would love to see how much the diagnoses for the whole country for celiac disease have gone up in recent years. It seems that we are constantly hearing about people being diagnosed with it in this part of the country. It's almost like instead of being the thing NOT looked for, it's THE THING looked for now.
This is because the various celiac groups in recent years decided that what was needed was a big educational drive to make everyone more aware of the prevalence of the disease as well as the symptoms, treatment, etc. From my experience down here, it appears the efforts are paying off bigtime. I would imagine it's much the same around the country, but no stats have been published to update the low rates of diagnosis from when they were reported earlier. Of course, I do know some people who just don't want to get diagnosed for one reason or the other. That's their right, but they do bring down the average no. of people diagnosed. They may or may not go on the diet, and some just don't do it faithfully. Anyway, it will mess up the stats while it continues to mess up them.
Dr. Fine says that when you go through the progression of the medical treatment of celiac disease, you notice that some time ago, the focus of research among GI researchers switched to the "sexier diseases" as Dr. Fine put it, which were things like Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. I think this may have been related to how quickly people with those latter two conditions can go down hill, and the more obvious mortality early on with those diseases. The unfortunate thing about that, however beneficial it may be for those other poor folks, is that celiac disease research sort of got put on the back burner among researchers.
Also, celiac tended to be thought of as a child's disease back in those days. Who knows why it's shifting into the older age groups, although we have a lot of good ideas about that that we've discussed on both the M.C.-related boards in the past.
Anyway, I'm glad that celiac disease is finally up there with the big boys! It's certainly one of the most life altering diseases one may have if it's not treated agressively with diet.
Yours, Luce
I loved the line about being the healthfood stores "new best friend!" Ain't it the truth!
Interestingly, my brother-in-law commented that their grocery bills had gone way down once my sister went on the gfdfefsfyf diet a few years ago. Basically, they both ate the same things in the evening, so there was no duplication there.
Agreed that eliminating the specialty gf, etc. processed foods is much less expensive, but I think it would be much more difficult if it were a child I was having to feed instead of myself, due to things like peer pressure and kids wanting to eat the same things that their friends eat, or at least something that looks like it.
Speaking of taxes, an accountant recently told me that it wouldn't be worth it to figure up the extra expense of a special diet such as gf. She wasn't even asking if I would be willing or had the time to run around to the regular groceries to check on the differences in price.
I think that if one has a legit expense, there's just a tendency for people to not always list them for fear of an audit. It's a shame, but that's the way it's gotten to be -- honest people fearing the government while the crooks get away with murder, hopefully, not for long.
I would love to see how much the diagnoses for the whole country for celiac disease have gone up in recent years. It seems that we are constantly hearing about people being diagnosed with it in this part of the country. It's almost like instead of being the thing NOT looked for, it's THE THING looked for now.
This is because the various celiac groups in recent years decided that what was needed was a big educational drive to make everyone more aware of the prevalence of the disease as well as the symptoms, treatment, etc. From my experience down here, it appears the efforts are paying off bigtime. I would imagine it's much the same around the country, but no stats have been published to update the low rates of diagnosis from when they were reported earlier. Of course, I do know some people who just don't want to get diagnosed for one reason or the other. That's their right, but they do bring down the average no. of people diagnosed. They may or may not go on the diet, and some just don't do it faithfully. Anyway, it will mess up the stats while it continues to mess up them.
Dr. Fine says that when you go through the progression of the medical treatment of celiac disease, you notice that some time ago, the focus of research among GI researchers switched to the "sexier diseases" as Dr. Fine put it, which were things like Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis. I think this may have been related to how quickly people with those latter two conditions can go down hill, and the more obvious mortality early on with those diseases. The unfortunate thing about that, however beneficial it may be for those other poor folks, is that celiac disease research sort of got put on the back burner among researchers.
Also, celiac tended to be thought of as a child's disease back in those days. Who knows why it's shifting into the older age groups, although we have a lot of good ideas about that that we've discussed on both the M.C.-related boards in the past.
Anyway, I'm glad that celiac disease is finally up there with the big boys! It's certainly one of the most life altering diseases one may have if it's not treated agressively with diet.
Yours, Luce