The term “gluten-free” seems to be everywhere these days: food labels, restaurant menus, cookbooks, even water bottles. While it’s become trendy to avoid gluten — a protein found in popular foodstuffs like bread and pasta — humans have safely and enthusiastically consumed it for thousands of years. Food containing gluten remains a staple of the human diet around the world, providing sustenance to billions.
So why this apparent backlash against gluten?
While the protein is a vital part of the human diet, for some people, it really is unsafe. The path to this seemingly simple discovery was long and tortuous, dating back to a particularly bleak period of World War II.
Holland was suffering in the winter of 1944-45. The country was under siege, and the Nazis had cut off vital supplies. Starvation was rampant. The combination of extreme cold and famine came to be known as the Hongerwinter, Dutch for “Hunger Winter.”
