I believe "gluten-free" is proof of people's adherence to gossip without any individual contemplation or research. Lots of people say they try to maintain a diet without any gluten because it causes weight gains. This is completely, utterly false. It's a harmless protein found in grains that often helps breads rise. Gluten-free products started appearing on shelves because a portion of the population is actually allergic to it; it's like we now see nut-free desserts to cater to those who can't eat it. It had nothing to do with healthy lifestyle like the sudden surge of organic products or weight loss like the Atkin's Diet. It's literally for people whose stomachs cannot take gluten.

Until people started picking it up for those reasons. Now shit is being marketed for that reason. I'm trying to figure out how this happened. Is it because people saw "gluten free," assumed that it must be something bad because why else would a company remove it, and then decide to adhere to it even though they don't know what it is or their information is from hearsay? That's the best guess I've got, but then again I don't have information about this either. All I know for certain is if these people actually talked to their doctors or did some preliminary research — hell, even just glanced at wikipedia — there wouldn't be this nonsense.