This week, Dunkin’ Donuts announced it’s adding its first gluten-free option to the menu. This new option? A fudge brownie.
Some people are complaining because there are thousands of other options they could have gone with (eggs, most cheeses, and potatoes are all naturally gluten free, for example, yet no fast food franchises are jumping on the gluten-free McMuffin and hash browns wagon). To offer a sugar-packed, shouldn’t-you-have-something-more-sensible, fudge brownie for the non-gluten-eating folk may not be such a giant step forward. But here’s the thing: now, if I want to meet my friends for coffee, I no longer have to watch them wolf down donuts and crullers and sausage, egg, and cheese croissants whilst silently starving and wishing they’d choke. Now I can have a brownie, plus justify this incredibly poor meal choice by saying I had no other option!
Don’t get me wrong: there are healthier options out there, and I’d be happier if they were on the menu. (My favorite place to go out to dinner these days is the Marlborough Pizza & Restaurant, which offers gluten-free pizza, pasta, sandwiches, fries, and potato skins. Incidentally, I tend to gain four pounds per visit.) But the worst part about eating gluten free is it tends to be a diet that excludes you. I don’t mean from food—like I said, there’s a ton of options out there: potatoes, rice, fish, chicken, dairy, fruits, vegetables, dark chocolate . . . all naturally gluten free. It’s things like manufacturers adding gluten to the ham glaze, or Burger King frying the fries in the same oil as the onion rings, that mucks up the intestines.
And eating is often a social thing. For example, every Friday, my workplace buys breakfast for the whole staff . . . except me (and the vegan). She and I avoid the cafeteria like the plague until the croissants, donuts, and bagels are gone, because they smell good and I want to eat them. So every Friday, everyone at work eats breakfast together, except me and Veganna. That’s what I mean about being exclusionary. I don’t want to eat out with my family or friends because of all the restrictions, and that can get kind of lonely.
So stop complaining about Dunkin’ Donuts. Sure, they could’ve done better. But they did something. And now I can meet my friends for coffee again without resentment.
Also, Marlborough Pizza rocks the universe.
Some people are complaining because there are thousands of other options they could have gone with (eggs, most cheeses, and potatoes are all naturally gluten free, for example, yet no fast food franchises are jumping on the gluten-free McMuffin and hash browns wagon). To offer a sugar-packed, shouldn’t-you-have-something-more-sensible, fudge brownie for the non-gluten-eating folk may not be such a giant step forward. But here’s the thing: now, if I want to meet my friends for coffee, I no longer have to watch them wolf down donuts and crullers and sausage, egg, and cheese croissants whilst silently starving and wishing they’d choke. Now I can have a brownie, plus justify this incredibly poor meal choice by saying I had no other option!
Don’t get me wrong: there are healthier options out there, and I’d be happier if they were on the menu. (My favorite place to go out to dinner these days is the Marlborough Pizza & Restaurant, which offers gluten-free pizza, pasta, sandwiches, fries, and potato skins. Incidentally, I tend to gain four pounds per visit.) But the worst part about eating gluten free is it tends to be a diet that excludes you. I don’t mean from food—like I said, there’s a ton of options out there: potatoes, rice, fish, chicken, dairy, fruits, vegetables, dark chocolate . . . all naturally gluten free. It’s things like manufacturers adding gluten to the ham glaze, or Burger King frying the fries in the same oil as the onion rings, that mucks up the intestines.
And eating is often a social thing. For example, every Friday, my workplace buys breakfast for the whole staff . . . except me (and the vegan). She and I avoid the cafeteria like the plague until the croissants, donuts, and bagels are gone, because they smell good and I want to eat them. So every Friday, everyone at work eats breakfast together, except me and Veganna. That’s what I mean about being exclusionary. I don’t want to eat out with my family or friends because of all the restrictions, and that can get kind of lonely.
So stop complaining about Dunkin’ Donuts. Sure, they could’ve done better. But they did something. And now I can meet my friends for coffee again without resentment.
Also, Marlborough Pizza rocks the universe.
Look what DD is making me eat. "Waah."
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