As a disclaimer for myself, I am going to start this blog by
stating that I am in no way ignorant to the fact that every day people suffer
from serious allergies. I have witnessed
firsthand how dangerous it can be for a person to experience ill effects from
even being around the item they are allergic too and I am grateful not to be
affected by such a terrible illness. People
with gluten allergies, commonly known as Celiac disease, have antibodies that
attack the small intestine and cause poor nutrient intake. This being said the new gluten free fad
storming across America has caused food stores to increase gluten free sections
exponentially. This rapid increase is a
godsend for those who suffer from this illness, but those who hop on board to
avoid the poison of gluten can actually be eating unhealthier.
Gluten
itself holds no nutritional value, it is a protein found in wheat, rye, and
barley. Many foods that nutritionists
have been recommending for decades contain this protein alongside a variety of
beneficial vitamins and minerals. With
the discovery of gluten in the past decade, the mass population is sampling
this diet to see if they are affected by the gluten contained in these
foods. There is some possibility of
anyone being sensitive to gluten, but a change in diet such as this has a very
good possibility of causing more harm than good. In addition to this when shopping in the
gluten free section, the majority of items are similar to processed foods that
contain little to no nutritional value. In 2013 The FDA produced a standard
that mandated gluten free labels to contain no gluten, but there was nothing
that said the foods had to provide a minimum health requirement. This leads to mass amounts of people
searching for a magic diet that is worse for them then what they were
originally eating.
Separate
from those who are simply trying to find a magic diet are those that claim they
have gluten intolerance and must “cut back” on foods containing the protein. Almost every study conducted claims that
reducing foods containing gluten does little to no benefit to the consumer
because even a little gluten can cause antibodies to attack the small
intestine. Like common controversial
topics such as MSG in Chinese food causing headaches, or WIFI causing health
issues, the discovery of gluten started a chain reaction of followers claiming
to suffer from minor irritation due to gluten.
This is complete B.S.! A study
held at Monash University in Australia carried out an experiment containing 37
gluten intolerant people as test subjects.
All were fed a baseline diet that would help a person with Celiac
disease, followed by being in one of four groups with diets containing
increasing amounts of gluten. The
results showed that every single subject reported gastrointestinal issues
regardless of what group they were put into. If you do not suffer from extreme illness do
not avoid gluten, it is not cool and can provide even worse health effects.
References:http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05/14/gluten-intolerance-fake_n_5327420.html
http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthy-kitchen-11/truth-about-gluten?page=1
http://celiac.org/celiac-disease/what-is-celiac-disease/
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