Nancy Truman is a voice actor, living in Los Angeles and she also happens to be sensitive to gluten. She joins the 1 in 7 people in the US believed to be sensitive to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. An estimated 3 million or more people also suffer from Celiac, an auto-immune disease where the small intestines go into attack mode and become inflamed when gluten is ingested, leading to nutritional deficiencies and other serious health complications.
Nancy, who experimented with gluten-free baking, and her neighbor Waylynn Lucas, a Los Angeles pastry chef joined together to open the coffee shop FONUTS, which sells unique (Chorizo Cheddar!) and delicious donuts, which are baked and not fried, for a somewhat healthier version of a donut. Fonuts offers a variety of gluten-free donuts such as Chocolate Hazelnut and Peach.
In an article by Reuters.com, Lucas commented that half of FONUTS’ sales are from the gluten-free products. Not surprising, as the demand for gluten-free products continues to rise in the US and worldwide. According to Reuters, Euromonitor International forecasts gluten-free sales of $1.31 billion in the US and $2.67 billion worldwide, doubling in sales since 2005. Sales are expected to reach $1.68 billion in the US and $3.38 billion world-wide in 2015.
Certainly the increase in celebrities and athletes sharing their diagnosis of Celiac or other’s preference to eat gluten-free has helped to spread awareness thus increasing the demand for new gluten-free products.
Read the full Reuters article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/uk-food-glutenfree-idUSLNE78S00W20110929
Fonuts is located at:
