With its array of doughnuts, muffins and bagels under glass, any one of the nearly 3,500 Tim Hortons outlets nationwide would be the last place for someone afflicted with gluten intolerance to go snack-hunting.

That changes today, as the coffee-and-doughnut juggernaut announced the introduction of a single gluten-free item to its menu, a coconut macaroon.

The chain is responding to a growing demand in the food-services industry to provide items that are gluten free. In recent years, a growing sensitivity to the dietary needs of celiacs, whose bodies cannot digest gluten, the gluey protein composite present in several grains and most notably wheat, has produced a flood of options.

The Canadian Celiac Association estimates that approximately 0.75% of Canadians are afflicted with the condition.

From multiple menu items at restaurants to gluten-free breads and pastas at major grocery stores to entire bakeries devoted to the diet, gluten-intolerance is enjoying an increased profile. As well, several popular books presenting some of the issues associated with the over-hybridization and processing of wheat, which has spiked the common grain’s gluten levels, are prompting many people, not just those who are gluten-intolerant, to decrease their wheat intake.

The 2011 book Wheat Belly, by cardioloigist William Davis, tied the obesity epidemic in North America to the mass-consumption of high-gluten factory-farmed wheat, found in everything from store-bought cookies and muffins to wholegrain bread products. Davis concludes that generations of hybridization meant to make wheat plants heartier, more drought resistant and able to thrive in a variety of climates had in turn caused the grain’s mass-farmed strains to spike in gluten content.

Davis goes on to suggest that this gluten spike is likely at least partly responsible for the rise in reported cases of celiac disease, which have increased almost four-fold since the 1960s.

Gluten is not just present in wheat. It can also be found, although in significantly less concentrations, in rye, spelt and barley, among others.

Tim Hortons’ coconut macaroon sells for $1.29.

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