Should You Remove Gluten From Your Diet?
5 Reasons To Go On A Gluten-Free Diet
By JJ Virgin, PhD.
If you are still filling your shopping basket with "healthy" bread or "healthy" oatmeal because of some claim on the package or because Whole Foods has it on sale, I want you to consider the problems
all gluten-containing foods create in your body.
Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and oats. For gluten-sensitive people (which is most of us), this protein triggers an immune reaction that damages your small intestine and prevents nutrient absorption. What starts in your gut can eventually create serious health problems throughout your body.
An estimated 99% of people don’t even realize they’re gluten sensitive. So you might be blaming some of the problems I’m going to discuss on something else when gluten is the real culprit. And the only way to eliminate gluten-related issues is to completely remove this ubiquitous protein from your diet.
Here are five reasons to completely break free from the gluten trap, and go on a gluten free diet.
1. Gluten wasn’t a part of our Paleo diet.
In our evolutionary dietary timeline, we only recently added wheat. We haven’t genetically adapted to that transition, and our hunter-gatherer ancestors wouldn’t even recognize most of the processed crap we devour today. To exacerbate that problem, food in this country has a much higher strain of gluten, which aids with the texture of processed foods. Ever wonder how they get Wonder Bread so light and fluffy? Now you know.
2. Gluten can shorten your life even if you don’t have celiac disease.
You know the problems associated with full-blown celiac disease, but did you know you can experience many of those same complications if you’re gluten sensitive?
One study examined 30,000 people over four decades who had full-blown celiac disease, intestinal inflammation but not full-blown celiac disease, or simply gluten sensitivity (elevated gluten antibodies but negative intestinal biopsy).
People with celiac disease had a 39% increased risk of death. But the other statistics are just as sobering: gluten-sensitive people had a 35% increased risk of death, and those with gut inflammation had a whopping 72% increased risk of death. A gluten free diet can bring all these numbers down down down.
3. Gluten can increase your risk for many diseases.
A recent large study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity suffer more heart disease and cancer. Inflammation triggered by gluten can also contribute to osteoporosis, irritable bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
4. Gluten makes you tired, depressed, and anxious.
Can that whole-wheat turkey sub you had for lunch spark your 3 p.m. excruciating headache? You bet. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 health problems eating gluten can trigger or exacerbate. You might never connect gluten with problems like canker sores, for instance, or fatigue, anxiety, depression, and migraines.
5. Gluten makes you fat.
Maybe I’ve lost you with all these medical conditions, but this one makes you sit up and take note. Most gluten-containing foods are processed, filled with sugar, and bomb your body with empty carbs that create insulin release and make you store fat.
The diet you should be eating includes clean protein, high-fiber starchy foods, veggies, and nuts and seeds. Guess what? Nature made these foods naturally gluten free.
Gluten Removal And Nutritional Cleanses
For those of you who feel that removing gluten would be too big an effort, you might want to try it for a short period of time. A nutritional cleanse is an ideal way to try this. During a nutritional cleanse, you remove toxic or allergenic foods and replace them with non-allergenic foods. To learn the complete 5 step process of doing a nutritional cleanse, go to this page.
A nutritional cleanse is much different from a juice cleanse or master cleanse. You don't starve yourself. Rather you increase the nutritients and clean protein for a short period of time. This allows your body to free up toxins and also remove them quickly so you don't feel bad.
Related : Why Do You Need To Detox And How Do You Do It?
Related PEERtrainer Articles And Resources:
The No Flour No Sugar Diet By Dr. Peter Gott
PEERtrainer Mastermind Program, contains 100% gluten free meal plans and recipe guide
Should I Reduce Wheat and Gluten In My Diet?
When the suggestion is made that people ought to at least explore a reduction in wheat and gluten in their diets, it often triggers a sense of panic as people start to make a mental note of all the foods they commonly eat that have wheat and gluten in them.
The reality is that in the US and in the West, we eat a diet very high in wheat. The other reality is that something has gone horribly wrong with the wheat itself. Doctors, scientists and researchers are just starting to get a handle on why.
What we do know is that gluten-free foods are a rapidly growing market. Different people react to gluten in different ways. Some people put on extra weight in the gut, others develop intestinal discomfort, and others suffer from skin reactions.
A key component of the new PEERtrainer Cheat System is that we provide a structure to help you reduce wheat and gluten levels in your body. People are reporting that they are feeling better and have more energy on this (free) system. We also direct you to foods which help to serve as a replacement for the gluten.
What Is Gluten And Why Is It A Problem?
According to Alan Pressman, PhD: "Gluten is a protein, and it can be found in wheat, rye, and barley. Many people are allergic to it, and millions of people are sensitive to it. It can trigger all sorts of inflammatory responses in your intestinal track and entire body. It creates chronic inflammation throughout the body, and if you are sensitive or allergic to it can cause a 72 percent increased risk of death. That's pretty serious business."
As we have written before, inflammation is a serious issue and has implications for both your health and your weight loss. As you reduce levels of inflammation in your body, you become healthier and it is usually easier to lose weight.
Can You Lose Weight On A Gluten Free Diet?
A side effect of a gluten free or gluten reduced diet is often weight loss. The exact reason this happens is unclear, but would observe that most people who adopt a gluten free diet, tend to do so in the context of overall improvement in their diet. When people increase the nutrient density of their diet, they tend to feel more full and have fewer hunger cravings.
Does A Gluten Free Diet Give You More Energy?
From our own personal experience, a gluten free diet can lead to a dramatic increase in energy. Again, we are not sure if it is the absence of wheat or the presence of better overall nutrition, but when you start to remove breads, grains and pasta from the diet, you tend to replace it with higher nutrient foods. Which will increase your energy.
Can A Gluten Free Diet Target Belly Fat Or Beer Bellies?
It is very common to hear that one loses weight everywhere at once, at that you cannot "target belly fat." Lets pick apart that assertion by asking this question. Have you ever heard the term "wine belly?" According to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist, consumption of large quantities of wheat can lead to what he calls a "Wheat Belly."
In his patients, reduction in wheat consumption has helped them. He advises people to go wheat free for a 4 week period to see what happens. He states that you will have more energy, you'll be less hungry, and you will have more stamina during the day. As a cardiologist, he also points out that your risk for heart disease will lower.
What Are The Downsides Of A Gluten Free Diet?
According to Alan Pressman, if you do reduce gluten in your diet, you need to make sure to eat foods that help to feed the "good bacteria" in your stomach. He states that "It just so happens your probiotics - the ProDophilus that live in your body absolutely love gluten. it's a great source of food for those good bacteria. It can be considered a prebiotic. Removing gluten from your diet is a good thing do, but you are starving out your Bifidobacterium and basilis, which is not good at all. Make sure that as you eliminate gluten from your diet, you replace the food for your bacteria...... Asparagus, bananas, fruit, green tea, yogurt and kefir, legumes, peas, and whole grains are excellent sources of these prebiotics."
How Do You Start Reducing Gluten In Your Diet?
An excellent way of beginning to reduce gluten and wheat and other foods that cause sensitivities is to find ways of being able to identify ways that you can practically do this. For those of you who have downloaded the PEERtrainer Cheat System, you will see that we have created a very easy framework that gets plenty of high nutrient calories into your diet. But this is in a context where there is plenty of "wiggle room" for you.
It is not restrictive, and lets you move towards your health goal at your pace.
If you have not yet downloaded your free copy of the PEERtrainer Cheat System, you can do so here.
If you are looking for Gluten Free recipes, almost every single one that PEERtrainer has developed is gluten free. We haven't "gone public" with this until now, and wanted to see how easy it was for people to actually do this.
PEERtrainer Recipe Blog (gluten free recipes)
Edited By
Jackie Wicks