Gluten

Gluten is not bad for you.
Gluten is not evil incarnate (like, for instance, Fox News).

For most people, gluten is fine. Unless you are one of the fairly rare people that who actually have a real medical reason to avoid gluten, just get over yourself and eat the stuff. And stop worrying about it.

There is a new TV show, Grandfathered, starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage. It is not a particularly good show. However, one scene from the first episode won me over completely.

Rob Lowe owns and runs a trendy restaurant. His head chef comes over to him, and presents Rob with a dish to taste. It is the chef's new gluten-free pasta dish. I can't find the actual quotes, but it goes something like this:

Chef: Here's my new gluten-free pappardelle.
Rob: That's very good. What's your secret.
Chef: Gluten. Lots of gluten. It's basically nothing but gluten.

And there you have it. Let all of these ridiculous gluten haters keep questing for gluten-free crap. And let the normal people keep feeding them gluten without them knowing it.

I've got a new office mate. I know her name. But from now on, I think of her only as "gluten-free" because she had to ask for the gluten free items when we went to a work lunch last week. There's a tiny, tiny, chance that she has Celiac's or some other actual reason not to eat gluten. But I doubt it. She just looks like one of those people. Those skinny, fat-free, red-meat-free, gluten-free, taste-free crowd. Fucking idiots.