What's a gluten-free diet?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

First of all, I would like to wish you a fantastic New Year!!!!

A lot of people may feel that January is a good month to work on their New Year resolutions.

One of these may be to go gluten-free to help their body cope with the excess food they have accumulated during the holiday season.

Many of you will hopefully detect that the above sentence contains 3 non evidence-based facts*, but as I typed it, I felt strangely liberated like I could do something that would cancel out my overindulgence and Christmas sins!

I'm a greater believer though in knowing the truth and understanding our body (HERE), how it works (HERE and HERE) and how things we ingest (HERE, HERE or HERE) or slather on it do to us (HERE and HERE).

So if you'd like to know the scientific truth about gluten and gluten-free diets that supermarkets, unscrupulous nutritionists and restaurant owners purposefully don't share with you, please keep on reading... (Well, yes of course it's a new and very lucrative business...)

Discover the truth about gluten and gluten-free diet they don't want to share with you - Click here to tweet this

What is Gluten?

Gluten is the protein component that can be found in wheat, barley and rye or any food containing these. It can be found in but is not restricted to pasta, couscous, bread, flour tortilla, cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries, cereal, crackers, beer, oats, gravy, dressings, sauces (ketchup), etc...

The Gluten family is composed of Gliadin and Glutenin which are, notably, responsible for raising the bread dough as they retain gas.

What does gluten normally do?

In the normal gut (figure 1), proteins such as gluten are digested to peptides by specific enzymes. Peptidases further break down peptides into basic amino acids. Over much of the small intestine only small solutes, like water, can cross the tight junctions between the intestine cells.

From HERE

What does gluten do in a diseased condition?

In very simple words, gliadin peptide can cross the tight junction between the intestine cells and causes an auto-immune response (figure 1). The type of auto-immune response can differ but always the body defense mechanism detects a foreign body where it shouldn't be and triggers an inflammatory response. In doing so, it damages its own intestinal surface, leading to pain and discomfort and all sorts of different and varied unpleasant symptoms.

Gluten-related medical conditions

There are 3 known medically relevant reasons why a person should avoid gluten:

Coeliac disease - an incurable but manageable genetic auto-immune disease that affects the digestive process of the small intestine causing health issues ranging from abdominal bloating, gas, diarrhea and vomiting to migraine headaches and joint pain. It can appear at any age. 

Wheat allergy -  a short-term allergic reaction to components of wheat that does not cause tissue damage like coeliac disease does.

Gluten Sensitivity - An as-yet uncategorised condition that arises from a non-immunological stress response to another wheat component leading to intestinal symptoms (such as in irritable bowel syndrome IBS).

What is a gluten-free diet? 

A gluten-free diet is a diet that categorically excludes gluten for medical reasons. For sources of gluten, please read 'What is Gluten?' here above.

A Gluten-free diet

Why gluten-free is not a good idea if you are not a medically-assessed gluten sufferer?

Healthier? - Although popular culture promotes a gluten-free diet as a healthier way to eat, studies have shown the risk of essential nutrient deficiency in those who don’t have a medical reason for following a gluten-free diet.

The real risk of essential nutrient deficiency of going gluten-free for no medical reason - Click here to tweet this

Deficiency is variable depending on what you’re consuming. Many whole foods (like rice, potatoes & corn) are naturally gluten-free, but low in nutritional benefit. A large percentage of B vitamin intake comes traditionally from enriched breads and cereals. However, gluten-free breads and cereals are often not enriched.

Better digestion? - Food containing gluten are also source of fibres. Numerous studies have shown the beneficial effects of fibre consumption in protection against heart disease and cancer, normalisation of blood lipids, regulation of glucose absorption and insulin secretion and prevention of constipation.

Gluten foods are source of fibres that protect against heart disease and cancer - Click here to tweet this

There are a lot of special gluten-free replacement products on the market, unfortunately these are ladden with excess carbohydrates, sugar and salt, and may not have been fortified or enriched in micronutrients like the gluten versions are.

Weightloss? -  Gluten free does not equal weight loss. Whole grains, which contain gluten, are a good source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, gluten-free products are often made with refined grains, are low in nutrients and very high in calories. Studies show gluten-free diets can be deficient in fiber, iron, folate, niacin, thiamine, calcium, vitamin B12, phosphorus and zinc and reports have shown that coeliac patients on a gluten-free diet (no refined replacement products) have a higher percentage of body fat than control people.

Gluten-free diet patients have a higher % of body fat - Click here to tweet this

I suspect I am sensitive to gluten, what do I do?

Anyone who chooses to follow a gluten-free diet needs to first being screened for coeliac disease (which must be done while on a gluten-containing diet) and then only eats gluten free with a medical reason and under the supervision of a medical professional and nutritionist.
Removing gluten from your diet makes it practically impossible to diagnose the degree of a possible gluten intolerance and most importantly serious underlying health issues.

Are you avoiding gluten? Do you know anyone suffering from coeliac disease and is on a gluten-free diet? Feel free to share your story in the comment box.

See you Soon for more Sexy Science, my next article about Superfoods is now ready to view,

* 1. Going gluten-free doesn't help anything, please read this article; 2. Our body is coping very well on its own, we'd all be dead a while ago if that wasn't the case; 3. No food - nor toxin - accumulates anywhere in our body, food is digested and transformed in energy, in waste, or in fat, we'd all explode if our body was storing stuff!

References

Chemical composition and nutritional quality of wheat grain
Gluten immunochemistry
Coeliac disease and non coeliac gluten sensitivity
Diabetes.org
Should we eliminate gluten from all foods?