In a 2013 Mintel Survey, 65 percent of respondents cited “because it’s healthier” as their motivation for going gluten-free, 27 percent do it for “weight loss” and it’s possible that most of these people don’t even know what gluten is.
That’s not to say that some non-Celiac people who go gluten-free don’t actually feel better. But, as dietician Tallmadge points out, this is probably because they cut out desserts and junk foods in cutting out gluten, which would make most people feel better, and then “mistakenly attribute that to their gluten-free decision.”
When all of this is taken into consideration, it makes sense that gluten-free labels are getting put on everything from bread to condiments — if people don’t know what it is but associate it with “healthy” and pay a pretty penny for it, why not?
Until people learn that gluten-free doesn’t mean “healthier” and that, subsequently, the increased price isn’t worth it, food companies will ride this diet fad as far as the profit margins will take them.
