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Dozens of CA events this weekend honor Latino Conservation Week; Kamala Harris joins Oprah Winfrey in emotional campaign event; Report finds poor working conditions in Texas clean energy industry; AI puts on a lab coat, heads to technical schools.

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Gluten-Free Doesn't Automatically Mean a Healthy Choice

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Wednesday, July 23, 2014   

DES MOINES, Iowa - As more food choices labeled as "gluten-free" show up on store shelves across the state, consumers are being warned that just because it's free of gluten doesn't automatically mean it's a healthy choice.

Mary Waldner, founder of Mary's Gone Crackers, said she welcomes more options for those, like herself, who have celiac disease, but added that the label can blur the line for consumers when it comes to nutrition, since many gluten-free foods are high in sugar and fats to improve the taste.

"I think so many gluten-free companies ... don't care what's in the food," she said. "I see it as an opportunity to really look at our food and see what's in it, and not replace it with gluten-free junk."

The gluten-free industry now is pegged at more than $23 billion annually - with sales up more than 16 percent in the past year, according to Nielsen research.

Gluten-free often is characterized as a diet trend, but Waldner said she thinks it's here to stay, whether or not the food choices are made because of a doctor's note. Because of the new awareness of gluten, she said, the public is learning that decades of eating processed foods come at a cost.

"Our guts are in bad shape," she said. "We're eating such highly refined foods. We have been doing damage to our digestive system, and I think wheat is a very hard thing to digest."

According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, celiac disease is one of the world's most common genetic autoimmune disorders, affecting about 1 percent of the population.


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