Gluten-Free Glutton: Celiac Disease Is Expensive -- But I'm Not To Whine About It - Florida Times-Union

[Scott Adams]

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Open Original Shared Link Florida Times-Union You may not be aware of it, but there is a federal tax deduction that people with celiac disease can take for the increased cost of gluten-free food. It will probably be an exercise in futility, but I'm going to take all the steps necessary this year ... Open Original Shared Link The Massachusetts Daily Collegian Open Original Shared Link

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[Gemini]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that 7 1/2% threshold is going up to, or has already gone up to, 10%, courtesy of Obama Care. So, unless you have 20 children and they all are diagnosed Celiacs, you can forget about this deduction. It's shameful that the US government cares so little about medical costs for everyone and especially those of us who have to eat this way. No one should be taxed on legitimate medical expenses, especially when those passing these ridiculous laws have the best medical care in the world.

[Takala]

Oh, that guy. Mark Basch. He is a one-man typing font of celiac/gluten intolerance misinformation, and now he's adding IRS problems to the resumé.

You have to see this:

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When he's not bashing the merely gluten intolerant, he's the Big Fan of the looser definition of "gluten free" to include processed gluten and up to 20 ppm.

I don't worry about that a lot because I generally don't get sick if I eat a small amount of gluten. I avoid gluten because I know that it is damaging my intestine and will cause long-term health issues.

So when the FDA guidelines came out last year, I put this question to one of the leading researchers on the disease, Stefano Guandalini of the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center. He assured me that "there is good, solid science" behind the safety of the 20 ppm standard. He also pointed out that the standard has already been adopted in Europe.

He said studies have shown that celiacs can consume up to 10 milligrams per day of gluten without causing damage, or about 1.1 pounds of food that contain 20 ppm of gluten.

With that reassurance, I was interested to read recently about a new beer produced by a brewery in Oregon. The beer is called Omission and it claims to be the first gluten-free beer in the U.S. that is brewed with traditional beer ingredients, including malted barley.

Here comes the let's make gluten free food, or beer, out of gluten nonsense again. It only bothers the super- sensitive, right ?

And if Europe doesn't do something correctly, of course we should then emulate them, right ? Of course, that University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center website, cureceliacdisase.org, that Guandalini is on the board of, claims on its website that the gluten free diet "fails to heal intestinal damage in more than half of cases." (earlier discussion of this on this thread here, including links and the link to the FAQ page from cureceliacdisease.org, with this claim here: Open Original Shared Link

If this contention was true, that a gluten free diet does not work in over 50% of diagnosed celiacs cases, based on studies done in parts of the world with alleged "gluten free" food made with gluten ingredients, should not the standard here in the United States be BETTER THAN THAT ? And should not the gluten free diet topic media writers with the disease be more concerned about that ?

Mark Basch also was claiming that the Domino's Pizza (the ones who got so into trouble with the not really gluten free because of cross contamination, that one of the celiac organizations tried to "rate," as to probability of safety ) was tested by an independent company as it was gluten free. But he also says that he eats them and doesn't get sick, so he's the the right "test patient for that."

He shouldn't give bad tax advice, either.