You’ve misconstrued my post. My post is not referring to Celiac Disease being a fad, I’m referring to the evidence that 80% of people eating gluten-free aren’t sufferers of celiac (as reported by the Mayo Clinic).
You’ve found a market catering to those with CD, and that’s great. A big part of your success is probably related to your personal experience with your son. For the rest of us that don’t have the knowledge to plow head first into a niche market we should take caution. Perhaps all of those people without CD will continue eating gluten-free for the rest of their lives, and the movement will grow… but considering most are probably attempting to use it as a weight loss diet that doesn’t seem likely.
As for the population being so small…yet only 1% of the population is diagnosed while 80%+/- are out there undiagnosed since the test they use is not so reliable, there are a ton of false-negatives.
You mentioned me not doing research, so I need to ask you about the quote above. Do you have a source for 1% of the population being diagnosed with CD with 80% of people with CD not being diagnosed? The American Journal of Gastroenterology found the rate of CD at 0.71%, including those that were un-diagnosed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22850429.
It’s true that 82% of the cases were previously un-diagnosed, but again those are included in the 0.71% overall rate. Statistics from studies tend to get tossed around, mixed up, misunderstood, and then repeated over and over again until they become “truth” - all without anybody going to read the actual study. But the data are right there in black and white.
The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center reported a very similar 0.75% (including those not diagnosed):
http://www.uchospitals.edu/pdf/uch_007937.pdf
Also look at the Conclusions of the American Journal of Gastroenterology study: “Most persons who were following a GFD did not have a diagnosis of CD.”
Again, I’m not denying that CD is real. My point is that the vast majority of those eating gluten-free diets today are not doing it because of CD or gluten intolerance… they’re doing it because they read a book and their friend told them they could lose 5 pounds in 2 days.
From another thread:
This is NEVER going away…NEVER. Before calling it a fad, one should look up the stats on the growth pattern of those diagnosed with gluten issues, or food allergies over the last 10 years.
Ok, I looked it up. According to the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the rate of CD plateaued in 2004:
http://celiacdisease.about.com/b/20...e-still-on-increase-but-symptoms-changing.htm
Note it states “This study doesn’t change the overall estimate that one in every 133 Americans has celiac disease (whether or not they know it) – it simply shows that diagnosis of the condition is picking up, and that more people with atypical symptoms (or possibly no symptoms at all) are getting diagnosed these days.”
It’s interesting that the rate of diagnosis increased in the years immediately following new tools being developed to diagnose it.
I commend you for not selling to people following the GFD “trend” and you’re selling 1,300 GF pizzas per month. Given the population of the Greater Pittsburgh there should only be 3,337 people in the entire area with a known diagnosis of CD so you’ve captured a massive part of the market since you only sell to those with a confirmed CD diagnosis.
I think that leads credence to the point I was originally trying to make, which was if you take out the 80% of GFD eaters that are not diagnosed with CD you’re left with a very niche market. There simply aren’t enough true CD sufferers to support every pizzeria selling GF pizza.
Just for fun, you also posted this in another thread:
So let’s see now…let me explain the basics for why this and food allergies exist. Did you know that there is NO public domain soy bean? I bet you didn’t…right? That means that someone, or some company, owns the rights to all soybeans. That company is Monsanto and if they catch a farmer growing soybeans with his generations old self propagated bean, they WILL put him out of business since they own the soybean.
That is just factually incorrect. Farmers get sued when they are caught saving seed from a Monsanto “Round Up Ready” crop and planting it. As they should - when they buy the seeds they sign a contract stating they agree not to save seed.
Monsanto does not own the soybean or all soybeans. Where did you come up with this? Monsanto owns Monsanto’s Round Up Ready soybeans. Farmers can buy non-Monsanto seed from many different suppliers and then save the second generation seed and plant them. The fact that Monsanto’s seeds have a higher yield per acre and farmers want to use them doesn’t change the fact that they also have other options.
And Monsanto stops people from using their old generations old self-propagated seed? That is a patently false, and quite honestly ridiculous, claim. Where did you come up with this one? Do you have a source stating that Monsanto stopped a farmer from using his own seed because they own the soybean?
Ironically, Monsanto’s first generation of Round Up Ready soybeans go off patent next year, and will officially be public domain. Farmers can save all the seed they want from this year’s harvest and replant Monsanto Round Up Ready soybeans in their fields next year without any payment to Monsanto. And even though Monsanto also owns variety patents on many of the seeds, they’ve come right out and said they would not enforce them on farmers using the saved Round Up Ready seed on their own farms.
You told me that I needed to do some research, so I must ask in return if you do any of your own or just believe everything you hear without looking into it at all?
