Gluten-free diets, which bar food containing wheat, rye and barley, are wildly popular today. Which is surprising since only about one percent of the U.S. population suffers from Celiac disease, the disorder that causes their immune systems to reject the pesky gluten.
Six months ago, Kara Welter drastically changed her diet by eliminating food that contains wheat, rye or barley.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 eat gluten,鈥� said Welter, a 41-year-old marketing executive in Kansas City. 鈥淚 happened to just try it because I was having stomach issues for years. And it turns out within three days, I stopped having stomach issues.鈥�
Welter鈥檚 gluten decision stemmed from what she read online. Medical tests showed that she did not have a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, the disorder that causes the immune system to reject the gluten.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 care if it鈥檚 the placebo effect it鈥檚 completely changed my life,鈥� she said.
More than even though they haven鈥檛 been instructed by their doctor to do so. And it鈥檚 not just gluten-free foods that consumers are hoping will fix their health woes. People are eating according to their blood type, following low-carb diets and eating like cavemen on the Paleolithic 鈥� or Paleo - diet. With a few clicks of the mouse, they are finding plenty of guidance through Facebook discussions, online recipes and .
In her office at the University of Missouri in Columbia, registered dietician Ellen Schuster said she鈥檚 seeing more people make food decisions by surfing the net, adding that a recent found that 59 percent of adult Americans look online for health information.
鈥淚 do think people are relying on the Internet, they鈥檙e relying on mobile apps, they鈥檙e relying on social media,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I do think that there is -- for some people, not everyone -- there may be distrust of the health care system and people look to friends and other sources of information, family, for, for health conditions.鈥�
Johnna Perry, who teaches in Liberty, Mo., agreed.
鈥淪o many people have gone through doctor after doctor after doctor looking for a way to feel better and not finding that doctor who鈥檚 the puzzle solver for them just yet,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd so they鈥檙e kind of left putting this in their own hands.鈥�
Perry, who does have celiac disease, estimated that half her students are eating gluten-free by choice, not medical necessity.
The word on gluten-free has spread rapidly over the last few years. Gluten-free retail sales , according to the market research group Packaged Facts.
Jen Cafferty, who organizes across the country, has seen the number of people attending them grow from 200 to 10,000 in six years.
鈥淭here are a lot of people trying the diet because it鈥檚 the cool, popular thing to do,鈥� Cafferty said. 鈥淗owever, I also think that there are a lot of people trying the diet because they don鈥檛 feel well. And they鈥檙e hoping that might help with their symptoms.鈥�
University of Missouri dietician Schuster said consumers are looking for a magic bullet.
鈥溾�橶hat is the one thing that I can do? If can remove gluten from the diet, everything will be fine. I鈥檒l feel better,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd of course we know that鈥檚 not true.鈥�
Eliminating certain foods from a diet can be risky said Paula Vandelicht, a nutritionist at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Columbia, Mo. Among other things, she advises customers about the shortcomings of a gluten-free diet.
鈥淯nfortunately if you take out the wheat component of food, that encompasses some of the fiber in your everyday diet,鈥� Vandelicht said. 鈥淪o unless you're getting large numbers of fruits, vegetables, other whole grains such as chia seed or flax seed, you're missing the big fiber component.鈥�
Many gluten-free products on the market are also highly processed and full of added fat and calories.
Still, because so many of her clients are sold on certain diets, Vandelicht said she simply tries to make sure they鈥檙e fully informed 鈥� rather than change their diet.
鈥淚 can't really argue with them if they're saying it makes them feel better other than to show them ways to make sure that they're getting all of the nutrients that they need by following that certain diet,鈥� she said.
What do you think? This story was reported with help from our Harvest Network -- a network of real people that helps inform us about issues facing food producers and consumers. .
