Originally Posted by
lhrsfo
You should try having gluten intolerance issues and eating out at typical restaurants in America. Complete ignorance is easy to deal with - I sit there eating my back up pack of food. But when they claim food is gluten free because there's no pasta with it, and therefore they're not prepared to let you eat your own food, you know there's trouble ahead. It's a rare place outside big cities where the staff have any understanding of food.
It's also rare outside of big cities that people get so upset over restaurant food availability. Seriously, if you don't want to eat gluten, cook at home. Or if you're traveling, get a hotel room with a kitchen and cook there. Restaurants are free to choose if they'll follow the latest fad diets or not. And since, outside of big cities, few people follow fad diets, it makes perfect sense for restaurants not to worry about it.
People know what gluten is and isn't. It's just that most people roll their eyes at the "pardon me do you have fresh organic locally sourced gluten and peanut and soy free offerings on the menu" type questions. And it's easier for a restaurant to just say "no we don't" than say yes we do and then a micro-fiber or gluten food ends up on your plate and you have your lawyer on the phone ready to sue.