Gluten Sensitivity is NOT New ... the Celebrity Fad Has Drawn Awareness

Gluten sensitivity did not begin in the last 20 years. The public has learned about gluten intolerance and sensitivity because many celebrities and many people in the public eye have chosen to follow a gluten free diet as a means to lose weight.

People have been aware of gluten sensitivity for centuries.  In 1 AD, the Greek physician Aretaeus coined the term koilikos ("suffering in the bowels"), the term would eventually become celiac. In the 1880s the English doctor Samuel Gee was the first to define celiac disease as a malabsorption triggered by food. His belief was that a cure would come from diet, not medication. Sixty years later, in the 1940s Dr. Willem Karel Dicke definitively identified gluten as celiac disease’s dietary trigger, establishing the first effective treatment: the gluten-free diet.

One hundred years after Samuel Gee declared that celiac disease could be cured by food, companies began to produce gluten free products in the 1980s. Thanks to the innovation of companies like Glutino, Bob's Red Mill, and Pamela's Products the food industry started to manufacture products for people who must avoid gluten. Their innovation has defined the gluten free products industry. 

In the last ten years I have had to adhere to a gluten free diet. The marketplace has expanded exponentially and gluten free products can be found in most stores and restaurants. The Gluten-Free Certification Organization began certifying gluten-free packaged foods in 2005. This simple addition to a package makes shopping much easier for those who need to avoid gluten. 

The companies that produce products for special diets have made cooking and enjoying meals with friends enjoyable again for many people! 

Some content derived from Delicious Living and New Hope Network.  Jenna Blumenfield's article Gluten's curiousjourney: A history of gluten.