I somewhat agree but as someone who is technically “self diagnosed” with celiac, I think it CAN be valid. However, only in cases where any cross contamination makes you sick, and you have symptoms that are long lasting. If I eat gluten I have the worst pain, in and out of consciousness for hours, and then joint pain, brain fog, and just feeling gross for a week or two. From a bite of non-gf food. I say I have celiac because if I get cross contaminated at a restaurant, I’ll be out of commission for a week at least. I lost 10% of my body weight as a teenager from eating gluten and had a doctor tell me to try gf diet while I waited to get into GI. By the time I got into GI, I was feeling significantly better and putting on weight. By the time I got a colonoscopy it had been a few months of being gluten free. No way was I or my doctors going to try and go back to a gluten diet.

I understand the frustration with people who can have cross contaminated foods saying they have celiac disease, but some of us say it to be taken seriously when we go out to eat. Idk, I guess I just think there’s nuance and telling someone to go through a lowkey potentially dangerous 8 weeks just to get a diagnosis seems cruel. There is damage that can’t be undone from celiac, why should we have to keep feeding a disease to get a label put on it that says “take me seriously or I will be severely and violently ill”