If you want to read more about the “gluten-free” Cheerios debacle, please start here.
Every day for the rest of my life I will have to diligently choose the food I eat. I cannot eat anything with gluten, not just a bite, not a crumb. I get very ill from gluten because I have a medically diagnosed condition, Celiac disease. Others who have similar medical challenges are diagnosed with Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS), which is just as serious. There is nothing we can do to treat our disease other than eat a strict diet free of gluten. If we choose to not treat our disease now, we will deal with cancer, additional concurrent autoimmune diseases, death.
Yesterday, when 1.8 million boxes of Cheerios were recalled for undeclared wheat (and therefore gluten) in the cereal, the internet exploded with people making fun of those who eat gluten-free. They didn’t single out those who are gluten free by choice, they also made fun of those with Celiac disease, NCGS, wheat allergy.
Want to get a look at the things that are said to those of us living with a disease there is no cure for, no treatment for other than eating gluten-free? I encourage you to read these comments. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t make some snarky comment to me about how I eat. And now, thanks to a Fox News post on Facebook, we can get a broad overview of how some members of the public feel about those of us who eat gluten-free.
To sum this up, thanks to the “gluten-free” Cheerios debacle, I have learned that many people think the disease I have is a choice, that I am eating a fad diet, that I am weak and should be culled from the flock. I can only imagine the outrage if people said the same thing about those living with cancer or any other chronic illness. Today I’m sad at the lack of empathy so many have. Not only is the gluten-free community in an all-out struggle to make sure food labeled gluten-free is safe to eat, but also to convince those around them and even on the internet their disease is legitimate. It’s sad.
Comments below were collected from a post on the Fox News Facebook page. Fox News shared the General Mills recall and isn’t responsible for these comments.
It’s a generation of sissies. Shut up and eat.
Yep I’ll eat ’em! The sickening vomit people are vomiting again, aren’t they?
Yet nobody noticed. Only after are people like, yeah, I don’t feel so good… hahaha, wusses.
Send me the cereal. I’ll eat it! Time to stop making a case for the minority of people. When I was a kid and growing up, there was NO such thing of this crap!
I smoke gluten…
I’ll eat it, no problem for me! I never saw a real live gluten, anyway!
What a rediculous scam….what can we make up next?
We should be more tolerant of gluttons!!!
d
Wonder how they figured it out, did someones dick fly off?
The newest band wagon to jump on. Have at it ya’ll!
Unfortunately, hippies don’t have computers or tvs…so they’ll never know.
All four of the people with wheat allergies are ruining it for everyone else
9 out of 10 won’t even notice, it’s kinda like climate change or whatever
Oh, the horror of it all!!!
Oh no! Cereal that has something edible left in it! Look out!
The horror…..
Ha this is funny.
so aren’t this people smart enough not to buy it. duh, what about the outer 329 million that can,
How the hell did we survive as kids in the 70’s and 80’s???
When did people turn into sissies? Seriously? Ugh
This just in….this could affect up to 1% of the population. (maybe)
Gluten isn’t real
This is a modern invention of someones mind.
How did people even survive before the gluten free frenzy??? I’m pretty sure 99% of these folks are just looking for a disease to have.
All the hipsters and fat housewives buy gluten free stuff
OMG Not Gluten!
Who gives a sh:t
Poor baby’s.
For 10000 years we have been eating Gluten now it kills us. Go figure.
So it’s going to actually bother 3 people in the u.s
America’s biggest problem. #ItsTheGlutensFault
Gluten and bottled water. The biggest scams ever. Like organic.
Helicopter parents everywhere going crazy.
Lol weed out the weak ones!
Let them eat the cereal….it’s called natural selection
Im allergic to gluten-free products. Send them to my address pre paid, thank you.
Dumbest news ever!
How the hell did we all make it this long.
Anyone who didn’t have an allergic reaction has got to turn in their hipster card…
Deadly wheat! Really?
Does anyone not cheat anymore?
I want extra gluten
AHAHAHAHA! Buy water. Ridiculous.
And no one died.
The horror!
Hopefully all the GLBT people they have been suckling upto get affected
Join the world. Leave your bubble behind
Well we gotta get rid of those people somehow, shouldn’t have recalled
Funny thing is no one noticed……as long as the box said it everyone was fine.
Pass it my way. ….I don’t believe in the glue crap
Mercy mercy. Never heard of gluton in the 50’s.
Oh No they ate wheat!!!
So it may affect a few dozen people.
About 1% of the worlds population has celiac but it seems like 90% of Facebook users has it. Kinda funny!
Gluten free is a crock of sh*t!
Gluten free – the new fad.
So what. Don’t have allergies.
It says gluten free so people think its better for you in reality nope not so much
Allergic to gluten! What a crock of s**t! It’s bulls**t. A made up ailment.
If they are really allergic let them eat corn flakes. Or f**king die.
Might be like six people affected and it will just prove that the like gluten too.
Gluten its whats for breakfast if not well you might be a panzy
“I can’t eat that; it’s not gluten-free,” said no one in the Third World ever
I hope they recalled them to put some gluten in them.
Most doctors even say this is just a stupid fad, and that most people who claim gluten allergies are making it up.
Very, very, very few people have a gluten intolerance, although many, many think they have one. People have been eating gluten since the beginning of time. Welcome to the 2000’s where poor health habit symptoms has to be blamed on something.
Gluten allergies are pretty much a myth.
Omfg…. gluten free is a scam..
What the heck is this gluten allergy. I never heard of gluten until a couple of years ago.
People have been eating gluten for a thousand years or more. All the gluten allergic people should all be dead by now.
What kind of loser is allergic to gluten?
Gluten free is for wussies!!!
Man….I long for the days when “gluten free” sounded like you were getting gluten without paying….
There was no such thing as a gluten allergy when I was a kid
Most people probably hear their doctor say glutton..and think he said gluten.
God are u serious its from people not eating real food . that’s where the allergies come from picky eaters . . doctor said I was going to be a allergy baby . I can eat anything . roll in poison ivy . people cry because cucumbers make them burp. If a real plague comes around the weak will go first.
And what percent of the population requires gluten–free foods? Next, they’ll sue the chicken because they’re allergic to eggs….
Gluten free cough drops, cat food, dog food, tuna, ??? Boy, someone is getting filthy rich ! Rice cakes and Rice Milk full of arsenic, some gluten free people may already be dead !
Gluten free is the Rich people’s way of saying they’re better than you
Gluten allergies were proven fake years ago. Most aren’t rich enough to have this supposed allergy.
Gluten, oh NNNNOOOOOO!!
Ha! Ha! Be careful you .05% of the general population that actually has gluten allergies.
Ha! No one said anything, which means gluten intolerance is a farce!
What B.S. !! Gluten free ? Gluten intolerant ? It’s a politically correct fad these days to be allergic to something that has existed in our diets for century’s !
Meanwhile, no one noticed. Except the 3 people who have Celiac disease who really can’t eat gluten.
Good. I love gluten.
Gluten free. Just another way to jack up prices on food. Give me a break. Has anyone died from gluten yet?
Lol…”gluten free.”
Until I was 60 I never heard of allergies to peanuts, milk, now gluten and believe this is a group of fake allergies to promote medical care and drugs ! I am only allergic to the 9 th. beer !
People aid wheat as a staple for thousands of years and all of a sudden all these people are gluten intolerant?
How many people are actually ALLERGIC to gluten? I thought it was some extremely rare disease where people can’t eat it. Otherwise, the gluten-free thing is a silly fad.
Stop being babies. It’s been proven that people are not gluten free.
What did people do when there wasn’t gluten free foods?????
They either avoided certain foods or put on their big people panties and ate like normal people. We have a generation of sissies.
This is what happens when you start down this path of trying to please everyone. Gluten has been around since people started using wheat and suddenly everyone has an allergy to it. If you want to make one special Cheerios for gluten free have at it, but it isn’t necessary to take the gluten out of all of General Mills products. This is insane! This message brought to you by the I Love Gluten Foundation! LOL Me!
These so called “gluten free” people will get over it
Gluten is GOOD food !
The gluten scare like most food scares has been debunked.
Gluten allergy? Is this like the peanut allergy? What a joke!
Gluten allergies started about 8 years ago…90% of people asked have no idea why they are gluten free…”It’s just cool to be that”. Get over it and eat food.
lol sux to be them I love Gluten! Gluten free is for wieners
No such thing as a “gluten allergy”. Same as latex. You may be sensitive to it, but there is no allergy. No one has died from gluten, it’s a scam. Just something else for the whiny masses to pounce on.
Gluten allergies are fake.
Did gluten allergies exist 15 years ago, I never saw gluten free products back then. Must be mostly a hypochondriac thing
Gluten! Peanuts! Lactose Intolerance! Oh my!!!!
Gluten allergies are a fad diet.
Most people who think they are allergic to gluten don’t even know what it is!!! Lol
Gluten allergies never existed a few years ago. Suck it up sissy
Breaking News: 1.7 million people had no reaction cause they don’t have celiacs disease, but easy gluten free cause it’s the in thing
The 3 people with gluten allergies
The only reaction to gluten is you get fat. That’s not allergy.
People are morons. Not this many people have gluten allergies.
Most people need gluten in their diet! Gluten allergy is very rare! Just another advertisement ploy!
Thank god most people with gluten allergies don’t actually have a gluten allergy…
Yes, all 4 people in the world that really have gluten allergies..
I remember a time before it was “cool” to have a gluten allergy.
Rofl. oMG. The whole gluten thing is a scam. Only one percent of the population of the US has the disease call celiac which is an intolerance to gluten. All you idiots that go on gluten free diets are simply idiots. Trust me the people that have a problem with gluten, all 1% of the population of the US will be fine. This is all a marketing scam. Eat products with gluten. It’s good for you and you need some gluten. Lol. Do any of you even know what it is and cause if your sensitive to gluten? Doubt it. Scam scam scam. Educate yourselves about it.
I’m not rich enough to have a gluten allergy
This is exactly why I am so upset. GM put wheat in our food and continues to make the celiac and gluten-free community the butt of thousands of jokes.
Right. Because it wasn’t already hard enough.
I’m mad about so much of this. I am rarely mad, but this makes me mad. The whole situation. Seriously, GM could have just done it right in the first place and we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this.
I agree with Erin. Dealing with all this all the time is enough, but then GM doesn’t take our health needs seriously (understatement) and it gives a whole other group of people an opportunity to bash us. Sometimes it’s easy to ignore such ignorant comments, but other times they truly make you want to cry … or throw something!
Shirley
All of that, I have wanted to cry or throw something or come up with the ability to ignore the comments. I want to have words with those who dabble in eating gluten-free, have a conversation with our fellow gluten-free writers and ask why they continue to endorse a product that has made hundreds ill, have a conversation with the folks at GM trying to fix this. And I also want to send truly, really, actually gluten-free cookies to the social media guy over at General Mills dealing with all of this. I feel bad for him.
I think we’ve had those conversations online already, to no avail, but I will keep hoping and dreaming (when I’m not pushing forward otherwise). The social media guy probably detests gf folks now.
For any of those people who think it’s a sham, I GLADLY welcome them to join me in the bathroom after I’ve been glutened. Maybe then they will realize it’s no joke. Until then, maybe if someone put “just a little” arsenic in their food maybe they’d realize? That’s usually my response when I ask if something is gluten free and I hear “well, there’s only a LITTLE bread crumbs in there, not enough to hurt you”. How would you like a little arsenic with your meal? Not so much, huh?
::shaking head::
Let’s invite them to join us in the bathroom or for the days afterwards when we don’t feel well. I wish just once each of these people could experience what it feels like…or maybe experience the health challenges we had before diagnosis. I kinda feel bad for people who are so mean and lacking in empathy…but not bad enough to share the insanely decadent gluten-free cookies I just pulled out of the oven with them. 😉
#celiaclivesmatter
Sure. I need **another** disease on top of the other 4 autoimmune diseases I have and Stage 4 Rectal Cancer with Lung Metastases. Sure. I’ll just add Celiac to the list and make it 5 autoimmune diseases and cancer because I just want to have a disease. Give me a flippin’ break! Because we make up only 1% of the population we don’t deserve to have safe food to eat when the food manufacture tells us it’s safe? I’m a wussy????? I’m a pansy????? Try living with Type 1 Diabetes, Celiac Disease, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Pernicious Anemia, Lymphocytic Colitis, Kidney Disease, Retinal Disease, Gastroparesis and Stage 4 Metastatic Cancer. I’d give any one of these people 2 hours walking in my life and they’d WUSS out. I am LIVID! Fuming mad!! GM has stirred a hornet’s nest on both sides but we will be the only losers. Breaks my heart. I have to go cry now.
Hugs to you, Patricia!
I agree with you completely. General Mills has made a mess of all of this. So much absence of compassion and empathy all around.
To quote my YOGA INSTRUCTOR just last week “Gluten free is a first world problem.” Come on people. Yep, if I lived in other parts of the world I would probably be dead. My mom would have watched me starve to death as a newborn because she didn’t have the benefit of infant formula. If I had made it, I know I would have watched my son die of starvation if I didn’t have the benefit of infant formula. Along with the luxuries of these things that make life possible for all, I would think our society could have developed a little more compassion with it.
I agree, more compassion and empathy would be wonderful.
I’m not sure about your yoga instructor’s statement though. Since I wasn’t there, I don’t know the intent of her statement. Celiac disease and NCGS are most apparent in first world countries, but they do exist elsewhere. Gluten-free fad dieting, definitely a first world problem. My concern is seeing them lumped together. Many diseases could be considered first world problems, I guess, as treatment would be a true luxury when the struggle to stay alive revolves around find clean drinking water.