I'm not sure how to say this without sounding extremely disparaging, but I wonder if the reason these stupid, essentially baseless food fads catch on is because the primary food-purchasing demographics are not well-educated.
Anyone with basic reasoning skills, understanding of elementary biology, and the Wikipedia article on gluten could tell you that this gluten-free fad is completely fatuous.
Most diet crazes are completely fatuous. It's not a lack of education (because we can't know everything about everything) - to me it's a chronic lack of self awareness and self responsibility that manifests in most people sincerely believing that everything that happens to them is the result of other actors, and not their own actions. So if you're feeling fat and bloated, it's not because you can't stop stuffing crap into your mouth and are too lazy to exercise, it's because some evil conspiracy is feeding you, the helpless victim, foods which you are not designed to eat.
Maybe it is the decline in religion - without a seemingly senseless deity to blame - the search goes on for other reasons. When the answer is always in the one who asks.
The gluten-free substitute products probably don't contain the FODMAPs that the self-reported "gluten sensitive" individuals are actually allergic to. I'm not sure that makes it a "baseless food fad", this is an area of ongoing research.
Could be, but these fads all roar through the facebook feeds of my college classmates. Though I will grant the possibility that even highly ranked institutions may not be leaving their graduates (i.e., me) "well educated".
Anyone with basic reasoning skills, understanding of elementary biology, and the Wikipedia article on gluten could tell you that this gluten-free fad is completely fatuous.