This week’s Celebrity Apprentice and 30 Rock TV shows were cause for celebration as the Celebrity Apprentice show had a food designed to be gluten-free and the 30 Rock featured several minutes devoted to food allergies and anaphylaxis. My husband and I were in stitches over the 30 Rock piece where Kenneth is intentionally tricked into eating strawberries, a food that he has a life-threatening reaction to, which results in him being “legally dead” for 5 minutes. I’m sure some hard core fanatics were not laughing, but we sure were. And just in case you don’t know, yes we DO have a child with life-threatening food allergies (milk, eggs, peanuts and tree-nuts)! We do know how serious it is, trust me we have been to the ER and we know food allergies can be deadly. So don’t bite my head off, for saying it was funny because we thought it was hilarious!
So what? Does it matter that the Celebrity Apprentice and 30 Rock TV shows featured the concepts of gluten-free and food allergies at all? I say yes indeed! The health care costs for digestive diseases alone are staggering coming in at about $107 billion dollars according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The numbers of people suffering from health issues that could be impacted by a change in diet are staggering. There are over 11 million Americans who have life-threatening food allergies (IgE mediated). Add to that over 2 million Americans who have celiac disease, 97% of whom have yet to be diagnosed according to the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Program.
Sprinkle in 75 million to 84 million Americans who suffer from food intolerances according to the FDA, and we are just getting started. Don’t forget to add the nearly 5 million U.S. citizens who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (roughly 1 of 54 Americans) so says one NIH publication (No. 94-1447). And we wouldn’t want to forget those 3.1 million people in the country who suffer from constipation as unpleasant as that can be. And last, but not least –actually this is not last, but the last health issue I will address in this blog entry is the people who are gluten intolerant, but who do not have celiac disease, which based on my research is in the vicinity of 15 to 20 million people – not that they yet understand that gluten is an issue for them. And there are more conditions that can be helped by a change in diet, but I think you get the point here.
That brings us to a total of over 111 million Americans who are in some way affected by diet or who have a health condition that potentially could be improved by a change in diet. Yes, based on those numbers (about 1/3 of the American population), we should be seeing a whole lot more of gluten-free and food allergies on our favorite TV shows!! I hope more and more shows will continue to weave in the issues of food and the impact of food on health. This will help wake people up to the possibility that a change in diet might not be a bad thing. In the meantime, my hats off to The Celebrity Apprentice and 30 Rock!! You’ve done a very good thing! If you need any help with some really fun ideas for working food issues into your show, trust me, I can help you with that!! Feel free to contact me! What do you think?
So what? Does it matter that the Celebrity Apprentice and 30 Rock TV shows featured the concepts of gluten-free and food allergies at all? I say yes indeed! The health care costs for digestive diseases alone are staggering coming in at about $107 billion dollars according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The numbers of people suffering from health issues that could be impacted by a change in diet are staggering. There are over 11 million Americans who have life-threatening food allergies (IgE mediated). Add to that over 2 million Americans who have celiac disease, 97% of whom have yet to be diagnosed according to the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Program.
Sprinkle in 75 million to 84 million Americans who suffer from food intolerances according to the FDA, and we are just getting started. Don’t forget to add the nearly 5 million U.S. citizens who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (roughly 1 of 54 Americans) so says one NIH publication (No. 94-1447). And we wouldn’t want to forget those 3.1 million people in the country who suffer from constipation as unpleasant as that can be. And last, but not least –actually this is not last, but the last health issue I will address in this blog entry is the people who are gluten intolerant, but who do not have celiac disease, which based on my research is in the vicinity of 15 to 20 million people – not that they yet understand that gluten is an issue for them. And there are more conditions that can be helped by a change in diet, but I think you get the point here.
That brings us to a total of over 111 million Americans who are in some way affected by diet or who have a health condition that potentially could be improved by a change in diet. Yes, based on those numbers (about 1/3 of the American population), we should be seeing a whole lot more of gluten-free and food allergies on our favorite TV shows!! I hope more and more shows will continue to weave in the issues of food and the impact of food on health. This will help wake people up to the possibility that a change in diet might not be a bad thing. In the meantime, my hats off to The Celebrity Apprentice and 30 Rock!! You’ve done a very good thing! If you need any help with some really fun ideas for working food issues into your show, trust me, I can help you with that!! Feel free to contact me! What do you think?
Love,
Lisa
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