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Everyone’s allergic to something. Pollen, peanuts, cats, dairy, shrimp, and certain medications are all totally normal allergens to a lot of people. There’s a chance you are allergic to at least one of the mentioned allergens. However, some are actually allergic to a compound that is, unfortunately, found in a lot of staple foods called gluten.
Gluten is a mixture of two proteins and is commonly found in cereal grains and wheat-based products. This compound is responsible for the elastic texture of dough. This protein causes illnesses and digestive issues to those mainly with celiac disease.
Just like regular allergens, the best way to avoid encountering gluten is to avoid eating foods that contain it in some form or another. The problem with that is, gluten is literally almost in every food based on cereal and wheat. If you’re like most people, avoiding gluten would most likely seem like you’re going on a hunger strike.
Thankfully, dietitians have been working on ways to make avoiding gluten practical and manageable by means of having patients (and the curious) live with a gluten-free diet.
Gluten is a group of proteins found in spelt, rye, barley, and wheat. It got its name from its elastic and sticky property resembling that of glue when flour is mixed with water. It’s the compound responsible for giving your favorite breads and pastries that chewy and satisfying texture.
If you’ve been around social media for a few years (well, who isn’t?), there’s a chance you’ve seen or heard about the term gluten-free or gluten-free diet. Right now, it’s one of the most popular diets in the US with many celebrities and athletes vouching for the diet’s benefits when it comes to weight loss and improved fitness and performance.
A gluten-free diet is, in the simplest definition, a diet that reduces or prevents someone from consuming foods with the protein gluten. This diet is prescribed mainly for people with celiac disease, a condition that affects 1% of the US population and causes small intestine damage by triggering the body’s immune system and makes it an autoimmune disease. If not treated, long-term effects could cause prevent your body from absorbing nutrients from food (1). It could also increase the risk of many harmful diseases as well as cause a plethora of digestive issues.
Those with celiac disease experience severe stomach pain, constipation, rashes, bloating, unexplained weight loss, tiredness, and depression.
Other diseases that warrants adoption of a gluten-free diet include non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a condition that causes similar symptoms to celiac disease such as bloating, diarrhea, rashes, and brain fog without the small intestine damage; gluten ataxia, an autoimmune disease that targets the nerve tissues and wreaks havoc on muscle control and movement; and wheat allergy, a condition where the body thinks gluten is a threat and attacks the compound while also giving breathing problems and congestion to the host (2).
The aim of a gluten-free diet is to prevent any symptoms of gluten sensitivity or intolerance to rise. However, even people who don’t have any form of gluten sensitivity are looking at the diet from a general health and weight loss perspective.
The idea behind a gluten-free diet consists mainly of planning your meals around food products that do not make use of gluten and/or its derivatives. Whether as part of the main ingredients of certain foods or as a cooking/baking accessory (such as flour for dusting), a gluten-free diet advocates for the total avoidance of gluten in all known forms.
Simply having digestive issues is not enough to determine gluten sensitivity or that you will need to go on a gluten-free diet. Sometimes people have digestion issues or other illnesses due to other, more obvious causes such as poor eating habits, excessive smoking or drinking, lack of physical activity, and less than ideal sleeping habits. However, if you strongly suspect gluten is the root of some of your problems, you can test for it in two ways:
Generally speaking, it’s best to always get tested first before going on a gluten-free diet as the test will help determine if you have an actual disease or not. You can also try the diet for a few weeks and see if symptoms improve. Then, you can gradually reintroduce gluten in your diet to check if any of the symptoms reappear.
Proponents of the diet is not lacking and other than relief of symptoms, many attest their positive wellbeing to adopting a gluten-free diet. Here are some of its many benefits.
For the most part, the gluten-free diet is prescribed to those with celiac disease and symptoms that mimic symptoms of having celiac disease. So, it goes without saying that going gluten-free will improve symptoms and sometimes even prevent them from appearing again. Most notably, going gluten-free has been shown to reduce stomach pains and diarrhea frequency as well as nausea (3).
People with celiac disease are afflicted with chronic inflammation, a condition where the body’s natural tendency to fight infection lasts for too long and increases risks to almost every disease known to man (4). Going gluten-free can help alleviate symptoms of chronic inflammation, particularly reducing antibody levels as well as help treat gut damage caused by gluten-related inflammation.
A lot of industrially processed food is laced with gluten whether as part of the ingredients or for mechanical purposes. Industrially processed foods are also among the major contributors to obesity, particularly due to how addictive and habit forming some are (link). With a gluten-free diet, the food selection discriminates against processed food that relies on gluten and prioritizes the consumption of food that is whole and, as much as possible, least processed.
People afflicted with celiac disease often have symptoms of chronic fatigue and even experience a condition called “brain fog.” These symptoms could be caused by inadequate nutrient absorption brought on by gluten intolerance. As such, iron deficiency is common with those diagnosed with celiac disease (1).
Following a gluten-free diet could help fix the way your body absorbs nutrients which can lead to optimized energy levels and better focus.
Food labeling has been required by the FDA for decades now and yet it’s surprising that so few comprehend what they mean. Going gluten-free will make you invest a bit of time into researching what terms in food labels mean and whether they fit your diet or not. Making you more conscious of your food choices allows you to not just pick gluten-free foods better, but also enable you to look at processed food from a “healthy food first” perspective.
Wheat, barley, rye, some oats, and triticale. Oats on their own are gluten-free however they may be contaminated during processing as they’re usually worked together with wheat, barley, or rye. Oats with a gluten-free label are good, but it’s best to avoid them if you want to play it safe especially if you have celiac disease.
For wheat, you should keep an eye on the following varieties like durum, einkorn, spelt, and kamut. You should also avoid food with enriched flour, farina, graham flour, and semolina as these are all milled or processed wheat.
You would do best to avoid the following foods if you want to be as gluten-free as possible.
These are only some of the common foods with gluten or usually have ingredients with gluten. Some medications and supplements may also have gluten in some form, so it would be best to ask your doctor or the supplement seller if their product is gluten-free prior to purchasing.
The important part of maintaining a gluten-free diet is to make sure you separate anything with gluten from foods without gluten. Cross contamination is the only enemy you have apart from self-discipline and to prevent cross-contamination, do the following:
Going on a gluten-free diet, as with any diet, requires some major changes in food choices and lifestyle. If you’re always mindful of what you eat, and form healthy habits, staying gluten-free would never be difficult.