I stopped by the natural food store for a few gluten-free items on my way home from the parent-teacher conference today. It’s a small place, not a large selection, but I can get my bagels. The trouble started at the checkout counter. Somehow, I ended up in a conversation with the woman ringing up my groceries in which she asserted that:

a) vaccines are to blame for autoimmune diseases (like celiac and type 1 diabetes).
b) vaccines are to blame for SIDs. When I countered that the SIDs rate had dramatically declined since the introduction of the Back to Sleep campaign, she gave me a “oh how pathetically misguided you are” look.
c) the rate of diseases such as polio and smallpox were in a natural decline anyway, regardless of immunizations, and that in Europe where there are/were no mandatory vaccinations, the drop is these diseases has followed the same natural curve.

What I said as I walked away, groceries in hand, was “Well, all I know is that all of my kids are vaccinated and they always will be.”

What I wanted to say was “Are you a fucking lunatic?!”

And this, this dear friends is what I hate about having celiac disease. It forces me to interact with a fringe element that I think, frankly, is full of crap.

Let me step back a sec. I firmly believe in questioning what is in our food and how it affects our bodies. I am all for analyzing the evidence and I am far from innocent - I understand that data can be skewed to represent most any claim. I give pause at the thought of how much hormones are in the meat I feed my kids, especially my daughters. Bottom line, I’m a liberal, secular, skeptical, intelligent being. But this woman took what might have been a reasonable discussion and shoved it into the realm of the rediculous. There were so many points - so many - in what she said that just left my head aching.

But you know, what really capped it all off for me was when she, in a last ditch attempt to sway me, referred me to the Ricola website as a source. Really, Ricola? That’s the best you’ve got?