“So when did the surgeon general come out against gluten?” Mr. Chattering once asked snidely when he noticed that I was feeding our children waffles that were gluten-free.

Gluten is a protein that comes from wheat, barley, or rye, and can generally be found in any food containing flour (though beer, which generally is distilled from barley malt, has gluten in it too).

I’ve continued in my gluten-free travels, most recently refusing any foods containing wheat flour, and I have to say, I feel a lot better. My friend K. dropped 10 pounds pretty quickly when she decided that wheat wasn’t kind to her digestive system and stopped eating it.

Here’s a helpful article from yesterday’s New York Times that examines the gluten-free pile-on. Though some physicians are skeptical, lots of folks are saying they feel less bloated, even happier, when they skip out on bread, bagels, croissants, and crackers, even though they’ve never been tested with any kind of wheat allergy. The gluten-free life is working for me. What do you think?

Here’s a wonderful website of gluten-free foodstuffs you can order for mail delivery, or study brand names to find elsewhere.