Gluten is a hot topic nowadays. The gluten free diet (GFD) has gained a lot of popularity over recent years. It's in everything from your food, to cosmetic and beauty products, but most people still don’t seem to know what gluten is.
Demand for gluten free (GF) food has really increased availability of products, and are only expected to continue to grow. As recently as 2019, the GF food market was valued at 4.3 billion USD, and is expected to grow to 7.5 billion USD by 2027.
If people don’t know what gluten is, is it good or bad? Will cutting it from your diet help you lose weight?
What is gluten?
A protein found in the big 3: wheat, barley, and rye.
It’s the thing that holds food together, and helps it keep its shape.
Most people think gluten is just bread - and while gluten is in bread, it’s in a lot of other things too (like soy sauce).
Wheat
- breads
- baked goods
- soups
- pasta
- cereals
- sauces
- salad dressings
- roux
Barley
- malt (malted barley flour, malted milk and milkshakes, malt extract, malt syrup, malt flavoring, malt vinegar)
- food coloring
- soups
- beer
- Brewer’s Yeast
Rye
- rye bread, such as pumpernickel
- rye beer
- cereals
If you read this and are thinking “that’s basically all food”, you’re not alone. As someone who based their entire diet around carbs, I thought the same thing when I first read it too.
You’d also be forgiven for thinking gluten equals bread, but it’s really not that simple.
Gluten can be extracted and used in a variety of products. It’s often added to food to make it thicker, and add texture and flavour (it’s even added to makeup and beauty products).
Is gluten bad for you?
No.
Let me say it again.
Gluten is not bad for you. It’s not necessarily good either.
It isn’t inherently bad or good. There actually isn’t much nutritional benefit in it at all.
It only becomes a problem if your body has an adverse reaction to it (wheat allergy, celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity).
In many cases, the quality of gluten free alternatives is actually lower than the original gluten-filled version.
The whole grains where gluten is found are actually very good for you, reducing your risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
What is celiac disease?
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that affects the small intestine.
When someone with celiac disease eats gluten, the body treats it as a foreign substance and responds by attacking the small intestine to stop it from getting absorbed. This damages the intestine, reducing its ability to absorb nutrients from food.
The image above is what the lining of your intestine looks like.
ON THE LEFT: When it’s healthy, there are long finger-like projections that have a big surface area to absorb the nutrients from the food you’re eating.
ON THE RIGHT: How the intestine of someone with celiac disease looks like. Since it treats gluten as an invader, the body has attacked the lining and the finger-like projections are much shorter. Because of this, it can’t absorb many nutrients.
This is why many undiagnosed people with celiac disease are deficient in vitamins and minerals, and sometimes suffer from malnutrition.
The only treatment for it is a strict lifelong gluten free diet.
What can happen if it goes untreated?
- Neurological conditions
- Fertility problems
- Osteoporosis
- Cancer
Fast facts:
Exists in ~1% of the population
People have it for an average of 11 years before they’re diagnosed
Over 80% of people with celiac disease don’t know they have it
It’s genetic - 44% of people with a first degree relative were found to have celiac disease
In 10% of people with celiac disease it manifests as a rash known as dermatitis herpetiformis
There is no cure other than a lifelong gluten free diet
Why celiac disease different than just "going gluten free"
When I was diagnosed with celiac disease about two years ago, it was a rude awakening. At first I thought it wouldn’t be too hard since there are a lot of GF options available.
Then I realized there’s a difference between “gluten free” and “celiac gluten free”.
| "Diet" gluten free | "Celiac" gluten free |
|---|---|
| Eating GF options that are offered at restaurants | Unable to prepare food in the same places as gluten-containing food |
| Not worried about eating GF food off of a plate with gluten on it | Separate plates, appliances, and cutlery for GF and non GF options |
| Able to eat anything without gluten as an ingredient | Cannot eat anything that "may contain" |
Cross contamination
Celiac gluten free really reduces your options because of cross-contamination.
When looking at food labels, cross contamination is when it says “may contain” at the bottom.
If you’re cooking in a shared kitchen (where both GF and non GF food is prepared), cross contamination is as simple as using the same cutting board for both gluten, and GF bread.
A basic example is if you were cutting raw chicken on a cutting board and then immediately using it for your veggies without cleaning it. The raw chicken would get on your vegetables and you could get sick.
If you have celiac disease and are not just removing gluten as a diet choice, cross-contamination is a huge issue.
Before you start thinking that’s excessive, gluten exposure is measured in parts per million, and is added up throughout the course of the day.
Bread crumbs get stuck in crevices the knife makes in the cutting board and are impossible to fully clean, so they're a popular source of cross-contamination.
To give you an idea of how much gluten is needed to damage the intestine of someone with celiac disease, let's use a slice of bread as an example.
An average sized slice of bread contains 3,515 mg of gluten. For someone with celiac disease the threshold for gluten before causing damage to the small intestine is 10 mg.
That’s 1/350 th of a slice of bread.
That’s a crumb.
What is gluten intolerance?
Gluten intolerance is when people suffer from the same symptoms of those with celiac disease, but don’t have the same antibodies in their blood.
In this case, the gluten isn’t physically harming your body, but it’s still causing the other symptoms we see in celiac disease.
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity can sometimes look like Crohn’s and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but can be diagnosed by a doctor.
Beyond celiac lists the symptoms:
- Bloating, gas or abdominal pain
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Nausea
- Headache
- Brain fog
- Joint pain
- Neuropathy
- Fatigue
- Abdominal Pain
- Skin Problems
- Depression
- Anemia
How do you know if you’re gluten intolerant?
A lot of people like to claim their dietary restrictions are clinical, when in reality they self-diagnose.
Blood tests used to diagnose celiac disease will come back negative if you are “non-celiac gluten sensitive”.
Doctors typically resort to this diagnosis when there are all the indicators that someone is suffering from celiac disease, but their blood tests come back negative.
Will you lose weight if you go gluten free?
This is the big question everyone asks, and the answer might surprise you.
No - and you might even gain weight.
What?
Let me break that down.
Since most people think gluten is just carbs, they cut out things like bread, pasta, and baked goods.
While these things do have gluten in them, they also have a lot of other things. Like butter, sugar, and oil.
When you cut these foods out of your diet, you’re still eating gluten in foods you don’t realize have it (like tomato sauce, soy sauce, beer, etc.) but you’ve stopped eating the calorie-dense foods you were eating before.
Of course you’re going to feel better if you cut out processed foods and replace it with whole-food healthier alternatives like fruits, vegetables, sources of protein etc.
If you were to substitute all of those gluten-filled items with their gluten free alternatives (because GF bread, chips, cake, pizza, and pastries exist), you won’t actually be any healthier - or have lost any weight.
Why?
Gluten free alternatives are actually often less nutritious because they’ve had to add more oil and butter to get a nice texture without the gluten that typically holds it together. That means more fat, sugar, carbs, and calories.
Once people stop their ill-informed “gluten free diet”, they’ll gain the weight back thinking that gluten is the enemy.
But in truth, it’s because they’re reintroducing highly processed, calorie-dense foods into their diet, rich with fat, sugar, and oil.
It's not the gluten that's causing weight loss or gain, it's the kind of food you're eating.
If it doesn’t work, why are so many people doing it?
People are quick to reach for something with claims on the label thinking it’s somehow “healthier”.
Statements like “fat free”, “vegan”, “organic” don’t necessarily mean they’re healthy choices.
The diet and weight loss industry is constantly coming up with new “tricks'' and “miracle diets”.
Keto, paleo, low carb, mediterranean, and intermittent fasting are all examples of popular hacks thought to be the key to weight loss - the GFD was bound to take a turn in the spotlight.
Gluten free diets have become a diet fad like any other. Some people claim they feel better when they cut out gluten - and I’m all for feeling healthy.
Just don’t do it under the impression that it’s going to be some sort of miracle solution - it’s not.
Fun fact: People with celiac disease actually often gain weight once starting a gluten free diet. Because the body has an immune response to gluten, once it’s removed the gut can start to heal and absorb food again.
Should you go gluten free?
If you’re diagnosed celiac, gluten intolerant, have a wheat allergy, or dermatitis herpetiformis, absolutely yes.
If you’re pretty much anyone else, no.
I’m all for supporting people feeling better, and if you feel better reducing the amount of gluten in your diet that’s great (just make sure you know what gluten is).
But make sure to make that decision because of how your body feels, and not because you’re buying into a fad designed to make you spend money on expensive food.
It’s hard, it’s expensive, and there’s no nutritional benefit to cutting it from your diet.
More resources:
Have you tried the gluten free diet? Comment below?
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