We all know someone that has given up Gluten. While eating clean by avoiding processed and refined foods is a good way to improve your overall health, avoiding gluten may not be the panacea that many have made it out to be.
Gluten—Facts and Fiction
What we eat and why has become as trendy as what skirt lengths are in vogue this season. One year fat is bad. Next it is carbs. Even I have a hard time keeping up with it all some times. In recent years, gluten has been on the firing line. But is gluten really bad for you? If you are part of the one percent of the population that suffers from Celiac disease, then yes, you need to stay away from gluten.
Up to 3 million Americans suffer from Celiac, an autoimmune disorder. When someone with Celiac disease eats anything containing gluten their immune system overreacts, killing the villi lining the small intestine. Without the villi, nutrients don’t get absorbed and the intestine stops working properly, causing a host of symptoms, from diarrhea to iron deficiency.
Many people will say they have given up gluten and they feel better—less bloat, better digestion, etc. But what is troubling them may not actually be gluten.
What Are FODMAPS?
A carb is a carb is a carb, and all carbs are bad for you. That has been the thinking for some time now, but a study out of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, may have uncovered something surprising about a certain type of carbohydrate—FODMAPs, which stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. FODMAPs are carbs, but not all carbohydrates are considered FODMAPs. Foods that are FODMAPs are high in fructose, like honey, apples, mangoes and watermelon; dairy products, like milk and ice cream; and fructans, such as garlic and onions.
What the study found was that the reason for many people’s symptoms thought to be caused by gluten intolerance—bloating, diarrhea, abdominal pain, tiredness, skin rashes—were really due to FODMAPS. There were no biological markers found in the study participants to suggest that gluten caused any of their issues.
Going Gluten Free
If you still want to give gluten-free eating a try, be aware of your food labels like you always are. I know it can be a drag to labor over everything thing you buy at the grocery store, but it’s important to know what you are putting into your body.
Food manufacturers will often put things like rice starch, cornstarch, tapioca starch and potato starch into foods in place of the white flour to make them gluten free. Unfortunately, all of those ingredients also happen to be Highly Refined Carbs. And eating highly refined carbs will up the level of sugar in your body, just like eating a regular product with gluten.
At My House Fitness, we take nutrition seriously and want our clients to achieve not only their best bodies, but their healthiest bodies too! Contact us to get started on the right nutritional plan for you.
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