Sometimes Annoying Fads Have Upsides

I have been struggling with IBS for a few years and have had a hard time pinpointing what exactly is making me sick. I’ve been to a dietitian. I wrote down everything I ate and my symptoms for weeks and had a blood test to detect coeliac disease, but nothing was conclusive.

Finally, someone suggests a food sensitivity blood test that comes back positive for all things gluten! I am both relieved to have a new hope at controlling my symptoms and panicked at the idea of having to restrict the omnipresent gluten from my diet.

I am going on my first gluten-free grocery shop, and I’m in turn excited to find gluten-free options and sad to give up some of my favourite foods. I go to the “food of the world” section, and since burritos are my absolute favorite and a staple in my diet — meaning every other night is burrito night — I am hoping to find some corn flour tortillas. To my dismay, all of the corn tortillas also have wheat flour in them.

In a very dramatic turn of events, as I prepare to leave and give up on my dearest burritos, my eyes fall on gluten-free tortillas! Elated, I take a ridiculous amount of them and put them in my cart.

As I am looking down on my grocery list, another customer, an older man, approaches.

Customer: “Huh! Would you believe they even have gluten-free tortillas now?! It’s ridiculous, you know, how many products there are now for this fad gluten-free diet.”

Me: *Pause* “Well… I just got diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity.”

I pull my dozens of gluten-free tortillas to show him.

Me: “So I, for one, am very glad to have options so I can stop being in pain so much, y’know.”

The customer mumbles something awkwardly as I leave.

I’m a very non-confrontational person, so this was really big for me.

And since I’ve stopped eating gluten, the improvement has been phenomenal, and I am definitely very happy to have so many good gluten-free products at my disposal!