This morning a friend texted me a link to this petition put together by Gluten Dude regarding a superbowl commercial put together by NASCAR for NBC. The advertisement says:
“America. It’s time for a gut check. If the founding father’s saw us huddled in our cocoons texting each other smiley faces they’d hand their powdered wigs in shame. When our idea of danger is eating gluten there’s trouble afoot. Yes, we the people have gotten soft and all the likes in the world aren’t going to save us now. But one thing will, and it rhymes with Mascar.”
Needless to say this was not the best way to start my morning, I was fuming with agitation. I hate seeing gluten free get bad publicity, and I especially hate when it is associated with a sign of weakness. At best this commercial is tasteless, at it’s worst it is hurtful. AND it isn’t even coherent. What the hell does my diet have anything to do with NASCAR?
My immune system and digestive track may make my life difficult but eating gluten free is NOT my weakness, it is in fact my salvation. It is the only reason that I am currently healthy and sane, and that is the case for over 6% of the population in the USA who have Celiac Disease, Gluten Intolerance, or Wheat Allergies. This doesn’t even include others who BENEFIT from a gluten free diet for other conditions such as arthritis and hashimoto’s disease, people made healthier by cutting out gluten. For people like me and those above gluten really is a HUGE danger, so no eating gluten free does not make me or them soft.
My weakness is in fact other people: The friends that tell me I’ll be fine if I just eat a little, the servers that don’t take my pleas for safe food seriously at restaurants, the strangers that mock me unknowingly saying that no one really has to eat gluten free and everyone doing so it just looking to drop weight or for attention. It’s the ignorance displayed by individuals that are fed nonsense like this advertisement through the media, and the media that continues to perpetuate that stigma.
Yes many people flock to gluten free diets for medically unnecessary reasons, and that in part makes those of us on medically necessary gluten free diets have a harder time, but so what? Why should it be the butt of a joke that continues to leave us taken less seriously? I’m all for freedom of speech, but when the media continues to misinform something needs to be done. So, I’d like to thank Gluten Dude for putting this petition together for us gluten free folks. Let’s give NASCAR and NBC our all and tell them that eating gluten free is not a weakness. I signed, and I hope you will to.