During pledge drives, the local PBS stations frequently broadcast lectures on health topics. William Davis' "Wheat Belly" and David Perlmutter's "Grain Brain" both argue that eating "grasses" is bad for you because they contain proteins that cause inflammation in the brain and gluten is just one protein of several that cause inflammation. I'd suggest people read their books and look at the evidence for themselves.
I think part of the reason why these types of books and websites are so popular these days is because the medical establishment (both in academia and in government) have let us down. People are getting fatter and more and more people are getting diabetes and they don't know why despite following the government's advice on eating less cholesterol and saturated fats.
It goes beyond the medical establishment not holding their weight in the eyes of the people. This is a societal problem at its core, if anything, doctors are frequently being wrongfully blamed for feeding into societal norms. As I said in the OP, a lot of these markets make it seem like doctors just LOVE loading people up with scripts, charging them for procedures, and testing them like lab rats instead of genuinely caring about improving health. It's just not that black and white. Some doctors not being excellent doctors does not mean the profession is at odds with these major movements for demands on better food labeling, awareness of true nutrition, etc. The professions frequently agree with each other on the major points. It's the minor details they disagree on... But because everyone is different, and people need to know their special unique snowflake body and personality may be treated the same (like a snowflake) but no one is more aware of their own unique traits than themselves. The problem is, the same fallacies and beliefs they ding doctors for frequently are ALSO being used by hippy-style diets. Raw food diets, 100% vegans, etc. all use the same logical fallacies and misrepresentations that they get so angry at the modern medical industry and government guidelines for using.
There is no evidence that being vegan is better for your health--and in fact, it's frequently shown to need supplementation to sustain BECAUSE it isn't advantageous for healthy. The more restrictions you place on a diet, the more you need to be active to make up the gaps. There are other reasons for being vegan, but pretending moral reasons for veganism is the same as a superior diet for the human body does not make it so.
(There's a whole catch-22 about antibiotics and people forcing hospital ratings to go down in satisfaction when doctors refuse to give abx for viral infections, which in turn forces the hospitals to write scripts to make people feel better (because you can't be dishonest about scripts being given either) vs the doctor looking lazy (it only takes one wrong diagnosis by a new doctor to make an explosion of 'this HOSPITAL isn't treating patients!), and then in turn creating bugs. That is only part doctor issues. It's easy to tell doctors 'hey, you must stop this now.' You can pull their practice if they don't comply. It's impossible to tell the American people to do something, and still keep their interest in coming in for their health.)
The government is slow to change and culturally they're 10 years behind the rest of society.. they always will be. I don't deny that plays in a factor. But there's something more innate in us, and more insidious in money making opportunities, that plays a heavy hand into this. Billions and trillions are spent on figuring out what advertisements work on people, what doesn't work, what tiny pieces of body language and clues influence us. Every bit of that research is put to use.. and the intentions aren't there to benefit people. Detox diets and fads sell because people know what the human psyche wants and they provide that and twist it into a subconscious need.
I think there are tons of well-meaning personnel working very hard to offer healthy lifestyles for others, and I don't deny that at all. But the medical establishment aren't the bad guys. The medical establishment frequently introduces healthy lifestyle adjustments based on research they do (I noticed this, I did years of research, and Boom the Orwellian diet exists now.. It was published by a doctor using western techniques of data collection) and, like I've said before, people interested in nutrition are promoting true nutrition based on known science and upcoming research. Now are you going to see that on E!TV? Probably not. But the information is out there and available. And growing.
So how do we combat this insidious onset of advertisements, schemes, cultural lifestyles (things as they've always been), people making health claims unsupported by any evidence, and personal accounts influencing the hearts and minds? We combat it with research, and knowledge, and impartial unbiased accounts. Objectivity. Who's actually living longer? Why? Is it the food, the lifestyle, all of it, is it possible to replicate? Can it help heal others? These are questions nutrition research tries to answer. And the results are really interesting and continue to surprise. People hype it all up out of proportion, and it turns into a crazy thing, but some of these food trends are useful. Though I will be the first to admit gluten-free-everything annoyed the crap out of me when it first came out, it's important. I as annoyed because people were just deciding to be gluten free. No tolerance testing, typically done with unknown allergens, no nothing, just.. some bullshit about candida and boom, gluten free just like that. I always get wary of new fad diets that start off with people blindly switching. Even so, my annoyance is no reason to discredit the diet at all. It's an important discovery, and more and more people are showing that cooking certain vegetables, recognizing phytic acid in grains, etc. all play an insidious effect and role in the diet. Small details creating a bigger picture.
You're absolutely right, gluten can seriously cause inflammation at an insidious onset for those intolerant to it.. and without a tolerance test in the presence of vague symptoms, who knows? There's an allergic spectrum ranging from mild intolerance (one you might not notice immediate effects on the daily) to anaphylactic shock. But that's why research is soo so important, and the validity of research needs serious establishment. It can distinguish whether it's worth giving up gluten for everyone, for some, to moderate it so inflammation isn't a big concern throughout the lifespan, or for no one that doesn't have confirmed celiac. Right not GF is the hot new thing, for good reason. People are seeing results. But is it the result of less processed foods or from the gluten itself and awareness/consciousness and more home cooked foods vs take out they can no longer have? That's still out there, and it'll take time to see results that show that difference.
I've mentioned on here I love the rawfoodsos blog and I love the sciencebasedmedicine blog because they both just sort of break things down to the nitty gritty. I like rawfood's message more and her intentions, vs sbm, but both have tons of merit on educating people and allowing them to make their own decisions. Grain belly or whatever it's called is one of the books highly supported by rawfoodsos for its serious basis in evidence based practice. It's something on my wishlist to read even, despite my love of breads. But that's the difference. It's based in evidence. Grain Belly is a wealth of knowledge and time and real effort. In comparison, Forks over Knives looks like Blue's Clues, with magic things being pulled out of pockets and cute squiggles being drawn on the paper. Guess which one is more appealing to the masses?
The reasons why we're motivated need to fundamentally change. Every person that buys into the advertisements of pieces like Forks over Knives is also buying into the SAME advertisements that got that mom to take her family into McDonalds. They're the the same concepts being used to appeal to the masses. It is up to us as people to crave education, and knowledge, and ask critical questions.
And I don't fault anyone for asking science the critical questions they do. Many western medical practices are absolutely worth asking. But for this piece, it isn't meant to highlight that. It's meant to highlight the other side of the coin. We're expected to question doctors and authority for western things.. but people like Food Babe don't want to be held accountable the same way they try to force doctors and producers to be held accountable. The folly works both ways... just like both industries are not truly at odds with each other, even if they disagree in some aspects.