Still Waiting for those Golden Years: Organic Gluten

I recently ate in a restaurant that had a long list of options for food allergies and preferences. Each option had its own icon and each menu item was marked with a string of icons. The list ran the gamut from gluten to peanuts and some that I had never heard of. I once took an entire family out to dinner and one of the children had several severe food allergies. It took us quite a bit of negotiating to arrive at a restaurant that was acceptable to the family. Well-meaning friends in the past had given the child food containing peanut products and that oversight had landed the child in the hospital. It was interesting to see the contrast between the restaurants that were entirely unaware of the problem and the one with the long list of options.

Having helped raise seven children, I am well aware of food preferences. We also have first-hand experience with lactose intolerance and some food allergies. But I am concerned that the appropriate reaction to some real and serious food allergies and intolerances are being clouded over by inappropriate adoption of fad intolerances. Two terms that have become overworked are "gluten-free" and "organic." Here is a short summary of the first issue with gluten:

Gluten intolerance is often mistaken for celiac disease, but they are separate conditions. Celiac disease is a severe autoimmune disease, and it can damage a person's digestive system.
Unlike celiac disease, however, it is unclear why the symptoms of gluten intolerance happen, but it does not appear to involve the immune system or damage the gastrointestinal or GI tract.
People also, sometimes, mistake gluten intolerance for a wheat allergy.
A wheat allergy can be life-threatening, as some symptoms can impair breathing or cause a loss of consciousness, which is not the case with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
The symptoms of gluten intolerance are less severe than celiac disease or a wheat allergy, and people know much less about the condition.

The problem with self-diagnosis of gluten intolerance is that the symptoms all have other very common causes. Deciding you have a medical condition after reading a list of symptoms is a dangerous practice. One basic way to determine any type of food intolerance is to keep a detailed food diary that lists all of the foods eaten and any adverse symptoms. Because the symptoms are common and both gluten intolerance or celiac disease are relatively uncommon, it is important to seek medical attention before automatically eliminating gluten from your diet. Meanwhile, the labeling appearing on almost any kind of food stating that it is "gluten-free" is creating a false impression of the incidence of the problem.

I am guessing that most people do not know the technical and medical reasons for "gluten-free" labels and this is especially true when the labels are on products which could not possibly contain gluten such as rice or beans. The problem of having a proliferation of labels saying "gluten-free" is that people begin assuming that the condition is more prevalent than it is in reality.

One other new alarm is even less defined than gluten-free and that is labeling various foods as "organic." The term itself is meaningless. All plant and animal-based foods are organic. What the term has come to mean is a bundle of assumptions that do not necessarily have to be at all consistent. However, there is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) definition that is scattered over a number of publications. These various rules and statutes are summarized as follows:

Organic is a labeling term that indicates that the food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved methods. The organic standards describe the specific requirements that must be verified by a USDA-accredited certifying agent before products can be labeled USDA organic. 

Overall, organic operations must demonstrate that they are protecting natural resources, conserving biodiversity, and using only approved substances.

The requirements and regulations vary from product to product. The real issue is that there are no regulations for using the term "organic" in advertising or labeling. The real issue is whether or not the product has a USDA Organic Label. If you want to start learning about the meaning of the organic label, here is a good place to start: "The USDA's Meaningless Organic Label."

If you believe you have a food allergy, get proper medical evaluation. If you think it is worth spending more for organic food, take the time to learn about what you are really getting for your money. Here is a statement from the above-cited article to get you thinking:

At the release of the final national organic standards, then–Secretary of Agriculture Dan
Glickman declared, “Those who want to buy organic can do so with the confidence of knowing exactly what it ist hat they’re buying.” But a few sentences later in the same speech he emphasized
its meaninglessness: 

Let me be clear about one thing: the organic label is a marketing tool. it is not a statement about food safety. nor is “organic” a value judgment about nutrition or quality.