Americans, who—in general—are not scientists, or even very literate, are nevertheless convinced that they must eat "gluten-free" food in order to, uh, [something about health]. Spoiler: if you think this, you are probably wrong!

Yes, there are people who have celiac disease, who are genuinely intolerant of gluten. That's around 1% or less of the population. The rest of you—the other tens of millions of households who buy gluten-free products because of a vague and unsubstantiated belief that it is healthy to do so—are probably just wasting your time, money, and taste buds. And perhaps making yourself less healthy, in the process.

In The New Yorker this week, Michael Specter takes on the gluten-free trend, and comes to the following reasonable conclusions: 1) Wheat has been around for thousands of years, and "provides about twenty per cent of the world's calories and more nourishment than any other source of food." It is unlikely or at least odd that a large portion of humanity would have spontaneously developed an inability to eat it in the past few decades. 2) Maybe all the gluten that's added to bread these days is bad for us? But we don't know! 3) Based on the science we do have, it seems quite possible that even those who do feel bad after eating bread are not responding to gluten, but to another type of carbohydrate called FODMAPs. 4) If there is any real fact-based finding on this subject that people should take away, it is this assessment of the gluten-free trend from the Mayo Clinic's Joseph Murray: "I would have to say that at least seventy per cent of it is hype and desire. There is just nothing obviously related to gluten that is wrong with most of these people.''

Maybe eat more vegetables, drink fewer Big Gulp beverages, get enough exercise, avoid sunburns, stop sitting so much, stretch more, stop smoking, drink less beer, stay away from drive-thru restaurants, and repair your failing roads, bridges, and other infrastructure before you go worrying about gluten and shit, America.

[Photo: Flickr]