I like gluten-free beer.
So, every so often I’ll mosey down the road to the local health food store and score myself a six-pack before the big game.
A couple months ago, while swiping my debit card to complete my purchase, the guy bagging my brewskies initiated an awkward discourse. It went like this…
Bagger: Do you have celiac?
Me: No, I don’t.
Bagger: Then why are you buying gluten-free beer?
He had that I-should-be-rolling-my-eyes-but-I’m-at-work look on his face, as if I were some dunce just following the gluten-free crowd.
If I had the time I would have broken into full YouTube video mode and dropped some truth bombs on him, but the checker was already handing me my receipt.
So I replied…
Me: Well, I just prefer to protect my digestive lining and immune system. Have a good night.
I walked away wondering what that was all about. Since when did the bagger at the local market start snidely questioning my personal grocery decisions?
Turns out an anti-gluten-free story had been making its way around the internet, quoting a published 2013 study claiming that there were absolutely no effects of gluten on people who did not have celiac disease.
In other words, if you don’t have celiac you don’t have to avoid gluten.
Thus the cross-examination from bagger dude.
And it wasn’t just him. That very same night, I was watching Chelsea Lately and actress Charlize Theron went on a rant about how “gluten-free is bullsh*t”.
Her words, not mine.
I was so ticked off, I had to open up my Twitter and let her know how I felt about her.
Anyway, a couple weeks later I was hanging out with our friend and Gluten Summit host, Dr. Tom O’Bryan. Of course, I asked what he thought about the matter — not just the story itself, but the actually study it was supposedly quoting.
Speaking of the study, I highly doubt the blogger who started this nonsense even read it.
Shame.
Click HERE to watch a fired-up Dr. Tom tell you what the study REALLY said during his Digestion Sessions presentation.
Maybe my bagger will leave me alone now.
Sean