Why oh why do people who are not celiac think it’s a good idea to go gluten free.
I am all for eating healthy and reducing things in your diet that have adverse effects on your health. Cutting back on gluten can be a good thing for you, but switching to a gluten free diet of processed gluten free foods is not. Processed food is more often than not CRAP, and crap is crap is crap no matter what it contains. Most gluten free processed food contains sugars and starches to hold the food together and in fact is worse for you than gluten, again unless you are actually a celiac.
I encourage people to cut back on their wheat intake, as for many people it can cause inflamation issues, but start eating more whole grain foods instead. Have crackers with your cheese, and some flatbread with your soup or stew. Cut back on light, fluffy, sugar filled, simple carbohydrate rich baked good.
Eating processed gluten free foods is being linked to a rise in Type 2 Diabetes, due in part to a lack of micro nutrients in your pancreas, as well as a rise in sugar intakes. Wheat free foods made with whole grains at least have more nutrients than rice flours, tapioca flours, otato starch, etc. There are also some anicdotal thoughts emerging that if this is the case, does denying your pancreas vital nutriants also lead to a higher risk of pancriatic cancer. I am no expert but I think it is worth lookin into and really evaluating the risk benefit ratio.
Here are some pages to start looking at – Low-gluten or Gluten-free Diets Linked to Type 2 Diabetes
– Going Gluten Free May Raise Your Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Study
Gluten free products are one of the fastest growing segments of food sales in the grocery stores in North America. It is big business for many large corporations now. As a chef I have to admit that this ridiculous trend for gluten free has had some great trickle down effects for true celiacs. Major brands are now willing to develop much better producsts than those avaliable before. For that celiacs say “thank you” to the glutard sheep.
I always reccomend that you know your body and eat a well balanced diet, only exclude foods that actually do you harm. But most importantly do some research and do not follow trends. Corn Rows on white girls was trendy for a while, but lets face it, it did not make anything better in the world.