Here’s What to Do With Gluten
There are two types of people in this world: those who talk about gluten like the devil and those who can’t roll their eyes enough to show the world how tired they are of gluten-free labels. Is gluten worth the controversy? Let’s dig in.
What is gluten really?
Gluten is a wheat protein that makes bread doughs sticky. At less than microscopic levels, this protein is actually a network of linked proteins, glutenin and gliadin . This is why wheat bread has a fluffy texture and gluten-free bread tends to turn into crumbs.
You will find gluten in foods made from wheat, barley, rye, or triticale. This includes most of the breads, cakes and pasta. But there are lesser known sources like beer, soy sauce, and any sauces that start with a dressing . If you’ve ever tasted seitan or artificial meat like macaroni duck , it’s almost pure gluten.
Gluten is not contained in any fruit, vegetables, nuts, oils, water, meat, rice, maize or – if they had not been added sauce or component containing gluten. Therefore, if you are on a gluten-free diet, you can skip bread, but you will still have a lot of food. And there are many gluten-free products that were gluten-free at all. But the label is useful for people who want to make sure their soup, for example, hasn’t been thickened with flour.
Who has a gluten problem?
There are three groups of people who avoid gluten:
- People with celiac disease. When they eat gluten, their immune system goes down and attacks their body . They can suffer from abdominal pain and diarrhea, skin rashes, fatigue, and nutritional deficiencies because their damaged intestines cannot absorb enough nutrients. Symptoms disappear with a gluten-free diet.
- People who say they are “sensitive” to gluten. These people don’t have a diagnosis of celiac disease, but they seem to feel better when they don’t eat gluten. They may have a condition that medicine does not yet fully understand, or gluten may be a distraction and their real problem is different.
- People who believe wheat and / or gluten are toxic to all people. Maybe they’ll avoid gluten as part of their “detox” or buy a gluten-free version of something because they get the impression it’s healthier. In fact, there is no evidence to support this claim.
People with wheat allergies will also avoid wheat-containing foods, so they can use the gluten-free label as a shorthand to find what they can eat. But wheat allergy is not associated with any of the conditions listed above.
People in the first group should definitely avoid gluten, and people with wheat allergies should definitely avoid eating wheat. People in the latter group really don’t need to avoid gluten. And the people in the second group, the gluten sensitive, are the source of a lot of controversy.
How rough should I be with my non-gluten friend?
As a polite person, my advice to you is to treat people with respect, whether they eat gluten or not. If they have celiac disease or think they have a gluten sensitivity, asking them questions can lead to a long story about gut problems. And if you think they are making it up, so what? If my friend says they don’t like olives, I don’t argue with them whether they really like olives or not. I’ll just make sure there are no olives on my next dinner party.
Gluten sensitivity is a myth, right?
Okay, let’s talk about this middle group: people who are not diagnosed with celiac disease but who swear they are gluten intolerant.
First, they may have celiac disease. Screening and diagnostic tests for celiac disease require you to consume gluten because if you don’t eat it, your body may not respond as it does on the test. So if you’ve tried cutting gluten out of your diet to see if you feel better and you really do feel better, you don’t have to go to hell again just to get a paper diagnosis.
But there are people who are definitely not sick with gluten, but still swear that bread hurts them. One study ruled out gluten as the culprit for a handful of people in the study, but opened up the possibility that these people are indeed sensitive to FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols – basically some weird sugars). There are many similarities between FODMAP foods and gluten-free foods, so that might explain what’s going on. Or perhaps these people are reacting to something else in their food, say, another wheat protein. We don’t know yet.
Bottom line, be nice to your friends. Don’t try to turn your preliminary research into some kind of excuse to be a jerk, as USA Today suggests you ask two questions that could fool your gluten-free friends . No. This is not how science works. Or friendship, for that matter.
Why do people continue to stick to gluten-free diets?
So, there is a funny thing about celiac disease: most people with celiac disease do not know they have it. One study, which involved about 8,000 Americans, found that 35 people suffered from celiac disease, but only six of them knew about it.
Celiac disease has not yet been diagnosed. And that could explain the rise in the trend towards a gluten-free diet: if you’ve been uncomfortable all your life and then found that you might feel great by changing your diet, you will surely tell everyone about your discovery. For an example, check out the story of the Gluten-Free Girl blog , which grew out of celiac disease by author Sean Ahern in 2005.
You can try a gluten-free diet if you think it might help you. But it’s important to remember that “I feel great today” is not the same as “I just proved gluten is my problem.” Maybe you are sensitive to FODMAPs or something completely different. Maybe your problem isn’t diet at all, but it comes and goes, and any correlation to your diet is a coincidence. It is important to maintain an open mind when experimenting.
Is there something wrong with a gluten-free diet?
A few caveats. First, gluten-free bread is terrible.
Gluten-free cakes and cookies have a similar problem, but often try to make up for their horror by adding extra sugar. If you’re desperate for a cupcake, these are the way to go. But if you’re looking for a healthy snack, then gluten-free muffins are not the case.
Remember that many foods are simply gluten-free: meat, vegetables, rice, and more. So you can eat a healthy gluten-free diet based on these foods without ever buying starchy, sweet, or gluten-free baked goods.
Just remember to eat a complete and balanced diet if it’s long term. A gluten-free diet may be lacking in fiber and vitamins , so you should think carefully about what you eat.