At the end of my 12 minute, 5 avenue walk to the subway each morning, I am greeted everyday by a bubbly and warm Metro Newspaper delivery man. He says, “Good morning, Miss” and “Have a nice day” when I reach for a paper. It’s something I look forward to everyday, and even when I have my own reading material for the subway, I take a newspaper anyway.

Unfortunately, the contents of Metro are not nearly as uplifting as its distributor. If I had forgotten that there is a Long Island Serial Killer on the loose, Metro reminds me. Despite its mediocre journalism, I read it, mostly to pass the time.  This morning, I was about to give up on it and throw it away — its cover story was a bunch of pop stars photo-shopped together, headline reading: Summer Music Mix 2011: We’re Pretty Sure it Rules — when I came across an article in their food section entitled, “The Gluttony of Gluten-Free Food.”

Folks, when Metro has a story on gluten-free, you know it’s mainstream.  Unfortunately, the article was pretty lame, it’s lead-in was “Is gluten-free the new Adkins or “Skinny Bitch” diet fad?”*  I personally hate it when the media spins the gluten-free diet as a weight loss fad-it seems like a cop-out- and it perpetuates the perception that the gluten-free diet is about weight loss and not a necessary diet for folks with a disease or food sensitivities/allergies.  Of course, the article does go on to say that increased awareness and diagnosis is the cause for the rise in gluten-free products and establishments and interviews Erin McKenna of Babycakes, who is awesome.  However, I’m tired of reading generic articles like this one that don’t really bring anything interesting or new to the table.  Let’s see some more stories like the ones in the New York Times about Gluten-Free Baked Goods and a Gluten-Free Plan B.

*Chadha, Tina. The Gluttony of Gluten-Free Food. Metro Newspaper.  June 23, 2011.