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The aisles are loaded with dozens of gluten-free products, ranging from breads, cakes and cookies to pastas, soups and even vitamins.
In fact, new research shows that sales of gluten-free foods could top $8.8 billion this year. That's up 63 percent from 2012, according to the report from Mintel, which analyzes consumer and product data trends.
And while the number of adults who say a gluten-free lifestyle is good for anyone, and those who view it as just the latest fad are about evenly split at 41 percent and 44 percent, respectively, 22 percent of Americans follow a diet free of gluten — a protein found in wheat, barley and rye — the group reports. And that's up from 15 percent just last year.
But is the added expense of these products — which were 242 percent more expensive than their conventional counterparts according to one National Institutes of Health study — worth it?
There's no doubt a gluten-free diet can help people with potentially life-threatening wheat allergies or Celiac disease, a painful and damaging intestinal condition caused by gluten, experts say.
But for those with what's called gluten sensitivity — a condition marked by varying degrees of intestinal distress and sometimes other symptoms as well — the jury is still out.
"In our practice, we've seen an increasing number of patients coming to us with a gluten-restricted diet that they've settled on on their own, probably because of reading about it on the Internet," said Dr. Jonathan Markowitz, a pediatric gastroenterologist with Greenville Health System's Children's Hospital.
"But for people who don't have Celiac disease or a documented wheat allergy, it is controversial," he added. "I suspect that at the rate these sales are going up, a lot of people are not taking it for Celiac disease but for kind of a presumed sensitivity to gluten."
In fact, new research shows that sales of gluten-free foods could top $8.8 billion this year. That's up 63 percent from 2012, according to the report from Mintel, which analyzes consumer and product data trends.
And while the number of adults who say a gluten-free lifestyle is good for anyone, and those who view it as just the latest fad are about evenly split at 41 percent and 44 percent, respectively, 22 percent of Americans follow a diet free of gluten — a protein found in wheat, barley and rye — the group reports. And that's up from 15 percent just last year.
But is the added expense of these products — which were 242 percent more expensive than their conventional counterparts according to one National Institutes of Health study — worth it?
There's no doubt a gluten-free diet can help people with potentially life-threatening wheat allergies or Celiac disease, a painful and damaging intestinal condition caused by gluten, experts say.
But for those with what's called gluten sensitivity — a condition marked by varying degrees of intestinal distress and sometimes other symptoms as well — the jury is still out.
"In our practice, we've seen an increasing number of patients coming to us with a gluten-restricted diet that they've settled on on their own, probably because of reading about it on the Internet," said Dr. Jonathan Markowitz, a pediatric gastroenterologist with Greenville Health System's Children's Hospital.
"But for people who don't have Celiac disease or a documented wheat allergy, it is controversial," he added. "I suspect that at the rate these sales are going up, a lot of people are not taking it for Celiac disease but for kind of a presumed sensitivity to gluten."
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