Here’s a serious question: How long ago did you first hear about the gluten-free diet? When was the first time someone told you they were gluten intolerant? Truth is, that a small percentage of people, around one percent, suffer from celiac disease and there are also people who suffer from a gluten intolerance. With that being said, there are still a large number of us who voluntarily follow the gluten-free diet as well. What are the reasons or the research they happened to stumble across to make the decision to integrate this diet into their life in hopes of improving their health?
Maybe gluten-free diets popped up on your radar during a conversation when someone you know decided to share their experience about how cutting out bread, muffins and some processed foods has made them feel so much better, boosted their energy and maybe even reduced their bloating. Or, maybe it came up while mindlessly flipping through a magazine and you just randomly happened to turn the page to a glossy advertisement. There it is: A ripped male model is posing in tight jeans and no shirt, sporting his eight pack abs and a tagline preaching the values of dropping gluten. To some, the gluten-free diet has become a pillar of their lifestyle and we are by no means knocking them. There are positive benefits to dropping gluten from your artillery of foods but is this really the answer? When you really break it down, what does a gluten-free diet really do? The answer is that it basically cuts out some of the simple carbohydrates from your diet.
Unless you suffer from celiac disease or your body really can’t handle gluten, this diet isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be. As we stated above, when you cut to the core of it, gluten-free dieting is really just cutting out carbohydrates. There are plenty of other diets out there that cut carbs but may be more effective when it comes to dieting. Research shows that there are no benefits from following a gluten free diet if you are looking to lose weight. In fact, there is such a buzz that has been created around gluten-free products that we now have a category of foods labeled as “gluten-free” and some of these products are still highly processed and not healthy for you.
Gluten-free diets work for some of us but for the majority, I think it’s easier to follow the rule of “everything in moderation”. Unless your body shuts down and you become ill anytime you ingest gluten, you are better off enjoying a bit of it here and there. And for those of you who think that shedding gluten and some of those simple carbohydrates from your diet is the key to weight loss, think again.
