Gluten-free diets, are they healthy?

Gluten-free diets have gained great popularity the past few years. It’s well established that individuals with celiac disease or gluten intolerance benefit from a gluten-free diet. However, scientific evidence shows this regards only a small percentage of people.

Gluten-Free Diet

What is Gluten?

Gluten is the collective term for the proteins found in the grains wheat, rye and barley and their various forms. It is best known for giving baked goods their doughy, elastic structure, however many foods contain gluten for other purposes, including as a thickening agent or flavor enhancer.

The effects of gluten are not the same for everyone. While the vast majority of people consume gluten and experience no side effects, some must avoid gluten due to specific medical conditions.

Hidden sources of gluten

  • Gravies, sauces, and marmalade
  • Diet meats
  • Seasoning blends
  • Egg substitutes
  • Soups, stocks, broths, and boulion
  • Glavored snacks, chips, and nuts
  • Soy sauce
  • Meat substitutes
  • Flavored hot chocolate
  • Veggie burgers

Gluten intolerance

For individuals who are not intolerant to gluten (most of you), a research review shows current evidence does not support the claim that gluten-free diets provide a health benefit.

Facts about gluten-free diet

  • Gluten sensitivity is completely different from a wheat allergy.
  • Processed food can be cross contaminated with gluten up to 41% of the time.
  • Gluten cause leaky gut.
  • There are over 200 medical conditions that gluten can either cause, contribute to, or worsen.
  • Casein, a protein in dairy, can mimic gluten.
  • Children with learning disorders often respond well to a gluten-free diet.

 gluten-free foods

The Myth

It’s insane with what’s going on with the whole gluten free fad these days. People forget the power of mass belief. If enough people believe one thing, for example gluten being bad for a person, then others can believe that same concept as well. It’s called pseudoscience. There is no scientific evidence that gluten can be bad for a healthy individual.

There are too many self diagnosing doctors now days instead of people relying on science. Unless you have a medical condition or have done a medical test to determine an intolerance to gluten. Then it’s absolutely fine for people. As humans, we’ve actually evolved to eat gluten, it was part of our diet for hundreds of thousands of years, possibly even millions. Gluten is a very good and very natural thing for human digestion.

In fact, gluten-free variants of certain foods tend to be less nutritious overall (less fiber, vitamins, and minerals), which helps explain why individuals with gluten intolerance commonly experience nutrient deficiencies.

Cutting gluten will give you better skin and digestion. Gluten-free products need to be good quality and cost more or they taste awful.

Conclusion

Unless you cannot tolerate gluten, gluten-free diets are not necessarily healthier than diets that include the consumption gluten.

There is nothing harmful about consuming gluten if you are not celiac. Not containing gluten does not make my recipes any healthier & removing gluten will not cause you to lose body fat.

If you lost weight through cutting out gluten it’s most likely because you restricted the amount of food choices available, ergo you reduced your caloric intake.

If having gluten in your diet doesn’t cause you problems then keep it in, removal of it just makes your life harder & supermarket bills more expensive

Reference:
NCBI

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