My Celiac Blog

When you go food shopping chances are you do not know the names of the actual company that owns food brand names. As it happens both Morningstar Farms and Gardenburger, arguably the 2 leading providers of veggieburgers, are subsidiaries of the giant food conglomerate Kelloggs.

People with celiac disease have been raving for some time about the Gardenburger brand Grilled Veggie Burgers. But Kelloggs has now reformulated this product to contain wheat, so it is no longer a gluten free product.

No doubt it is purely a coincidence that just a few weeks ago one of the largest competitors of Kelloggs, General Mills, announced that they have reformulated their famous Rice Chex product to be gluten free.

The message I am receiving from Kelloggs is go away. While the message I am receiving from General Mills is, hey, we know you are there.

This seems to be an ideal case for the free market to decide, if Kelloggs does not want my business I will not buy any of their products. None.

If General Mills wants to acknowledge my existence and the special diet I must follow, then they can have my business.

This is sometimes called voting with your wallet. May the giant food conglomerate that wishes to make food I can eat be the winner.

Technorati Tags: Kelloggs, General Mills, Gardenburger, gluten free, Morningstar Farms, free market, veggie burgers

On the late TV series Futurama, an episode once contained a short skit about Crelm toothpaste, which had the miracle ingredient Fraudulin.

This post is not about Crelm toothpaste.

There is a company named Enzymedica that sells, among other things, a product called Glutenease. In their literature describing this product they make some rather startling statements, let us examine one in particular, the context is a discussion of the usefulness or lack thereof of the gluten free diet as a means of treating celiac disease, which is also called gluten intolerance.

Glutenease by Enzymedica Marketing Statement
"Though effective in the short term, removing foods does not provide an ultimate solution. Once those foods are reintroduced to the diet, the symptoms return. "

Now imagine a person who is drunk, or high, playing Russian Roulette, and then suddenly realizing it is not a very smart thing to do:

Russian Roullette Claim Using Similar Logic

"Though effective in the short term, putting the gun down does not provide an ultimate solution. Once the gun is reinserted in the mouth, the person could die".

We do not recommend that people with celiac disease, which is sometimes called gluten intolerance, should play Russian Roulette with their health. You can see more discussion of this product here.

Technorati Tags: Gluten free, gluten free diet, deceptive marketing, celiac disease, celiac diet, woo, dangerous products, misleading advertising