Gluten Free Pizza delivery Seattle

By the time Tom Douglas opened his pasta house Cuoco four years ago, gluten-free dining had become enough of a thing that the chef decided to offer a gluten-free pasta substitution from a local outfit called Maninis. Since then Douglas has chuckled at the number of diners who will remain piously gluten free through dinner—then “cheat a little” with a slice of coconut cream pie for dessert.

Such is gluten-free in Seattle: the designation has come in some form to nearly every menu in town, but holds madly varying significance depending on the diner. What gluten free has to mean for a celiac, who suffers from the autoimmune disorder which makes a body attack its own intestine at the merest rumor of gluten, is almost molecularly strict: no breads or pastas or waffles, of course, but ketchup and soy sauce and salad dressing and soup can also cause problems. Gluten, it turns out, is in everything.

Celiacs aren’t the ones cheating with Douglas’s coconut-cream pie. Move up the spectrum to those who call themselves “gluten-intolerant, ” however, and things get looser. Many in this group swear their gut problems improve when they eliminate or reduce gluten intake—never mind that the Australian gastroenterologist whose 2011 research proved the existence of “nonceliac gluten sensitivity” went back and retested his findings two years ago—and reversed them. Something is making these sensitives feel bad—it just may not be gluten.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are those for whom that something might be what food writer Michael Pollan has called a “social contagion”: gluten freedom as a bona fide (air quotes) lifestyle choice, springing perhaps from a belief that gluten free will translate to increased health or slimness. Neither is true. But for these folks, gluten free has become a diet fad.