What Is Gluten-Free Diet?

The gluten-free diet excludes foods that contain gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and some oats. (Oats are inherently gluten-free.) However, they are almost always contaminated with other gluten-containing grains during processing or marketing. If acceptable, about half a cup of dried gluten-free oats can be consumed daily. Many common foods and beverages, such as bread, cereal, biscuits, and even beer, contain these grains, making gluten-free foods taboo.

People with gluten sensitivities to celiac and non-celiac disease need to follow a gluten-free diet because of their health. In addition, this diet has become increasingly popular in recent years, with some people ,including celebrities) claiming that it helps with weight loss or treating acne.

However, most of these claims have no medical evidence, and experts agree that gluten-free diets are only necessary for those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. This diet can be restrictive because it excludes many common foods and foods you may be accustomed to eating. This can also be tricky because some foods you don’t expect to contain gluten, such as canned soups and ice cream. But once you’re educated and fit in, you’ll find that it’s a balanced, healthy diet.

“A gluten-free diet is a medically necessary diet for people with celiac disease and non-celiac disease gluten sensitivity. Most experts agree that this diet should only be used when medically necessary, as restricting one food group increases the risk of nutritional imbalances. ”

—Willow Jarosh, MS, RD

Background

Gluten is a sticky, elastic protein that is a key ingredient in wheat – gluten is the main ingredient in the softness and elasticity of bread and the lightness and elasticity of cake. In fact, for centuries, farmers have cultivated wheat that contains more gluten because this protein is very important in baking.

However, some people respond poorly to gluten. The gluten-free diet was originally developed for people diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune disease. When you have celiac disease, eating foods that contain gluten can overload your immune system and attack the lining of your small intestine. If left untreated, celiac disease can lead to malnutrition, osteoporosis, and even, in rare cases, cancer.

People with celiac disease may experience certain symptoms. The most common include diarrhea and/or constipation, fatigue, stomach pain, and bloating, but a small number of people may not have any symptoms.

While several drugs to treat celiac disease are in development, the only treatment currently available is a gluten-free diet. Once people with celiac disease start eating gluten-free foods, their symptoms tend to lessen and their small intestine begins to heal.

Non-celiac gluten sensitivity, another condition that requires a gluten-free diet, was only discovered by medical researchers in the 1980s and has not yet been medically tested for it. People who are not sensitive to gluten do not have celiac disease (their doctors ruled out celiac disease before diagnosing them as gluten sensitive). However, they have many of the same symptoms as people with celiac disease, including digestive problems such as diarrhea or constipation, fatigue, headaches, and bloating.

Despite these symptoms, doctors believe that non-gluten-sensitive people do not cause long-term damage to their bodies by eating gluten-containing foods. Following a gluten-free diet can eliminate their symptoms, and eating foods containing gluten (whether accidental or intentional) can cause these symptoms to recur. If you feel better on a gluten-free diet, you may have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, although there is no way to detect it.

Many people who do not have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity follow a gluten-free diet. In some cases, their doctors recommend that they follow this diet. For example, women with infertility may be told to eat gluten-free foods; A medical study published in 2011 showed that women who could not conceive were more likely to have undiagnosed celiac disease. In addition, a medical study published in 2008 suggested that a gluten-free vegetarian diet may help reduce inflammation levels and protect the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

However, there is also a group of people advocating that a gluten-free diet can cure almost all health problems, but it is definitely not. In particular, many celebrities, including Courtney Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow, support a gluten-free diet. Some people think this diet is effective for weight loss, although there is little medical evidence that it can help you lose weight.

In fact, many people with celiac disease find that when they eat gluten-free foods, they gain weight because their small intestines begin to heal and suddenly begin to absorb nutrients again.

How It Works

As you know, gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. A gluten-free diet works by excluding all foods that contain gluten. It might sound simple: just don’t eat bread, biscuits, and wheat-based grains. But a gluten-free diet is far more complicated than not eating those obvious foods. That’s because gluten grains — especially wheat — are very common in all processed foods.

Wheat is used to thicken the soup and help ferment the soy sauce. Barley is the second most common gluten grain and is found in sweeteners for cereals, candy, beer and malted alcoholic beverages.

In order to successfully follow a gluten-free diet, you need to know where gluten is and avoid all of these foods. You need to learn to read labels on foods, identify gluten-containing ingredients, and be careful when eating at restaurants and at friends or relatives’ homes.

It’s not enough to just skip gluten-containing foods. You have to be careful of gluten cross-contamination. This is because even small breadcrumbs can contain enough gluten, which in some cases can lead to symptoms and even intestinal damage associated with celiac disease.

However, you don’t need to be afraid to give up bread, baked goods, and beer – gluten-free versions of these foods are available in most large supermarkets. In addition, there are many natural gluten-free foods such as gluten-free grains, corn, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits, vegetables, cheese, dairy products, eggs and chicken, turkey and pork and other meats. In addition, many restaurants – even fast food outlets – feature gluten-free foods and even offer menus that are completely gluten-free.

Pros and Cons

A gluten-free diet is essential for people with celiac disease and non-celiac disease sensitivities. Removing gluten from the diet prevents intestinal villi from dying. In addition to medical necessity, a gluten-free diet – if properly planned – is nutritious. Many foods are naturally gluten-free.

Although it takes a while for the intestines of patients with celiac disease to heal, many people find that they feel better for a short period of time after starting a gluten-free diet. For people who are not celiac disease-sensitive to gluten, their symptoms may lessen more quickly — in some cases within a few days.

If used correctly as directed by a physician, a gluten-free diet is safe. However, people who follow a gluten-free diet need to be aware of several nutrients, including fiber and some B vitamins, as some common gluten-free foods, such as tapioca flour, are deficient in these nutrients. People with celiac disease or who need to eat gluten-free foods should consult a dietitian to learn more about naturally nutrient-dense gluten-free foods to ensure they get everything they need.

One disadvantage of a gluten-free diet is that it can overwhelm everything at the beginning. Once you have the knowledge to distinguish gluten-free foods, you will find that dieting becomes much easier.

Eating gluten-free foods requires making plans that are not needed by other diets. Gluten-free products may also be more expensive than traditional products. But many restaurants have gluten-free foods to choose from, and eating gluten-free foods is now more convenient than ever.

How It Compares

The gluten-free diet is unusual throughout the dietary community because it was originally developed as a treatment for a specific disease (celiac disease). Although many people follow a gluten-free diet for other reasons, doctors do not recommend it. Still, there are other diets that incorporate gluten-free diets into their holistic approach. They include:

• The low fodmap diet used to treat irritable bowel syndrome requires you to reduce or eliminate wheat, barley, and rye, all of which contain high fodmap, a carbohydrate that studies have shown to cause symptoms of indigestion.
• The paleo diet, It demanded that followers eat only the foods that might have been possible before agriculture emerged, excluding all grains, not just wheat, barley, and rye. The Paleolithic diet also does not eat dairy products and legumes, which are allowed in the gluten-free diet.
• The Atkins diet relies primarily on gluten-free foods, especially in its initial stages. It allows some foods containing gluten grain ingredients to be consumed at a later stage. However, Atkins is one of the most gluten-free friendly weight loss diets.
• The South Beach Diet also calls for people to eat primarily gluten-free foods. However, if you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, South Beach doesn’t require you to be as careful as you need to be gluten-free.
• The Whole30 diet is an exclusionary diet that may help you discover sensitivities to gluten (or other foods). This diet that bans all grains is a short-term plan designed to help improve your health, not to help you lose weight.

Getting Started

Starting a gluten-free diet can be scary – there’s so much to learn in a very short period of time, and you may be in a hurry to get started so you’ll feel better. Your best bet is to start with a comprehensive list of gluten-free foods and eat only those processed foods that are specifically labeled “gluten-free.”

People often focus on foods they can’t eat, rather than gluten-free foods they can eat, and even mourn their favorite gluten-containing foods. But the truth is, you don’t need to grieve; You’ll almost certainly find a stiedn-free version of a processed food you like, as well as a stiedin-free recipe for most other dishes.

A Word from GetHealthyPoint

The gluten-free diet is not suitable for everyone, it is specifically designed to treat gluten sensitivity in celiac disease and non-celiac disease. If you have one of these two situations, it is very important to strictly adhere to a gluten-free diet. If your diet goal is to lose weight or become healthier, you’d better try a diet specifically designed to achieve these effects.

You may feel overwhelming when you first start a gluten-free diet, but you may find that eating a gluten-free diet becomes second nature over time, with plenty of delicious and nutritious foods to choose from.